And business is booming.<\/p>\n
Katie Mullin opened In Bloom Bookery<\/a> in Old Town Temecula on March 16 after she had a hunch that others in her town might be yearning for the same thing she was \u2013 a physical store where a bookseller could point you in the direction of your next book boyfriend. A place where a community of romance readers could link up for author events and book clubs.<\/p>\n \u201cThat Sunday we opened, it was crazy,\u201d she said during a recent call. \u201cWe had over 1,000 people lined up. Some people waited in line for three and a half hours. We were running water and sunscreen down the line the whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe sold about 80% of our books; the shelves were really bare at the end of the day,\u201d Mullin continued. \u201cIt was really exciting, but it was also like, \u2018Whoa, now we\u2019ve got to restock.\u2019 It was a surreal moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Mae Tingstrom, who opened Ventura\u2019s Smitten<\/a> bookshop over Valentine\u2019s Day weekend in 2024,\u00a0recalls telling herself, \u201cIf you build it, they will come,\u201d as she worked tirelessly to get her dream shop up and running.<\/p>\n For Tingstrom, specializing in romance was an obvious choice.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I just love to swoon,\u201d she joked during a recent call.<\/p>\n As for the wide appeal of the genre that\u2019s become a billion-dollar industry, Tingstrom chalks it up to the genre\u2019s ironclad promise that everything will work out in the end.<\/p>\n \u201cLife can suck, and we all want to have an escape from our realities, and if it\u2019s actually a genre romance, it has to have a happy ending \u2013 that\u2019s the appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re sexual beings, and I think we as a society kind of pretend that sex doesn\u2019t exist for whatever reason,\u201d Tingstrom added. \u201cAnd I think a lot of these romance books speak to our own human nature that maybe we\u2019re not able to fully express.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that reading romance lit hasn\u2019t exactly been widely respected by the literati at large.\u00a0Many readers of the genre have considered it a \u201cguilty\u201d pleasure, albeit due to what bestselling romance author Maya Rodale found when researching the matter: internalized scrutiny and misogyny.<\/p>\n In the \u201990s, the largely female romance readership could expect to get side eye when someone spotted Fabio on their paperback cover, and even today, women who post \u201cshelfies\u201d on platforms like X have been slammed<\/a> in the comments for the romance novels that fill their bookshelves.<\/p>\n Rodale dug into the history of this disrepute in her 2015 book, \u201cDangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels, Explained,<\/a>\u201d finding that the source of the scorn dated back to the era of Jane Austen, and the fear that women would take their cues from these \u201cridiculous\u201d books, that they might adjust their standards in a way that made society \u2014 i.e., men \u2014 feel uncomfortable and threatened.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether we call them gothics, domestic fiction, sentimental novels, chick-lit, trashy books, romances, or romance novels, affordable novels written by women, about women, and for women have promoted powerful and revolutionary messages to women for centuries,\u201d Rodale wrote.<\/p>\n As she researched what was originally her master\u2019s thesis, but ultimately became her book, Rodale conducted two surveys among both romance readers and non-romance readers and found that 51% of readers have felt they should keep their romance reading secret. Her survey also found that 89% thought romance readers are looked down upon, and 67% thought romance novels don\u2019t get the respect they deserve.<\/p>\n While Rodale\u2019s surveys predated the 2015 release of her book, she recently released a new and expanded version with an updated foreword titled, \u201cAre Romance Novels Still Dangerous Books?\u201d In the update, she reported that \u201c\u2026these days, there is a willingness for our culture at large to engage with the romance genre with a little less snark and a lot more open-mindedness \u2026 romance readers are more openly unapologetic in their love for the genre and have significantly less tolerance for other people\u2019s bull\u2014- about our reading habits. Good. One simply cannot get away with slagging off the genre without attracting the ire of Romancelandia.\u201d<\/p>\n Her message was clear: Romancelandia has become an\u00a0economic superpower, and its citizens will no longer tolerate your scorn.<\/p>\n When asked if the genre was finally getting its due respect, Emilia Rhodes, executive editor at Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, which specializes in romance and romantasy, said that the market respects its success.\u00a0\u201cObviously, the market is huge, but I think what we\u2019re seeing is, you can\u2019t underestimate the economic power of women.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re really showing, \u2018This is what we want to read. This is what we want to do, and we enjoy this. We think it\u2019s fun, we think it\u2019s worth spending our money on.\u2019 \u2026 Therefore, everyone has to pay attention, because it\u2019s driving the market so much. I have found that it really has brought in a lot of new readers who maybe hadn\u2019t read fantasy before, or romantasy or romance. People are now seeing it in a whole new light.