Plot Summary: What happens, When & Where, Central Characters, Major Conflicts
Kaia loves her life in Hawaii and her work with dolphins--especially Nani. Nani even helps her rescue several people when an errant missle hits a pleasure boat. Unfortunately they weren't able to save her cousin Laban who owned the boat. Kaia then gets involved with Jesse, a navy security officer who is convinced recent security breaches at the base are connected to the missle mishap. He wants Kaia to patrol the waters with her dolphin. She reluctantly agrees and they are off on an adventure that involves a suspicious Hawaii secessionist group, Jesse's neice Heidi, a new boss who wants to turn the research facility into a theme park, and the reappearance of Kaia's mother, who abadoned her when she was a little girl. Oh, and a romance between Kaia and Jesse.


Style Characterisics: Pacing, clarity, structure, narrative devices, etc.
A lot going on, the suspense and the dolphin angle are very good. The characters are believable but not extremely well developed. The plot moves along at a good clip, though there are lots of tangents. The point of view shifts from character to character but there is no problem following the story. Some parts I found unbelievable--the ability of the search dog to track a character taken away in a car. The main characters go through a lot and I felt that the exploration of their emotional response was minimal. There is a good message about forgiveness and the Grandfather character is memorable. The romance seemed superficial as well.


How Good is it?
A good romantic suspense and escapist read, especially for the reader who loves animals and the culture of Hawaii. ( )