Welcome back to Maui for this romantic drama about family, forgiveness, and what it means to build a future with the people who mean the most. The Last Aloha continues the binge-worthy saga of the Briscoe family. Ava and her children maneuver more changes as they run the pineapple plantation known as Pali Maui amid a myriad of complications. A surprise wedding…a renovation of the golf course fraught with issues, including a formidable lender who causes trouble…a loved one facing a serious illness. All this forces the Briscoes to reevaluate priorities and cling to what is truly important…family. Yet, these struggles pale against the impact of a coming storm with consequences none of them see coming.
This riveting new mystery series pays loving homage to legendary author John D. MacDonald. Stryker McBride is a former crime reporter who lives on a hugely expensive houseboat, "the Travis McGee." When Stryker receives an unexpected SOS call from a sultry beauty queen, he agrees to look into the suspicious death of the woman's grandfather. As Stryker investigates, he encounters a cast of characters as diverse as Hawaii itself, including Auntie Kealoha, a charming entertainer turned mobster, and her 400 pound right-hand man, a Chinese-Hawaiian named Tiny Maunakea. Soon, Stryker discovers a deadly secret buried deep in the heart of Hawaii that has consequences much larger than one old man's death. Vivid and exhilarating, Aloha, Lady Blue transports you right to the heart of an island paradise populated with exotic women, glorious scenery, and whispered scandals. Memminger brings Hawaii to life so vividly that you can almost hear the pounding of the surf and catch the scent of plumeria on the breeze. Fans of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series will be swept away by this delicious, action-packed tale.
This ambitious volume assembled by scholar David W. Forbes features a collection of ninety previously unpublished letters, as well as excerpts from two diaries, written between 1881 and 1885 by Hawaiian royal consort Queen Emma Kaleleonālani. In Haste with Aloha illuminates the last five years of the Queen’s life and makes available an important record of royal social life and customs in nineteenth-century Hawai‘i. Much of her earlier correspondence has been published in two books by the late Alfons L. Korn: The Victorian Visitors: An Account of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1861–1866 and News from Molokai: Letters between Peter Kaeo and Queen Emma, 1873–1876. In her letters, almost all of which were written in English, Queen Emma provides a rare account of ali‘i (royal) perspective, endowing modern readers and researchers with insight far beyond the limited available documentation of public speeches or printed statements. Besides the nuances of correspondence between the Queen and her recipients, there is much to be considered and analyzed in her descriptions of ali‘i, many of them relatives to Emma, including Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Ruth Ke‘elikōlani. With few comparable Hawaiian historical primary resource texts in print, In Haste with Aloha is a welcome addition, making accessible a preserved and treasured collection of documents drawn primarily from the Hawai‘i State Archives, along with diaries in Bishop Museum Library and Archives. Fully transcribed and with annotation by Forbes, editor of the monumental four-volume Hawaiian National Bibliography and annotator of Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani, this text sheds light on the lives of Hawai‘i’s ruling class in the decade leading up to climactic political transition.
