What if the inspo for The Scarlett Letter was a real story with real people? An amazing retelling and reimagining. It is gothic and lovely. It is a slow burn, but a good one. A great read.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

This is both a retelling of Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and a prequel for the novel. Instead of the character of Hester, we have Isobel Gamble who is a very young, married, Scottish seamstress new to Salem in the 1820's. While her husband is away, she falls in love with the writer Nat Hawthorne and inspires his first novel.

Reading this novel felt both like I was reading a completely new novel and also the retelling of "The Scarlet Letter". While I found the original hard to get through in high school, LLA kept me rivetted throughout the entire novel from start to finish. We learn that Isobel is a Synesthetes, which means she can hear the colors that she weaves into her beautiful clothing. While we know very little about Nathanial Hawthorne and what inspired him to write his novel, I love thinking that Hester might have also had this unique view.

Overall, this is a wonderful novel and I genuinely wish this is what I was told to read back in high school.

The Scarlet Letter has been a staple of the high school curriculum for decades. Laurie Lico Albanese's new novel creates an origin story featuring both Hester Prynne and the author Nathaniel Hawthorne. In Hester, we find the fictional woman who inspired the story and part of America's cultural history.

A young seamstress learns about her witchy ancestry. She sees colors in letters as well but must suppress her powers. Finding work as a seamstress, she catches the eye of a local doctor. In marriage, they are ruined by his opium use and forced to move to the New World. She is charmed by a young Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her husband continues on at sea. Their relationship deepens and turns intimate. When she finds herself pregnant, she finds that Hawthorne is of no use to her. Pregnant, alone, and her husband returning puts her in a dangerous situation.

I enjoyed the play on this story. The Scarlet Letter is one of my favorite novels. I enjoyed the twist in the story where you would assume Hawthorne is a hero, but he just takes advantage of the situation. Yes, he gets a book out of it, but getting over the betrayal is difficult. An excellent retelling from a woman's perspective. It deepens the original work for me.

I enjoyed this unique look at women in Hawthorne's era. Very slow build - the relationship between Hester and Hawthorne actually starts more than halfway through the book. I considered not finishing several times.
Hester and her husband leave England due to her husband's debts. Hester must leave behind her beloved father - and depend solely upon her husband.
While her husband travels as a ship medic, Hester earns money with her incredible needlepoint. She expertly hides words underneath her designs, a skill passed down in her family.
I enjoyed Hester's wish for independence; the juxtaposition of her with her "freed" neighbors - outcasts from supposed polite society.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for gifting me an audio ALC of Laurie Lico Albanese newest novel, Hester. In exchange I offer my unbiased review. This book and audio is now available.

I read and loved Ms. Lico Albanese previous book Stolen Beauty, so I was very excited to read her take on the woman behind Nathaniel Hawthorn’s Scarlet Letter. This book is speculative and while I enjoyed the time, setting and use of Hawthorn as a “character” the creation of Isobel Gamble, a seamstress who posses the ability to see colors was too much of stretch. Had the author just told this story without the Hawthorn connection, I think I would have preferred it more. Additionally the dual timeline felt unnecessary and clunky. The shifting of stories was awkward and took me out of the “ present” story, 1800’s Salem. I did enjoy the narration by Saskia Maarleveld and adore the GORGEOUS book cover design.

Ultimately this wasn’t a solid pick for me but I’m still a huge fan of Lori Lico Albanese and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

beautiful well written and absorbing. Just loved this story. I expect a movie will be made ! Many thanks to publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

HEster was a really well done re-telling of The Scarlet Letter. I really enjoy all of these women led retellings as I find it really takes back the story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Not at all what I was expecting but that is probably more my fault than anything else so I'm not factoring that in. I did not enjoy this book, the characters were hard to connect with.

Isobel is trying to hide secrets and find her place in a whole new world. Nathaniel Hawthorne and her meet, they are drawn toward one another. When Isobel’s husband leaves on another voyage, they spend more time together. This story is about the complicated history of our ancestors and how we try to understand the choices they make.

