Rating: 2.5
This wasn't bad, it just wasn't for me. I liked the writing, but not the plot or the characters. I didn't really like the back and forth of the timelines either.

A lot of historical facts blended with some imagination give us a look at who Hester may have been.

It’s the early 1800s when Isobel Gamble sails from Scotland to Salem with her new husband, Edward. She is a gifted seamstress who sees in full color. He is an apothecary who has sampled too much of his own medicine forcing them to leave England and Scotland for a fresh start. On the journey, the captain’s life is saved by Hester and Edward and he is forever in her debt.

Soon after they arrive, Edward leaves, joining the captain as a medic on his ship. He also stole all of Isobel’s money she had hidden. He leaves her alone and with no money. Nothing but her sewing. Isobel isn’t one to sit and moan. She finds work sewing.

One day she meets a young Nathaniel Hathorne and they are drawn to each other. His family with a history of cruelty and witch-hunting. Her family, the witches. They come together as she sews for him, always with a message sewn into her work. A red letter A. Because A is red to Isobel.

There is so much going on in this book. The story of immigrants who weren’t treated kindly, of women who were easy to call witches if they didn’t follow the ‘rules’. With the early times of the underground railroad and how even freed slaves were rarely free.

It was a beautifully researched and written story and I loved it.

NetGalley/ October 4th, 2022 by St. Martin’s Press

This book was beautifully written. I loved how the writer described the embroidery and colors. I liked Isobel, and I liked that she wasn't a super strong, brave or loud character. She was quiet, kind, made mistakes, loved, and made friends who ultimately helped her survive.

The connection with the Scarlet Letter was not forced or drove the entire story. The story centered on Isobel- who just happened to be the inspiration for Hester.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
Isabel Gamble first met Nat Hathorne as a 19 yr old woman whose husband left her in Salem to redeem his life serving as a doctor aboard a sailing ship. Due to her husbands addiction to drink and Opium, they had been banished to the new world from their home in England. What follows in the novel is based upon the theory that Isobel was the fated Hester Prynne and Nat (Nathaniel Hawthorne) the reverend from The Scarlet Letter. Since most of Hawthorne‘s writings are autobiographical, perhaps this story was as well. The author weaves elements of witchcraft into the story, including the fact that Nat’s ancestor was a judge in the witchcraft trials of Salem and that Isabel’s ancestor had been accused of witchcraft in Scotland. A very intriguing theory and well written novel.

I absolutely loved this book! As a big fan of the Scarlet Letter and all things written about Salem, I found it to be an interesting take on a potential basis for Hester Prynne. The characters were all very well developed. The concept of synesthesia was new to me and I found it fascinating. I also really enjoyed the secret messages hidden in the stitches and the wonderful people who worked so hard to help escaped slaves to freedom in Canada. I highly recommend this book!

I was completely enchanted by this book.

Such an interesting reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, and a woman who could’ve inspired Hester Prynne.

I loved the use of synesthesia as an illusion to witchcraft, and the concept of hiding messages within embroidery. It felt like there really was magic in Salem, and in the sisterhood that grew between Isobel & her friends, even though we’re told there wasn’t really magic - just power hungry men and young girls making shocking accusations.

To be honest, most of my knowledge on The Scarlet Letter comes from the movie Easy A, so I can’t say I’m an expert, but I still really enjoyed this book.

This is a riveting tale of one immigrant's journey to America and the many hurdles that she faces once arriving in Salem. Albanese has expertly crafted a compelling story that weaves together Isobel's tale with the historical situations of the Salem Witch Trials, the angsty life of Nathaniel Hawthorne as a writer, and the covert workings of those who ferry slaves and freed people to safety.

The characters are realistic and created with such depth; you will find yourself rooting for and against them with equal vigor. I was sad to reach the final pages, but so satisfied with the journey's end. I cannot recommend highly enough!

Highly recommend!! My first book to read by this author but definitely not my last!! Uniquely and beautifully written, this story and its characters stay with you long after you finish the book.