Set on the breathtaking Hawaiian island of Kauai, the Aloha Reef Collection provides an intoxicating mix of romance and suspense with the rhythms of island life from USA Today bestselling author COLLEEN COBLE—now available in one volume! Distant Echoes It seems like paradise, but dark secrets lurk just below the surface. When a tragic accident downs a tourist boat off the coast of Hawaii, dolphin researcher Kaia Oana is one of the first in the water, risking her own life to try and save others. She’s enlisted to help the US Navy find out what really happened—utilizing her specially trained dolphins to help. Kaia and Lieutenant Commander Jesse Matthews team up in the investigation—but as they edge closer to the truth about the incident, their own lives are threatened. Will a spirit of grace and forgiveness prevail or will it be overshadowed by the distant echoes of past pain and the imminent danger from a cold-blooded killer? Black Sands As a volcano on Hawaii begins to rumble, family crisis brings an unlikely couple together. Annie's the brainy type, quietly assisting her father in his volcano research. She's always admired her brother's friend Mano for his outgoing athletic ways, but her devotion turns to disdain after Mano's mistake results in her older brother's untimely death. Mano's mistake haunts him. It cost his best friend's life. But just as he's bringing Tomi's belongings to his family, Mano discovers Tomi is alive—and in serious danger. That danger threatens to spill over to the rest of the family. Annie and Mano join forces to discover the source of the threat against the family, even as a long-inactive volcano rumbles in the distance. Dangerous Depths Sometimes life's most precious treasure lies at Dangerous Depths. Leia ditched a promising medical career to settle on a secluded island in Hawaii. Her ex-fiancé Bane has come to the island to find out why. When an act of sabotage pushes Bane closer to Leia, they are plunged into a tangle of emotion and peril—just as a series of threatening natural events grip the island. Midnight Sea Losing her sight turns Lani’s world upside down, bringing danger, mystery . . . and unexpected romance. A seemingly random shooting at her aunt's coffee farm has left Lani Tagama blind. Now she must learn to navigate in a world of darkness. With the help of an ex-cop named Ben and a half-trained guide dog, Lani begins to regain her former independence. Then Lani and Ben discover that her injury wasn’t caused by a random shooting. It was a botched murder attempt. They must work together to discover the identity of the would-be murderer before he strikes again. Holy Night One sinister phone call has derailed their wedding. Will they let it tear them apart forever? A Christmas wedding on the beach—what could be more perfect? Poinsettias and fragrant pikake blossoms, soft sand and mistletoe, the gentle sound of the surf and the wedding march played on a ukulele. This wedding has been a long time coming—with Bane's trust issues and Leia's worries about her childlike sister, Eva. Now they can hardly wait for the day to arrive. Thrilled to be a bridesmaid, Eva keeps trying on her ruffled dress. The tent is reserved, the caterers are paid. Everything is going as planned—until Leia's phone rings and her world skids out of control. A muffled voice informs Leia that Eva's been kidnapped and will be killed unless Leia calls off the wedding without explanation—and no police! If she disobeys instructions and tells Bane, she'll risk her beloved sister's life. But how can she ever handle this without his help? And how can he ever trust her if she lies to him now?
The spirit of aloha is found in Hawaii’s fresh ocean air, the flowers, the trade winds . . . the natural beauty that smooth the struggles of daily life. In 1922 Honolulu, unhappy in the adoptive family that’s raised her, Dolores begins to search for that spirit early on—and she begins by running away at sixteen to live with her newlywed friend Maria. Trying to find her own love, Dolores marries a young Portuguese man named Manolo His large family embraces her, but when his drinking leads to physical abuse, only his relative Alberto comes to her rescue—and sparks a passion within Dolores that she hasn’t known before. Staunch Catholics can’t divorce, however; so, after the Pearl Harbor attack, Dolores flees with her two daughters to California, only to be followed by both Manolo and Alberto. In California, Manolo’s drinking problems continue—and Alberto’s begin. Outraged that yet another man in her life is turning to the bottle for answers, Dolores starts to doubt her feelings for Alberto. Is he only going to disappoint her, as Manolo has? Or is Alberto the embodiment of the aloha spirit she’s been seeking?
The New York Times–bestselling author delivers “a riveting saga about Big Sugar flexing its imperialist muscle in Hawaii . . . A real gem of a book” (Douglas Brinkley, author of American Moonshot). Deftly weaving together a memorable cast of characters, Lost Kingdom brings to life the clash between a vulnerable Polynesian people and relentlessly expanding capitalist powers. Portraits of royalty and rogues, sugar barons, and missionaries combine into a sweeping tale of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s rise and fall. At the center of the story is Lili‘uokalani, the last queen of Hawai‘i. Born in 1838, she lived through the nearly complete economic transformation of the islands. Lucrative sugar plantations gradually subsumed the majority of the land, owned almost exclusively by white planters, dubbed the “Sugar Kings.” Hawai‘i became a prize in the contest between America, Britain, and France, each seeking to expand their military and commercial influence in the Pacific. The monarchy had become a figurehead, victim to manipulation from the wealthy sugar plantation owners. Lili‘u was determined to enact a constitution to reinstate the monarchy’s power but was outmaneuvered by the United States. The annexation of Hawai‘i had begun, ushering in a new century of American imperialism. “An important chapter in our national history, one that most Americans don’t know but should.” —The New York Times Book Review “Siler gives us a riveting and intimate look at the rise and tragic fall of Hawaii’s royal family . . . A reminder that Hawaii remains one of the most breathtaking places in the world. Even if the kingdom is lost.” —Fortune “[A] well-researched, nicely contextualized history . . . [Indeed] ‘one of the most audacious land grabs of the Gilded Age.’” —Los Angeles Times
Ten-year-old Kanani loves living in beautiful Hawaii and she especially loves sharing the wonders of her island home with visitors. So when her cousin Rachel from New York comes to stay for a month, Kanani is excited to get to know her. But no matter what she does to help Rachel feel at home, it only seems to make her unhappy instead. Can Kanani find a way to connect with her cousin?
