Laurie Lico AlbaneseRezensionen

Hester is a dichotomous story: gifts and curses, good and evil, vibrant colors and gray-hues, chance and choice, accused and accuser, the bewitched and the sorcerer, past and present. It’s the story of strong women, secret keepers and synesthesia, coloring the dark, shadowed history from Scotland to Salem.

Isobel Gamble, a Scottish seamstress with fiery red hair, (while the fictional inspiration for the Scarlet Letter’s Hester Prynne) reminds me from the beginning of Addie LaRue—a talented young woman with a desire to use that talent for grand dreams: “But I wanted the freedom to desire—and to seek after what I desired. I wanted color in all its forms, for I missed the beauty it had brought to my dreams and waking hours” (16).

Through training, talent, and the gift of synesthesia, Isobel longs to make a name for herself through thread, stitching stories together, even though her father tells her that her “‘best hope is to marry well’” (17). And marry she does, hoping it will lead her closer to her dreams and desires. Instead, it carries her across an ocean where she’s confronted with a sea of adversity: dark betrayals and hidden prejudices and haunting legacies.

Through all of Isobel’s unexpected turns in her new world of 1800’s Salem, MA, most especially through her forbidden relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, she searches with the resoluteness of a true heroine to find the pattern that leads to complete freedom.

This story is as true to its Scarlet Letter roots as it is singularly original, colored with a skein of threaded connections across time. I loved the language and was enchanted by the characters and knotted plot twists. It was as beautiful as it was haunting, shedding light on the best and worst of us.

TBR

Isobel, a Scottish woman, and her husband Edward come to Salem to make a new start. Unfortunately her husband cannot avoid his demons. Hester meets Nat Hathorne, an aspiring writer, tormented by the misdeeds of his ancestors.
The book has a strong sense of place, and the characters were well developed. The author imagines an adulterous love affair as the inspiration for Hawthorne's memorable heroine, Hester Prynne. Independent and strong, Isobel overcomes love gone wrong by "trusting the needle" and using her gifts and talents to make her own way in the world.

If you've ever heard of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this is the fictional story of the woman behind the main character of that book, Hester Prynne. Woven into the fabric of 19th-century Salem, Massachusetts stands Isobel Gamble, a talented seamstress and embroiderer from Scotland, looking to make a life for herself in America. She arrives in Salem about 125 years after the Witch Trials, and is forced to consider her own lineage as she walks the tightrope of status and reputation in Salem society. Isobel goes through many trials and tribulations as she seeks to define love, freedom, and strength: many of those qualities that, if bared too much, garnered a woman to be labeled as a witch herself.

I loved the depth of character and history in this well-narrated tale. Will definitely look out for more of Albanese's work.

"A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials". 5 stars.

This book has been on my TBR since its publication. When it came up as a read-along on Book Cougars, I jumped it up to the top. So glad I did. This is a retelling of A Scarlet Letter. However, the protagonist in this story is a contemporary of Hawthorne c. 1930s. She is a talented needleworker with a special gift for bringing color to her work. The inclusion of what we now know as synesthesia was brilliant. Albanese brings life to the town of Salem filled with an array of characters that allows the reader to learn about 19th c fashion, cookery, religion, politics, and the dark topics of abuse and slavery. She paints a not so positive picture of young Hawthorne. Using him as a tortured soul, she moves her story forward. I found the characters rich and resonant of the times. Her research served her well as she looked at the whole community of fictional Salem. Her imagination took her the rest of the way. I was particularly drawn to her color descriptions and was able to visualize the embroidery as if I had seen it. This is top notch historical fiction told with a creative and imaginative voice.

I’m not a huge historical fiction reader and when I would start to think it was just ok, the action would keep moving keeping me intrigued. As a scarlet letter fan I liked the connection

This novel imagines what may have inspired the classic novel The Scarlet Letter. Isobel Gamble is the inspiration of the iconic character in Hawthorne's novel and central character in this story. Descended from witches, she's a new immigrant in Salem, struggling to support herself after her husband practically abandons her. Isobel manages to find her own way and she can't help but be intrigued by one Nat Hathorne, a young man with dreams of writing. These elements make for a fascinating read, especially for those who enjoyed The Scarlet Letter.

What if Nathaniel Hawthorne based Hester Prynne, the beleagured main character of his novel The Scarlet Letter, on a real woman in his life? Laurie Lico Albanese’s imagininings provide one possible answer to this question in her upcoming novel Hester.

