“I started writing as a hobby,” she once said. Hull’s The Sheik, was published in 1977 by Avon. Her first historical romance, Captive Bride, an homage to E.M. Lindsey would lovingly dedicate her books to her family members. The couple had three sons: Alfred, Joseph, and Garret. Johanna briefly worked as a secretary before having children and becoming a stay-at-home wife and mother. Her father had always dreamed of retiring there.Īt the age of 18, nearing the end of high school, Johanna married her one true love, Ralph Bruce Lindsey. After her father died in 1964, Lindsey and her mother settled in the state of Hawaii. Like many military families, they often moved around from place to place. Army, and his wife, Wanda Lindsey (nee Castle). Her parents were Edwin Dennis Howard, a soldier in the U.S. Lindsey was born Johanna Helen Howard on March 10, 1952, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Still, to this day, I re-read her books and enjoy them as much as I did the first time around.

Now I like my heroines a bit more nuanced. When I was a teen, I found their spunky, proud attitudes endearing and inspiring. Imagine a boy pulling a girl’s pigtails in an inkwell because he has a crush on her but can’t find a way to express it properly! It works so well for a love story. Even as he’s pursuing her, the hero can’t even admit his true feelings to himself. Why were her books so popular? For me, it’s the way her heroes could be so standoffish or even cruel when they were obviously crazy about the heroine. Her works were translated into at least a dozen other languages. Lindsey sold over 60 million copies of her approximately 56 published books.

It’s no wonder that publishers labeled her with the motto “Everyone Loves a Lindsey.” She reached the #1 position on the New York Times Best Seller list with Defy Not the Heart, Angel , and others.

Silver Angel by Johanna Lindsey