Koa Kai: The Story of Zachary Bower and the Conquest of the Hawaiian Islands

While growing up on a farm in New England, Zachary Bower does not have much time to play. But when he is not doing chores and learning to read and write, he happily reenacts the glory of his brothers stories fighting the British during the War of Independence.

After his mother tragically dies in 1789, Zacharys uncle invites him on his next expedition at sea. As the thirteen-year-old boy heads to sea in his uncles barque, he becomes a competent seaman while enduring the rounding of Cape Horn and sailing to Spanish California. After Zachary is separated from his ship and injected into the crew of a Hawaii-bound schooner, the vessel is attacked soon after arriving off Maui, leaving Zachary and one other crewman as the only survivors. It is 1790 when Zachary, the schooner, and its weapons are captured by Kamehameha and his army. As Zachary eventually transforms into a Kamehameha warrior, he becomes immersed in fierce battles like the ones that once enveloped his childhood imagination. But will he survive his new reality?

In this historical novel, a lad from New England is unwittingly thrust into the army of Kamehameha and the wars to unite the Hawaiian Islands during the late eighteenth century.