THE GUEST IN ROOM 120 - Sara Ackerman
A Perfect 10
Mira
ISBN: 9870778305712
ISBN10: 0778305716
September 2025
Historical Fiction

California and Hawaii - 1905 and 2005

1905 - Jane Stanford, widow of Leland Stanford, has dedicated her life to the university named for their late son, Leland Junior. She is very frustrated with the president of the university, who seems to have his own idea of how things should be done at the school, most of which goes against Jane's wants. After a disturbing event in her San Francisco home occurs, Jane is urged to leave the state until things settle down so as to protect the reputation of the university. She, her secretary, and a maid set sail for Hawaii, where Jane and her advisors feel she will be safe. They arrive at the newly opened Moana Hotel after the voyage.

2005 - Author Zoe Finch has had writer's block since her best-selling romance was published. Her agent is urging her to turn in the beginnings of a new follow-up novel. At the last minute, Zoe decides to register and attend a writers conference in Hawaii at the Moana Hotel. Not wanting to be recognized, Zoe registers under a different name, settling into the hotel, and signing up for various lectures. But almost immediately Zoe begins having strange, frightening dreams. Attending a lecture by Dylan Winters, a mystery author, she later meets up with him, revealing the odd dreams and notes she finds in her room.

1905 - Iliahi Baldwin is a young Hawaiian woman trying to find work to support herself and her two younger brothers. The new Moana Hotel hires her, to her relief, and she works hard to please the management and the guests. When she helps new arrival Jane Stanford tour the area, she is surprised to find that, despite their age and status difference, Iliahi very much likes the woman. And the feeling seems mutual. And then, an unimaginable event happens that shakes her to her core.

THE GUEST IN ROOM 120 is fiction but is based on actual details of what happens to Mrs. Stanford in both California and Hawaii. There is a bit of romance, plenty of mystery, and some supernatural events to keep readers riveted to the story. This was a page-turner for me.

Jani Brooks