Lydia Langston Bouzaid has always lived life on her own terms.

Her father served in the Navy and was stationed overseas, so she spent part of her childhood in Spain and Italy. By her early teens she was often traveling alone, and learned that with a little imagination there was no limit to what she could do, with no shortage of antics, heartbreak, and joy along the way. She has since lived in several countries and called many corners of the world home.

The sea has been the cornerstone of her life. She sailed a small yacht to Tahiti in her twenties, raced her own boat in the Bermuda Race, and has crossed both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Along the way she survived a shipwreck and, on more than one occasion, found herself overboard.

Lydia earned a bachelor’s degree in coastal geology from Boston College, then, just to shake things up, left science to spend more time sailing and restoring antique homes in Newport, Rhode Island. When the real estate market crashed, she became a fundraiser for a professional sailing team. She has also been a figure skater, a futures trader, and a decorative painter, and her novels draw on the adventures of those varied careers and a colorful life.

A lifelong sucker for a good romance novel, she counts Danielle Steel, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Jane Austen among her favorite authors. She confesses that she still giggles whenever she writes a love scene; her husband doesn’t complain. When she isn’t reading or writing, she is sailing with him or watching historical romance on television, and she can often be found dreaming up her next character while cruising the world, staying in glamorous hotels on adventures with her granddaughters, or at home in her modern, antique-filled farmhouse.

Lydia is married to New Zealand sailing legend Chris Bouzaid and is the grandmother of seven. They share their home in coastal Maine with two adorable, rambunctious Labradors, and there is nearly always a crowd of friends around the table.

Her debut novel, Willful Blindness, the first of a trilogy, is a different kind of romance, one where both the hero and heroine have endearing flaws. Lovers and War followed, and Sons and Daughters arrives in early 2027.