My mom used to disguise her romance novels under brown paper bags. Once, she even tore the cover clean off a particularly provocative paperback. Looking back, I can’t blame her. Fabio’s smoldering gaze peeking out from her Volvo station wagon driver’s side window at my parochial school pick-up line would have set tongues wagging. As Protestants at Marquette Catholic Middle School, we were already outliers. The thought of my principal, Sister Rebecca, catching my mom with a bodice ripper? Unthinkable.
But times have changed, and romance readers no longer care to hide their passion. More than twenty romance bookshops opened in the U.S. last year, according to The New York Times, and a wave of sultry Southern bookstores is helping rewrite the indie bookshop story. Atlanta turned up the heat this summer with the opening of All the Tropes. In November, Charleston and Dallas followed suit with grand openings for Sweeter Than Fiction and Blush Bookstore. From Louisville, Kentucky, to Panama City, Florida, spaces dedicated to love stories are spreading like mistletoe.
Melissa Saavedra, owner of Steamy Lit stores in Tampa and Deerfield Beach, Florida, says that because of the genre’s stigma, the romance faithful have been long overlooked. “Even within the book community, romance is still deemed as lesser than or not real literature,” Saavedra says. The proof is in the positioning. “Look at most indie bookstores,” she argues. “The romance section is usually small and tucked in the back corner.”
While online shopping might have once seemed like the obvious solution for discretion, today’s reader is looking for more than covert page-turners: They want to be part of a community, explains Megan Gallt, owner of Novel Grounds in Chesapeake, Virginia. Gallt has found success by offering more than just a judgment-free space to explore the diverse galaxy of subgenres. (Historical romance? Yes ma’am. Alien love stories? Yep, they have that too.) At her shop, book lovers connect over favorite authors, titles, and tropes through book clubs, signings, and events—like an upcoming pottery night where guests will paint cheeky, derriere-shaped mini pots.
Megan Gallt of Novel Grounds.
And not only can you find hot titles like Onyx Storm and the A Court of Thorns series at her shop, you’ll also find swag to go with it. “Take indie author Catherine Cowles,” Gallt says. “We have merch for every book in her series in all of her series.” That includes sticker packs, artwork, water bottles, and T-shirts. Gone are the days of hiding book covers. Gallt says today’s reader is ready to quite literally wear their romance-loving heart on their sleeve—yes, even in the once pearl-clutching South.
“I think historically the South has been known for its girly aesthetic, and my store fits into that perfectly,” says Callie Lamb, owner of Charleston’s wildly colorful Sweeter Than Fiction. “When I think of the South I think bright sundresses and jewelry, and what goes better with that than swoon-worthy romance books?”
Gallt, on the other hand, credits the rise of social media’s “BookTok” and the confidence of Gen Z. “They 100 percent do not care what anyone thinks,” she says. That attitude seems to be contagious.
As more readers discover places like Beach Read Books in Wilmington, Virginia, or Trope, the romance bookshop on wheels in Charlotte, North Carolina, what had some crying “smut!” now has a legion of devoted fans ready to embrace every dashing detail and the stores that proudly sell them. It makes sense to Lamb: “Who doesn’t love a happily ever after?”