Isobel Gamble, a gifted seamstress and embroiderer married to apothecary Edward Gamble, meets young Nathaniel Hawthorne shortly after her ship reaches Salem in 1829. Of course there’s a story in their meeting and interactions, but that relationship is just one of Isobel’s deep and trusting friendships which serve as the impetus for a deepening plot and an unexpected turn of events. Readers will find themselves moving a little closer to the edges of their seats at Hester’s unexpectededly heady culmination, followed by the exhilaration of another sea voyage and a gratifying conclusion – one that has less to do with Hawthorne than a reader might expect.

The first few chapters are rough, with their folksy references to Isobel’s synesthesia (explained in a note at the beginning of the book), which her Mam calls “the colors.” There are mysteriously veiled warnings from Isobel’s elders who caution her to hide her magic to avoid being shunned by the folk who populate young Isobel’s world. Tropes like this can work if preceded by a lot of world-building and context, but placed so close to the beginning of the book, the narrative in those first chapters is almost funny, reducing a potentially five-star review to four stars.

You may find yourself wondering if any of these denizens of Salem actually existed, and you’ll be gratified to see that the author answers this question – and maybe some others – in her notes at the end of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, who provided the Advance Readers Copy I used to write this review.

Dual timeline story set primarily in Vienna, Austria, about two related women in a Jewish family. The older timeline takes place mostly in the early 1900s and moves forward, and the more recent timeline starts in 1937 during the lead-up to World War II. We follow the lives of Adèle Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), one of the (real) models for at least two of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt’s paintings, and Maria Altmann, her (real) niece.

Adele was a woman ahead of her time. She wanted a world of education and freedom, so she married a much older man who told her he would give her both. In the 1930’s, the storyline follows Maria, Adele's niece, during a time of great turmoil. Hitler annexed Austria (1938) and claimed the assets of Jewish citizens under the newly enacted laws of “Aryanization.”

I read this book due to my interest in art and art history. There are a number of historical facts woven into the narrative, but the primary emphasis is on the two women and their relationships with their husbands. There are a few liberties taken by the author with respect to the facts of the lives of the people she represents. I especially appreciated the sections on art. Regular readers of romances will likely enjoy it even more than I did.

3.5½

In 1829, nineteen-year-old Isobel Gamble emigrates from Scotland to Salem, Massachusetts, partly because neither she nor her apothecary husband, Edward, have prospered, but also for a reason she must hide. Edward, who at first gave young Isobel the impression of a kind, thoughtful husband, has turned into a selfish tyrant, rather too fond of certain drug preparations and further addicted to get-rich-quick schemes. As a lover, he has the style of a bull elephant, though maybe I slight that species in saying so.

Serving as the ship’s doctor on the passage to Salem, he signs on again in that capacity for a respectable merchant captain, leaving his bride to fend for herself. He remains on shore long enough to arrange her living conditions without consulting her and will brook no discussion; he also issues strict orders that hamstring her efforts to get along in his absence.

Said absence, as you may have guessed, leaves Isobel with mixed feelings. She worries how she’ll cope, knowing nobody in Salem, which seems a closed, exclusive society, especially mistrustful of immigrants. Moreover, she’s got almost no resources save her nimble fingers and a needle, and seamstresses are a penny a dozen. Potential employers, who depend on the carriage trade, are as snobby as their customers and exact draconian terms of service against which Isobel has no recourse.

There’s yet another secret to hide. Isobel possesses the rare cognitive ability to see letters and words as colors, which lends her embroidery a singular flair. But this phenomenon, known today as synesthesia, frightens her, because the world calls it unnatural and evil; indeed, the female ancestor who passed it on was accused of witchcraft. Consequently, as a child, Isobel was taught never to reveal her gift.

Well, you say, she’s in Salem now, and we all know what happened there. Not only that, she meets Nathaniel Hathorne, whose ancestor was an unrepentant judge at those infamous trials. That history has haunted the up-and-coming writer so deeply he’ll later add a “w” to his name, hoping to differentiate himself from his predecessor. And any novel titled Hester evokes the heroine of The Scarlet Letter.

Accordingly, I don’t have to tell you that the gloomy Nat, who feels like an outcast, and the desperate, lonely Isobel, who is one, bond instantly. Without putting too fine a point on it, and at the risk of repeating the publicity copy, the two bewitch each other. And I might not have to tell you that Isobel sees the letter “A” as red, or that her skill with a needle, as well as her passionate nature, impresses Hathorne.

