Maybe it’s the hot pink Mitsubishi Minicab tricked out with a wooden armoire filled with books or merchandise, or the adorable golden retriever in the logo, or perhaps the gazillion online followers … but Good Girl Books is getting noticed.
And for Dr. Rayanne Streeter, an associate professor of sociology at Maryville College, that’s a very good thing. As the co-owner of the bookstore — its brick-and-mortar version located in the Rocky Hill neighborhood of West Knoxville — more exposure means more business, and she’s grateful for it.
But the real reason Good Girl Books is getting so much attention these days … inclusion in a recent People magazine feature on romance bookstores, almost 75,000 followers on Instagram, excitement from students when they discover their favorite gender studies professor has a cool side hustle … is also the one that makes Streeter the happiest:
No shame. No shame for what readers select, and certainly no shame for the genre itself. Yes, romance novels have long been disparaged by bibliophiles who consider such tomes beneath them, and even the customers themselves sometimes look and feel sheepish when they come by to pick up the latest steamy read … but Streeter, as a proud feminist, is a fierce advocate for romance, and she urges readers who enjoy such books to revel in that enjoyment.
“When I read, I exclusively read romance novels outside of academia, because I want to feel happy, and the world is really scary,” Streeter said on a warm late August Friday afternoon, the carefully manicured displays drawing almost as much attention as the Good Girl Books truck, parked in the middle of the store via a roll-up bay door.
“The world can be tough sometimes, and I just want to feel joy,” Streeter continued. “I just personally love romance, and all of my friends love romance. In the beginning, I saw some other romance-only bookstores popping up across the United States, and I thought, ‘I can focus just on this.’ Rather than have a bookstore with all of these different genres, I wanted to focus on the one that I’m the most knowledgeable about and most passionate about.
“As a feminist gender scholar, I love that we’re creating a space that celebrates a genre that’s often disparaged or has a lot of stigma associated with it. It was really important to me to create a space in which people can feel joy and don’t have to feel shame around this thing that they love.”
A fairy tale beginning
Streeter’s side quest to become a purveyor of passionate publications began roughly a year ago, when she began looking for creative outlets outside of academia.
“Not that teaching isn’t creative, but it’s a different sort of creativity, and I didn’t want it to be my entire life,” said Streeter, who earned her Ph.D. in sociology from Virginia Tech in 2019, the same year she joined the MC faculty. Streeter also holds a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies and serves as the coordinator of the Gender and Women’s Studies minor at Maryville College.
“I was just looking for something a little bit different,” she added.
A bookstore focused on romance sounded like a fine idea, at least until she began researching the price of real estate in East Tennessee. A TikTok video from an Arizona book lover who conducted business out of a mobile book dispensary inspired her to pursue the next best option, however, and she began searching online for the right vehicle.
Voila: A 1995 Mitsubishi Minicab popped up, already painted pink, and it felt like destiny, she said.
“So we found the truck, and I have a friend who is a carpenter, and he helped me build the shelves, and we just started selling romance novels across Knoxville,” she said.
Because it’s a stick shift, and a right-hand drive at that (meaning the steering wheel is on the right side of the truck), her husband, Dan Morehead, had to drive it, with Streeter following in the family car to their intended destination — markets and local businesses and other public gatherings (including the East Tennessee Maker’s Market events held seasonally on the Maryville College campus). Their dog, Poppy — a golden retriever and “the original ‘Good Girl,’” Streeter added — was a frequent passenger, and on social media, Poppy and the pink truck were hits.
“It’s really funny, when I’m driving behind him, and I see people walking down the road and craning their necks to look at this pink truck,” she said. “It’s fun to get reactions, like when we stop to get gas, and people really want to talk about the truck. ‘What do you use it for? Where did you get it?’ They always have a lot of questions, and at events, the husbands and boyfriends of the women who are big romance lovers will stop and look in the truck, ask a lot of questions, and sometimes even try to get inside!”
Every weekend for eight months, the couple and Poppy took the truck out, setting up wherever they were welcomed. It’s a simple strategy — park, open up the center compartment that holds books and merch, put everything on display, then spend the day talking with visitors and encouraging them to indulge their sultry sides. The first such pop-up was at Magpie’s Bakery in Knoxville’s Happy Holler neighborhood; Streeter’s friend, Katie Hopper, helped her set it up and now works behind the counter at Good Girl Books whenever she’s needed.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so much fun,” Hopper said. “It’s hard work, moving 30- and 40-pound boxes of books around, but we have a good time while we do it! But the best feeling is when women walk in the door, they know it’s a safe space, and they know that we’re inclusive and that there’s no shame or any kind of stigma about what they’re getting here. We’re like, ‘Yeah, be loud and proud about liking romance, because we support you!’”
A permanent home
After eight to 10 months of weekend excursions, a fellow member of a book club to which Streeter belonged asked if she was open to a partnership; if so, Lauren Morrill suggested, she could help Streeter out with some financial backing. (As it happens, Morrill is herself a romance author of “spicy adult and sweet YA (young adult) romance,” according to her website.)
Streeter was overwhelmed with gratitude, and after a bit of searching, she and the store’s new co-owner found space right beside Flourish Flowers, 7685 Northshore Drive in Rocky Hill.
“We became really good friends, and she’s been such a big cheerleader,” Streeter said. “From the beginning, she’s said, ‘You can do this! We can do this!’”
