Repair shops and romance

Today I'm pleased to have a guest blogger: Kiley Dunbar. I've been a huge fan of Kiley's books since 2019. She has recently started a new series of romances,The Highland Repair Shop. I think they're absolutely wonderful. They're not only a charming, swoony, romance series, but they also challenge the capitalistic nature of our society that always screams you need more, more, more! Here's what Kiley has to say about her new series, and the May 1, 2026 release of the next book in the series, Making Sparks Fly at the Highland Repair Shop

Why kissing and repair?

I’m three books deep into my four-book series set in a Scottish Highland Repair Shop where experts mend items for free that would otherwise be thrown away. It’s inspired by the Repair Café movement, founded in the Netherlands by Martine Postma and now a worldwide organisation, as well as the BBC’s The Repair Shop TV series, and my admiration for all of the professional, skilled makers and fixers who for generations have passed on heritage skills and expertise we so badly need.

My books are about communities coming together to share their skills and resources to boost the circular economy in response to the climate crisis and the cost-of-living crisis. They’re about looking after everyone and everything, no exceptions.

They are also about kissing, and lots of it.

Romance as a genre has a long history of tackling serious issues and social problems, and this series is no different.

We’re currently witnessing people in power trying to restrict our movement, stripping away our rights to live and love as we wish, turning us against our neighbours, denying climate change, reducing our agency over our own bodies, censoring our reading and making it increasingly hard to access reliable information about what’s going on in the world; all while curbing our rights to protest against these violations.

Part of their agenda is to exhaust us beyond a point of resistance. What they rely upon is that we stop trusting our neighbours, that we split with our families, that we lose the will and motivation to protest, that we hate more than we love; because if we’re divided, distracted and dispirited, they win.

But acts of sharing, protest, kindness, pleasure, joy, love, and, yes, romance, are all acts of optimism and ultimately resistance to these exhausting stressors.

I write about communities kindling hope and connection. My characters refuse to take broken for an answer, both when it comes to the things they own and to the world we live in.

That is why I will keep on writing about the healing power of love. Loving is a radical act; whatever love looks like for you. If we practice love, we practice resistance. And the people who abuse their power absolutely hate that.

So, here’s to kissing books and acts of repair. Long may they continue in the face of so many factors urging us to give up.

Kiley Dunbar