I enjoyed this book. Days after finished reading I still wished I could remain in that time period, still follow our main character, Isobel. Instead, I will have to see what else this author wrote.

The book is a fictional origin story of how Nathanial Hawthorne came to write his classic book The Scarlet Letter. The woman in his book Hester Prynne, being modeled after our main character, Isobel Gamble. As a child she learns that colors with words are not normal and you may be labeled a witch, so it is a secret she must hold onto. This synesthesia runs in the family, by the women, and her maternal grandmother was indeed accused of being a witch but escaped before being put to death.

Quickly Isobel is grown, marries, then after a misfortune, they sail to the new world, landing in Salem, MA to begin anew. Here Isobel becomes herself, a woman, and where most of the story takes place.

I enjoyed how this book was written, how the story took place. We have snippets of another timeline for a brief page or two between each chapter. It ends up switching characters further along in the book, which lead to the reader knowing much more than the characters. Not sure I liked that, but the only aspect that really bothered me with this book.

A great read for Nathanial Hawthorne fans, who of course, don’t mind the inventions about his life.

This book was absolutely beautiful. From start to finish, it was the best thing I have read and enjoyed over the last few years and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. The story follows a young woman, down on her luck, who marries a man and ultimately ends up in Salem Massachusetts at the beginning of the 19th century. She comes upon a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the story truly takes off and becomes more beautiful as it goes one. The characters came so much to life that it was hard to believe that some of them were not based on real individuals, because they were so fleshed out and sympathetic. The story arc was absolutely beautiful, and the thread of Isobel [our main character]'s ancestors and Nathaniel's as well really helped bring us along with us.
I expect to see this as one of 2022's best historical fiction books, and I am glad I had the opportunity to read it.
This stunning book should be at the top of all of our reading lists, and you will not be disappointed.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hester is a beautiful historical fiction tale based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

Isobel Gamble lands in Salem, is abandoned by her husband, and left to fend for herself. Her tenacity and talent with the embroidery needle allow her to survive in a city with a complex past. Her talent, red hair, and ability to see words as colors makes her different–different isn’t always good in a city with a complex past with witches.

I enjoyed the historical and literary references in this book. The correlations with Hester Prynne were effectively weaved into this beautiful story.

If you loved The Scarlet Letter or enjoy reading tales of creative and strong women, this is the book for you!

In Hester, Laurie Albanese poses the question ' What if Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter' was inspired by his secret affair with a married woman in Salem? This is the story of Isobel Gamble, a talented seamstress who arrives to America from Scotland with her husband Edward. Isobel is a descendent of Isobel Gowdie, a woman tried and found guilty of witchcraft, but who manages to escape to freedom. This is an atmospheric, original reimagining of the 1850s in Salem, MA, where you feel the history of witchcraft around every corner, and the ancestors of the witches and accusers live together, with or without much resentment.
Isabel and Edward have arrived here in an attempt to start over after he loses all their money in Scotland. He has grand ideas for an elixir of life and soon sails off with a trading ship to sell his idea, leaving Isobel alone.
She soon falls in love with a local, handsome writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. He also leaves her, and she is forced to survive on her own, using only the skill of her needle to avoid starvation. There are very few friends in this town as most of the descendants of the original founders fear outsiders. Isobel soon makes friends with her neighbors, and ladies who admire her embroidery. The remainder of the story is how she fights the establishment and makes a name for herself with her extraordinary skills. You see, Isobel has Synesthesia, and sees colors in people's voices, and in her letters. The Letter A is scarlet=passion, knowledge, and pain. Blue is hope, yellow is truth, orange is joy, and green is goodness. Her work soon becomes desired by locals and women from afar.
This story is about women's empowerment, feminism, and using your skills to your best advantage. There are also several subplots about slavery, and another timeline describing the history of Isobel Gowdie, her ancestor.
We also get a heaping does of the history of witchcraft during this time as well as how you would survive such times if left to your own devices. It made me want to go to Salem and tour some of the areas mentioned in the book! If you love historical fiction and learning more about Salem, MA, this book is for you!

