MIRA is Harlequin's single-title fiction imprint, launched in 1994. Much of its list reissues novels first published in Harlequin or Silhouette lines, so many MIRA copies are reprints, not first editions.
Mira is a publisher active from 1982. We track 143 editions it published between 1982 and 2021, 116 of them first editions across 135 books. How Mira marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Mira
MIRA Books is the Toronto-based imprint for single-title, mainstream fiction within Harlequin Enterprises, the romance publisher. Harlequin started it in October 1994. In the early 1990s several Harlequin romance writers had been leaving for other publishers to write longer standalone novels, and MIRA was meant to give that kind of book a home inside the company.
For its first few years MIRA brought out four novels a month, but only one was new; the other three repackaged older titles by established Harlequin authors. Over time the list widened into thrillers, historical fiction and other mainstream genres, and crime fiction became what the imprint is best known for. Writers published by MIRA include Tess Gerritsen, Erica Spindler, Alex Kava, Pam Jenoff, M. J. Rose and Elizabeth Flock.
Harlequin itself began in Winnipeg in 1949 as a paperback reprint house, with Richard Bonnycastle among its founders. The Toronto Star's owners bought a majority holding in late 1975 and the rest in 1981. Torstar sold Harlequin to News Corp in 2014, and it now runs as a division of HarperCollins.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Mira's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Mira first editions
What to look for
MIRA reissues a great deal of older material, so most MIRA copies of a romance by a long-established Harlequin or Silhouette author are reprints. Treat a MIRA copy as a first only when the novel was written for MIRA.
Before 1994
MIRA was launched in 1994. A MIRA copy of any novel first published before then is a later reprint; the first edition is the earlier issue, often a Harlequin, Silhouette or Mills & Boon category paperback.
1990s
In MIRA's first years three of every four books a month were repackaged backlist from other Harlequin lines, so check the original publication date before assuming a 1990s MIRA paperback is a first.
2000s to 2010s
Reissues continued: Daniel & Ian (MIRA mass-market paperback, April 2007) gathers two Nora Roberts MacGregor novels first published around 1990.
MIRA reissues a great deal of older material, so most MIRA copies of a romance by a long-established Harlequin or Silhouette author are reprints. Treat a MIRA copy as a first only when the novel was written for MIRA. Before 1994 - MIRA was launched in 1994. A MIRA copy of any novel first published before then is a later reprint; the first edition is the earlier issue, often a Harlequin, Silhouette
How many Mira books does MyVolumes track?
We track 143 editions published by Mira, 116 of them first editions, across 135 books.
