Bittersweet updates from Kissing Books NOLA

It's been a long time since we've updated this blog or this site at all. A lot has happened, and at the same time nothing has. When we had this bright idea of opening a romance-focused book store, there were only two and a half in the entire U.S. (Meet Cute had not opened yet), and none of those were in the south. We got advice from Leah and Bea of The Ripped Bodice, we exchanged some emails about the challenges of opening a brick-and-mortar with Becca of Meet Cute. They all suggested starting with a social media presence.

So we did that. Instagram, twitter, tiktok. We met so many wonderful readers and writers and sellers. We started reading even more, and reviewing and posting. We started this website for updates and opened a storefront on Libra.fm and bookshop.org. We worked very hard (and had a lot of fun) joining such a diverse and robust community and we've made some lifelong friends!

In late 2022, I took a fantastic job at a non-profit that was meaningful to me, vowing all the while to continue working on Kissing Books in my down time. Little did I know that down time would be at a premium and our target opening would keep getting pushed back further and further, until the target was just "Someday".

And time waits for no man, or uh, bookstore, as it were. The romance book market is happily booming along and in the last two years, more than TWENTY romance bookstores have opened their doors, with more on the way, with locations from Alaska to Florida and everywhere in between! This is such an exciting time for romance!

This also means that the need we were trying to fill is no longer, well, needed. So it's time for us to sunset our dream of opening a brick-and-mortar. We'll still be around online: on Bookshop, Libra, and all the socials (we've even got a Threads and Bluesky, but we don't have much of a presence there. Yet?). We've had too much fun here to hop out of this scene completely!

In other, not totally unrelated news, being part of the reader, writer, seller communities has inspired a renewed focus on my own writing, and with encouragement from the friends I've found in this community, I've found the courage to actually share my work (This is big for me. Huge.). And I will very soon have some exciting news to share here regarding where that work can be read.

So... stayed tuned and VISIT YOUR NEAREST ROMANCE BOOKSTORE!!!

P.S. Oh and if you're looking for a bookstore with a knowledgeable staff and a fantastic romance section in the NOLA area, I suggest Blue Cypress Books. They even have a HEA book club that meets monthly and is tons of fun!