ever since I was a kid in the 90s reading in libraries, staying up late at home and anticipating every Scholastic Book Fair.

It was something I always said I’d do once I retired because that’s what you do, right? You have a thing that you do when you no longer can or want to work for someone else. I imagined a cozy little place that served tea, had a little book club and sold books to people like me who loved escapism and storytelling.

In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, I started taking reading fanfiction REALLY seriously. I had nothing else to do really so reading fanfic was my go-to serotonin boost. Everything I read had one common thread: romance.

From there, once I found out what I enjoyed about the genre, I dove into reading published romance books. The genre is so fun to me and I love all of the stories people come up with and the rollercoaster of emotions authors love to put us through. It slowly became my favorite genre to pick up and one I almost exclusively read now.

In 2022, while having a conversation with my therapist, my bookshop was brought up. She told me that goals like that are kind of stupid (my words, not hers) because it’s something that we tend to push off and push off until we don’t do end up doing it because it keeps becoming a “later goal”. I took that conversation to heart and got to planning on making it happen.

In 2023, I started off as an e-bookshop with pop-ups around Vancouver and in the Fall of that same year I landed a physical location inside of The Lincoln Warehouse Project located in downtown Vancouver, WA.

The Romance Era Bookshopis my love letter to a genre that started with Scholastic Book Fairs and fanfiction and has grown tenfold. It is my way of giving back to people who help others with their words. It's a space meant to feel like a cozy room at your friends house. There are events and opportunities for authors and other small creators to come hang out and use the shop and it's attached warehouse space to host events to uplift their work. Since I am not a writer myself, I wanted the space to be more than just making money selling books. I wanted it to foster community.

The Romance Era is an inclusive, sex/body/pleasure positive safe space for people of all types to explore without judgement.

Come visit and say hello!