Excellent book. Loved every minute of it. It covers many women's issues. I strongly recommend it. I gave it 5 stars, but NetGalley doesn't seem to be able to show this.

I enjoyed the take on a classic tale. Hester was a relatable character. The cover of the book was beautiful, and what initially attracted me to open the book.

Book 69 of 2022 — Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese set to be published October 4, 2022

I found this book on NetGalley a few weeks ago. I was captivated by the blurb and quickly downloaded it. It got pushed back from a bunch of library books coming available all at once. I actually read it in about three days. Once I got started, I didn’t want to stop!

First off, I have always thought synesthesia was an incredibly interesting gift. I loved how it was woven into the tapestry of the story. If you are unfamiliar with it, give it a Google before reading because it is truly fascinating. I know someone who worked with someone who had it and he said that she spent most of her life “incredibly high” because otherwise the colors were overwhelming. A gift and a curse, like many things.

Isobel is a wonderful heroine. You find yourself rooting for her, crying with her, and hoping for the best. I was quite nervous that things would not turn out well for her throughout the book.

A fantastic book. Highly recommend!!

5⭐️/5

Unlike most high schoolers, I loved the Scarlet Letter, so I was really excited to dive into Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese. And it did not disappoint—I read it in a single day and it is definitely one of my top reads of the year. I loved how the events of the Scarlet Letter were explored in an upside down way—Albanese explains in her author’s note that all of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s other novels have explicit parallels in his life except for SL, so this was intended as a creative imagining of what might have prompted him to write the novel. Like Hester, our narrator, Isobel, is a talented seamstress, a romantic at heart, and a woman of immense strength. She endured a family history of witchcraft accusations because of her unique synesthesia, which causes her to hear voices and see letters in various colors (‘A’ is scarlet, for instance), and her ancestor’s past is explored through flashbacks that provided a nice parallel to the witchcraft trials that still haunt Salem in the novel’s 1800s setting. Isobel fights for her independence and for a love to call her own, but when things don’t go to plan, she doesn’t give up, instead forging bonds with others neglected by the community—Irish and Scottish immigrants, Black freedmen and women, and a witch-like widow. Hawthorne himself is a major character, haunted in the manner of his famous preacher, Arthur Dimmesdale, and his aspirations of achieving fame through writing, both paying homage to the ancestors that haunt him while making his own name, make so much sense in the context of his most famous novel. Recommended even if you didn’t love the Scarlet Letter, because this book can stand on its own as a masterpiece.

*I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!

Couldn't put this one down the more I read. It had so much of what I love in a novel. Book about a book (ultimately), a little witchy magic, a love story, historical facts, illustrative gorgeous details, and a setting with which I am not familiar. I wish I had reread The Scarlet Letter prior to reading this as I bet it would have created some connections I hadn't thought of. My one complaint is that at times it seemed a little too ambitious - witch hunts, the slave trade/Underground Railroad, synethesia, Nathaniel Hathorne...

The Scarlet Letter is one of the few books I distinctly remember from my high school days. I was so drawn to the resilience of Pearl and her mother, Hester Prynne. especially as the daughter of a strong single mother myself. This fictionalized imagining of how the Hawthorne's character, Hester, might have come about is creative and well told. It was a little slow to start for me, but by the end I was captivated by the story of Isobel and how her life became a compilation of love, freedom and survival. You do not need to have read or even remember The Scarlet Letter to appreciate Isobel's story but a quick reading of the cliffnotes will help the ending make much more sense.

I hardly know where to start in reviewing this astounding book. I chose it because it ticked every single one of my buttons - it’s a well-researched historical novel, the main character is an embroiderer (I am a textile artist), it examines the mysteries of feminine wisdom that have often been characterized as witchcraft, and - bonus - there are even references to the character’s Scottish heritage. The book transcends all of these individual themes and unifies them into a story about a woman with special gifts and ways of knowing and how she navigates a world where females are not only discriminated against, but can be in real danger. Although the author sets up the story by saying that it is an imagining of the woman who was Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inspiration for Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, it goes much further in painting a picture of the life of women in the 19th century and how one woman came into her power.

