Okay, technically I only read a book,
but the descriptions were so vivid and the cultural references so plentiful
that I feel like I’ve just spent time in that gorgeous place.
Though I’ve never been to Hawaii, I’ve heard about it my
whole life. My parents lived there when they were first married. Dad was in the
U.S. Navy and Mom fell in love everything about the islands. Her favorite
perfume scent was plumeria and I’ve lost count of the number of stories she told
me about the lush beauty of Hawaii.
I always thought I’d visit Hawaii someday. I even thought it
would be fun to be able to take Mom back for a visit to the place that has
lived in her memory for so long as a kind of nostalgic paradise. Living in the
Pacific Northwest, a visit to the islands seems closer than ever but it’s still
just a “someday” plan with no definite shape or due date.
Then I read Cathryn Cade’s Walking in Fire, the
first in her Hawaiian Heroes series. This book is the perfect summer read. It’s
set in a haven-like bay near Kona on the Big Island and features a likeable
heroine and a super hot (you’ll find out just how true that is if you read the
novel!) hero. Cade doesn’t just write lovingly about the scenic beauty of
Hawaii, she seasons the entire story with Hawaiian myth, history, and language.
While reading her sexy, suspenseful story, I could hear the waves, feel the
warm breezes, and smell the heady plumeria that my mom loved so much. I thoroughly
enjoyed the love story between Pacific Northwesterner Melia and sizzling hot Hawaiian
David “Malu” Ho’omalu, but I loved
the fictional visit to the Big Island and a refreshing dip into the mythology and
culture of the islands.
If you can’t afford a plane ticket to a tropical paradise, take
a trip to Hawaii through the pages of the perfect summer read: Cathryn Cade’s Walking
in Fire.
Unfortunately, one visit wasn’t enough for me, so I am
eagerly awaiting Cade’s second Hawaiian Heroes novel, Rolling in the Deep, due
out at the end of the month.
When’s the last time you read a novel that so totally transported
you that you felt you’d visited the story’s setting?
