I’m afraid I have. I caught it back in 1984, the year of the line’s debut. That’s when my mother first starting receiving the books monthly by the half-dozen, boxed in cardboard, and to the wrath of my father who lamented the subscription fees. (It wasn’t the only box of books she received each month.)

It’s easy to see how a 13-year-old Catholic school girl could have loved these stories, fallen in love with the very idea of being swept off her feet…and (a little too early) into the bedroom.

As a 43-year-old? I’m having fun swimming in the retro. Brown suits and yellow dresses. Phone books and travel agencies. Illustrated front covers. A lost art.

And the marketing campaigns. My favorite – a 1-800 number to call to assist Bantam with research on its readership. These bits of ephemera are making my re-reading of the Loveswept line more fun than even Joan Elliot Pickart’s opening-scene, open-mouthed, stranger-danger kisses.

Try one for yourself. The entire Bantam line was digitally re-released in 2011.

Enjoy old-school historical romance? Me too! Start with Wolfe Island. It’s available in paperback, ebook, and Audible.

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