Lou already has the perfect boyfriend. She shouldn’t be attracted to the brooding beach boy who picks her up from the airport on her Hawaiian vacation.Keoni isn’t even Lou’s type.She prefers a man who wears a suit to work and cuts his hair regularly, not a dangerously sexy surfer who hates tourists. Keoni says he wants nothing to do with Lou, so why does he keep showing up every day to play tour … with Lou, so why does he keep showing up every day to play tour guide?
As Keoni shows Lou his favorite places in Hawaii, she falls in love—both with the island and the man who embodies the rugged spirit of paradise.
She learns quickly enough that aloha is more than just a greeting and resisting Keoni might be the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.
When love is on the line, there’s no easy way out.
Take a trip back to 1968 and fall in love with the Hawaiian Islands, a heroic surfer, and the tourist he can’t resist.
more
True Rating: 3.5/5
It hooked me from the first chapter. I loved the passion and culture the author captured of Hawaii. Being born and raised here, I’m always a bit more critical on stories based on Hawaii and it’s people. With that said, the dialect of Pidgin in here was rough – not at all how we speak here and not really Pidgin. Pidgin is more than just an accent and it wasn’t executed very successfully here. However, the storyline and romance makes up for it. The only peeve I had was that it jumped back and forth between Keoni and Lou too much – they want each other, they don’t, then they want each other again, and they don’t, etc. It was too much hot potato and not enough steamy romance it could have been.
I enjoyed the love connection between Lou and Keoni. I didn’t want to stop reading I just wanted more from them. I have never been to Hawaii and this definitely made me want to go and explore all the islands. Keoni deserved to be loved and be taken care of. I would definitely read more from this writer!!
Gorgeous setting with many fantastic descriptions. The characters are likeable. The plot is interesting. I liked this book but would have enjoyed it more without the language and explicit sex.
In the late 1960’s, fledgling photographer Mary Lou Hunter has always followed the rules to get the life she wants. She plans to marry her picture perfect boyfriend, live in a picture perfect house, and have a picture perfect life. When her best friend invites her on a Hawaiian vacation, Lou and her camera get a shot at something new. But when she steps off the plane and is greeting by a man with a busted lip and the broadest shoulder’s she’d ever seen, Lou realized things aren’t always perfect.
Keoni Makai is a surfing legend on his home island of Oahu. If he could, he’d make surfing his life and reclaim the sport his ancestors created, but the born and bred Hawaiians are still treated as second class citizens in their own homes. Between working at a pineapple cannery by night and surfing by day, he’s been trying to escape his demons, the ones he comes to face with nearly every day on the water. Keoni also has a rule about never getting involved with tourists, even ones who look like Lou.
As the time to Lou’s departure flight draws near, the siren song of the Hawaiian sea entangles her and Keoni in a way neither thought possible.
Try Easy was a good read and a solid travel romance that wasn’t just a cut and dry tale of holiday lust. I curled up on my back deck over several warm afternoons and drifted along the story Brashear wove happily, really never able to guess what would happen next. Every time I thought I had the ending figured out, something else came to pass that was so wonderfully human in that messy way. There was no straight shot to the last page, which was a nice change to some books where you can guess where the story’s heading.
Keoni’s experience as a native Hawaiian was also one I found particularly interesting, from a historian’s standpoint. Hawaii’s entrance into the United States wasn’t some simple signing of papers, but an overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy started by white plantation owners. The racial issues and prejudices began years before Queen Lili’uokalani was forced off her throne and continue to this day. I liked how Brashear touched upon these ongoing issues though Keoni being barred from participating in a local surfing competition, although his white friend, who wasn’t as talented as him, was formally invited.
My only issue with this book is that there wasn’t more! The time jump during Lou’s trip to Hawaii killed me. I’m a huge deal person and thrive on really being in the moment. I would have liked to see the moments between her and Kione really fleshed out, mostly since whenever they did have a scene together, I could really feel the tension between them, which I adored.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who misses the feeling of sand between their toes as they’re staying safe at home.
Lou travels with her friend to Hawaii for a holiday, and ends up meeting someone who changes her life forever. Things between them are complicated due to past relationships (and current relationships) but the pull between them is undeniable.
This was a sweet, feel good romance story, with loveable characters who just need their happy ever after!