Today I’m delighted to feature romance author Kiley Dunbar. I was fortunate enough to meet Kiley at the recent Love Stories etc event in Manchester and we bonded over, amongst other things, cowboy romances – of which more later! Kiley is the author of 15 romances including The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday series and the Highland Repair Shop series. Her latest book, Saving Christmas at the Highland Repair Shop has just recently been released.
Kiley is from East Lothian in Scotland but has lived in England for a long time, teaching at her university in Manchester.
Over to Kiley :
Which five pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?
Ooh! Let me see.
Something from Scotland, like me. I’d choose the Proclaimers ‘Sunshine on Leith’.
Something from 1978, also like me. Patti Smith’s ‘Because the Night’ is a fave.
Something romantic, because goodness knows, that’s me too. Can I have Enrique Iglesias’s ‘Hero’, because that song had me in a chokehold all of 2001.
I need a bit of BTS in there, because I just love those wee sweeties! ‘Boy With Luv’ remains a firm favourite.
And lastly, some 80s magic because I am 80s obsessed. Can I have Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna stop Us Now’? Such a great song!
What five things (apart from family and friends) would you find it hard to live without.
I couldn’t bear to be without my little author support hound, Amos the Bedlington. I even wrote him into my Borrow a Bookshop series as the grumpy, loyal wee Aldous.
I need a coffee every day and a cake. At least once a day.
I need audiobooks and podcasts to help settle me down at night. Let’s lump them in together as one thing!
And I can’t get through a week without a charity shop rummage, I’m addicted! I go through the rails looking for shoulder pads, hoping to strike vintage gold! I’m an 80s fashion junkie, honestly!
Lastly, I need to write. I’d go mad without the outlet of imagining characters up (and making them kiss).
Give five pieces of advice to your younger self?
Never pluck your eyebrows. The 90s was not a good decade for my poor overplucked brows and they never recovered.
Ditto shaving legs. Why did I bother? And once you start you can’t bloody stop!
Drink water in nightclubs, it’ll save you making a LOT of stupid, messy decisions.
You can have a writing career, so get started ASAP.
Lastly, if someone is merely tolerating you, run a mile. Go where you’re celebrated, not tolerated.
Tell us five things that most people don’t know about you
I got engaged 4 days after a blind date.
We’ve been together 27 years now.
We secretly eloped to Gretna Green in August 2025 and got married all over again (literally nobody knows this, so you’re getting the freshest tea!)
I’m currently writing a book about runaway Gretna weddings (this is also a world first, nobody knows exclusive, Jill!)
I can’t ever land on the correct complement/compliment, effect/affect, bear/bare when writing! Like, never!
Tell us five things you’d still like to do or achieve.
In my dreams, I want desperately to win an RNA romance novel award. This year I’ve entered my Saving Christmas at the Highland Repair Shop in the best Christmas/festive novel category! Fingers crossed for a shortlisting!
I want Amos the Bedlington to live forever.
I’d like to have a smash bestseller globally with a big glossy book that wows the romance reading community!
I would love to represent romance at a terribly serious literary festival where I am a total gas and everyone leaves in love with the genre.
Lastly, I want to keep my readers with me until I’m at least 99 years old and I’ve penned a hundred books!