Unputdownable. I tore through this book like wildfire. The Scarlet Letter but a thousand times better. I love when you can tell the author loves reading. Phenomenal.

Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.

When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?

In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.

If you've ever read The Scarlet Letter, this is for you. An enchanting back story to a book that I read in high school with a leading lady that discovers her strength as she journeys from England to America and finally Halifax. What Wicked does for the Wizard of Oz, this one does it for The Scarlet Letter. I love getting to read books on @NetGalley. #Hester #lovereading #readinggoals2022 #reading #netgalley #netgalleyreview #netgalleyreads #laurielicoalbanese

Hester came across my newsfeed quite awhile ago and I had requested it from Netgalley, then promptly forgot to read it because my to-read pile is rather insane. The premise sounded amazing--bits and pieces of The Scarlet Letter, Puritan New England, and more, so when I finally noticed it again, it ended up being a two night read. Historical fiction is a favorite of mine and Hester covered a time period I don't usually pick.

I seriously regret not reading this book sooner. Once I started it, I could barely put it down, only the need for sleep finally convinced me to pause for the evening.

Unlike a lot of current historical fiction, there wasn't a dual storyline in Hester detailing the past and the present. While Hester's family history is shared in the book, the majority of the book is Hester herself, taking place during the early 1800s.

The story covers a time period that isn't really covered in many contemporary novels. Reading the early days of New England, the people, the societal expectations, etc, made for an amazingly well done story, and provided a unique background into what could have driven Hawthorne to write The Scarlet Letter. While Hester's character is obviously fictional, the setting really provides so much more insight into the mindsets of the people of New England at the time.

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Such an wonderful read. The Scarlet Letter retold from the viewpoint of Hester and her experiences made of a compelling tale.

This one was a little slow going for me, I had trouble staying focused on the story and as I was listening to the audiobook I found myself having to go back to relisten to parts quite a bit. I may have done better with a physical copy, but I didn't receive one to review. The premise is interesting and the historical details seem to be on point. I was fascinated with The Scarlet Letter when we read it in school so I was excited to read this book.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese is a work of historical fiction that has a very creative and interesting plot. The main character is a seamstress who is married to a man who has a opium addiction. In the 1800's a woman's life was extremely difficult and this is aptly depicted in this novel. The main character meets Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is believed that the main character was the inspiration for Hester in the Scarlet Letter. Although this is a work of fiction it is certainly plausible that this was how the Hester Prynne character in the Scarlet Letter came to life. I would highly recommend reading Hester. Thank you to Laurie Lico Albanese, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is such a cool retelling. I live history, especially that of the Salem witch trials, and enjoy retellings focused on female stories and power. Having read the scarlet letter in school like many, and generally learned about this era, it was neat to go back into that world through a novel like this that felt at once both narrative and meticulously researched.

Who was the muse behind Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter? Can a town move beyond its past?
Can a person, particularly a woman, move beyond their own past and the generations before them?

We find that although witch trials in Salem are a thing of the past, women still live in fear of standing out in ways that may draw unfavorable attention. and though Massachusetts outlawed slavery, slave catchers still wander the town looking for their next bounty. These two facts drive the engrossing plot of Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese. It is a compelling read and perhaps what I enjoyed most was the strong, wise women who willingly risked everything to help not only each other but those whose only desire was to live free.
And what about Nathaniel Hawthorne? Well, he pretty much comes off as a schmuck. A recommended read for lovers of historical fiction and/or stories with women who rock.

I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an American classic familiar to almost anyone who took an eleventh-grade English class. Your mileage will almost certainly vary when it comes to how you feel about the novel—it can be difficult to find its heavy themes of sin and shame compelling in a modern-day context or square our own sensibilities with Hester Prynne’s insistence on protecting a man’s reputation at the expense of her own. But if you too have long struggled with finding something in Hawthorne’s novel to relate to (or had problems navigating its occasionally plodding prose), then Laurie Lico Albanese’s Hester is the book you need in your life this Fall.