Pak Regret grew up with her family in Korea, under Japanese rule, she was not allowed to go to school because her father didn’t believe in educating girls. When her aunt Obedience falls ill, her mother takes Regret to her aunt’s house with her. One day, Regret expresses her interest in wanting to learn to read to Obedience. Her aunt takes her to a woman called Evening Rose, who teaches her how to read. Evening Rose is a kisaeng (기생), a professional entertainer schooled in poetry and dance, who lives in a house of ill repute as the kisaeng’s lives have been changed after Queen Min’s court was overturned by the Japanese.
Regret turns out to be a quick study and learns Hangul quite quickly, and when her friend Sunny tells her about an opportunity to marry a Korean man in the paradise of Hawaii, Regret teaches Sunny to read as well as literacy is one of the conditions for the picture brides. A Mr Noh chooses Regret for his bride and when Regret’s father finds out, he is livid. But Regret is determined to go and tells the neighbours she will be going to Hawaii, thus putting her father in no position to refuse.
After a long journey, Sunny and Regret arrive in Hawaii to find that they have been deceived. Their fiancés are not the good looking, successful businessmen they were expecting but manual labourers in Hawaii’s plantations. Sunny takes the boat back to Korea, but Regret stays and marries Mr Noh who turns out to be an alcoholic with anger issues. After he beats her so badly, she loses the baby she’s carrying, Regret leaves him and takes the train to Honolulu.
She somehow ends up in the Iwilei area of Honolulu, not realising she’s in the area where the prostitutes live and work. She’s taken in by May, a brash woman who offers Regret, who introduces herself as Jin (the name means Gem – this is what Evening Rose called her), a place to stay when she finds out Jin is an excellent seamstress.
I love this book: Jin/Regret is a lovely, albeit a little naive woman. She meets some actual historical figures in this book like policeman Chang Apana, accused rapist and murder victim Joseph Kahahawai and Olympic swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku. So while reading the book, I had Wikipedia open as well and read up on these people. An excellent read!
Read for the Read Between the Lines Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt 38: A Book About a Mail Order/Picture Bride
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️