{"id":34522,"date":"2025-07-24T20:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/34522\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T20:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:03:11","slug":"thirst-establishes-itself-as-pillar-in-local-book-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/34522\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirst establishes itself as pillar in local book community"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2014 Tucked between an art studio and a barre studio is a jewel-toned teal storefront on North Avenue on the border of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, Wis. A bay window offers a peek inside a pastel pink wonderland where happy endings are guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Kerrie Berg, a self-proclaimed \u201csmut sommelier,\u201d opened Thirst<\/a>, an all-romance bookstore, in late May, but her dreamy storefront has been her dream for a long time.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Kerrie Berg, a self-proclaimed \u201csmut sommelier,\u201d opened\u00a0Thirst<\/a>, an all-romance bookstore, in late May, but her dreamy storefront has been her dream for a long time
\nHer shelves are stocked with local authors, the hottest books trending on social media and everything in between
\nThirst aims to offer a space for everyone, too. Berg has already started book clubs for readers interested in specific sub-genres of romance. She has pop-ups and monthly after-hours events, with plans to add more programming, ranging from author signings to author readings and craft nights<\/p>\n

Berg, a lifelong Wisconsinite, grew up in a house of \u201clanguage and literature people.\u201d Her parents read to her constantly, trying everything from Shakespeare to fairytales.<\/p>\n

Listening to stories turned to reading, and reading turned into dreams of opening her own bookstore one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very romantic idea of what that would be. That you\u2019d be sitting around reading books all day and talking to people,\u201d Berg said. \u201cNow that I\u2019ve had one for almost [two months], it\u2019s a busy thing. It\u2019s actually busy and vibrant. It\u2019s blowing my mind how exciting that is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Aliza Baran)<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s busier than she imagined when she was a kid, perhaps it\u2019s even better.<\/p>\n

On opening day, there was a four-hour line that spanned for four blocks just to get into Thirst. The line stood strong for five-and-a-half hours.<\/p>\n

The next day, Berg was met with yet another line.<\/p>\n

On her third day of business, Berg went outside to place her sign on the sidewalk and she was met with a small crowd of people waiting to get in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened my door to put on my sign, and they were like, \u2018Oh, we need to come in.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Oh I was just gonna put out my sign,\u2019 but they\u2019re pushing to come into my store in the cutest way possible. They wanted it, and I obliged, I promise you,\u201d Berg recounted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside the store, which is painted pink with accents of blue \u2014 a nod to the cover of \u201cVariation\u201d by Rebecca Yarros \u2014 is a physical culmination of Berg\u2019s favorite books and her \u201cto be read\u201d list, or as many in the book community call it, a TBR.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the hardest thing is putting it down and not reading it,\u201d Berg said. \u201cYou\u2019re unpacking basically your physical TBR, and you have to keep putting them down and telling them you\u2019re going to come back to them later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her domed shelves fill up quickly, as do the tables that run down the center of her store. One of those shelves is dedicated to Shain Rose, who wrote one of Berg\u2019s favorite books, \u201cBetween Commitment and Betrayal,\u201d the first of a four-piece series. Rose is from Milwaukee, which Berg did not even realize when she first picked up the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only time that\u2019s happened, where I was like, someone is from Milwaukee, and I was sitting in Milwaukee reading a book from a writer that was in Milwaukee and I found them kind of myself, like organically myself,\u201d she recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Chris Homayouni)<\/p>\n

Her shelves are stocked with local authors, the hottest books trending on social media and everything in between.<\/p>\n

After all, the inclusivity and diversity the genre offers is why Berg fell in love with romance in the first place when she started reading it in middle school.<\/p>\n

\u201cRomance is for everyone, and romance has always had a special place for me. \u2026 Romance, for me, is one of the most inclusive, most amazing genres of literature. It\u2019s really doing the hard work to bring all different kinds of people together and represent them, represent them in book [form], represent them on cover and represent them as authors,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we are able to have something for everyone in our stores. So it\u2019s body positivity \u2014 you\u2019re seeing plus-size women on covers and being main characters in stories. You\u2019re seeing all different groups represented,\u201d she added. \u201cIn my opinion, it\u2019s kind of a golden age of romance writing. It\u2019s never been more exciting, more inclusive. Now you have so much of it out there. It is an amazing time to be a romance writer. It is an amazing time to be a romance reader.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Chris Homayouni)<\/p>\n

Thirst aims to offer a space for everyone, too. Berg has already started book clubs for readers interested in specific sub-genres of romance. She has pop-ups and monthly after-hours events, with plans to add more programming, ranging from author signings to author readings and craft nights.<\/p>\n

Downstairs is a small space with colorful seating that offers a nook for people to read or socialize during these kinds of events, or even during regular business hours. It\u2019s just the beginning of cultivating community at Thirst.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one piece of the 1930s building\u2019s charm, complete with original windows and doors and beams of natural light.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s perfect. It is such a lovely space. It opens itself up more and more to me too, like the storefront itself is so cute and so pretty. \u2026 It has this wonderful vibe. And it\u2019s the actual storefront that I envisioned, like, years ago, like I feel like I manifested it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

People from all over have come to see the dreamy space. Berg said she should have started a map to track where customers were coming from starting opening day as she greeted people from Michigan, Illinois and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Chris Homayouni)<\/p>\n

But the local readers, she said, keep coming back.<\/p>\n

She loves to recommend reads \u2014 some of her other favorites include \u201cThe Bridge Kingdom\u201d by Danielle Jensen and \u201cMy Dark Romeo\u201d by Parker S. Huntington and LJ Shen \u2014 and while the ACOTAR (\u201cA Court of Thornes and Roses\u201d) series is a fan favorite she suggests generally often, she said she also loves to personalize her recommendations to see what readers would really click with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to find you. I want to find you what you want to read. I\u2019m not just trying to sell you the first thing that comes across. We want to find the right thing for you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Berg said she made a few of those recommendations the first weekend she opened, and has customers coming back every week looking for her next suggestion.<\/p>\n

From romantasy to historical romance, there\u2019s plenty of subgenres to choose from; Berg said she “voraciously” reads them all. There\u2019s also varying levels of \u201csmut\u201d at her store.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about closed-door romance, that means where there\u2019s no sex written on page, I absolutely carry that, too, and I make sure to have a little bit of that in different [sub-genres],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Thirst doesn\u2019t have a young adult section, but it does have books that lean that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely have that spectrum between like cozy, feel-good, a gentle rom-com to absolutely the other end of that spectrum, and I love all of it myself too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That may surprise some people, based on the name of the store. Thirst, she said, was not the first idea she had for the name of the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirst had a couple different iterations. A couple of years ago, I had a couple of names that, at the time, I thought were pretty amazing. And now they would be eye-rolling for sure,\u201d Berg admitted.<\/p>\n

One was \u201cEnemies to Lovers.\u201d However, someone said she shouldn\u2019t have the word \u201cenemies\u201d in the name of her business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirst as a name came up, maybe like a year and a half ago, two years ago. And then it just took time and gumption and savings and other work and other things and then ultimately, it was finding a location,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

True to the trials of opening a new business, Berg said she had planned to open in 2024, but it didn\u2019t work out. Then she stumbled across her beloved 1930s building in Jan. 2025 and Thirst finally came to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Chris Homayouni)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a labor of love from the beginning, and hopefully, for Berg, it\u2019s a love story that will last.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 Tucked between an art studio and a barre studio is a jewel-toned teal storefront on North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[6325,28564,2722,223,28,88,3,452,1745],"class_list":{"0":"post-34522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-aly-prouty","9":"tag-app-local-business","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-books","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-wisconsin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34522","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=34522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}