The Last Aloha

by: Gaellen Quinn

Published by: Lost Coast Press

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

If you thought that one day the United States decided to annex the Hawaiian Islands, then viola they became the fiftieth state, well, you’d be wrong. In The Last Aloha, Quinn illustrates the duplicity and conniving of Hawaiian politicians to become attached to America.

Quinn cloaks her research in a fictional tale of a young woman, Laura, bound for medical school in 1886. The deaths of her fiancée and father in a carriage accident in busy San Francisco force Laura to go to her aunt’s home in the islands. Aunt Katherine and her family are missionaries, Laura believes. Upon her arrival, she finds that her aunt is dying from what sounds like consumption and that Laura will be the governess to her two children. Uncle Stephen is a tyrant and bully, and is a member of the Missionary Party rather than a missionary.

Laura is determined to earn enough money to go to medical school, and when the opportunity presents itself, she finds employment in one of the royal households of Princess Likelike. At first Uncle Stephen is furious with her for leaving his household and ignoring his advances.

The Last Aloha is interesting in that it gives readers a wonderful view of what life might have been like during the monarchy.

While well-written for the most part and quite interesting, I found that the story lacked tension. When I should have been glued to my seat anticipating what would happen next, I found I was easily able to set it aside for awhile. The story’s frame does not work either. The Prologue is written right after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. While an actual date is not given, air-raid warnings are mentioned, so that firmly places the time in the early-to-mid 1940s.

Then there is the last chapter that made me want to throw the book across the room. Quinn skips seventeen years. She never explains what happens after King Kalakaua’s sister,
Lili’uokalanui, is ousted as Queen and the heir apparent, Princess Ka’iulani dies. In that last chapter, it’s apparent that Laura does marry…some guy named Will…completes medical school, and has children. I had gotten to know Laura’s every move and gesture and to have a gap like that was quite disconcerting.

Armchair Interviews says: Interesting read with some flaws.

Author’s Web site: http://www.GaellenQuinn.com