Having had to read and discuss 'The Scarlet Letter' in high school English class it was sort of cool to see this book and I jumped at the chance for a review copy. This book did not disappoint, I truly love it. I wish I could have had it to read after 'The Scarlet Letter' in high school.

The one thing that truly held me captivated was the detail of each character's life. I got to know each character while reading, it's like when you are acquaintances with your neighbor, you know a bit about them but don't truly know them, then you invite them for tea and truly get to meet them and spend time with them. I think I just met some of these characters briefly in high school and just now got to truly make friends with them.

I loved getting to see little Pearl grow up, I loved learning a bit more about Hester and I loved seeing the whole world and times that these characters lived in. Ms. Noyes gave this story a new life, now I am going to go back and re-read 'The Scarlet Letter' with adult eyes and see if it feels differently. ( )

This is the story of Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne. Ms. Noyes writes the story in the style of Nathaniel Hawthorne and does an admirable job of putting the reader into Puritan New England. The trouble is that the story is just not very interesting and by the end has become a soap opera. Historical fiction is not my favorite genre, but I think Ms. Noyes is a very good writer and as far as I can tell historically accurate. Her plot is undistinguished, however. ( )

Angel and Apostle is intended as a sequel to The Scarlet Letter, on of those books we all read in high school English class that enraged my budding feminist nature. Why should Hester Prynne bear all the burden and shame? Why shouldn't the men who put her in that position be punished, the husband who abandoned her and the man who fathered her child. Why should she protect them?

In Angel and Apostle, we hear the story from Pearl's point of view. The treatment of Pearl is even more unfair, to my modern eyes. She has sinned against no one, but she is spit upon and treated horribly by the people of Puritan Boston. How anyone who treats their fellow man so viciously could call themselves a Christian is beyond me. Her mother cares for her but always holds something of herself in reserve, and Pearl feels isolated and unloved. She is a wild child, reckless and willful, but her fortunes change when she meets a young blind boy, Simon. His fate and hers will be linked, as Pearl learns the extent of her mother's shame by falling into an even worse error.

The book is beautifully written and the language and descriptions conjure a real sense of time and place. Still, I found myself unreasonably angered by the book. First, I was enraged at the townspeople for treating an innocent child so hatefully. Then I was angry at Pearl, for her foolishness. Maybe it's unfair to expect someone who lived such a lonely, loveless existence to make wise decisions about love, but she had every reason to know her choices would lead her to ruin. ( )

I first became aware of this title when roaming around the internet. Upon discovering it was connected to 'The Scarlet Letter', I was hooked. Now, it's not exactly a continuation of the story as you may be led to believe, nor is it an exact match up of the original events, but on its own with the facts taken as presented, it is an enjoyable romp through the literature days of yester year that will have you basking in the glow of Victorian Europe. Learn what happens to Pearl and Hester in one authors mind and see the classic as you've never seen it before. ( )

First let me confess that I'm not a huge fan of The Scarlet Letter nor of [Nathaniel Hawthorne. I've read it multiple times for multiple classes and the novel has always left me cold. I could never find anything to relate to with regard to Hester Prynne other than a vague admiration for her stubbornness. Beyond that the whole thing always felt to me like An Important Book You Should Read and I just never really liked it.

Having said that, I enjoyed Angel and Apostle, Deborah Noyes' debut novel. She manages to capture the flavor of Hawthorne's writing without being enslaved to it and it was fun to see how someone thought Pearl, the impish symbol of a child from the original, might turn out.

The character of Pearl is fleshed out here as well follow her through her friendship with Simon, a blind boy with whom she explores the world. Less about the nature of sin and more about what constitutes a good life in a colonial setting this was a well-written, well-imagined book. ( )