I'd have rated this book higher but for how some LGBT topics were handled. The main character makes it clear she's a woman but is forced into a cultural nonbinary identity, which as a trans person myself is questionable on the author's part. Plus ke'anaka'i is described as a third gender in a society similar to that of Hawaiian culture, but it is not treated as the same. It's instead treated as something non-human or monstrous, to be tamed by marriage. For Isabella (not Heali'i, for she actually is ke'anaka'i) this is the only gay relationship in the series so far, which again is very questionable.

I do think the author had good intentions here, but I don't think she went about it the right way at all.