Thank you to St.Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

This protagonist of this book was Isabel Gowdie, a Scottish girl in the 1800’s who had a gift for needlecraft and embroidery. She also sees the world as others don’t, associating different colours with people, words and letters. We now know this a neurological condition called synesthesia in which when a stimulus meant to stimulate one of your senses, stimulates several. However, at that time this condition was misunderstood and Isabel’s mother warns her to keep this secret as it is only 100-150 years ago that one of their ancestors was accused of witchcraft.

As a teenager she gets married, and boards a ship to Salem, Massachusetts with her new husband who are looking to restore their fortunes and have a fresh start. When they get there, her husband a pharmacist and student of alchemy leaves on a ship searching for supplies for a magical elixir which is to make her fortune. When he is gone, she has to provide for herself using her needle and thread. She interacts with many interesting local people, including author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This book was excellent, one of my top reads for 2022. It was an extremely interesting read with lots of great characters and excellent plotting. I look forward to reading more from this author!

The author writes a stunningly reimagining of The Scarlet Letter’s heroine, Hester Prynne. Isobel Gamble leaves for the New World and is left to fend for herself. She meets Nathaniel Hawthorne and she becomes his muse. I read the Scarlet Letter in college and it stuck with me all these years later. I was excited to read this story. This story is a reimagining with an impressive plot and characters. The story was written so well, I felt like I was right there with the characters in that setting,

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC, I received a copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

🧵 A creative prequel to The Scarlet Letter, Hester is the story of a Scottish seamstress Isobel who sets sail for America in the early 1800s with her husband, but soon after arriving in Salem, discovers the New World is one she will have to navigate alone.

🪡 Her husband quickly sets sail on a trip posing as a doctor on the ship, but is gripped by his addiction to opium. In Salem as she searches for work with her talented needle skills, she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne and the two are drawn to each other immediately.

🧵When her husband is reported to have gone missing, the two become closer under the cover of night, for women are still sent away for being adulterous, and Isobel’s secret synesthesia may be misperceived as witchcraft. Isobel becomes the muse for Nat’s writing, and while the reader knows how this will play out on the pages as Hester Prynne, this story brings a human side to the characters while also touching upon the Underground Railroad with her trusted friends, stitching together more secrets for Isobel to unspool.

🪡If you are interested in a speculative and historically based journey behind the inspiration of a classic, you’ll enjoy this bewitching tale. Pub date is 10/4 when this beautiful jacket will be on display for all. Thank you NetGalley for this arc.

This is such a beautiful imagining of the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write "The Scarlet Letter".

This book has such depth! It explores love, fear, societal expectations, enchantment, freedom, passion, female empowerment, the burden of ancestors and the past, witchcraft, slavery, and so much more. The characters are deep and complex. They struggle, yearn for more, make mistakes, grieve, and love. I really loved the descriptions of Isobel's synesthesia. It brought so much color (literally) to the book and brought so many things to life. Her synesthesia layered with her ancestor's accusation of witchcraft and Isobel's own arrival in Salem, Massachusetts is such an interesting plot device!

I really loved Isobel as a character. She was so strong in the face of such adversity and she struggled and struggled to make the decision that was best for her despite societal expectations. She did not allow her synesthesia and fear stop her from pursing her passions. In fact, she used to them to propel her dream of needlework and dressmaking forward!

While I found the beginning of this book quite slow, it definitely picks up! The writing is beautiful and I love how the story explores and doesn't shy away from such complex and deep themes.
This is such a beautiful imagining of the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write "The Scarlet Letter".

This book has such depth! It explores love, fear, societal expectations, enchantment, freedom, passion, female empowerment, the burden of ancestors and the past, witchcraft, slavery, and so much more. The characters are deep and complex. They struggle, yearn for more, make mistakes, grieve, and love. I really loved the descriptions of Isobel's synesthesia. It brought so much color (literally) to the book and brought so many things to life. Her synesthesia layered with her ancestor's accusation of witchcraft and Isobel's own arrival in Salem, Massachusetts is such an interesting plot device!