Many thanks for joining me Kiley. I was looking forward to learning even more about you and you didn’t disappoint! You chose some fabulous music which I really enjoyed. Sunshine on Leith is probably my favourite Proclaimers song. I was a student up in Scotland when they first came to prominence and I loved them. I also love Enrique, and I mean LOVE. I’ve seen him 3 times now and the crowd goes feral when he sings ‘Hero‘. Happy to lump audiobooks and podcasts together. I’ll have to introduce you to some of my favourite narrators. As for Amos I’m delighted he’s been immortalised in your books, I hope you get to keep him in real life for a long time yet. Now about all the tea you’ve spilt! You secretly got remarried in Gretna Green AND you’re writing a book about runaway weddings! That latter being a world exclusive I’m delighted you shared with us. I’ll be grilling you about your romantic history when we next meet – relax, I won’t really. What I’ll do instead is share a couple of the previously mentioned cowboy romances as a thank you. Both books feature single dads (which appears to be my kryptonite). I’ve just read and really enjoyed Rein Me In by Camilla Isley (free with Prime if you have it). The second is one I haven’t read yet – I’m saving it, and that is Colt by Jessica Peterson. I recommended her previous cowboy series to you in Manchester and this new series appears to be getting off to a great start. I’ve bought this in audio, because sometimes, all you need in life (ok maybe just me) is a cowboy whispering sweet nothings in your ear! I’d love to see Romance getting the love it deserves too, it attracts way too much negativity, especially from people who have never even read it. I’m reviewing again this year for the RNA awards and I’ve volunteered for the Festive category (among others) I hope I get yours. I know I’ll be in for a treat. Here’s to writing your 100 books and getting that global bestseller.
Kiley’s Books
(NB This post features Amazon affiliate links from which I earn a very small commission on qualifying purchases)
The Highland Repair Shop series
Every book in the Highland Repair Shop series can be read as a standalone.
Fixing a Broken Heart at the Highland Repair Shop #1
Never take broken for an answer…
When her career stalls and her boyfriend betrays her, Ally McIntyre’s dreams shatter into a hundred little pieces. Which is apt, given Ally’s family has built a haven for the worn out and broken: the Cairn Dhu Community Repair Shop and Café in the heart of the Scottish Highlands, famous for its band of expert fixers (and delicious baking). But repairing gadgets and restoring heirlooms is one thing, fixing herself is quite another.
Jamie Beaton is on a temporary summer transfer to Cairn Dhu as a Special Constable, though there’s a deeper, sadder reason that’s drawn him to the Highlands. When a scandal threatens the repair shop and Ally and Jamie’s paths cross, an instant connection – and attraction – sparks. Could finding new love, and the missing piece of Jamie’s past, help Ally’s heart to heal?
As the long summer days draw in, however, Jamie must leave. An unexpected job offer also comes Ally’s way, which could take her far from the Highlands. Should she take a leap into the unknown? Where does she truly feel whole?
Mending Lost Dreams at the Highland Repair Shop #2
🧵🪡 Welcome to the Highland Repair Shop, where mending broken things – be they clocks, compasses or hearts – is a way of life.
After a gruelling few years in city hospitals, trainee doctor Alice hopes a new, small-town post will bring quiet to her racing mind. Instead, she finds a place brimming with eccentricity and curiosity, and people who seem to see straight through her carefully controlled facade.
Murray has returned to his hometown with a broken heart and his tail between his legs. Volunteering at the family-run repair shop is meant to be temporary… until a chance encounter starts to crack his emotional armour.
Meanwhile, mountain ranger Finlay lives for solitude and the wild and rugged scenery. But when a broken compass draws him reluctantly into town life, he finds himself pulled not just into a community project, but into the kind of tangled feelings he’s spent a lifetime avoiding.
As a new garden is built and winter weather rages, lives will be patched, polished and set on entirely new courses. Can these lonely hearts be mended, and finally find happiness and love?
Making Sparks Fly at the Highland Repair Shop #3
The Highland Repair Shop is a place where anything can be fixed… from vintage radios and rusting bikes to hearts and lives. 🫶
Euan Sparks is back in town, newly self-employed and newly mortified after a disastrous first job threatens his fledgling electrician business. Can he prove that he belongs in Cairn Dhu?
Peaches McDowell is a gifted fashion student on the brink of her Master’s showcase. She’s focused, ambitious and bound tightly within the expectations of her formidable mother. Romance is a distraction she can’t afford. But when a crisis throws Peaches and Euan together at the repair shop, a spark is ignited…
Meanwhile, repair shop founder’s wife Roz McIntyre is also facing a turning point: a marriage in need of attention, an empty nest and the worrying question of what comes next.
As Beltane approaches and the town prepares for its wild and wonderful spring celebrations, can Peaches, Euan, Roz – and her husband – find the courage to let sparks fly?