Albanese writes beautifully, and Hester has much going for it, despite several events whose literary predictability is a given. That's because Edward’s pending return, Isobel’s ambivalence about it, and the price she’ll pay if anyone discovers her with Hathorne throw plenty of fuel on the fire. So do the two principals, who talk past each other, quarrel, and withhold the way lovers do.

A couple minor characters stand out too, notably one employer who pays Isobel a pittance and threatens to blacklist her if she tries to get more money elsewhere. Black characters and the slavery theme they embody feel shoehorned in, at first, but they make sense eventually. Albanese pulls no punches with either the major or minor characters, who suffer setbacks, and the reader senses long before Isobel does that her author swain is more complicated than she believed.

I could have done without the brief, italicized backstory chapters about Isobel’s alleged witch ancestor, which I think add nothing and try to wrap the theme in a pretty bow. We’ve already got Salem, where they still talk about witchcraft in 1829 and ostracize women who so much as appear to test societal constraints—though those with enough money get away with it, which makes the point clear enough. We also have Hathorne, who walks around with the guilt his forbear never admitted. Enough said.

But Hester’s worth your time, whether or not you’ve read The Scarlet Letter, and I recommend it.

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 painfully 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 I realized I loved this man who let me live in his house... for 18 years and then we had gentle sex lol. 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

Isobel sails with her husband Edward from Scotland to Salem in the early 1800s, but before they are settled, he has agreed to leave again - and he steals all her savings, which she was planning to use to start her own dress shop. Furious at Edward, Isobel gets by as best she can, sewing gloves for Felicity Adams and watching her take an unfair cut. Isobel falls in love with Nat Hathorne, a writer haunted by his family's past; his ancestor was an unrepentant participant in the Salem witch trials. Isobel's own ancestor was accused of witchcraft back in Scotland in the 1600s, but escaped death. Isobel is sure that Edward won't return, but when he does, he is under the spell of poppy and rum, and has a scheme to catch runaway slaves for the reward, an idea abhorrent to Isobel, as she is friends with her Black neighbors. Isobel must decide, for herself and for her unborn baby, whether to stay in Salem or start over somewhere else.

Beautiful, deeply absorbing.

Quotes

This was the one good thing that came of losing the colors - I could read, and the words dropped away as they were meant to, leaving pictures, people, places, and tales in their stead. (14)

One expression of impatience and he says I have a temper! Why is it that men are not subject to the same quick judgments as women? (75)

Before we arrived, I thought the New World was made by and for new people. But here in Salem it seems there is a long requisite of what a person must do, say, and be, in order to be truly American. (98)

"What's true is often hidden from sight - religious fervor disguises cruelty, dark desires hide behind a mask of conformity." (Nat to Isobel, 98)

And yet I'm certain that my needlework is more than pleasantry and ornament. (102)

And yet silence doesn't protect us from the past, as I well know. When a legacy haunts a family the echoes reverberate even if no one hears them. (142)

"But there's another kind of strength we've got....It comes from knowing the difference between who you are and who they think you are." (Mercy to Isobel, 160)

Why do men bind themselves to a flag and a nation when women bind themselves to passion and love? Why do men fixate on the past when every woman I have ever known is trying to remedy the present while she builds hope for what is to come? (193)

I've told him my secrets and shown him my passion, and he's made a deep mark upon me. And still, he looks at me and sees only himself. (202)

Is Nat a cruel man or is he a weak man? ...Perhaps he is both. (252)

I've seen how justice and the law work for some and not for others. Even in Scotland there was rich man's law and poor man's law. (292)

It's not that we are witches or faeries or that we deny God. It is that we are more beautiful and strong together than apart. (299)

Given the fact that “The Scarlet Letter” was one of my favorite books during my high school days, I was eager to read “Hester.” Laurie Lico Albanese does not disappoint. This creative reimagining of the origins of Hawthorne’s classic is utterly delightful. It’s a tale that brilliantly juggles a blend of themes that include family secrets, romance, cruelty, hope and history. Albanese’s vivid but sparing prose should be used as a template by other verbose yet wildly successful authors who seemingly ignore the tired adage that “less is more.” I rarely read a book more than once. I have a hunch that “Hester” might be one of the books that I revisit before the end of the decade.