I really loved Isobel as a character. She was so strong in the face of such adversity and she struggled and struggled to make the decision that was best for her despite societal expectations. She did not allow her synesthesia and fear stop her from pursing her passions. In fact, she used to them to propel her dream of needlework and dressmaking forward!

While I found the beginning of this book quite slow, it definitely picks up! The writing is beautiful and I love how the story explores and doesn't shy away from such complex and deep themes.


Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book!

Firstly, thank you to netgalley for an e-ARC of this book for my honest review.

Solid 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because after sleeping on it I still have a pretty positive feeling about it.

The start of this book is enchanting. I loved it. I think I should've been made more aware that this was going to involve an OC literally having a romance with Nathaniel Hawthorne and is not a Scarlet Letter retelling. It's more of an alternate history but it affects only a 1 year period and the universe continues as we know it. I don't find this bad, necessarily, but it did catch me off-guard for a moment.

Isobel and her backstory are well written and complex. Almost every character has some ulterior motive or complex narrative and are each attractive in their own way. Funnily enough, I think Hawthorne is probably the only exception, but I think it's because as a reader it's assumed you might already know his work and can project more information onto him.

The themes of repeating history, how tragic events can separate people for generations (the accused and the accusers), and hidden truths, are woven together throughout the narrative and the prose is nice, sometimes a little purple - usually whenever synesthesia is described, or 'the colors' and such. It can be a bit too heavy handed there. The setting is historically accurate and has multiple facets, which is refreshing since most historical fictions rely heavily on one or two aspects of the past; Laurie creates an entire atmosphere of Salem circa ~1817.

I think my only issues were:

Roughly halfway through the book Isobel is <i>painfully</i> ignorant on many issues, including the slave trade (and I mean like NO IDEA about slaves? really?), classism, sexual assault etc. Which are all things she had plenty of opportunity to learn/hear about in Scotland. I know that Isobel is like 17/18 at this point, and that it's super plot dependent that she doesn't just figure things out, but she was so stupid about some sensitive topics that I almost put the book down in disgust. It got better, it did, but that one section was so painful.

The ending was lackluster - and honestly if it had been more thought-out and maybe focused more on Isobel's life after her brief stint with Nathaniel, I would've given a 5 star rating. It's just too glazed over. I wanted to see more of her and Captain Darling, being happy and not just '18 years later'. It really brought me down from the extreme high that the climax of the book had brought.

It's never mentioned that Nathaniel Hawthorne has a deeply emotional affair with Herman Melville. :( /j

The Scarlett Letter was one of my favourite books when I was in high school and read it for the first time. So clearly I was excited when I saw that Hester was meant to be a retelling/prequel to it.

To be completely honest, I loved this MORE than I did The Scarlett Letter. This is beautifully written and entirely mesmerizing.

Without any spoilers, if you want a historical, magical, retelling with a strong female main - read Hester. It’s beautiful and you won’t regret it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

This is a story about Nathaniel Hawthorne; an imagining of the woman and the affair that might have inspired The Scarlet Letter, but it's much more than that. It's a richly-imagined period coming-of-age tale, full of visual and historical detail, sharply-drawn characters, and emotional weight. It's about love and how its meaning changes as we grow; the weight of privilege on those who don't have it; the meaning of safety and freedom and strength. It's beautifully written and, while not a light novel by any means, a joy to read.

Hester is the story of Isobel Gamble, a seamstress who travels from Scotland to Massachusetts in the mid-1800s, bringing with her the legacy of generations of gifted, persecuted ancestors. On arriving in Salem, her husband abandons her and she becomes besotted with a young writer - whose love for her is tinged with the fascination and fear of his own witch-hunting ancestors. Isobel meets escaped slaves and bounty hunters; rich women who pay to keep their secrets and poor women who protect one another out of love; men who view women as property, or temptresses, or friends. When her love affair reaches its inevitable fruition, she must learn to see the true colors of those around her in order to weave her own colors safely.

