J. E. Trent

This book was pretty much a disaster. There was literally nothing good about it. On the plus side it is a short book, but it was still too long making it slow and painful for what was there.

The characters were bland as hell; none were interesting, inspiring, or even believable. The story was weak and there was no effort to make it unpredictable. And the detecting was pathetic beyond belief; past, present, and by all accounts future.

I get that the author loves Hawaii. That's great, but it didn't make for a good story. Virtually nothing happened. Maybe 95% of the words related to how fabulous it is to live and work in Hawaii... even if people dying left and right. The author apparently want us to know how wonderful it is to live in paradise where everyone swims... except when they are not otherwise engaged in paddling (both kayaking and dragon boat racing), surfing, standup paddleboarding, sailing, scuba diving, golfing, or competing in triathlons. It’s god's playground.

At least it used to be paradise before it got crowded - and people started dying - but, of course, we all benefited from unbridled growth because we sold out and became greedy rat bastards vying for the Almighty Dollar. But hey, we can still pretend it is paradise... mainly because we haven't really traveled anywhere outside of some hellhole in the Upper Midwest and so easily bought into the myth of Hawaii.

Plus in Hawaii everyone drinks Kona coffee and eats fresh pineapple as well as all the other health foods before and after their yoga lessons. And if that's not enough, everyone has an ocean view.

[Oddly no mention of sticky rice with shoyu sauce and shave ice; I thought for sure that went with the territory.]

Unfortunately there was no big twist at the end and Jessica did not turn out to be The Kona Strangler. I give the actual narrative about a ½ star and another ½ star for the effort.

One caveat: yes, the Polynesian culture and tropical Pacific rock, but I didn't get anything on that from this story. The book seemed to be no more than an endless repetition about how great it is to live and work in Huh-vai-'ee!!!… (más)

HOLD ONTO YOUR SEATS! I could ALMOST see the beauty of Hawaii from its flora to the ocean. I loved this book and Jessica Kealoha her dedication to her sisters and her vow to find her dad's killer. Twenty years ago, she had been a cop but someone tried to frame her with stolen evidence and she quit when she was cleared and went to the Mainland. I liked billionaire Sam Stewart who went after Jessica with a force that left her breathless and hungry for more of him and Sam knew that she held something back about her family, but once he learned the truth instead of high tailing it to safety, he embraced her as everyone kept secrets including him.… (más)