The triumphant true story of the native Hawaiian cowboys who crossed the Pacific to shock America at the 1908 world rodeo championships Oregon Book Award winner * An NPR Best Book of the Year * Pacific Northwest Book Award finalist * A Reading the West Book Awards finalist "Groundbreaking. … A must-read. ... An essential addition." —True West In August 1908, three unknown riders arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, their hats adorned with wildflowers, to compete in the world’s greatest rodeo. Steer-roping virtuoso Ikua Purdy and his cousins Jack Low and Archie Ka’au’a had travelled 4,200 miles from Hawaii, of all places, to test themselves against the toughest riders in the West. Dismissed by whites, who considered themselves the only true cowboys, the native Hawaiians would astonish the country, returning home champions—and American legends. An unforgettable human drama set against the rough-knuckled frontier, David Wolman and Julian Smith’s Aloha Rodeo unspools the fascinating and little-known true story of the Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, whose 1908 adventure upended the conventional history of the American West. What few understood when the three paniolo rode into Cheyenne is that the Hawaiians were no underdogs. They were the product of a deeply engrained cattle culture that was twice as old as that of the Great Plains, for Hawaiians had been chasing cattle over the islands’ rugged volcanic slopes and through thick tropical forests since the late 1700s. Tracing the life story of Purdy and his cousins, Wolman and Smith delve into the dual histories of ranching and cowboys in the islands, and the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Cheyenne, “Holy City of the Cow.” At the turn of the twentieth century, larger-than-life personalities like “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Theodore Roosevelt capitalized on a national obsession with the Wild West and helped transform Cheyenne’s annual Frontier Days celebration into an unparalleled rodeo spectacle, the “Daddy of ‘em All.” The hopes of all Hawaii rode on the three riders’ shoulders during those dusty days in August 1908. The U.S. had forcibly annexed the islands just a decade earlier. The young Hawaiians brought the pride of a people struggling to preserve their cultural identity and anxious about their future under the rule of overlords an ocean away. In Cheyenne, they didn’t just astound the locals; they also overturned simplistic thinking about cattle country, the binary narrative of “cowboys versus Indians,” and the very concept of the Wild West. Blending sport and history, while exploring questions of identity, imperialism, and race, Aloha Rodeo spotlights an overlooked and riveting chapter in the saga of the American West.
In 1897, as a white oligarchy made plans to allow the United States to annex Hawai'i, native Hawaiians organized a massive petition drive to protest. Ninety-five percent of the native population signed the petition, causing the annexation treaty to fail in the U.S. Senate. This event was unknown to many contemporary Hawaiians until Noenoe K. Silva rediscovered the petition in the process of researching this book. With few exceptions, histories of Hawai'i have been based exclusively on English-language sources. They have not taken into account the thousands of pages of newspapers, books, and letters written in the mother tongue of native Hawaiians. By rigorously analyzing many of these documents, Silva fills a crucial gap in the historical record. In so doing, she refutes the long-held idea that native Hawaiians passively accepted the erosion of their culture and loss of their nation, showing that they actively resisted political, economic, linguistic, and cultural domination. Drawing on Hawaiian-language texts, primarily newspapers produced in the nineteenth century and early twentieth, Silva demonstrates that print media was central to social communication, political organizing, and the perpetuation of Hawaiian language and culture. A powerful critique of colonial historiography, Aloha Betrayed provides a much-needed history of native Hawaiian resistance to American imperialism.
