Rainbows on the Moon

Engrossing but flawed, Wood’s latest (after 2013’s The Serpent and the Staff) chronicles almost 40 years of Christian proselytizing and American commerce in Hawaii. The narrative begins in 1820, when Emily Stone arrives with her Calvinist preacher husband Isaac, both of them determined to clothe and convert the local “heathens.” Instead, she finds herself resisting forbidden feelings for handsome sea captain MacKenzie Farrow. Deftly playing with reader expectations, Wood places a number of seemingly insurmountable obstacles in Emily’s way before she and MacKenzie are finally free to marry. Moving ahead to 1860 San Francisco, the story shifts focus to a young woman named Anna Barnett. Unable to achieve her dream of being a doctor due to her gender, Anna joins a Catholic order of nuns solely so she can work as a nurse, and, renamed “Sister Theresa,” is sent to Hawaii. There, a new forbidden love arises, between Sister Theresa and Honolulu shipping magnate Robert Farrow, MacKenzie and Emily’s son. After finely executed beginning and middle sections, the book stumbles to its predictable ending, but it should still remain compelling for historical fiction fans. Agent: Harvey Klinger, Harvey Klinger Inc. (Oct.)