Love for Sail — Shirl Henke

The Topaz Man personally introduces in "A Dream Come True" his favorite stories of dreams that really do come true. From a woman thrown back to 1844 New Orleans, to a Western dream vacation, to a female passenger and boat captain's romance on the high seas, here are five of the best and most passionate tales from Jennifer Blake, Georgina Gentry, Shirl Henke, Anita Mills and Becky Lee Weyrich.

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A Novella
The Barbary Coast of San Francisco, 1875

Sammie Goode is knocked unconscious in a farcical dockside brawl and awakens on the China Lucky. The first mate Stub is missing an arm. The ship's dog Luck is missing a leg. Captain Kit Warfield wears an eye patch. Not certain if she is on a sailing vessel or in a hospital ward, Miss Goods is about to have some bad adventures.

Sammie almost becomes a casualty in the battle between Green Teeth Gruenwald, leader of the Barbary Coast shanghai gangs, and the aristocratic Captain Warfield, leader of the sea captains determined to crush the vicious "crimps." Sammie is kidnapped by Green Teeth and the bordello madam Pearly Gates. But Kit and his crew rescue the beautiful damsel amidst a brothel battle of epic proportions.

You will love these characters: a charmingly naive girl (who causes more havoc than the Three Stooges); a dashing Eurasian sea captain (whose father is an English nobleman); a one-armed former Texas Ranger (who may not have been); a peg-legged dog who saved a sailor from a shark (but may not have); Pearly Gates (never destined to walk through her namesake); and old Green Teeth (who will never need a dentist -- ever). Nobody, but nobody, messes with the crew of the China Lucky. Well, except for a lass with the glow of sunset in her eyes.