This is how historical fiction should be written! A story of perseverance, persistence, and a bit of magic, Hester is a paragon of female empowerment. This is the first I've read of Laurie Albenese and it did not disappoint! I am enthralled with her ability to intertwine two movements in history one would not typically conjoin. The eloquent prose, vivid descriptions, the flawlessly flawed characters, the ingenious art of inverse perspective is captivating! Will recommend again and again!

If all of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works besides The Scarlet Letter are known to be based on his life, then what if his most famous novel is, too? What if Hester Pyrne was real? In Laurie Lico Albanese’s latest historical fiction, she is.

Isobel, the inspiration for Hester, is a young immigrant with a talent for embroidery and a careless husband. She falls in love with the haunted writer Nat Hathorne when her husband is at sea, a decision that almost leads to her ruin.

The growth Isobel experiences over the span of “Hester” is fantastic and my personal favorite part of the novel. We meet her in childhood, an innocent young girl with a needle and thread and visions of colors - she has synesthesia, which allows her to sees voices and letters in a startling brightness which would have been considered witchcraft in that day. We then follow her through her marriage to the opium-addicted Edward and her ill-fated affair with the young Nathaniel Hawthorne, watching her naivety diminish but her strength and courage grow. She writes her own story, leaving the broken men in her life behind.

The secondary cast is excellent, too. I did feel for Nat at times, even when I wanted to smack him. But the other women Isobel befriends - especially Nell, a house servant and Mercy, a Black woman who lives next to Isobel, were my favorites. A few other characters turn out to be more than what they seem, as revealed in spite of Isobel’s prejudices.

A great work of historical fiction that focuses on those history often forgets. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Isobel Gamble is a seamstress carrying a secret when she goes from Scotland to the new world her husband. Right away Isobel’s husband joins a team of traveling medics which leaves her alone with no money. During this time, she meets Nathaniel Hawthorne, who she gets close to.
The characters were well written, and I could feel the struggles of the main character. I loved the way the author was able to create drama in a way that doesn’t make the whole story about it. My only issue with the book is that there were moments where the book seemed to be slow.

The only thing better than reading advanced copies of books is when you know it's going to be a hit... Hester is the first of author Laurie Lico Albanese's books, though Stolen Beauty is on my TBR list, and it did not disappoint. While the prose does sometimes get a bit too flowery (literally), with details as intricately woven as Isobel's patterns, and there's not a ton of action, the world is fully wrought and Isobel herself is magnetic enough to power the narrative. I personally would've liked to see a bit more of the possible-witchiness, to feel a tiny bit more of why Isobel might harbor fears that she was a witch, but I suppose that's Albanese's point. By keeping the story so grounded and contained, the point couldn't be more clear how women were ostracized for being independent thinkers and for living outside the patriarchal chains of marriage, and in the case of the Salem witch trials, they were baselessly persecuted and hanged.
I really loved how 'otherness' is explored in the book, drawing threads between various marginalized people: immigrants, women, people of color. There is first a recognition, that we are more alike than we may initially realize, and then a warning, that when even one group of people is oppressed and subject to inequality, we are all in danger.
Though the book is so intimate and focused on a short period of time in one woman's life, there are much bigger social messages worked into the story, without getting preachy. And eventually, that one woman-- small as her story may be-- winds up having an effect not only on Nat's life, but on many lives.

I love retellings of classics. Getting to read about the inspiration behind The Scarlet Letter was so interesting, and I fell in love with Isobel very quickly. I greatly enjoyed how a little bit of magic was sprinkled in, the way Isobel was determined to make her life work no matter what, and the support and friends she did find. The story was written very well, too, and sucked me in quickly.