HESTER is a fascinating new work of fiction inspired by an iconic American classic, The Scarlet Letter. While Hawthorne was clearly a product of his own time and circumstances in writing about Hester, Laurie Lico Albanese infuses her own Hester, Isobel, with what we 21st century women would think of as modern day feminist thought and ideas but that I'm sure were not entirely out of place in the early 19th century. A hundred- and fifty-years post-witch trials, Salem is still an unfriendly place to women who don’t fit the norm, whose families haven’t been well established for generations. A feeling of otherness that just about any woman can relate to, from living in a small new town to having interests and ideas that go against the societal flow, is, at times, crushing in our heroine Isobel’s Salem. With prose as colorful as the words and feelings Isobel experiences herself, Albanese weaves together a new timeless tale with women’s courage and perseverance squarely at its heart.

Hester is an excellent historical fiction novel about Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter. The book's characters were easily believable. The settings were well described. It is another book written from a 21st century viewpoint depicting how horribly women were treated. That the problems of the woman were her own and not the awful men in her life. Five stars were awarded in this review.

What would Hester Prune’s story be from her own perspective? That is what Albanese’s Hester strives to put together in this novel. Cruelty, hardships and women who are stronger together than apart are the base of the novel but the experiences and characters themselves make it all worthwhile. A well written and worthy explanation of a life Hester could have lived, I enjoyed this look into the past as I wove my own threads around The Scarlet Letter and its plausibility.
*I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review

Real Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials.

Who is the real Hester Prynne?

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, Laurie Lico Albanese's 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.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: A book about passion elicits passionate responses. Thus The Scarlet Letter from its date of publication to the present. What Author Albanese did was meld a fact of Hawthorne's life...all his novels save this one sprang from known biographical incidents..and said, "...except...? Hmmm" and ran with it.

Thus we have this novel, which I stress so loudly because I've seen a lot of responses to the book that take exception to the author's assumption that Hawthorne was always a writer working from his own biography. I fail to understand this. It's a novel, and novels are fiction. The way they get their lives is someone thinking, "hey, what if..." and running with it. "Oh it's unsourced in anything from the time" well now, our little firebug Hawthorne might've hidden many a secret forever in his purgings, mightn't he? What he didn't want us to know, we do not know. ...that sounds weird but I don't know how to fix it.

Anyway, considering the story on its own merits...I like it okay. I don't love it.

Too much, too much, I thought as Isobel synesthesia came to the fore, then as we whizzed back into the seventeenth century again.... It's just another thing to mark her out as weird, this strange sensory disorder. Her life was eventful and her loves bone-rattlingly deep wasn't enough? When I read novels I want to think about how the life unfolding before me is moving, not how it's making me move between emotional registers. That's when I begin to feel a bit like a footstool, moved here, plopped there, and all in service of someone else's visions and needs.

Yes yes, I know, that is what novelists do. But the ones whose work I treasure do it with less grunting and heaving.

Setting the novel in Salem, and with Hawthorne...well, the parallels to his probable state of guilt and discomfort over the history even then looked on as brutal and his treatment of Isobel aren't challenging to form are they. I wasn't particularly enamoured with the author's take on Hawthorne, finding him a dreary sort of navel-gazing git. I'm not all the way sure that he could've been as quivery as a blancmange and still written the work he did. I could, of course, be wrong. After all, I suspect that Melville's obvious tendresse for Hawthorne was not entirely unreciprocated and I am *loudly*assured* this is unthinkable.

Back to Hester. I wish it was less hectic. I would've enjoyed a more uncluttered interior for the novel to present itself to me; one colored less hectically and decorated less thoroughly with lovely bibelots and literary objet d'art. But the read as it was, distractingly stuffed into a space a bit too small for it, was a deeply interesting and quite soundly reasoned story. The passive little Hawthorne falling for the intensely alive Isobel? Yes, I see it. The quivering awakening of the young people to bodily pleasure? It is ever thus, and so always involving to me. The resolution of the matters that, quite inevitably, come from the aforementioned awakening? Fortuitous! And, as the epilogue-y thing at the end makes Ever. So. Clear, it all came good.

Please don't tie bows and smack 'em on the butts of my stories. I'd like some room to put my own thoughts into the story's likely continuation.

These are the things that kept me from warbling my fool lungs out about this read. Others will, I do not doubt, feel differently. I expect so, in fact, and hope I'll be seeing the author's gorgeous cover art in many a gift pile this Yule.

Isobel lives in Scotland - a descendant of her namesake living in 1662 and who was labeled a witch.

Isobel sees colors which is called synesthesia, and her mother tells her she must see everything in black and white or they will label her a witch like her grandmother.