A friendship with the owners of Flourish helped; that the building has a garage door facing Northshore was even better, so that the truck could serve as the biggest conversation piece in the store.
“Again, it just felt like destiny, so we spent my summer vacation painting and building shelves,” Streeter said.
On June 28, the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Good Girl truck, Good Girl Books officially opened its brick-and-mortar location. Around 750 people came out that day, and when the doors opened, there was already a line down the parking lot and spilling over into the adjacent Richy Kreme Donuts lot.
“The response has been incredible, just really enthusiastic from the moment we started the truck and on into the bookstore as well,” Streeter said. “We have built such a beautiful community through romance, but if we take a step back and look at the book industry as a whole, romance is the number one selling genre of fiction. It is literally a billion-dollar industry.
“It holds up the book publishing world, so that publishers can take a chance on more experimental works, because they know they can always fall back on romance.”
For the uninitiated, “romance” is the overarching brand name of a variety of sub-genres, all catering to different tastes and desires. At Good Girl Books, Streeter and Hopper can direct you to anything that piques your interest or titillates your curiosity.
“We have a variety of genres. The store is broken up into fantasy romance, contemporary, historical, young adult and dark romance,” Streeter said. “And even then, within those are subgenres, so if you’re feeing the paranormal, we can direct you to that. If you want fairies instead of dragons, we can do that. Or if you’re a contemporary romance girl, but you want cowboys, we can give you cowboys — or even cowgirls, if that’s what you’re looking for!
“Romance is really big, so we have something for everyone. And because we want to make sure that this bookstore is inclusive of all social identities, we have a huge selection of queer books in general; of books by authors of color; of books by writers of different abilities; of indie authors and traditionally published authors and so many more. We’re trying to make sure that everyone feels represented and feels safe and included here.”
Ties to Maryville College
Students who have taken Streeter’s classes, and the faculty members who teach alongside her, expect nothing less. Her teaching and research interests, after all, include gender, bodies and popular culture, specifically how women push back against boundaries and limitations in social media, television and film, and ways in which women can embrace and promote the body positive movement.
“I have been intentional about keeping the bookstore and the classroom separate, but when you teach gender and women’s studies classes, or when you teach a social inequality class, issues of gender inequality obviously come up,” she said. “And with something like romance, which is historically read by women, there’s a lot of stigma associated with it, and that’s because it’s considered feminine because women like it.
“That’s a good example I can use in classes of, ‘Look at our androcentric society; of course they’re not going to like it, and of course it’s going to be stigmatized, because it’s part of the larger ideas of the patriarchy and misogyny.’ So in that way, it is useful as a good, real-world example of the theories and ideas we’re talking about.”
She does not, however, go out of her way to promote the business in the classroom. Students aren’t getting Good Girl Books swag for extra credit, or store-branded bookmarks for their textbooks. They’re two separate entities … but for female students who look up to her, discovering the association often feels like being let in on a thrilling secret.
“I remember it was a Friday before summer break, I think, and I was wearing a Good Girl Books-branded shirt, because I was just coming in for some meetings with students,” Streeter said. “A student saw it and mentioned that she followed them on Instagram, and when I told her I was one of the owners, we had this fun little conversation. And then last spring, at the Maker’s Market, some students came by and saw me with the truck, and they were like, ‘Oh! You own this?’
“So the students have been very wonderful and supportive, and I think they’re excited that their professor likes romance, too. It’s certainly something that they connect with. And then my colleagues, especially ones in the Division of Social Sciences, are such cheerleaders. When we were featured in People magazine (“BookTok Loves Love. Now, Romance Bookstores are Feeling It, Too,” published on Aug. 15), the way in which that link got sent around among them was so sweet.”
She’s not good at taking compliments, she admitted, but the proof of the ways in which Good Girl Books resonates is irrefutable: With 75,000 followers, it’s the second most-followed romance bookstore on Instagram, and while the truck doesn’t see as much action as it once did now that the business has a physical location, it still catches the eyes of those who see hot pink and wonder, “What’s that all about?”
And Streeter and Morrill are just getting started. In August, they held their first author meet-and-greet (with Melissa Grace, who writes “sweet and steamy romance”); for the Oct. 3 release of “The Life of a Showgirl,” the new album by pop superstar Taylor Swift, the ladies at Good Girl Books are holding a release party to listen to the new record and talk about their favorite genre.
“The Venn diagram of Taylor Swift and romance book girlies is almost a circle, so we’re excited about that!” she said with a laugh. “And beyond that, we want to continue to build communities. We have our first book club meeting at the end of September, and space in that sold out in less than 24 hours.”
Another customer enters the store, apologizing for wanting to look over a shelf behind which Streeter is standing. She waves her hands, shaking her head.
“Not at all, not at all! Let me get out of your way! You go get your dark romance on, girlie!”
A few minutes later, the same customer is checking out, holding a handful of new reads and talking with Hopper about which one she’ll probably try first. For Streeter, it’s just one more meaningful moment in a business that’s been filled with them … and hopefully will continue to be, as long as romantic escapes are demanded by women who can walk out of Good Girl with their arms loaded up and their heads held high.
“I didn’t expect it from the beginning,” Streeter said. “You know, you always hope you’re going to be successful when you try something like this, but you’re taking a chance. You’re stepping out on a limb. But the way in which people have shown up consistently for Good Girl Books and for me and for Poppy has been incredible.”