COLLINGSWOOD, N.J. -- On a Wednesday afternoon, Erika Nguyen walked through the heavy wooden doors of Collingswood’s newest bookstore. She wandered over to the dark romance section and picked up "Mercy" by Sarah Cate.

Something about the cover — a mirror in a dark room with “only she can bring him to his knees” written above it — drew Nguyen in.

“The main character figures out that she’s a domme (female dominatrix),” Nguyen said. “I’m definitely not of that persuasion but I like reading about women who like to do that sort of stuff.”

Inside Kiss & Tale bookshop on Haddon Avenue, avid readers like Nguyen are finding the wide range of romance subgenres they yearn for. That’s what inspired owner Katie Cunningham to open the 600-square-foot store, which began its “slow burn opening” on Oct. 10 and aims to fully open within the next month.

Seeing the success of the Ripped Bodice bookstore in Brooklyn, Cunningham was sure a Philly romance bookshop would pop up soon after. But when it didn’t, she decided to take the leap herself, choosing Collingswood for its charm as a “fun, little walking town.”

“What’s so amazing about romance is you can really tailor how you fall in love with a book and its characters in any way you want,” she said. “It’s kind of a choose-your-own-adventure, and I want to make sure I help you find that adventure.”

Romance bookstores have been growing across the country, according to The New York Times, from Minneapolis to Wichita, and now in Collingswood. Genre fiction is one of the driving factors of the book market with romantasy (a blend of romance and fantasy) leading the charge, thanks to its popularity on BookTok, according to Circana BookScan’s tracking.

But romantasy is only part of what’s drawing crowds to Cunningham’s store. The pink-walled shop, complete with a velvet, lips-shaped chair, features romance favorites like “enemies to lovers,” “arranged marriage,” and “monsters and aliens.” Categories are clearly labeled, with a “hot pepper” system denoting a book’s level of explicit content.

Kiss & Tale is Cunningham’s second business venture. She previously opened K&A Bagel Cafe in Cherry Hill with her husband, Andrew, whom she describes as her “cinnamon roll” — a term for a sweet, supportive character in romance novels. They ran the cafe together for about four years before he took over full-time.

“I’m just a mom who loves romance so much, and wanted to create a community for other people who love romance as much as I do,” she said.

Cunningham’s goal is to create an environment where customers feel accepted for their swoon-worthy, smutty interests. Her selection includes shelves dedicated to LGBTQIA+, local authors, and sports romance reads too.

“Back in the old days, people hid those ‘bodice ripper’ books and ‘Fabio’ covers,” she said. “But now, we’re open about it. We’re making [Instagram] reels and TikToks, talking about the smut (literature with sexual material) we’re reading, and letting it out there.”

During the “slow burn opening,” readers from North Jersey to Delaware came out to buy in bulk, and Cunningham’s inventory of 1,000 books was halved by the end of the day. Since then, she’s been re-stocking the bookcases to meet the demand of what she calls the area’s “big, supportive romance community.”

Sarah Sperling and Phoebe Schepacarter were shopping in Haddonfield when they heard about the new romance bookshop and immediately drove over. “We both looked at each other and said ‘we got to go,’” Sperling said. The two friends are avid romance readers, who mostly steer clear of the extra spicy books.

We like them “fluffy as hell,” Schepacarter said. And “it’s nice to see romance isn’t just one section [here]. I like that [the bookstore] is set up so you can find the tropes you like.” Sperling is in her romantasy era, and Schepacarter is all about the slow burn romance.

Nguyen, who recently moved to Collingswood, heard about the shop walking around town during the summer and was happy to find the detailed categorization.

At 34, she’s moved from manga to fluffy romances, and now to dark romance books, which she enjoys as a fun retreat, giving her a chance to escape into different types of romances from her own, just for fun.

“I’m married already, so I don’t have to worry about that — but with the things I’ve heard about the dating world right now, I feel like a lot of women are turning to books to get their romance kick,” Nguyen said.

Alexa Sanchez, 25, a Rutgers-Camden grad student with a boyfriend, agrees. Romance novels sparked her love of reading in middle school, and during the pandemic, she devoured books by Colleen Hoover, Christina Lauren, and Emily Henry.

“Emily’s my girl,” Sanchez said. “I love her books.”

Sanchez was on her lunch break between classes when she saw the sign for the bookshop. Inside the store, she quickly drifted to books with her favorite tropes. She walked out with a copy of Lauren’s The True Love Experiment, a tote bag, and a reading night light. .

“When I was younger, I felt like a nerd for loving to read [but now] it’s started to gain some traction — and I love that,” she said. “I feel like the romance genre gives you hope.”

Cunningham hopes her bookstore instills that sense of confidence in all her customers, along with her daughter.

“[The romance community] is just the most accepting group of people, and I think [these books] are giving power back to readers over our bodies and understanding that liking different things is OK,” she said. “As a woman raising a daughter, I think having these [taboo] things be more easy to talk about is only going to help girls and women love themselves more.”

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