I loved this book so much. Perfect for Halloween or anyone who loves a good witchy book. I highly recommend this one

I choose to read this book because of the setting. I am related to one of the women hanged at the Salem witch trials. Isobel is able to see colors when people talk. That is such a cool thing! Sadly it doesn't help her protect herself from rough choices. She is talented with a needle and supports herself when her husband leaves her with no money. She meets interesting people with life stories that add to the story. I thought the book was a good historic drama that shares how rough life could be in the early days of America.

I've loved every encounter where an author has woven synesthesia into their work and Albanese does this richly as well, giving us a view into how Isobel sees colours in every letter, how every voice carrying a cadence of lie and truth has their own hue and creating dresses, pieces of clothing, and banners to match the vocation or personality of neighbours and friends allows her to bring her ability into the physical world.

Albanese fleshes out her characters by building their stories around the Witch hunts in Scotland and New England, stirred up by men who feared the passions, knowledge, and independence of women. Isobel herself comes from a line of women who have been blessed to intuit the colours that live within letters and the spoken word, a power or ability that would certainly see them branded Witch. But each woman finds a way to infuse that part of themselves into their work.

In Salem, Isobel must use her wits to make a living as she has been abandoned by a husband who leaves to pursue his dreams and passions on board a ship, seeking his fortune without a thought for his wife. Her experiences with the social structure and dark festering history of the town teach her how to thrive and also presents her an opportunity to satisfy her desires. And yet she is not safe from jealousy and persecution, turning to those who occupy just as much a precarious existence as she does, to fight to make her living and showcase her talent without repercussions from the greedy and the rich.

It is a remarkable story that Albanese has carved for a woman who was used and abandoned twice by men who claimed to have loved her, but chose their name or success, how she fought to maintain her identity and ability against threat of persecution, and the bonds she forged with women who themselves carry a touch of Witch within their hearts. Hester stands apart from The Scarlet Letter even as it stands beside it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read The Scarlet Letter (I assume that was back when I was in high school) and my memories of that are vague, although I remember feeling bad for Hester, the poor woman who was condemned and forced to wear an A to show her sins…. I love that this flips the script (no pun intended) and allows the story to be told from the other point of view. It is a bit reminiscent of Wicked in that respect.

I think that Isobel was an extremely likeable character- woman of strength and resilience. I love that she continually rebounded from every hardship. I also love that she seemed to draw people to her, people that were willing to support her and help her.

It goes without saying that Nat was not a likeable guy at all. I won’t say more at risk of spoiling.

Excellent read! Thanks to net gallery for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

A historical novel set primarily in 1829--with flashbacks to the 1600s--imagines how Nathaniel Hawthorne may have created the character of Hester Prynne in “The Scarlet Letter.” Isobel Gamble, a gifted seamstress and embroiderer, arrives in Salem for a fresh start with her opiate-addicted husband. When he leaves on a sea voyage, Isobel supports herself with her needle and becomes acquainted with the haunted and aspiring local writer, Nat Hathorne.

Isobel has synesthesia, a condition in which she experiences words and voices as having colors. Her mother warned her as a child to be careful about revealing her ability lest she be accused of witchcraft. Instead, Isobel incorporates the colors and letters into her exquisite needlework.

Readers will have fun spotting references to “The Scarlet Letter” while at the same time discovering a bit about the slave experience in New England. I especially enjoyed how the author developed the power of the needle as a theme. A needle could heal by lancing wounds and stitching cuts; a needle was a source of livelihood; with a needle a woman could tell her stories.

Like Hester, her fictional counterpart, Isobel is an early feminist. She looks for ways to be independent of an abusive husband, at a time when few options were open to women. This is an engrossing tale with memorable characters.

very interesting retelling of the Scarlett Letter. It is told from Hester's point of view. I enjoyed the story as I had to read the Scarlett Letter in high school.

I read The Scarlet Letter in high school and I love how this story was imAgined based on Hester Pryne. Rich in historical detail, this story kept me captivated.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Although, for me, this started out slow I am glad I kept going. I was rooting for Isabelle to succeed alone in Salem. The twists in the story were unexpected and satisfying. I recommend this story. One will love some characters and dislike others just as one should.

This book did not connect with me as much as I hoped it would. The writing is beautiful but I just didn't feel myself connecting to the plot or characters unfortunately.