A SONG FOR THE STARS

A fictionalized version of the romance between a Hawaiian
princess and an English naval officer from Cook’s last fateful voyage, one of
the first hapa haole (half-white, half-Hawaiian) marriages on record.

Maile, daughter of a Hawaiian high chief, looks forward to her
marriage to Ikaika, her father’s prime navigator, but after a misunderstanding
with Capt. James Cook instigates a
skirmish which causes the captain’s and Ikaika’s deaths, Maile becomes the
conflicted nurse of English officer John Harbottle. At first considered an
enemy, John is able, with help from Maile, to convince her father to let
him and his men help them against a threat from a neighboring island.
Meanwhile, Maile is assigned to teach John their ancient navigation principles
so the Englishmen can get back home since one of the things that caused the
skirmish were missing navigation instruments, presumed stolen. John and Maile’s
time together leads to mutual respect and tender feelings, though John’s
expected departure shadows their growing love. Todd’s (Resist, 2016,
etc.) first adult novel is based on her fourth great-grandparents Harbottle and
Papapaunauapu (Maile in the novel) and is a delightful amalgamation of fact and
fiction as well as a beautifully rendered peek into Hawaiian society before any
large Western influence. Through Maile’s first-person narrative and John’s
occasional diary entries, Todd explains ancient Hawaiian customs, beliefs, and
wisdom, including actual navigational methods, and creates a clever, multifaceted
heroine. A trend in the romance world often has female characters rendered as
anachronistically feminist, which isn’t quite the case with Maile, though
readers may wonder if a woman in a society as rigid as the one described here
could have had the influence she does throughout the book. Still, the story is captivating.

Astute and luminous, like its heroine.