Independent bookstores have long struggled to generate stable customer sales, especially as nowadays, people are less likely to go to an actual bookstore when books can be ordered online for cheaper. Nonetheless, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new trend emerged: people started to pick up books again at an alarming rate, with the hashtag #BookTok (a play on TikTok, home to much of the book-inspired content online) accumulating over 175 billion views during quarantine. Among all genres of literature, there was one in particular that the pandemic’s isolated readers found themselves drawn to, that seemed to make readers feel closer to human connection than the rest.
Romance novels have experienced the biggest increase in popularity in recent years. With the rising demand for stories of people finding true love, entrepreneur Leah Koch took the opportunity to open America’s first all-romance bookstore in NYC, The Ripped Bodice. Literature Editors from The Classic Critic interviewed Leah in The Ripped Bodice’s new Brooklyn location, and learned the story of how her store came to be.
“We are both lifelong romance readers,” says Leah, sitting in front of the store’s wall, covered in torn-out book pages. Speaking of herself and her sister, Bea (short for Rebecca), she continues, “we love romance. We couldn’t believe that there wasn’t an all-romance bookstore in the United States, the only one we do have was in Australia. So, we decided to be the ones to do it.”
Leah and Rebecca grew up in Chicago, and Leah went away to USC for college, staying in Los Angeles for eight years afterwards. Originally working in film and television, Leah felt unsatisfied with her job, especially because of “how much you have to answer to other people,” she says. “I just wanted to do whatever I want. And people were like, ‘well, that’s not very realistic about being an adult.’ Watch me.”
Always dreaming of going into business with her sister, Leah created a Kickstarter to generate funds to open the original Ripped Bodice location in LA. The store opened in March of 2016 and performed extremely well. When thinking of expanding the business, Leah chose the store location in Brooklyn to be close to her new baby nephew. “The family thing is a big part of it. Because I know how hard it is to open a store. I’ve done it once before. And I felt like I really wanted to have a support system around me.”
Leah built and decorated everything in the new store, even documenting her progress with TikTok videos of painting custom designs on the floor and adding other improvements to the former pet shop.
“I’m very particular,” Leah says. “I know exactly what I want. And the person best able to execute my own vision is me. The cheapest person to execute that vision is me. So you know, I love it. How
ever, it’s also to save money, like a lot of people are like, ‘Why are you doing this all by yourself?’ Because I’m free.”
She adds that she posted the process of building the store to promote the business’ authenticity and separate themselves from their large corporate competition, creating intimacy with and relatability for customers.
Looking around the store, with its hand-crafted decorations and thoughtfully curated shelves, it is easy to recognize the passion and devotion Leah holds towards the romance genre. “I was really drawn to romance because I felt like, especially when I was 12, 13, 14 – which is obviously the worst time ever – I felt like these books put a lot of weight and importance on ordinary people’s lives. And it kind of made me feel like when I was an adult, my life was gonna be important.”
Romance novels felt d
ifferent from what Leah had been reading in school, and while she values all that the classics have to offer, she feels that school projects and assignments “can reinforce the idea that reading is like a chore or homework or it’s not fun. So I think that romance really helped me learn that reading is supposed to be fun.”
Townsend Harris Librarian Arlene Laverde strongly agrees with Leah’s statements regarding required reading at school, citing it as “the fastest way to get someone to dislike reading. I think we need to stop and ask the students what they want to read,” she says.
For all of its popularity, romance also has its fair share of critics. “I think as a general matter,” Leah says, “most people who sort of form opinions about romance have never read [a romance novel] and don’t really understand it.” She continues, “I think romance is a uniquely teased genre, because it’s primarily read by women and written by women. Not exclusively, but primarily, it often contains sex and sexual pleasure and explorations
of that, which, as a society we’re not super down with. And its primary focus or goal is happiness and joy. And I think this is quite an American thing, we’re basically taught that suffering is the prime thing you can do. That it’s what makes you strong. And when you face hardships, you find out who you really are, blah, blah, blah. All of that can be true, but I think as a society, we revere suffering over joy. And that’s a shame. Because suffering is suffering, and it’s not fun. And people are always going to suffer. That’s just the human condition. But I think if we spent more time encouraging people to seek out joy and happiness, people would be happier.”
Ms Laverde shared similar views back at school, saying, “Romance in and of itself has to do with just being happy. Finding happiness, that’s the common denominator of every romance book. It’s like, you’re looking to be happy and to find a partner to be happy with. And for the most part, most romance books end with that kind of happily ever after.”
Romance is often viewed as a “guilty pleasure,” a phrase which Leah especially dislikes. Many readers of other genres tend to look down upon romance readers, saying they aren’t reading “real” books. We shared our personal recollections of this negative stigma, which are experienced both online and from people at school.
“I think if you were to ask someone on the street, ‘Name five things that you consider a guilty pleasure,’” Leah says, “I guara
ntee at least four of them are things that are traditionally enjoyed by women. So it’s like boy bands, makeup and reality television or celebrity gossip, or, obviously, romance novels. There are so many things that are inherently generally enjoyed by women. And for some reason, I wonder why, those are the things that everyone’s like, ‘Oh, this is a guilty pleasure.’”
With romance’s cult following online, many new terms have emerged to define different, often recurring elements of its books. Readers often post about their favorite “book boyfriend,” or male character in a romance novel that they particularly loved. Leah expressed how book boyfriends often set positive examples of how men should behave when in a romantic relationship, and can help readers realize
the standards they should be setting for themselves and the type of people they would want to date. She mentioned how a romance novel can almost be seen as an “instruction manual” for men, as they can take inspiration from popular book boyfriends.
Ms. Laverde also points to book boyfriends as inspiration for readers, and she views these novels as guides for healthy relationships. “It gives [men] insight into the way women think. It gives [men] insight into what women want and don’t want. We forget that in order for relationships to work,” she says, “you’ve got to actively communicate. And in a good romance novel, they’ll show you communication. And they’ll show you what happens when you don’t communicate with each other. They’ll show you if somebody is being an ass.”
Another reason Ms. Laverde values romance is that it can spark new relationships between people in the real world. Her
favorite example of this happened much earlier in her career. “Back when Twilight was a big hit, I was working at a high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn. And there was a young boy…maybe a junior, maybe a sophomore. And he came into the library. And he said, ‘I need a book.’ He was a non reader. He didn’t want to read. And I go, ‘you should read this.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, what is it?’ And I go, ‘It’s a romance.
Listen. You don’t have to read it. Borrow it. Carry it. Let people see that you got this book. I guarantee that at least one, if not a half a dozen girls, will come over and ask you about it. ’And he looked at
me, and he was scoffing because he was like this tough dude. And as we’re talking, and he’s holding the book, a girl walks in. She sees the book, and she runs over to him. She goes, ‘Oh my god, have you read that? It’s so good!’ And he looks at me, he goes, ‘Okay, I’ll borrow it.’”
As books grow increasingly popular amongst our generation, we can observe how vital media is in encouraging people to read. The BookTok aspect of TikTok not only introduces individuals to new book genres but has also helped numerous writers gain prominence due to users exchanging book suggestions. Romance will remain a beloved genre because of its realistic (and sometimes unrealistic) stories and characters, the lessons readers may take away, and the pure joy that hopeless romantics can experience while reading. It was an enormous pleasure for us to visit the store and have the opportunity to speak with Leah about the story behind the Ripped Bodice and her perspectives regarding the romance genre.