A life-affirming and romantic story, set against a spirited small community, crackling bonfires and the magic of a Highland May Day.
Saving Christmas at the Highland Repair Shop #4
It’s the first of December and the Highland Repair Shop is facing a fresh challenge: a storm has damaged the town’s beloved Christmas lights. With the clock ticking before the official switch-on, the workshop must transform into a merry fixing factory to save Christmas in Cairn Dhu.
Meanwhile, Hamish Skelton has devoted his life to keeping the local ski centre alive – but with no snow and dwindling visitor numbers, his future is hanging by a thread. Then consultant Florrie Norheim arrives with a clear mission: to close the resort for good. Determined to prove herself, she isn’t looking for distractions, least of all a handsome young man who refuses to give up on his home. But are some places – and people – worth saving?
As Hamish and Florrie grow closer, the town rallies together and a long-lost love story is uncovered, will the spirit of Christmas work its magic on them all? ✨
Curl up with this gorgeously cosy, uplifting romance that’s brimming with festive charm!
Borrow a Bookshop series
The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday #1
The Borrow-a-Bookshop Bookshop Caf invites literature lovers to run their very own bookshop for a fortnight.
Spend your days talking books with customers in your own charming bookshop and serving up delicious cream teas in the cosy caf.
Bookworms, what are you waiting for? Your holiday is going to be LIT(erary).
Apply to: The Borrow-a-Bookshop Bookshop Caf, Down-a-long, Clove Lore, Devon.
Jude Crawley should be on top of the world. She’s just graduated as a mature student, so can finally go public about her relationship with Philosophy professor, Mack.
Until she sees Mack kissing another girl, and her dreams crumble. And worse, their dream holiday running a tiny bookshop in the harbour village of Clove Lore for two weeks is non-refundable.
Throwing caution to the winds, Jude heads down to Devon, eager to immerse herself in literature and heal her broken heart.
But there’s one problem six foot tall, brooding (but gorgeous) Elliot, who’s also reserved the bookshop holiday for two weeks
As Jude and Elliot put their differences aside to run the bookshop, it seems that Jude might be falling in love with more than just words. Until she discovers what Elliot is running from and why he’s hiding out in Clove Lore.
Can Jude find her own happy ending in a tiny, tumbledown bookshop? Or is she about to find out that her bookish holiday might have an unexpected twist in the tale
Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop #2
‘Tis the season for finding love and the perfect book
With just two weeks until Christmas, everything in Clove Lore should be perfect. But the latest holidaymaker to the Borrow a Bookshop is feeling far from festive
Icelandic ex-bookseller Magns Sturluson might be surrounded by love stories in the Bookshop, but he’s nursing a sadness that not even fiction can fix.
When Alexandra Robinson finds herself stranded in Clove Lore, she finds a safe place to hide from heartbreak. After all, all that’s waiting for her at home is a cheater boyfriend and the memories of her parents. As Alex finds herself embraced by the quirky village community, she finds her tough exterior thawing and as she grows closer to Magns, she finds an equally soft heart under his gruff shell.
It seems that Clove Lore is working its magic once again until a great flood on Christmas Eve brings devastation in its wake. It’s up to Magns and Alex to batten down the hatches and help bring the village back together again, while also introducing the locals to the Icelandic tradition of the jlabkafl Yule book flood where families and friends gather on Christmas Eve to exchange books and read together.
But can Magns and Alex truly rescue the ruins of the village, and salvage their Christmas spirit? Or is there another complication lurking even closer than they thought?
Something New at the Borrow a Bookshop #3
A fairytale ending isn’t just for fiction…
The Borrow-a-Bookshop is recovering, seven months on from the winter flood that destroyed all its stock, and the latest temporary bookseller, Joy Foley, arrives in Clove Lore with her daughter, five-year-old Radia Pearl. As a tech expert, she’ll be working on dragging the Bookshop into the twenty-first century.
But what no one knows is that Joy is running from Radia Pearl’s father. She can’t settle down here or anywhere … moving on is how she stays safe. So when Radia befriends Monty Bickleigh, ex-fisherman and the new cook at The Siren’s Tail pub, despite herself, Joy finds herself growing closer to him, and the quirky community of Clove Lore.
