If you love Hawaii culture, language, and history, as well as young adult literature, you’ll fall in love with my new book, Lehua. It is a Rapunzel fairy tale retelling set in ancient Hawaii. With clean romance, themes of love, trust, and healing, you will love this new book!
Want to skip and watch the video of me introducing the book? By all means, check it out! 🙂
Title
My first book, Aloha State of Mind, highlighted one of my favorite flowers of all time, the lehua blossom. The ‘ohia lehua trees represent resilience, strength, and tenacity that so few other plants possess. When lava pours from the mouth of Kilauea, it burns everything in its path, especially ‘ohia trees. The amazing thing is that the ‘ohia is one of the first things to grow. It’s like a pheonix—no matter how many times it turns to ashes, it still rises. It paves the way for other plant and life to thrive on hard, barren lava plains.
With this in mind, I knew I had to name my first book in this series after such a symbolic flower:
Lehua
This is the first book in the “Enchanted Hawai’i Collection,” a series of interconnected books that can also be read as stand-alones.
Genre
Lehua is the first in an interconnected series but can be read as a stand alone. It is a young adult fairy tale retelling, meaning, if you love…
- Fairy tale retellings 🧚🏽♀️
- Hawaiian mythology and folklore ✨
- Clean romance 💖
- Themes of self confidence, romance, and trust🤙🏽
- Magical races and creatures 💨
- Young adult literature 🌴
- The Hawaiian culture, values, and language 🌺
- and geckos 🦎
I think you will really enjoy Lehua!
Blurb for Lehua
Here’s the blurb to get you interested… 😉
“I had to get out of there, because if I didn’t find an escape, then who would?”
Lehua always believed people despised her. It was the only way she could explain why the villagers of Hilo sent her from one home to the next. She never lived in one place, until a powerful mo’o, a woman from the legendary Hawaiian gecko race, trapped her deep in the heights of Waiakea.
When the handsome king of Hilo tries to help her escape, a terrible curse falls upon him. Lehua must escort him to the palace for help, even as she yearns to run away from the Big Island of Hawai‘i.
But as she spends more time with the king, her desire to escape the island begins to fade, and she sees that maybe she was wrong about people all along. Maybe people were better than she thought. When her moment to leave finally arrives, will she follow the new feelings in her heart, or choose the narrative she always believed?
Lehua is inspired by the story of Rapunzel, as well as Hawaiian mythology, folklore, and culture. Fans of clean romance and happily ever afters will be moved by Lehua, the first book in The Enchanted Hawai‘i Collection, a fairy tale retelling series set in ancient Hawaii.
Lehua Cover
My favorite part… the cover! I am SO happy with how this cover turned out, featuring beautiful ‘ohia lehua blossoms, and a gorgeous Lehua character. If you’d like some behind-the-scenes of how I made this cover, let me know in the comments below!
Also, if you love special book formatting, my fairy tale books definitely have that feature! Like “Rise of the Manō,” my “Enchanted Hawai’i Collection” book formatting will not disappoint. The books include my own artwork on the spines and back covers, and a hand-drawn map of the Hawaiian islands inside the book.
When does the book come out?
Lehua comes out on March 20, 2022 in both paperback and ebook format on Amazon. It will also be available on Google Books and Kobo.
You ready for this?
I am a believer that the arts can inspire healing, connection, and recognition. I wrote my books with specific intentions in mind, and Lehua, as well as the rest of the “Enchanted Hawai’i Collection” follow brave, strong heroines who face similar problems to those we encounter today. Our heroines learn how to overcome these obstacles, inspiring us to do the same. I hope Lehua can be a healing book for those who struggle with self confidence, negative self talk, and toxic relationships. You can get yourself out of toxic circumstances. You deserve to be happy and at peace, truly. 🙂
Two values I thought of that go along with this book are aloha and mālama. It’s important to love and care for others, but equally as important to love and care for ourselves. When Jesus Christ told us the first commandment, he said to “Love the Lord with all thy heart, mind, and strength—and the second is like unto it: love thy neighbor as thyself.” We need to love our neighbors, ‘ohana, and friends just as much as we love ourselves. I hope this book will inspire you to do just that!
Love,
Lei
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