The ranch owner's daughter is off limits for a sailor-turned-cowhand. Or is she? Eli wasn’t exactly shanghaied onto a merchant ship, but at the age of twelve, he wasn’t given a choice in the matter either. Now grown, he's learned the value of planning and patience. When a chance to escape his years on the sea finally comes along, he grabs it. Hoping to never see an ocean again, Eli finds his way to a ranch, working with horses again, just like he had with his father before he’d landed on that ship. But life on land is very different from life on the sea. Besides having to learn the skills needed to be a ranch hand, he soon discovers that the harsh world of the ship was a lot simpler than all the confusing rules for living in society. Especially one that includes Skye Donovan. The kind-hearted Skye and quietly courageous Eli have an undeniable attraction. But she is the ranch owner’s daughter, and Eli is painfully aware that she is far above his station in life. Still, the heart wants what it wants, and it will be up to them to overcome the scars of Eli’s past and face a threat they can’t avoid. One that seems determined to keep them apart forever. Set in San Francisco, and the ranchland around it, thirty years after the California gold rush, The Sailor and the Skylark is part of a multi-author series: Sailors and Saints. While it does have some recurring characters from previous stories, it can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.