When Jamie Fortin moved to Washington, D.C., five years ago, she fell in love with the Virginia neighborhood of Alexandria and vowed to open a small business there. Last month, Fortin's promise to herself became a reality. She opened Friends to Lovers, a romance-themed bookstore inspired by Meet Cute, a romance bookstore in her hometown of San Diego.
Friends to Lovers celebrated its grand opening on Nov. 14. "It was honestly just so joyful," Fortin said. "We had a line around the block, which is not something I expected."
Just three days later, though, Fortin's excitement went up in smoke after the building caught fire. The store sustained smoke damage, leaving the entire stock of books and merchandise unsafe to sell. Fortin was forced to close the store and go into what she described as "solutions mode."
Fortin created the Friends and Lovers bookstore to be a space where women and queer people, who make up the overwhelming majority of romance readers, could feel safe.
In the U.S., the demand for romance books is booming. According to Publisher's Weekly, seven of the top 10 books of the year fell under this category. In August, 550 bookstores across the U.S., U.K. and Canada participated in Bookstore Romance Day — the biggest celebration yet. Many readers have also taken to the internet to share their passion. Romance books dominate the #BookTok, a TikTok community with over 100 billion views. Creators like @listenwithbritt and @kendra.reads share their recommendations and reviews with hundreds of thousands of followers. Their videos have garnered millions of likes and views. Despite the genre's popularity, Fortin says most of the bookstores she frequented didn't dedicate much space to the genre. "Even though it may be their most popular selling genre, most bookstores have one or two shelves of romance," she said.
At the grand opening of Friends to Lovers, many readers expressed the same sentiment. Some traveled more than an hour to browse the shelves. Readers came from Charlottesville, Va., Baltimore, Md. and more.
"Romance-centered bookstores are sorely lacking," said Kayla Lloyd, who traveled from Annapolis to check out the bookstore. "We can go to Barnes & Noble and we can see the romance section, but you're not going to get the selection that's here." Fortin says she stocks local and independent authors as well as bestsellers. She estimates that the bookstore offered about 800 titles before the fire.
"Outside of gay bars in the area, I think that there is definitely a lack of third spaces for people of color and queer people to hang out," said Eleanor Bodington, a customer at Friends to Lovers.
Fortin partnered with two women who owned small businesses in the area to help launch their brands at the grand opening event. Women and queer-owned businesses also make all of the store's non-book merchandise, including bags, hats and more. Even her store's location was intentional, Fortin says. She wanted Friends to Lovers surrounded by other small businesses so that readers would be encouraged to support other entrepreneurs like her after they came to her store. "When I woke up [after the fire], I felt like I needed to live up to this space that I created that people are now relying on as a space they feel at home and safe," Fortin said.
Despite being open for just a few days, the community Fortin hoped to reach rallied around her business. Donations flooded in, surpassing Fortin's $20,000 GoFundMe goal in 24 hours. After assessing the full extent of the damage, Fortin increased her donation goal to $45,000, eventually surpassing that one as well.
Fortin says she believes that her dedication to her goal of supporting women and queer businesses, combined with the tight-knit nature of the romance reading community, helped her rebuild quickly. "The community support has really buoyed me and pushed me to create something better out of the ashes, as it were," she said. "There were more people than I ever expected that cared about my little bookstore."
"When you set your mission, and you really stand by it, people say, 'We love that mission. We'll live that out as well,"' Fortin said.
Fortin opened a long-term pop-up location for Friends to Lovers on Dec. 7 at a nearby business. She continues to search for a new permanent location for the shop.
"It has been so overwhelming. I feel like the community is not letting me sit and wallow in my grief. Instead, they've said, 'We're going to fix this. We're going to make sure it's successful."'
Fortin says that because the romance community is used to their traditionally feminine interests not being respected, it doesn't take the brick-and-mortar location for granted.
"I think we haven't always had a lot of overwhelming support for things that women love," Fortin said. "We love to say that things are ridiculous when women love them. There's a lot of things that men love that we don't consider ridiculous." Fortin points out that teenage girls were the ones who loved the Beatles first before they became a household name. "Romance is one of the genres with the most staying power, that's always been the least respected."
"We're creating a safe space to talk about things that are not celebrated in regular spaces," she said. "Once women and queer people saw that, everyone said 'let's all stand behind this together."'
"The outpouring of support has been amazing as a bystander to watch," said Maryam Bami, owner of Old Town Flower Gal. Bami launched her floral business at the Friends to Lovers grand opening. "I thought I was a fan of romance until I met some of the supporters of the bookstore." Bami is one of several woman-owned businesses Fortin intentionally collaborated with. "She really just took a chance on all of us and really elevated us in the process," she said.
As Fortin writes a new chapter for Friends to Lovers, she still views her community of business owners as vital to the bookstore's success. She hopes readers supporting her rebuilding efforts will also patronize the nearby businesses that were also affected by the fire. She's also encouraged supporters to donate to fundraisers for other businesses affected by the fire. "Women have constantly had to lift each other up and be each other's solid ground," she said. "If [my business] has all this hype and support and encouragement, I need to use that to build up other women and other brands."
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