The romance/romantasy genre is in a boom time. Since 2020, the industry has more than doubled—it continued growth in 2025. The romance bookstore—a physical store that sells exclusively romance-genre titles—is also going through a boom. In 2016, there was one store. Then the second appeared in 2019. After a pandemic surge, and social media boosts, there are today, as of this writing, over 200 stores in the U.S. with at least 54 opening this year alone. Fear not, books and bookstores thrive.
Given those facts and trends, this is why I wanted to talk with Allison Couture and Marie Nitschke, who are store owners participating in the romance boom. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Allison and Marie co-own the Wanderlust Mobile Bookshop, which, playfully, is a mini school bus converted to romance bookstore with over a 1,000 titles. They opened shop up earlier this year on Valentines Day.
“We’ve gotten being compared to the Tardis house for romance novels,” they told me. After I stumbled into their bus at an event in Madison, I have to agree. It’s floor to ceiling packed with titles. The low roof has a cozy, clean, feeling like you’re in a nook, or a treehouse getaway, patterned with bright with gold lines and shapes on white. It’s an escape of coolness that, to me, deflects the summer heat.
Of course, being in close quarters, I smelled new book: woody dryness like a whole season gently rotates within each page. As I explored unfamiliar titles, each book provided a fleshy putter when I flipped between pages with smooth and sturdy covers.
I almost wanted to be there for a whole afternoon, hang and drink a beer or a coffee, talk books all day. Walking away, I knew I wanted to have both Allison and Marie on the show to talk about what they’ve learned running a business in books, but also doing it in the powerhouse genre of romance.
Like so many across the country, you can feel the joy and togetherness in a store like Wanderlust. There is a force of community behind the rise of this genre and the stores that have followed. These books bring people together and fuse a fandom, a connection. As a often reader of literary fiction, I sometimes wonder what building a fandom like this might look like. Is that possible? I don’t know.
What I do know is that Allison and Marie also gave me their book recommendations and their thoughts on this genre they love dearly and why anyone can pick up a romance novel and be happy. I would also like to drop a reminder: readers and fans of the genre celebrate Bookstore Romance Day on August 15th, this year. Wanderlust will be celebrating at a brewery in Madison during a block party.
Go check it out for yourself. If not Wanderlust, there’s likely a store near you—or will be soon.
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