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only are people seeing it in a new light, but they\u2019re seeing it everywhere: Bookstagram, Booktok<\/a>, pop-up bookmobiles<\/a>, they\u2019ve all got romance on the brain, and social media has helped romance readers find each other, shed the outdated shame, and feel a sense of community.<\/p>\n Becca Title opened the country\u2019s third romance bookstore in San Diego\u2019s North Park in 2022. Last year, she moved Meet Cute Romance Bookshop to a larger space in La Mesa. \u201cI\u2019ve been a lifelong reader of the genre,\u201d Title said during a recent call. \u201cIt\u2019s also a genre that hasn\u2019t always been a fit in indie bookstores. A lot of Indies historically don\u2019t stock it on the theory that it doesn\u2019t sell, when I think the issue is that they didn\u2019t have any expertise in it. They weren\u2019t welcoming to that segment of readers, and so it wasn\u2019t selling for them. Definitely, it does sell.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt just was largely selling in mass markets, in grocery stores, in big box stores, in places that didn\u2019t have the cache and prestige of other places where books are sold,\u201d Title continued. \u201cBut I think that is changing because of the broad popularity and the ability for people to find each other online and talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Title said that while traditional publishing has upped its game by publishing more diverse stories in the last five years, there are still improvements to be made. \u201cThat\u2019s where indie publishing and self-publishing are so important, and it is also a space where the large publishing houses still have a lot of work to do. Not only in telling queer stories, but in telling stories about characters of color and giving contracts to authors of color to be able to tell those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephanie Pao, who opened the mobile book truck The Fleuria<\/a> in March, is proof that the romance community is strong and thriving. She frequently posts up across the South Bay, Long Beach and Culver City at night markets, breweries and even flower shops. She also hosts a variety of events like audiobook walking meet-ups, social book clubs and one of her most popular, a book swap where romance readers meet up to trade their recent reads.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a very vibrant community in L.A. who are very passionate about books and connecting over them,\u201d she said during a recent call. \u201cRomance readers are the most voracious readers, so I often see people buying many books at once or coming back (very) frequently. It\u2019s really fun to be a part of this community that not only loves books, but voraciously loves books.\u201d<\/p>\n While there are now brick-and-mortar romance bookshops popping up not just all around Southern California, but across the globe, Culver City\u2019s The Ripped Bodice was the first romance bookstore in the country. Sisters and co-owners Leah Koch and Bea Hodges-Koch opened the bookshop in 2016 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. In 2023, The Ripped Bodice opened its second location in Brooklyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cRomance gives people hope,\u201d Leah Koch said via a recent email exchange. \u201cNo matter how messy or complicated the journey, you know you\u2019re headed toward something good \u2014 and that\u2019s a powerful thing, especially in the world we live in. Plus, romance isn\u2019t one thing; it contains multitudes. There\u2019s something for everyone, whether you want to laugh, cry, swoon, or scream into a pillow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u200b\u200bThe most rewarding part has been watching people walk into the store and immediately feel seen. Romance readers are so often underestimated or dismissed, and getting to create a space that validates their taste, celebrates their joy, and treats their stories with the respect they deserve \u2014 that\u2019s the heart of it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n And unlike some one-click online retailers, these romance bookstores are a part of the community they serve.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, we\u2019ve gotten to be part of people\u2019s real love stories too \u2014 engagements, big first dates, babies, new jobs. It\u2019s a huge privilege to be woven into the fabric of people\u2019s lives like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 9:30 AM PDT<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OCR-L-ROMANCEBOOKSTORES-0803-02.jpg\")
The exterior of In Bloom Bookery, which opened in Old Town Temecula in March. (Courtesy of Katie Mullin.)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OCR-L-ROMANCEBOOKSTORES-0803-01_3621a1.jpg\")
A painted mural inside Meet Cute Romace Bookshop in La Mesa, Ca. (Photo credit: Katie Fisher)
\nA genre\u2019s sullied reputation<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OCR-L-ROMANCEBOOKSTORES-0803-01_11d688.jpg\")
A display of blind dates with a book packages for sale at Meet Cute Romace Bookshop in La Mesa, Ca. (Photo credit: Katie Fisher)
\nThe power of women<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OCR-L-ROMANCEBOOKSTORES-0803-01_d194e3.jpg\")
The interior of In Bloom Bookery which opened earlier this year in Old Town Temecula. (Courtesy of Katie Mullin.)
\nRomance builds community<\/p>\n![\"Bookmarks](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OCR-L-ROMANCEBOOKSTORES-0803-01.jpg\")
Bookmarks sold at The Ripped Bodice. (Courtesy of The Ripped Bodice.)<\/p>\n