Unlucky Star: Based on the life of Hawaii's Last Princess

Unlucky Star is the captivating story of the life of Princess Victoria Lunalilo Kaiulani, Hawaii's last princess. >This historical novel was set in motion more than 40 years ago when I was teaching voice in Honolulu. At the end of a very long week, I visited a bookstore in Sea Life Park and saw an arresting portrait of this beautiful but tragically sad young woman. My 18 years of research took me to rare book libraries to mine more than 250 books, pamphlets, translations, and histories from all over the world. The haunting quality that enticed me to imagine and uncover the truth about Kaiulani's life will draw readers to engage with this fascinating but little-known period of American history and the devastating effects of worldwide imperialism in the 1870s-1900s. From the evils of "Manifest Destiny" to the tragic perspective of a gentle island people caught up in an explosive struggle for justice, Unlucky Star recalls a magical time of great turmoil. And tells of the cruel devastation of the native Hawaiian people, who, in less than 100 years following the stormy arrival of Western Culture, went from 600,000 to only 40,000 left.