Lehua, Ka'ao a ka Wahine [Lehua, The Romance of a Hawaiian Girl]

A young Hawaiian noblewoman comes of age just when her queen discards the native religion in favor of Christianity, thereby destroying her hereditary right and responsibility to rule. The arrival of missionaries begins the coordinated regular external attacks on the Kanaka culture extending to the end of the 19th century when the United States illegally annexes the Islands. All this occurs as Lehua attempts to lead her people through these searing adjustments. Each is played out in the human terms of her romance and life with a mixed-blood Hawaiian paniolo cowboy] husband. Conflicted by attempts to obey her queen and the strictures of the puritanical Christians, she is further stressed by recurring visits of a demanding super natural ancestor pressuring her to lead her people. Lehua won a First Prize in a national competition for Historical Novels in 2012 and received a Seal of Good Writing in 2013. This is the first of two volumes of Lehua's story.