It’s a Love Story: New romance bookstore and coffee shop in Hayden normalizes an oft-maligned genre

Like many readers, Lisa Honig can’t resist a good love story.

Romance, “that’s my book of choice,” said Honig, 65.

“I would like to get away and, you know, fall in love every time I sit down with my book. It’s like a little vacation. Happy ever after.”

It’s a Love Story, the first romance-only bookstore in the Inland Northwest, began welcoming customers in Hayden, Idaho on June 1.

Honig met a friend at the café-bookshop for a coffee date and said she fell in love with the concept, and she’s not alone.

Dozens of specialized romance bookstores have been cropping up around the U.S. in recent years.

Spokane author Asa Maria Bradley, who writes romance novels featuring shapeshifters and topics from Norse mythology, said it seemed logical.

“There’s just so much of it. I mean, it’s the biggest -selling genre in terms of revenue in the fiction world,” she said. “In order to get all of that on the shelf, it just feels like you need a separate bookstore.”

Auntie’s Bookstore in downtown Spokane has witnessed the genre grow, expanding its romance section from one shelving unit to three over time, according to an email from manager Kerry Halls. She wrote that she remembers seeing a panel on romance at a trade show in 2019 and learned that the industry would begin throwing its weight behind the genre after noting how successful it was with self-published authors.

“Readers were blowing these self-published authors up in a way publishers couldn’t ignore, and the gist was essentially ‘Get your romance section right; if you stock it they will come,’ ” Halls wrote.

Rebecca Zanetti, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author local to Hayden, said that romance writing is much more diverse than people may think.

“Sometimes when people think romance, they think the old Fabio with the ripped bodice and the and the pirate ship. And really, romance crosses all the genres,” Zanetti said. “I write romantic thrillers, and there’s romantic suspense, and you could go in and you can find a book with romance in pretty much anything you can think of.”

It’s a Love Story specializes in this variation of subgenre. There are shelves dedicated to classical romance, LGBTQ+ romance, sports romance and even romantic thrillers, mystery and suspense. Owner Teyann Bjorkman said that the two most popular genres in the store so far are romantasy, a fusion of romance and fantasy, and dark romance, which isn’t found as abundantly in big box stores.

According to Hall, romantasy in particular has been a huge trend in the book world, often sporting beautiful gilded hardcovers, fancy endpapers and sprayed edges to complete the fantastical feel of the book.

Despite its popularity, there seems to be prejudice against romance within the writing world. Spokane author Tamara Berry, who also writes under the name Lucy Gilmore, said she had been writing romance novels for over a decade before gaining an outward sense of legitimacy – for a mystery novel she wrote.

“It’s just a lesser-than genre in the eyes of everyone – readers and other writers,” Berry said.

Zanetti recounted a similar experience from her own romance writing career.

“I’ve always felt good about what I write, and everyone’s pretty supportive, but I have had people come up and say, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re the mom that writes porn, right?’ ” Zanetti said. “I’m like, no. Do you not know the difference between porn and, you know, romance with a plot?”

Zanetti, Berry and Bradley have theories for the apparent prejudice against romance.

“I personally think it has more to do with an unfamiliarity with it and just a discomfort with sex and romance being depicted on the page,” Berry said.

Bradley thinks it has more to do with female writers and readers making up the majority of the scene.

“Romance, for the most part, has always been written by women for women, and that sometimes means that people feel like that means it is automatically OK to put it down,” she said.

The authors all point to different reasons that the genre has been increasing in popularity in recent years as well. Berry said that it was due to reading tablets such as the Kindle, which allows people to read whatever they want in public without being judged, while Zanetti credited a resurgence in print books as a whole. Bradley said she has noticed romance books becoming more popular as they have been increasingly advertised by fans on the social media site TikTok.

Bjorkman herself was inspired by seeing a romance bookstore on TikTok. She said she was driven to open the store to “create somewhere people could come and hang out, and it can just be joyful.”

Bjorkman’s friend and “co-pilot” Ashely Yates said that seeing people find judgment-free zones is one of the most rewarding parts of opening the shop.

“That’s one of my favorites – when some of the older generations come in and you can tell it’s one of the very first times they have gotten to talk out loud about books because it’s always felt so taboo,” Yates said. “That’s what I think is really magical – you get to see their sparkles as they get to talk and discuss the books like you would if you were reading any other genre, judgment free.”

At It’s a Love Story, Bjorkman plans to provide space for local authors to connect and share their work. Zanetti has already attended a signing event, and Bjorkman said that a number of other local authors have approached her about having their work at the store. She also plans to be host to a number of community events, including game nights and book clubs. The shop itself has been welcomed to the community by nearby bookstore Kindred and Co., whose owner, Selinna Maefau, said more independent bookstoresget more people reading.

“We really want to welcome people in to come and hang out and build those kind of connections and relationships,” Bjorkman said.

Bradley said that romance bookstores opening up provides a safe haven for all lovers of romance.

“It’s just amazing to have these bookstores opening up, because those are safe spaces where we don’t have to feel like we’re being looked down upon or ridiculed,” Bradley said. “The fact that we are getting one locally is just amazing.”