Summer of Romance

So our Summer of Romance is heading towards its close. We have had so many wonderful responses since our beginnings in December – and we want a big push on the last weekend of the project. Enter Shelfie Saturday. This is a great opportunity to find those last parts of your collections, go rummaging through bookstores (who would turn down that?) or find that last one squirreled away in some nook or cranny.

Join the Summer of Romance team on Saturday 25 February in our worldwide search for 50 Harlequin Mills & Boon novels!

On Shelfie Saturday:
1) Download the list of 50 books from this site.
2) Search anywhere and everywhere!
3) Photograph the books where you find them and share your ‘shelfies’ on our Facebook page, or on Twitter or Instagram with #loveyourshelfie and #shelfiesaturday

This is almost your last chance to help us find our fifty books, so get on board! Thank you so much for all your help – let’s bring this project home strong.

Happy Hunting,

Kurt

Do you read our favourite Mills & Boon novels in languages other than English? If so, we’d still love to hear from you in our #SummerofRomance. We are open to our 50 books in any language you can find them in.

Just before Christmas, Amy Andrews showcased her author copy of Mission: Mountain Rescue (2006) in Afrikaans (Ontsnapping uit ‘n bergvesting) and our own Jodi McAlister found an absolute bounty in the Marrickville Library in New South Wales. There she found Mills & Boon collections in Arabic, Greek and Portuguese! The Portuguese section even had two of our 50 Books – Emma Darcy’s The Playboy Boss’ Chosen Bride (2006; Provocação) and Annie West’s Prince of Scandal (2011; Escandalo & Sucesso).

So if you see any foreign language Mils & Boon’s around – definitely let us know with either #loveyourshelfie if you happen to be successful, or #no50books if you manage to spot a collection that doesn’t have one of the 50 books (we’d still love to see it).

Feliz pesquisa!

Kurt

Christmas is one of the few times I manage to head to my home town of Latrobe in North-West Tasmania. Small town life being what it is, many of the op-shops (volunteer-run) have already closed for the Christmas period.

Not too dispirited, I headed to my local library (built in 1883), a gorgeous old building albeit with a very small library collection. Looking around for a collection, or at least any books with a small heart sticker on them, I quickly come up short.  

Contained within, unfortunately for our research purposes, were only three Mills & Boon novels of any type – the librarian explaining that category romance is most often bequeathed to the larger libraries in Devonport and Launceston.

I head back outward to the last beacon of literature in Latrobe – the liquidation centre and I’m in luck! Well, sort of. They do have a dedicated Mills & Boon section, which has bled into the Wilbur Smiths and Alistair Macleans with a highlight display to one side.

Unfortunately for me, it’s a #no50books for today, though the shopkeeper tells me the Mills & Boons are on high rotation, so perhaps another look before I journey back to Hobart is in order. Here’s to hoping the next adventure yields some more results.

Happy hunting!

Kurt

“One stifling summer day in the early 1990s, I opened the glove box of my boyfriend’s mother’s car and it exploded with paperback Mills & Boons. I didn’t take a photo, but I’d finished reading one of the novels before we’d reached the beach.” (Lisa)

It has begun! The research team has been eagerly watching the first few shelfies come in from a range of sources, places and platforms. We’re still working hard to spread the love, and find even more participants. Lisa has written a call-to-arms for the Australian Women Writers site (which can be found here), and we’re still hankering to explore the lives and “afterlives” of the 50 Books . We can’t wait to see which books you’ll dig up.

Happy Hunting!