Laurie Lico Albanese’s Hester is a captivating reimagining of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The novel follows Isobel Gamble, a young Scottish immigrant in early 19th-century Salem, Massachusetts, as she navigates a new world filled with challenges and triumphs. The author’s storytelling and meticulous historical detail bring Salem to life. With its rich atmospheric setting and exploration of themes such as love and resilience, this historical fiction offers a fresh take on a classic.

This is very atmospheric and has a darker undertone in places. It also felt magical in places. The main character is very well developed. The writing flows so beautifully

A dazzlingly inventive tale of troubled legacies, desire and unsung power, inspired by The Scarlet Letter.
This book bursts from the first page like a horse at the gate and never stops running. It’s a wild ride.

I really enjoyed this book! I have always been drawn to the mystical stories of the witch trials and the scarlet letter which is what had me hooked on this plot in the first place. Though, the title was somewhat misleading at first. experiencing Isobel's trials through her gifts and encounters was really interesting.

Isobel’s husband Edward is an opium-addled apothecary whose debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh to Salem, Massachusetts. Almost immediately after arriving, Edward is called onto another voyage leaving Isobel destitute in a new country. She is a talented seamstress and secures work embroidering gloves for a local boutique owner but the pay is awful. Then she meets Nat Hathorne, a struggling writer from a family of former witch burners. With her husband’s fate unknown, Isobel and Nat are drawn together. I haven’t read The Scarlet Letter but Hester is a retelling of how that book came about. Isobel is supposedly the muse for the novel’s heroine and of course, Nat is Nathaniel Hawthorne. I found it to be a thoroughly immersive story about running from injustice and becoming your own woman. There are themes of slavery and witchcraft as well as the wider issues that come with both of those things -racism and misogyny. It features some lovely, brave characters and it ends on such a resounding note of hope. So, apparently you don’t need any previous Scarlet Letter knowledge to enjoy it!

This is how historical fiction should be written!. 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

Like many young women of her time (1800s Scotland), prospects are not bright for Isobel Gamble. Her mother died when she was still a child, and her father has remarried and has a babe on the way. His new wife has made it clear that Isobel's role will be nursemaid. So she jumps at the marriage proposal from Edward, a man she hardly knows. Very quickly the error of this becomes obvious, when he is thrown into debtor's prison. Their one means of escaping this fate is a journey to the New World.

So they journey to Salem. Isobel befriends the ship's captain along the way, when she nurses him back to health. She also displays her prowess at sewing when she embroiders the captain's vest with colorful designs. Shortly after arriving at the new world, Edward steals all of Isobel's money and departs on the ship as a medic. Penniless, she must find work as a seamstress to pay her way, which she eventually does. She meets Nathaniel Hawthorne, and their attraction to each other grows as it appears her husband may have deserted her.

The story unfolds, and we are offered an explanation as to how Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter. I enjoyed this imaginative story and the setting in 1800 Salem.

trigger warning
<spoiler> torture, misogyny, lynching, trauma, slavery, kidnapping, human trafficking, self harm, self flagellation, drug addiction, domestic violence, racism, xenophobia </spoiler>

When Isobel marries the apothecary, everything seems perfect - until an injury renders him addicted to opium, and, disgraced, they flee from Scotland to the New World, desperate for a new beginning.
Nearly arrived, Edward leaves her to be a ship's doctor and fend for herself in Salem, where people look down on newcomers.

Fair disclaimer, it's been a long while since I read the Scarlet Letter and I did it for fun and not in a school setting where the whole thing was discussed. I mainly came for witchy themes and I guess because I let myself get hyped.

Isobel meets a writer named Nathanial Hathorne in Salem, and we're led to believe in this narrative that she is the muse that made him write the Scarlet Letter. A what if, if you will.
Since I understand rabbit holes and the urge to do something with them, I have no problem with this as a concept for a book.

My main complaint is more that while the pacing is consistent, it's also boring. It's not hard to guess what the next hundred pages will bring. There is no surprise, nothing to really make reading it worthwhile. I did not get attached to characters, did not feel a special kind of atmosphere.