While Joy settles in to the bookshop, Araminta Clove-Congreve, local lady of the Manor, is finding running her new wedding business harder than anticipated. She needs to hire a chief wedding planner, and fast – and Joy’s family may have the answer.
As Joy finds her heart softening by the magic of Clove Lore, can her new friends – and Monty – be enough to convince Joy to stop running and find a new life?
Love Letters at the Borrow a Bookshop #4
Can she write her perfect love story?
Austen Archer is on her dream solo bookselling holiday, the new ‘borrower’ at the Borrow-A-Bookshop in Devon’s Clove Lore. While she has always loved poetry, her words have dried up since being fired by her last boss, bestselling author, Callista Flyte, a year ago.
Austen distracts herself with the Borrow-A-Bookshop, as well as her flirty online exchanges with an anonymous Parisian bookseller. Hiding from the world, Austen doesn’t notice that wedding planner, Patti, is falling for her and is too afraid to admit that she feels the chemistry too.
But as Patti and Austen grow closer, culminating in a magical day at the wildflower meadow, can Clove Lore work its customary magic and bring the two together? And will Austen find the confidence to risk her heart and write again?
A New Chapter at the Borrow a Bookshop
Will her new love story be the one she’s read before?
A decade after they said goodbye after graduation, old friends Harri and Annie reunite in the beautiful village of Clove Lore in Devon what more could these bookworms want than a holiday running the tumbledown bookshop?
Unbeknownst to Annie, Harri is arriving with a bruised heart after the end of his long-term relationship, while Annie is running away from painful memories in Texas.
Elsewhere in Clove Lore, the mysterious owner of Castle Lore has died, causing much gossip in the village. When Harri and Annie are sent to investigate the huge Gothic library, they find themselves locked in overnight and soon, are discovering their connection might be more than just good friends…
Standalones
The Gingerbread Christmas Village
Everyone deserves a Christmas treat…
The annual Wheaton gingerbread exhibit (a model village made of gingerbread) and grotto has been an important part of the sleepy Cotswold hamlet’s Christmas celebrations for decades.
For years the gingerbread exhibition drew visitors from across the region and each year the model town grew more elaborate and ambitious but recently, interest has been dwindling. The gingerbread grotto needs to be rehomed or close forever.
Sixty-four-year-old Margi, the event’s founder, has had enough of village life (and its total lack of eligible men) and is planning to sell up and head to Birmingham to live closer to her niece.
She has lost her spark and her Christmas spirit and decides this will be her last gingerbread village, but despairs when she finds her only support is her old friend, Izzy, her niece Lucy from Birmingham, and Fern, the shy young farmer’s daughter. Oh, and Patrick, the gorgeous, reliable school caretaker.
As if this wasn’t enough, Lucy is determined to get her out dating again and persuades her to try some online dating apps but Margi’s had her heart broken too many times and wonders if she has just missed her chance.
Can they save the Gingerbread Grotto and can Margi get her old spark and her Christmas spirit back?
Summer at the Highland Coral Beach (Port Willow #1)
Escape to the Highland Coral Beach and let the sunshine warm your heart…
Beatrice Halliday needs a holiday. Booking a trip to the Highlands on a whim, Beatrice hopes learning Gaelic in a beautiful Scottish coastal village will be just the change her life needs.
But Port Willow Bay isn’t exactly as the website promised… Instead of learning a new language, she’s booked in to learn the ancient skill of willow weaving, her hotel room is Princess and the Pea themed (with a stack of mattresses for her bed!) and her tutor is Atholl Fergusson, grumpy – but utterly gorgeous – landlord of the hotel where Beatrice is staying. Worse still, she’s the only one booked on the course, meaning lots of time spent up close with Atholl (and his mesmerising blue eyes).
But as Beatrice finds herself falling in love with Port Willow Bay and its people, and as she discovers the kind heart beneath Atholl’s stony exterior, can she really leave?
