Pualena Dawn

by Shayla Cherry, Raechel Wong (Narrator)

Five sisters, fresh starts, and a whole lot of Aloha. Dawn Kalama fostered hundreds of children over the years. She was a pillar of their community in rural Hawai'i . . . until her husband passed away, leaving her unmoored and adrift. The Aloha Sisters come together to support their mother and seek refuge from the stormy seas of their own lives.

Anne left the island at seventeen. When her marriage and career both come crashing down, she brings her kids home to Pualena. Can she build a new life in a place filled with the ghosts of her past?

Laurie never felt like she belonged. She's the family introvert. But as her situation at home grows more desperate, she has to reach out to the people who love her most.

Oakley has a picture-perfect life . . . at least at first glance. Cracks are spidering beneath her facade, and she needs her sisters more than any of them realize.

Halia is the eldest sister, only thirteen years younger than her adopted mother. With Dawn a faint shadow of her former self, the responsibilities of family matriarch are on her shoulders.

Akemi is fast approaching forty, but to her family she'll always be the baby sister. She's the perpetual wanderer, a globe-trotting content creator who hasn't stayed in one place for more than a few months since the day she left home. But that might change now that the baby of the family is expecting a baby of her own.

Join the Aloha Sisters as they navigate life and love in a small town on the Big Island.

Audible Audio

Published June 16, 2026

Reviews

[Rosana Cogle]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Big Island series and hated to see it end! I was excited to have a n opportunity to read her new book Pualena Dawn, book 1 of the Aloha Sisters series. Like the previous series there are lots of new characters to meet with a small mention of some of the characters I grew to love in the Big Island series. Once I began to learn who each of the sisters were and which children went with which family I really got interested. The explicit descriptions of the flowers, the fruits and the colorful fish made you feel like you could see it all. This is a story about sisters who all had one mom, Dawn, even though a few had other birth mothers, they were sisters. I definitely recommend this wholesome well written book.

[Yvette]

2.5⭐️ I love the setting. I love the family aspect. I hate the info dump of a giant cast of characters. There’s the mom and her daughters and their children, plus characters we’ve met in the Big Island series. Every person had their own story line too. Instead of focusing on one person’s plot lines, we’re constantly getting snippets of everyone’s stories and that causes me to not care about any of them. I struggled with this in the prior series…which is why I haven’t completed it. Perhaps this author just isn’t for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Jessica Hammer]

I want this to be a show or a movie. It was hard for me to follow because there are so many characters! All the sisters and their kids and spouses and neighbors. Not a main character but several main characters, all sisters. I think this would make a great tv show! It was an easy read, an awesome beach read for sure! Nothing too dramatic happens but enough to keep u reading.

[Lori Bree]

Great start to a new series! Obviously I love the Hawaii (Big Island) setting, and the characters are so real and easy to root for. Also fun to have a few cameo's from the author's Big Island series too. I've already fallen in love with the characters and look forward to more books in this series!

[Tammi]

complex dynamic characters

In this first book of the series I have enjoyed getting to know each of the sisters. The unfolding of each backstory has been beautifully woven into the current timeline creating a need to know how each of their stories will end.

[Lynda Poblete]

I love this author. I enjoyed her Big Island series and am enjoying the Aloha Sisters! Highly recommend.