I would have given this 2,5 stars but as it nicely did what it set out to, which just happened to not be my cup of tea, let me round it up to 3.
If you really, really want to read this book, do it. If you're more casually interested like I was, maybe look somewhere else for your next read.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for an ARC of this book.

Our heroine in this beautiful novel is Isobel a Scottish girl who in the 17th century must leave all she knows to travel with her disgraced opium addicted husband to America to start a new life.
After only just arriving her husband leaves again on the ship they arrived to travel as an apothecary and medic, leaving Isobel to fend for herself until his return.
As a talented embroidery artist with a gift to see colours in sounds and words, Isobel soon takes on employment but her loneliness draws her to the arms of Nathaniel Hathorne. A young, handsome and mysterious son of one of the original family’s of Salem. But as she has been warned her trusting heart can again lead to heartbreak and danger. And how will she become the inspiration for his Hester Prynne in “the scarlet letter”.

I absolutely adored this book, so beautifully written that I found myself highlighting phrases in the first chapter. The character, plot and scene building is remarkable and you easily and quickly fall into the life of Isobel.
I loved the description of stitching and colours (as an embroidery artist I could see and feel the threads on the cotton).

I also liked that we got to learn some history about the witch trials of Salem without being completely absorbed in it.

Most of all I love and ending that doesn’t leave me angry… but no spoilers I promise xx

I loved the whimsical and enchanting story which the author spun with the snippets of history running through to help build on the folklore and characters. I like that this was a story which focused around women and how they face adversity when they see the world differently to other people.

A great book that I couldn't put down. This is the story of Isobel, young, a seamstress in the early 1800's, secrets, starting a new life in another country. It had it all.

It is an old story with a new twist and it is very intriguing and evocative and intense, the writing is wonderful and descriptive. This is a book that takes you on a journey that is full of emotion and there is so much going on yet it isn't confusing or overwhelming.

I enjoyed this book and having never read The Scarlet Letter I am not sure if I want to as I would then compare the two. I enjoyed this book and would recommend.

Hester ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Isobel comes from a long line of women with a special gift, she can ‘see’ colours in sounds and words, and uses this gift to create beautiful needlework.

In 1829 she travels across the sea to the New World with her husband Edward in order to escape from his misdoings in Scotland. The pair arrive In Salem where Isobel becomes entangled with a young writer named Nat, who is haunted by his ancestors who were responsible for the hanging of innocent women in the witch trials.

The writing in this book is detailed and at times dreamlike, I enjoyed learning more about the trials and made a nice change to my historical fiction reads.

However I failed to connect to Isobel, probably because of her baffling attraction to the damaged and weak Nat! Also having never read The Scarlet Letter I didn’t get the link until right at the end.

I've read 'The Scarlet Letter' once many years ago, it being a classic of American literature and all, but I'm no expert on it and couldn't remember all the details when I started reading "Hester", Laurie Lico Albanese's novel wondering about the woman that inspired Hawthorne to write his classic. I absolutely adore stories like this one, stories that are kind of literature's behind the scenes feature, allowing us to look at old classics in a new way. "Hester" is exactly that, and I really enjoyed it.

The writing is beautiful and captivating, sucking the reader right into the story of Isobel - ancestor of a supposed witch, unhappily and unluckily married to an opium addict, meeting a man named Nathaniel Hathorne when she and her husband move from Scotland to Salem. It's a bewitching story, one that made me fall in love with Isobel and that tackles different important subjects from the era she lives in. Puritanism and the fear of witches, the treatment of women, especially those that don't adhere to what society considers the only good standard, and slavery being the big themes.

Even if you don't know Hawthorne's work but enjoy historical fiction, you will most likely love this one. It's beautiful, tragic, hopeful and wonderfully crafted. I did feel like there were minor pacing issues throughout the middle part of the book and I wasn't totally engaged at all times, but these are very minor not-even-complaints. Read it, it's worth your time.

Thank you Duckworth Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

This book is about the woman that supposedly inspired The Scarlett Letter, about Salem trials, witchcraft and slavery. It touches many interesting topics but just so on the surface that you are left wanting more.

Overall, this book is mainly the story of a woman that finds herself alone in a new world and has to find her place in it.