Escape to the beautiful Scottish Highlands with this utterly romantic, feelgood book; one visit to Port Willow Bay and you’ll want to come back!
Matchmaking at Port Willow (Port Willow #2)
Beatrice found love at Port Willow now she’s helping others
Since arriving in the Scottish Highlands village of Port Willow six months ago while nursing a broken heart, Beatrice Halliday has turned her life around.
Now she’s running The Princess and the Pea Inn, madly in love with gorgeous boyfriend Atholl Fergusson, and welcoming visitors from around the globe.
Life couldn’t be sweeter until a surprise discovery threatens to turn her life upside down. Trying to distract herself, eternal romantic Beatrice sets her sights on rekindling the romance between an empty-nester couple holidaying at the Inn, while also trying to bring together city girl Nina, who’s hiding her pain behind a tough exterior, and Atholl’s handsome, easygoing cousin, Mutt.
But as Beatrice is about to learn, sometimes the magic of Port Willow doesn’t work on everyone
A gorgeously uplifting read all about finding love and friendship, set in the beautiful Scottish countryside fans of Jenny Colgan and Trisha Ashley will love this heartwarming, totally romantic read.
Christmas at Frozen Falls
Sylvie Magnusson is going to be lonely this Christmas. Instead of jetting off for her honeymoon, she’s freezing at home in Cheshire. Guess that’s what happens when your fianc dumps you a week before your wedding
Sylvie’s best friend, Nari, plans a trip to see the Northern Lights and get Sylvie’s mojo back. But as their Lapland getaway approaches, Sylvie realises that Frozen Falls is the hometown of Stellan Virtanen, her dreamy Finnish ex-boyfriend, the one that got away.
When they meet, Stellan’s still gorgeous and her heart is warmed when he shows her the romantic delights of Lapland (as well as some adorable Husky puppies). But when she returns to England, can she really leave Stellan behind? Or will she find that her heart belongs in the frozen North?
One Winter’s Night (Kelsey Anderson #2)
A gorgeously uplifting, romantic read that will warm your heart – take a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon in magical wintertime…
It’s autumn in beautiful Stratford-Upon-Avon and Kelsey Anderson is enjoying her new life in her adopted town. Her Shakespearean tour guide days behind her, she’s now opened her own photography studio and loved up with boyfriend Jonathan even if a long-distance relationship is sometimes lonely.
When best friend Mirren Imrie moves down from Scotland, Kelsey is delighted to have her friend at her side and as the nights turn colder, Mirren throws herself into dating, until she finds herself growing closer to sexy journalist, Adrian Armadale. But when Mirren uncovers a long-buried scandal while working at the local newspaper, her big scoop might throw Kelsey’s and Jonathan’s life upside down. Will she choose her career over her friends’ happiness?
And when Jonathan returns from America and discovers the secrets Mirren has uncovered about his family, it throws his relationship with Kelsey onto shaky ground. Can they find their way back to love, before it becomes the winter of their discontent?
One Summer’s Night (Kelsey Anderson #1)
The path of true love never did run smoothdid it?
Kelsey Anderson is stuck in a rut so big, she’ll need a 4-wheel drive to get out. She’s just been made redundant from her dead-end job, and boyfriend Fran is so busy climbing up the career ladder that he’s forgotten how to have fun. She needs to change her life and fast.
Stumbling across an advert for tour guides in Stratford-Upon-Avon seems like the perfect way to bring the sunshine back. In an impulsive move, she moves from her small Scottish village to Shakespeare’s birthplace, armed only with a suitcase and her battered copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Kelsey quickly falls in love with the place, her job as a tourist guide allowing her to explore every inch of the picture-perfect town, from cosy cafes to the picturesque banks of the river.
But it’s not just the town that captures her heart, as she finds herself torn between the actors Will and Jonathan who both vie for her affections.
But will beautiful Peony, the lead actress at the Oklahoma theatre company where Jonathan is playing Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, play a role in keeping Kelsey and Jonathan apart?
Or will flirtatious, charming Will, the fellow tour guide who has set his sights on Kelsey, keep the star-crossed lovers from finding their happy ending?
