Emily Coates was a free spirit and daddy's little girl. She loved romance and daydreamed about a love she had yet to discover. However, her emulation of Jane Austen was the center of her problems with men. Her father sets her up with one failed suitor after another, all local and successful men who would ensure his daughter would want from nothing. Admiral Carlton Coates forces his daughter to be dependent and centered.

To ensure she’d never be lonely like her mother, he established a "no sailor rule" for all potential suitors.

However, over time, he is clearly starting to run out of options and strikes that rule. He arranges for her to marry...a sailor this time and one who appears successful in black and white. Albeit, this man has secrets that he must keep at bay in order to gain not only Emily’s trust and her heart, but to regain what he had lost so long ago...with the notion that only her father’s fortune would have him set for the rest of his life.

Yet, in the scheme of things, there is another who has admired her from afar and would go to great lengths to protect her from all things seemingly dangerous.

Will Emily accept the new suitor into her heart so easily, or will she learn in time his schemes? Or will the other admirer prevail in taking her heart? Who will Emily Coates fall, completely, perfectly, and incandescently in love with?