I liked the book but I would have prefer if it had gone a bit deeper in some of the topics like the Salem trials.

I’d like to start off by stating that this is a very personal review as I believe people with other preferences may well love this book. To its credit, Hester is beautifully written, the storyline unfolds skilfully in authentic settings, with characters that truly have depth.

The book is sort of divided in three sections, the beginning is the origin story of the main character and had a “David Copperfield” vibe about it, I personally just don’t enjoy the tragedy. Then in Salem, I found the plot a bit boring, it felt somewhat slow and I was just waiting the whole time for something bad to happen. The final third was more exciting and interesting, secrets were unveiled, everything was put into context and I liked the ending.

So to be fair, my review is based on my own tastes and I probably should have done better research before. I just didn’t love the time period and the despair it brought with it, especially the witch trials, the miseries of slavery, being a woman, an immigrant or otherwise outcast. The retelling of The Scarlet Letter is a compelling angle however, for me, it was just too serious of a story.

An enjoyable historical fiction based on charcaters in the Scarlet letter. Dont fret if you've never read it as I hadn't and this novel still makes a great stand alone story of a brave woman haunted by her family history and fearful of her own power. Touching on witchcraft, superstition and persecution its an absorbing tale with a satisfying ending.

This is a wonderfully told story based on the idea that Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter gives little voice to its heroine, Hester Prynne. And what a voice Laurie Lico Albanese creates in Isobel, a strong and resourceful woman for any time.

Albanese creates a totally credible in-depth embroidery from the gaps in the original, creating something that stands alone and freed with its own inspiration. With the history of Scottish and Salem witches, a considerate treatment of some aspects of the slave trade and Atlantic trade routes alongside immigrant society in nineteenth century America, there's a lot of ground covered and it's all done really well.

Such a compelling and rich story, this is so good - read it!

I have read the scarlett letter but I don't think you need to have read it to enjoy this read. I was absolutely captivated by this book, it enchanted me right from the start and didnt let go until the end. I loved it and I took some of the charcaters to my heart, I cannot recommend this book enough

Having not read or even really knowing anything about 'The Scarlet Letter' I was worried that this book wouldn't resonate with me without the context. However, this was a gorgeously rich historical fiction read that I enjoyed from page one.⁠
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In Hester we follow Isobel, a talented embroiderer with synaesthesia, who travels from Scotland to America with her troubled husband in order to start a new life in the 'New World'. When her husband decides to go in search of apothecary treasures by boat, Isobel meets the broody and haunted Nat Hathorne, who she eventually falls in love with. Interspersed with this story is a historical timeline of Isobel's and Nat's ancestors who were accused witches, escaped witches and witch hunters.⁠
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This honestly was the perfect autumn read! The layered themes of witchcraft, love, determination, female friendships, and redemption was the perfect mix of autumnal moodiness and cosy warmth. That's not to say this book can't be read during other seasons but I really do think this resonated with me so well due to feeling like the perfect time to read it.⁠
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For those of you who love a novel where there is strong character growth, pick this one up! Isobel starts as a very naïve young girl when she first marries and travels across the pond but as the story unravels, she discovers so many new things, meets new so many new kinds of people and through these experiences, learns and grows so much.⁠
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Overall, this was a very enjoyable read for me and I can see this being a hit historical fiction for the rest of the year. I feel like any historical fiction lovers who enjoy a character growth story with strong female characters and a touch of witchcraft will love this one!

First....this book cover is so beautiful, how could you not pick it up to read?
Laurie Lico Albanese has taken all of the loose threads and all of the endless questions we had when we read The Scarlet Letter in high school and woven them into an outstanding story of how the original story came to be. She has displayed her considerable writing skills by anchoring her story to the original but she most definitely is not giving us a reimagined Scarlet Letter.
Instead we watch a young woman whose plans for the future quickly change into a desperate run to avoid the poorhouse. Instead of the prosperous future her husband promised when they wed, she's on a ship to Salem where women who stand out from the crowd are often punished as witches. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, we see the beginning of a long relationship that grows quickly into the background (maybe) of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.
An outstanding read whether you have read The Scarlet Letter or not.