As a child, Hanalei was Lady Hanalei, page to Princess Oliana of Tamarind. When the princess and Hanalei were poisoned, Hanalei’s father stole a seadragon’s egg, making a wish upon it to save his daughter. But legend says every wish upon a dragon’s egg demands a price, and Hanalei’s father died horribly in the exile he brought upon them both. Orphaned Hanalei lived a hard life, but now she’s a young adult helping protect seadragons from the dragoners who hunt them for their precious dragonfruit, the eggs. When she’s captured by a dragoner, Hanalei makes a daring escape off the coast of Tamarind. She’s welcomed home by the Queen and Prince Samahtitamahenele—Sam, her childhood friend. The princess remains in a comalike state, and Sam, her son, continues to seek another egg to heal her, hoping two of the dragons in his menagerie will breed in captivity, even as Hanalie warns about the price. When the wild female seadragon that the ship she escaped from was pursuing is killed on the beach after a violent attack, Hanalei knows the seadragon recently laid eggs. She also knows that the male seadragon will be guarding them somewhere nearby, and she, Sam, and others set off to find the male dragon and the eggs before the dragoners do. A wonderfully realized setting inspired by the Pacific Islands, creative details, complex characters, and a romance that refrains from predictable tropes all distinguish this richly imagined fantasy.

• An Asian/Pacific American Award Honor Book
• A USA TODAY bestseller
• One of NPR's 2024 "Books We Love"
• A Kirkus Best Book of 2024
• A School Library Journal Best Book of 2024
• A New York Public Library Best Book of 2024

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.

In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope had gone, the tale came with a warning.

Every wish demands a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.

Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time—hope.

But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.