Tender Is the Storm by Johanna Lindsey: Discussion and Book Review

If you’ve spent any time around old-school romance covers, or romance reader social media, chances are you’ve seen Tender Is the Storm. You know the one. The cliff. The gold dress. The extremely naked man. This is the cover that makes you wonder what is happening here?

We’re reading it as part of the Ripped & Ravished Book Club, where we discuss vintage romances through a modern lens. And we talk about it allL the tropes, the drama, the publishing context, the consent issues, and the moments that still explain why these books stuck around and helped build the foundation of the romance genre.

This post will be your hub for the podcast discussions, reader comments (jump in and share yours), and final thoughts once we finish the book.

Want the club emails? Sign up for the book club emails here.

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Listen to the podcast discussion for Part 1:

This cover may be more iconic than Fabio’s entire career. ~ Under the Covers

Content warnings: Before we get into it, this is an older romance and it comes with a lot of the things you might expect from the era: questionable consent, power imbalance, forced proximity that does not always feel fun, violence, outdated gender roles, hurtful language around groups of people and some very alpha male behavior. Not the hot kind.

We’re reading this for the bodice ripper book club as part of a larger conversation about bodice rippers and romance history, not because every choice on the page works for a modern reader. Read with care, skip what you need to skip, and come share with us in the comments.

What is Tender Is the Storm by Johanna Lindsey about?

Tender Is the Storm starts with family drama, because apparently no one in old-school romance was allowed to have a peaceful morning.

Sharisse Hammond is a wealthy New York heiress whose family is making her life increasingly complicated. She gets pulled into a mess involving unwanted marriage plans, and eventually a mail-order bride to help her sister that sends her west.

And once she gets there? Things do not exactly become less dramatic.

She’s hiding secrets, Lucas, the hero, is also hiding his motives, and now she has to work at a struggling ranch and learn how to chores.

Grab Tender is the Storm on Amazon

Why we picked this for Ripped & Ravished Book club?

How can we talk about bodice rippers and ignore Johanna Lindsey, first of all? Icon. Legend. She is one of the foundational big names of vintage romance. And Tender is the Storm particularly was our selection because of the cover. Think of it as the memefied cover that pops up once in a while because it’s one of the most unhinged and yes, iconic, clinch cover of the time. Romance readers know this cover even if they haven’t read it.

The cliff. The gold dress. The naked man. What is even happening here?

So yes, part of the reason we picked this is because the cover is iconic it demands discussion.

Reading Notes & Discussion

This post will be updated as we go through the book. Since Tender Is the Storm is a shorter book club pick for us, we’re only doing two podcast discussions instead of five.

Part 1: Chapters 1–21

Listen / watch here

For our first discussion, Becky from Too Stupid to Live joins me again, and naturally we spend a very normal amount of time talking about the cover. Which is to say: not a normal amount of time at all.

We had questions. Many questions.

Why is he naked?
Why is she dressed?
Why does he look like a giant?
Was this just sitting there in a grocery store checkout line in 1985?

Once we moved past the cover, we talked about how different Johanna Lindsey’s writing feels compared to Kathleen Woodiwiss. The Flame and the Flower had that very long, sweeping, almost saga-style feel. Tender Is the Storm moves faster, but the chapter transitions can be jarring. Sometimes it feels like one scene ends, and then suddenly we are somewhere completely different with very little warning.

The POV choices are also interesting. We get little moments from characters outside the main couple, which is something modern romance does not always do as much anymore. I actually liked that. It makes the world feel bigger, and it gives us a different view of what is happening instead of keeping everything tightly locked on the romance.

We also talked about the mail-order bride setup, which is funny because both Becky and I realized we’ve probably read alien mail-order bride romances before reading a human one. Make of that what you will.

So far, this book feels very soapy. There is family drama, secret identity and motives, but it’s lacking depth and is doing a lot of “telling” not “showing”.

Things we talked about in Part 1

• The original cover and why it is impossible to ignore
• Whether this cover is more iconic than Fabio’s entire career
• Johanna Lindsey’s writing style
• How this compares to The Flame and the Flower
• The pacing and time jumps
• Side character POVs in older romance
• Mail-order bride romance tropes
• The Old West setting and movie vibe
• Why this book already feels like a telenovela
• Reading old-school romance with modern expectations

Part 1 discussion questions

If you’re reading along, tell me in the comments or reply to the email:

• Did you know this cover before you knew the book?
• Is this your first Johanna Lindsey?
• What did you think of her writing?
• How are you feeling about Sharisse and Lucas so far? And lets throw in Slade too.
• Do you like the side character POVs, or do they pull you out of the romance?
• How does this compare to The Flame and the Flower for you if you’ve been doing book club since the beginning?
• Have you read a mail order bride book before?

Part 2: Chapters 22–End

Coming soon.

This is where we’ll talk about the second half of the book, the romance arc, the final drama, and whether this one worked for us overall.

If you’re a modern reader and you’re wondering if it’s possible for your to dig into one of these books, we’ve gone down the rabbit hole of how to read vintage bodice rippers without gaslighting yourself. Hope that helps a bit for you too.

Final thoughts so far

At the halfway point, Tender Is the Storm is already giving us plenty to talk about. It is easier for me to move through than The Flame and the Flower, but not necessarily because it is less messy. It is just faster and soapier.

I think this book gives us a good glimpse into the 1980s romance genre, how the writing had shifted, and how many older tropes can still be found in romance today, even if in modern books they are handled differently.

Final review coming after Part 2.

Join the discussion

Are you readingTender Is the Storm with us? Leave a comment or reply to the email and tell me what you think so far. And if you want the book club emails, reminders and discussions, sign up for the Ripped & Ravished Book Club newsletter here.

If you missed our first book club pick, lets go back and dive into the first bodice ripper that was foundational to the romance genre. Deep dive into The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.

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