Product Description
Welcome to The Islands proudly presents the Paradise Series! We've bundled both books for your enjoyment!
Kaka’ako is a very controversial real estate development location in Honolulu. Planners tout it as the last place for an urban work force community. Developers envision it as the new Waikiki to replace the aging tired one. Affluent residents see it as their new retirement home as they sell their high-end properties to move there. Much of the rest of the residents see it as a location for a return to the plantation era of old Hawai'i when “locals” served their luna, now serving the wealthy Kaka’ako residents as drivers, maids, cooks, babysitters, and delivery boys.
The Paradise Pursuit is a fictional tale of developers and their ambition and the super-rich from all corners of
the globe who want to own a piece of paradise. Their story is manifested in the main characters: Yuko, a hostess
bar mistress financed by the yakuza to create and grow a legitimate money-laundering business in Kaka’ako;
Thurston, a Singapore resident who manages to acquire a multitude of small irregular parcels of land in
Kaka’ako to become an influential power broker; and their attorneys, Jake and Kai. Together, they weave a legal
thriller and a love story.
The Paradise Dispute continues the Kaka’ako story of the Paradise Pursuit. As with many business
partnerships, success breeds discord. And so it is between The Singapore financiers of the Pacific Gateway
condominium. Both Powerful entities are fueled by the success of the condominium development and wish to
add commercial enterprises there as added value to their investments. Unfortunately, their quest is not mutually
beneficial. Yuko Kagami of Makasendo, the developer of The Pacific Gateway, with the assistance of her
attorney, Kai Li, pass through The Pacific Gateway’s Association of Apartment Owners a bylaws of her private
club, Ichiban, there. Ichiban quickly becomes a huge success making Yuko a celebrity with the Kaka’ako
community. Wong Fat, the leader of The Singapore Group, retains Jake Thorne and his powerful lawfirm to
replicate Yuko’s commercial sucess there with a penthouse restaurant project called SkyTop. The conspicuous
development of SkyTop Threatens the financial success of the Ichiban and The Pacific Gateway condominium
and quickly results in pushback by the Kaka’ako community and the community at large when a disaster occurs
at the development site. The Yamaguchi-gumi led by Kumicho Nobuhisa Kozo, seizes the opportunity created
by Wong Fat’s plight to destroy him and The Singapore Group. Their ensuing battle is the story of The Paradise
Dispute.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vernon Woo, a lifelong Hawai'i resident, is a graduate of the University of Hawai'i and Harvard Law School and a
practicing lawyer, former judge, open-ocean swimmer, and an erstwhile real estate developer. This is his first
work of fiction.
