After sharing my Barbara Cartland puzzle collection, HeatherS had a wonderful idea for a future community post:
This post prompts a need for a romance merch roundup post, where y’all have to share any and all licensed romance merch (vintage or more recent) that you’ve collected with us.
Amanda: Most of my merch is art and special editions!
I have a giant poster of Melting the Ice by Jaci Burton (courtesy of the lovely publicity team at Berkley) and a poster of The Last Jedi, based on the based on Robert McGinnis’s cover art for the novel Tender is the Storm by Johanna Lindsey. (Apologies for the window reflections!)
In terms of special editions, I have the original Kickstarter editions of Katee Robert’s Wicked Villains series. I’ve heard they’re being released again with new artwork and it makes me a little sad because I don’t know if I need another set of editions, despite liking the new illustrations.
I also have the beautiful pastel Afterlight editions of Helen Hoang’s Kiss Quotient series. Seriously, they’re so beautiful!
Sarah: I have a few treasures I won’t part with, and they’re all different. I didn’t include my favorite pieces of author swag (the greatest among them being Farrah Rochon’s measuring spoons) because that’s a slightly different thing.
First: this is a Sandro painting for the cover of The Lion and the Lark by Doreen Owens Malek. It was given to me by the late Kate Duffy when Kensington downsized their offices. It’s oil on a board (not a canvas) and it’s among my very favorite things.
The shop where I had it framed and repaired was extremely into it as well! (Apologies for the glare.)
Here’s a close up of the nipple. It’s lovingly rendered.
Back in 2014? 2013? I was a guest at the Chicago North Romance Writers’ conference, and was given a set of Cards Against Romance Tropes, which the organizers had developed and printed for the conference.
I’ve played it on the podcast at conferences and it’s a lot of fun.
Katie is pleased to model the cards for everyone.
And then, there is my treasured copy of Castles in the Air, the one with the three arms.
I’m pretty sure the heroine is still my avatar in a lot of places because do you have any idea how much I’d get done with an extra arm. Seriously.
And finally, possibly my most delightful item, still in its box, and still making me giddy:
My Jude Deveraux, The Raider – Barbie and Ken Doll Giftset. From back in 1995!
It’s all wonderful. Ken’s eyeliner. His shadowed romance “stubble.” THE ABS.
If you’d like your own, I suggest haunting eBay, where there are a few available between $110 and $225.
I think the dolls and the painting are tied as my favorite piece of romance memorabilia.
Shana: I was just looking at the merch section of a new-to-me queer bookstore and found these gems.
I have a few book themed candles that I’ve been drooling after:
And because I both love a only one bed moment and like my room to smell like a pine tree.
It’s my birthday month, so I’ve been searching for presents to get myself and while I don’t NEED another mug, I think I need this one.
There is also a 100% chance that I will buy myself this shirt, in case you want to be twinsies:
And finally, I think I’ve mentioned AT Haynes Jane Austen-themed yarn colors before, but I’ve now tried most of the colorways and they’re my absolute favorite. The yarn bases I’ve tried have been good quality and the colors are lovely. This one is my current obsession.
Do you have any memorabilia or merch you’d like to share with us? Please do!
Not uploading the pics but I have a signed Beverly Jenkins book that I treasure. Also I have a Loretta Chase book she signed 2 decades ago that I had a friend get for me and the inscription is so funny.
Finally, Megan Frampton is wonderful and signed my favorite of her books and sent it to me.
That “Melting the Ice” framed cover is wonderful. Don’t look at the current eBook cover, it will make you cry. I really dislike most of the cartoon-like covers, but making Jaci Burton’s very explicit series look like some YA rom-com is a crime. I like YA and rom-coms, but these new covers do a bad job of giving the purchaser the correct information about the book.
Aside from autographed books(Mimi Matthews and Lois McMaster Bujold), the only things I have are swag from a historical romance retreat in Spokane some years ago-bookmarks and shopping bags. Including a lovely leather bookmark that Mary Balogh was giving away.
Do my hardcover-with-dust-jacket copies of Georgette Heyer novels count? Just missing one or two …
I have a poster from the Cocktail series signed by Alice Clayton that I absolutely treasure.
I also have a signed copy of Hard Pressed by Kate Canterbary that she sent me after hearing from a dear friend that I was comfort reading it on loop while my (adult) child was in the hospital following a very bad car accident.
Love the various romance merch, they are great! One of my treasured romance items is a personally signed ARC of Night Pleasures by Sherilyn Kenyon which I won in one of her earliest contests. And the other is a signed Stephanie Laurens book and I had the distinction of being the winner in her first contest on her website back when she only had a few books published. Have also won signed book covers, book bags, pins, scarf, baseball cap and bookmarks but those two signed books are my faves.
I love the Barbie. Her expression seems less ‘throes of passion’ and more ‘just so done with all of this’. Like, she’s wondering where she can get a cheese-based snack and a gin and tonic, not necessarily in that order
I actually have quite a bit (entirely too much?) of this sort of thing because I actively collected it in the late 1990s/early 2000s. I have the Fabio Power Ab Board that I actually used for several years until my knees made getting that close to the floor too difficult. I also have several Fabio videos and wall calendars from Fabio, John DeSalvo, and Steve Sandalis (I really like my eye candy). I have 3 unopened 550-piece jigsaw puzzles from RoseArt with book covers depicted: “Enchanted Time” by Amy Elizabeth Saunders (John DeSalvo), “Diamond in the Rough” by Millie Criswell (Steve Sandalis), and “A Winter Ballad” by Barbara Samuel; all book covers illustrated by Jean Monti. I had a teddy bear with a T-shirt with a Fabio picture but I finally donated it early this year (I did keep the T-shirt) since I have no children or grandchildren to give a teddy bear to. I have other stuff but those are the highlights that I can think of right now.
@Laurel – I agree with you about disliking current cover styles (cartoons don’t belong on romance novels in my opinion but cozy mysteries and chick lit–both of which I do read and, yes, I know I’m probably in a small minority). I actually was going to buy a book that showed a woman drinking coffee on the cover, thinking it was maybe a small-town romance but read the description to discover it’s a menage book! Kind of blindsided me since it wasn’t what I was expecting (again, I do read menage, too). The worst is that I consider these new styles to be a form of censorship, especially since I’ve received newsletters from authors saying they had to make the change because of the rules/algorithms being employed on bookselling sites. I understand authors need to make a living but as an adult woman, I feel these cover styles are kind of regressive and even shame-inducing. Again, I know I’m in the minority but this site is a safe place to voice my opinion, thankfully.
I had a rolling black book bag from RT in 2017 that had Sylvia Day promo info on it, but it really wasn’t long enough to work as a roller bag for me. My coworker unearthed a couple of RWA Convention/Harlequin-branded zippered tote bags from 2014, when it was held in San Antonio, that she gave to me. I also find things like promotional bookmarks sometimes because my friend has a used bookstore and she saves romance-related ephemera for me when she finds it.
I’ve been on a repeat comfort watching binge with “Love Between The Covers” and it just makes me want to build a romance fort of books and merch to shut out the world for the next 5 years.