North Star

Genre: new adult

In the heart of Oahu, Hawai'i, the Kahananui family was born.

Hokulani may exist by the warmth of an everlasting Hawaiian sun, but she survives by the light of the moon and the sweet rocking waves of the instruments she no longer plays.

It's not that she doesn't speak the musical language anymore; it's just hard for her to find the right notes when they remind her so much of a time she's been struggling to move past for years. And though none of them are willing to admit it, the ghost of their past has been weighing down heavily on her family. But surviving is what they do best, and sometimes that means brushing their heartaches under the rug instead of pulling back the curtains to let the light in.

After her sister's best friend invites them to a house party one evening in Kailua, two currents collide when Hokulani meets Nikau, an aspiring musician from Aotearoa who's spending the next year in Hawai'i working on finishing his debut album.

From the first verse, the two musically-inclined wandering souls find a sense of understanding, existing on the same wavelengths, even if by different paces. And though she tries her best not to get attached to someone whose time in Hawai'i (and her life) will eventually come to an end, Nikau helps reignite a spark in her she once thought she'd completely forgotten.

The Kahananui women might be strong, but they have a lot to work through before they find calm waters, assuming this is possible. Hokulani believes so. She has to, or else she'll find herself sinking to the bottom of the ocean with no way of pulling herself out, where the light of the moon may no longer reach her.