Maui, 1971: A rural paradise soon to become world famous . . .

Carrie Ann Emerson has never heard of Maui, until her lost four-year-old daughter turns up there, more than 2,000 miles away from home. The single mother's journey to reclaim her child takes her from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury to a quiet island community shocked by hippie newcomers with a lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Suspicious about the circumstances in which little Rorie was lost on the mainland, the Maui judge requires Carrie Ann to remain on the island until he's convinced she's a fit mother. At first she wants only to take Rorie home to San Francisco, but Maui has its charms. And then there's Michael—handsome, sexy, charismatic. Certain that she needs a man to get by in the world, Carrie Ann sets her sights on Michael. But is there a line she should not cross to land the man of her dreams? And, with or without a man, can she be the kind of mother her little girl needs?

The Island Decides is women's fiction with a historical twist, recalling a time in Hawaii that is almost entirely undocumented. It was inspired by author Jill Engledow's memories of life on Maui in the years when a wave of young people practicing the "hippie" lifestyle arrived in the Islands. The book's characters are based in the rural Haiku-Paia area of Maui, where these newcomers flocked to experiment with living on the land. The dropouts, many from urban backgrounds and completely unequipped to deal with the requirements of country life, often held unrealistic ideas about society, fueled in part by the extensive hallucinogenic drug use of the time. Maui natives found this naiveté difficult to cope with. Into this mix comes Carrie Ann Emerson, herself an immature and naïve young woman whose child has been kidnapped from California and transported to a commune on Maui. In seeking to reclaim her lost daughter, Carrie Ann gradually learns responsibility and begins to find herself as a mother and an independent woman.

Jill Engledow moved to Hawaii as a child and arrived on Maui in 1968 as part of that wave of hippie newcomers. With a family background in journalism, she eventually found her way into the local newspaper world, where she was a reporter and editor for more than 20 years. During those years, she witnessed and wrote about the island's evolution from a plantation-based agricultural community to a world-famous tourist destination. Since 1998, she has been a freelance writer specializing in Maui history. The Island Decides is her first published fiction. Her nonfiction books include Island Life 101: A Newcomer's Guide to Hawaii and Haleakala: A History of the Maui Mountain, a medalist in the 2013 Independent Book Publisher Awards.