Rach's Reading Club

Hester, by Laurie Lico Albanese   (ASIN:B09NTKBCVL)

Hester is, at its core, the origin story to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Told from the heroine's point of view, the story is richly woven with the complications of a strong young woman who sees colors in people's voices, letters, and numbers, and has a gift and passion for embroidery. Fresh off the ship from Scotland, Isobel is left to fend for herself in Salem when her husband returns to the ship to seek his fortune, having stolen the money Isobel had hidden away. She finds herself drawn to Nat Hathorne, the descendant of the men responsible for hanging innocents accused of witchcraft in Salem two hundred years earlier. He is haunted by the guilt of his ancestors, but when he sees Isobel arrive in Scotland he thinks he may have written her into his life. Isobel survives by her needle, her embroidery so beautiful as to be almost magical. The high society of Salem holds control over the low, and Isobel is held in check by the threat of being accused of using witchcraft to create her art, and of being thrown out for adultery. Isobel also befriends the free "colored people" whose farm backs up to the house she rents, and soon she discovers that slave hunters are searching for the children she's come to know and love.

I found this to be a powerful story of women who hold strong to their truth and the significance of friendships and trust. Isobel sucked me into her life and drew me along with her passions and trials, and in the end brought me to a place of peace and happiness that was believable, and sweet.