Love Finds You in Lahaina, Hawaii-Bodie Thoene

Love Finds You in Lahaina, Hawaii
Bodie Thoene
Summerside, Jun 2010, $12.99
ISBN: 978935416784

UCLA American History graduate student Sandi Smith goes to bed every night for the past four and a half years wondering whether her husband John is dead or a guest of the Viet Cong. The military list John as an MIA and though she prays for him, Sandi knows he probably will never come home and she will never know his fate. As part of the university sponsored history project she flies to Maui to meet with the oldest person on the island Auntie Hannah to discuss with the elderly woman what she recalls about the Kingdom of Hawaii royal family in the late nineteenth century.

Auntie Hannah provides more than just a verbal response to the visiting Californian: she provides insight as she attended school with Princess Kauliana in London; whimsicality remarking her last great cup of tea was in 1897. She gives Sandi journals that focus on the 1890s when her best friend and companion Crown Princess “barbarian princess” Kauliana of the Kingdom of Hawaii tried diligently to return the nation back to a monarchy. As rebellion stirs to become part of the United States, Scottish missionary Andrew arrives on Lahaina leaving the Princess with difficult choices to make; just like Sandi must do on a lesser scale now that she has met Archie.

This is a great historical romance with a strong historiographic spin and a terrific Royal Flush twist. With a strong sense of place and eras (the 1890s and 1973), this character driven by the lead females in the two periods provide the audience with an excellent entry in the Love Finds You series.

Harriet Klausner