One very interesting aspect of Isobel’s character is that she, like her mother and grandmother, has synesthesia, the ability to experience letters, words, sounds and emotions as colors. “A” is red, and a symbol of,power, and so she embroiders it secretly in her work. Her grandmother was condemned as a witch for this same trait, but escaped, and so Isobel’s mother warns her never to tell anyone about this, She discovers, however, that other women have secret “magical” knowledge and this helps her to find safety at a critical point on the story.

The author has thoroughly researched all of the aspects of this story, and provided wonderful detail which is all the more enriching because it is told from a female-centered point of view. I devoured this book and look forward to going back to read The Scarlet Letter and other fiction that deals with this period in more depth than sensationalized tales of witch trials.

**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.**

I have taught The Scarlet Letter many times over the years and I love the book as a text my students, especially the girls get into, as a look at gender roles and what happens when you defy them. So of course I was interested in a retelling of Hester’s story told from a different perspective and one who has the author Nathaniel Hawthorne playing a role in her story. Isobel is abandoned by her husband alone in a new world left to make her way, but does being in America make her an American? And how will a woman alone, in a society that frowns upon, and labels as witches, single women? As Isobel and Nathaniel’s story becomes more entwined the lines are blurred and everything becomes more difficult. I loved this book and hope to pair it with The Scarlet Letter next year in my classroom.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I read the Scarlet Letter back in high school so when I saw that this was a spin off what was Hawthorne's muse for Hester Pryne- I was pretty excited to start reading it.

I hoped to have liked this book more but I struggled. The pacing is very slow and a lot of internal monologues for Isobel. At first all the descriptions were beautiful and drew me in. However, the story just seemed to be filled with too much lyrical phrases and descriptions.

This book's writing style reminds me of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Beautiful, lyrical, enlightening but oh so slow. There were parts of Hester that I felt like I was moving through mud- trying so hard to move forward, only to realize that I wasn't make much progress.

Have you ever wondered about the Scarlet letters?

This story takes place in both the 1800’s in Scotland, and then in the new world of Salem. At a young age Isobel is taught to sew without her special gift of color. When she moves to the new world in Salem and her husband boards a ship an heads out...leaving her a long. She takes up sewing as a seamstress to earn a way to live.

Mention of the Salem witch trials and inclusion of the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne keeps your interest throughout the book.

Boy, do I know that everyone will be reading and loving this book in the months to come! I also know that I’ll probably in the minority of folks who weren’t “wowed” by this reimagining of Hester Prynne, the main character of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. I liked the world that the writer created and was impressed with the research that she put into constructing it. But I found myself incredibly bored and close to putting it down. The story redeems itself halfway through the book when the romance aspect of the novel actually materializes. I did enjoy some aspects of the first half and I appreciate how those pieces help build Isobel’s character. I just question whether or not readers needed the intensity of the details and drawn out, less interesting plot points.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s press for lending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It was the beautiful cover on this book that drew me in, but it was the writing, the imagery, and the characterizations that held me until the end.

The author weaves together the stories about the struggle of immigrants and slaves during the 1800s and their fight for recognition and freedom, as well as the persecution of women during the Salem witch trials in 1692.
This is not a book about Hester Prynne, who was the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, or a retelling of that story, Instead, it is historical fiction which includes a few real life people and some places and times from history, a reimagining of the story from a woman's perspective, and so much more.

The main character, Isobel, who was raised in Scotland and an immigrant to America at 19 as a new wife, is a talented embroiderer who can see color in words and stories, and transfer them to cloth. Her and her husband have the beginnings of a troubled marriage and when her husband heads out to sea, she becomes intrigued and enamored with a young author in town, Nathaniel Hawthorne. She may well be the muse for his character, Hester Prynne, but remember, this is fiction. Isobel learns that all women carry burdens and that every woman will need to use her strengths throughout her life to grow and protect herself and her family. This is a story of hope, resilience, and freedom.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press for giving me the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this book.