Just got totally humbled when I received this blurb about my book today from a woman who’s on the editorial board of the magazine, The Nation:

From O.A. Bushnell’s 1956 “The Return of Lono”, about Captain Cook, to James Houston’s 2007 “Bird of Another Heaven”, about King Kalakaua, some of the best accounts of Hawaii’s past have come not from scholars, limited by both the gaps and the bias in the historical records, but from fiction writers, able to build on those records with acts of insight and imagination that bring them closer to the probable truths. Gaellen Quinn’s novel of Queen Lili’uokalani, “The Last Aloha”, is a book of this sort. In its pages you can see the Queen moving through her private as well as her political struggles much as she must have done in life. A vivid portrait not only of the Queen but of the confluence of forces that turned the island Kingdom into an appendage of the United States when it had barely come into its own, “The Last Aloha” is as empathetic and accurate a reconstruction of the downfall of the Hawaiian monarchy as it may be possible to get. Hawaiian readers, who already know so much of the Queen’s story, will be moved to see it once again so inexorably unfold. Other readers will have much to learn.

–Elinor Langer, author of “Famous are the Flowers: Hawaiian Resistance Then–And Now” Special Issue of The Nation, April 28, 2008

http://www.thenation.com/special-issue-hawaii

aloha….just wanted to let you know i lent the book to a hawaiian lady whose son is in the nursing home where i work……she loves the book…..had tears in her eyes when talking about it…..another hawaiian lady who is a patient at the home wants to read it next……hope all is well…….

-Michelle

I finished your book The Last Aloha earlier this week and enjoyed it very much!  The story is a sad cliffhanger, yet uplifting in its portrayal of the queen faithful to the spirit of Aloha and her faith.  I enjoyed the “right thinking” characters, wanting more of RLStevenson.  Now I have to learn more about him as well as the queen.  You motivated so much additional reading that I wish you had included a list of references to hunt them down.  Again, thank you for a truly memorable read that captures Hawaii and the spirit of its people. 

-Thomas

I just finished your book The Last Aloha which I got at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers conference.  It was so beautifully written and inspiring.  I loved every page of it– and the ending was so powerful.  Truly masterful story telling thank you so much for getting it out into the world.

-Aimee

I worked at ‘Iolani Palace for 5 yrs and was a docent for 7 yrs before moving to the mainland, so was very familiar with the story of the monarchy and overthrow, and your rendering of the events brought it fresh to mind.  Descriptions of the land, the buildings, the people - Everything - brought it alive.  Plus I learned some interesting things I never knew before.  It’s good to remember where we came from and what the true meaning of Aloha is.

-Laurel

The Last Aloha is keeping me up at night. It’s intoxicatingly interesting and impossible to set down.

- Ali