Isobel is an excellent seamstress and stitches beautiful scenes on clothing. She marries an apothecary, but he gets into trouble, and they sail to America.

She arrives in Salem determined to use her skill to become independent because her husband took a job on the very boat they came over on. She will live alone in a remote cottage.

While her husband is away, she meets none other than Nathaniel Hawthorn. Yes. The author of THE SCARLET LETTER.

Since her marriage is not filled with love, when she sees Nathaniel she gets an instant feeling that they will become friends.

Do they become friends or lovers?

She is married, and he is not.

Will one of the hidden A’s she sews into her clothing be something she will have to prominently display?

HESTER is a beautifully written book focusing on women’s strengths and a take on The Scarlet Letter.

Seamstresses, fans of The Scarlet Letter, historical fiction fans, and fans of this time period will enjoy this book despite some of the odd chapters about witches. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Hester is the perfect read going into the fall season. It’s somewhat of a retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Set in Salem, Hester draws on the dark history of the Salem witch trials and the people who played a role in the accusations of witchcraft.

Isobel Gowdie is the main character of the story. An accomplished seamstress, Isobel also sees color in letters and language. A native of Scotland, Isobel and her husband Edward immigrate to America in search of a new start after Edward gets them into debt.

Right after they get settled in Salem, Edward decides to take a job as a medic on a ship and leaves Isobel alone to settle into the new world. Isobel immediately begins to draw parallels between her own family history and that of Salem’s past witch trials.

Early on, Isobel meets Nathaniel Hawthorne and they are immediately drawn to one another. The romance was a bit predictable, but what happens later is not and I loved how the author included so much of the history of the time into the story.

The novel has the same somber, forbidding tone found in The Scarlet Letter and I found this to be a perfect read going into October.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am pleased to offer my honest review.

In this novel, the author imagines that Hester Prynne, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, was inspired by a woman Nathaniel Hawthorne actually encountered.

Isobel MacAllister experiences synesthesia so letters and sounds are associated with colours. Her mother warns her to keep her experiences of colours a secret for fear of being accused of witchcraft. She marries Edward Gamble, and circumstances cause them to sail to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1829, to begin a new life. When Edward leaves her there alone and virtually penniless while he sets off to become rich, Isobel uses her skills as an embroiderer and seamstress to support herself. Nineteen-year-old Isobel meets 24-year-old Nat Hathorne, and the two are immediately attracted to each other.

I liked the premise of the novel but I was not overly impressed with the execution. I found the book unnecessarily long; its pace can only be described as glacial. The constant references to Isobel’s synesthetic experiences become tedious. The focus also seems scattered. It’s supposed to be about the inspiration for Hester Prynne, but there are distracting side stories. For example, the detailing of the Underground Railroad in New England seems tagged on at the end. The flashbacks to Isobel’s ancestor who was accused of being a witch are supposed to suggest that Isobel is in danger 167 years later? I’ve never read about synesthesia being connected to witchcraft. Because the book dragged, I kept checking how many more pages I had to read to reach the end.

Isobel is supposed to be a strong female protagonist and she does possess admirable traits. She is skilled, resourceful, and determined. It must be noted, however, that she is rescued by others on more than one occasion. What bothered me is her poor judgment of men. Even after being abandoned and betrayed by her husband, she abandons all caution and easily trusts Nat? We are supposed to accept that she is attracted to him because she senses a kindred soul: “Here is a man who is at war within himself as I am with my colors”?

The romance between Isobel and Nat I found inexplicable. Why is she so attracted to a man who is obsessed with his family’s involvement with the Salem Witch Trials 137 years earlier? Even after their conversation about slaves, a conversation that certainly does not show Nat in a positive light, she continues to be enamored with him?

There are several minor characters who remain undifferentiated and seem to be used merely as plot devices. Women such as Widow Higgins, Nell, Abigail, and Eveline appear conveniently to advance the plot and then disappear and are never mentioned again unless needed for plot purposes. Using these female characters in this way seems dismissive when the author is obviously intending to emphasize the strength of women.

I enjoyed the examination of life for women in the early nineteenth century, though there is no new information. Men could stray but women could not. It was important that women behave in a “normal” way: living by society’s norms (like attending church) and not drawing attention to themselves in any way.

I did not find this an immersive read. The book will undoubtedly appeal to many readers, but it just fell and felt flat.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).

