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\nA boom in romance bookstores<\/p>\nBookstores like Lovestruck and The Ripped Bodice (which has a flagship store in Los Angeles) have begun popping up all over the U.S., from Wichita, Kansas, to Wilmington, North Carolina, to Hopkinsville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n
Of the 157 romance-dedicated bookstores in the American Booksellers Association, more than half opened within the last two years, said Allison Hill, CEO of the trade group for independent sellers.<\/p>\n
\u201cRomance books have been one of the fastest growing book sales categories in recent years, driven by a number of factors including the need for escape reading and BookTok,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n
And the genre has evolved. \u201cThe romance genre is more diverse in every way including character identity and plot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Lovestruck](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Books-Romance_Novels-Community_80940.jpg\")
Lovestruck Books owner Rachel Kanter poses in her bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Dec. 15, 2024. (Reagan Byrne\/Lovestruck Books via AP)<\/p>\n
Lovestruck\u2019s owner, Rachel Kanter, called the boom \u201cincredible \u2014 and honestly, overdue. Romance has always been one of the most commercially successful genres, but for a long time it didn\u2019t get the respect or space it deserved in the literary world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romance-specific bookstores, she says, \u201care places where readers can feel joy, comfort, and connection \u2014 and where love is taken seriously as a literary theme.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lifeline during COVID<\/p>\n
As with many hobbies, romance fandom solidified and expanded after the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pandemic had pushed so many people toward reading for escape and comfort, and romance became a lifeline for a lot of folks,\u201d said Kanter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, there was a wider cultural shift happening \u2014 people were rethinking what mattered, craving joy and softness, and looking to support indie businesses that reflected their values. Romance, with all its hope and heart, met that moment beautifully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Reimagining the romantic bond<\/p>\n
Romance has countless subgenres \u2014 hockey romance, Western romance, LGBTQ romance, even romance set on prison planets. But a common theme is their \u201cinherently hopeful storylines,\u201d says Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan, a 52-year-old freelance writer and editor in New York who said she\u2019s read \u201chundreds\u201d of romance novels.<\/p>\n
\u201cRomance must have a happily-ever-after \u2014 or at least a happily-for-now. Romance writers and readers are very clear on this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Romantic fiction that doesn\u2019t end that way? That\u2019s just a love story.<\/p>\n
Traits of the romance genre also include strong character descriptions, attraction, conflict, and a satisfying resolution and emotional growth. Expect plenty of steam \u2014 some authors deploy it explicitly, others are more tame.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a long-standing culture of (mostly) women reading and sharing these books across generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is pleasurable to reimagine courtship or the romantic bond,\u201d said Jayashree Kamble, professor of English at LaGuardia Community College and president of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. \u201cThere is limited risk involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kamble has been a voracious romance reader since her teenage years in India, where she devoured Harlequin romances.<\/p>\n
Romance novels, she said, are \u201ca lovely reminder that individualism and companionship can go together. These are basic bonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community: online and in real life<\/p>\n
Podcasts, too, have become a source for discovering what\u2019s trending. Andrea Martucci, creator and host of the romance-focused \u201cShelf Love\u201d podcast, said romance bookstores have become places of connection akin, in some ways, to churches \u2014 for the romantically devoted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can go to a bookstore and not just find people who love books,\u201d she said, \u201cbut find people who love the very same books I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Annabel Monaghan, author of several love stories including \u201cNora Goes Off Script,\u201d puts it, \u201cPeople who read romance want to feel good. And when you gather a bunch of people who want to feel good, it\u2019s magic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TRACEE M. HERBAUGH CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) \u2014 Romance novels have always spiced up quiet nights. Now, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88,19570,19571,19572],"class_list":["post-21566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-romance-book-stores","tag-romance-novels","tag-where-to-buy-romance-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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