I’d been in a serious reading slump when I picked up Hester. As a mood reader this is almost always me, not the book. I was cranky and needed a win, can you relate reader friends? I got into the bath with a glass of wine (highly recommend!) and started reading Hester. I was lured in immediately by the atmospheric, lyrical writing. I stopped only to think aloud “Oh, we ARE going to be friends. Do NOT let me down!”. She did not!

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese is a reimagining of the inspiration for Nathanial Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne. It is the story of Isobel Gamble, a young seamstress, wife of an abusive, alcoholic, swindling husband Edward, who must flee Scotland for the New World in the early 1800’s. She brings with her secrets passed down generation to generation by women in her family. While Edward is at sea Isobel must survive anyway she can, finding work as a seamstress, and eventually meeting young Nathanial Hawthorne.

The author seamlessly sweeps us back to a time when anyone on the fringes of a community, who either can’t or doesn’t fall or adhere to societal norms, is ostracized and at extreme risk. Who do you trust with your story, who do you help or accept help from, and what do you do to simply exist out of view while in plain sight…and at what cost?

I felt such a connection to the women of the Gamble family, who experience the world in a way others do not. They are misunderstood, feared, diagnosed, learn to deny and hide their truths. I thought this aspect of the story was fascinating. #spoilerfree

I highly recommend Hester for fans of historical fiction, reimaginings and retellings, book clubs because there’s so much to discuss, and those loving stories featuring strong women telling #herstory ! Thank you to @netgalley @stmartinspress and @lauriealbanese for the digital review copy.

Beautifully written historical drama set in early 18th century Salem, about a young Scottish woman who does embroidery and marries an apothecary. As someone who secretly sees colors in words, she fears her truth will be discovered and lead to her persecution (as the recent witchcraft trials would suggest). As a new arrival in the well-described New World, she is seen as an outsider, unaccepted by the established families. She meets and has a connection with the young (& quirky) author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who would later pen “The Scarlett Letter”, (which I have not read). A subplot describes the lives of free slaves and those trying to escape recapture.

I was easily pulled into the world of our brave young heroine as she tries to make a life for herself. I enjoyed the writing immensely, taking my time to savor the richness of Albanese’s writing, which echoes the beautiful embroidery that she describes.
I won a free copy of this book (thanks to the author & publisher!) and am voluntarily providing an honest review.

This is a magnificent story of a woman with synesthesia and her unique art of needlework.
Isobel Gamble sees colors differently. Her mother told her not to mention this to anybody because she would be declared as a witch or closed in the asylum. Marrying Edward, Isobel has a hope for a brighter future but didn’t expect her husband to be addicted to opium, which ruined his apothecary. They were forced to go to the New World where life is not what she expected. Her husband joins a ship as a medic leaving her without money and food. When she meets Nathaniel Harthorne, who is so different from her husband and who supports her unique needlework, her hope for a better life returns.
Beautifully written, with a douse of mystery, this book takes the reader to a world powered by men who easily accuse innocent women of witchcraft. I loved Isobel, her strong personality and the fact that she could see colors in words and implement them into her stiches. Not only do I prize the author for her outstanding writing, but also for her ability to tell a captivating story from Salem.
Many thanks to the publisher @StMartinsPress and @Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I absolutely loved this book! It brought to life the epic story arcs of classic tales, but with a modern feel.

I imagine if Hester Prynne had been narrating the Scarlet Letter, she would have told a very different story. This feminist retelling of the classic gives Hester her voice and agency back.

Hester's a skilled seamstress with a secret: she can see colors when people speak. After her older husband loses their house and business in a bad business deal, they travel to America for a fresh start. They are befriended on board by the ship captain, who hires her husband for his next voyage. Her husband pays her rent for a year on the cottage, then promptly leaves her all alone in a new country. Hester soon meets the mysterious young Nathaniel Hawthorne, who enchants her. As her woes pile up, their friendship provides a welcome escape, with Hester even entrusting him with some of her deepest secrets.

This book brought a gothic touch to New England, where the witch trials a few generations past still loom over the current inhabitants. Each of the founding families had a side, with none more prevalent than the Hawthornes, whose ancestor served as chief prosecutor. Anyone who is too skilled at something still runs the danger of being accused of witchcraft instead of celebrated for their talents, including Hester with her embroidery.

Hester's an enchanting heroine, both vulnerable and fierce as she carves a space in a man's world for herself and her future baby. Hester's life was wrecked by the man who was supposed to make it secure, her husband, but she pulls herself up with her wits and skill. She loves, suffers rejections and failures, and finds a way to triumph through learning to trust again.

This is a book I will read again and again.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.