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‘W“I left Warrington at 5:15 in the morning to get here,” Emma tells me, standing in the queue running down Walton Street. it is already crying.
Oxford does not shortchange the traveling reader. Every year, visitors flock to the colleges and libraries that produced authors including JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Iris Murdoch. But this crowd is here for something a little different. Instead of stepping into the Bodleian line, they are changing the mind of dragon riders and faerie kingdoms. Women clutch tote bags decorated with text like “Hot girls read smut”, compare them to their favorite “grey” heroes.
The bright pink doors waiting outside are for Bad Girl Booksthe UK’s number one place for romance books. The subseries, which combines fantasy and romance, has gone from an internet sensation to one of the most successful stories in print. Sarah J Maas, author of the popular A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series, is has sold more than 75 million books worldwide, while Rebecca Yarros of Onyx Storm recorded the biggest opening weekend for a UK fiction title since Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman ten years ago.
Emma said: “My husband thinks it’s porn. But it’s more than that.”
Readers are immersed in the fantasy world of “enemies to lovers” stories, where “lovely couples” realize that they were destined for each other all along, and “shadow fathers” who love each other – dark, mysterious men with supernatural powers – inspire lovers on the Internet. “Spiciness” in the book (the amount of sex there is) is a major talking point.
22-year-old Izzy, who has been waiting in line with her friend since 7:30 in the morning, said: “When I was at school I didn’t like to read, but then I found love stories, and I realized that there are many books out there that I enjoy.
Traditionally, male readers have dominated fantasy fiction, but the rise of romance is largely driven by the female audience – often referred to as mothers and focused on female romantic relationships. Almost everyone in the 100-person line outside Bad Girl Books is a woman: I see two men in total, waiting patiently with their girlfriends.
“It’s usually women who read romance, but I think there’s something to it,” says 31-year-old Jono, who has come to the opening with his girlfriend, Ro. “I’ve started reading a few, and I’m enjoying them!”
The founder of the store is 30-year-old Starlin Marot. “I wasn’t really a reader,” he tells me. “A friend recommended a romance book she found on TikTok, and it changed everything. It became my whole personality.”
As his interest grows, he finds that he has nowhere to go. He said: “I used to go to bookshops and they only had popular titles that I had already read. “I also noticed that there was nowhere I could meet other people who liked these books. I found a community online – on BookTok, Instagram and Reddit – but I wanted somewhere people could meet in person to talk about books.”
Last year, he floated on TikTok the idea of a pop-up dedicated to love. Nearly 40,000 people watched the video, and more than 1,000 subscribed in two days. His interest grew, and he continued to host several pop-ups around the country, maxing out his credit card to buy stocks. I was working 12-hour days. But people flew in from Ireland, Norway and Italy to come and see the book visitors.
It snowballed, and within six months he had raised £30,000 to open a permanent shop. Inside, the shelves are divided into categories including “Monster Smut”, “Unhinged” and “LGBTQ+”. T-shirts and hats proclaim “I Heart Fictional Men” and “Dibs on the Villain”; the tote bags read: “I Like My Books Like My Margaritas – Sweet”, and “My Favorite Color Is Moral Grey.” Women fill pink shopping baskets with colorful ACOTAR notebooks. Along with bestselling titles have independently published books and edited special editions from authors around the world.
“I wanted people to be able to find books they’ve never heard of, not just the ones with the biggest marketing campaigns,” says Marot.
But for all its commercial success, romance remains a shame.
after advertising
Petra, 26, who is first in line, says people often wrongly criticize the brand as “nonsense”. “People think it’s nonsense, but it’s not,” he says. “There’s good news, there’s life lessons in there. It’s interactive.”
Peach, another customer in line, thinks there is something about sex. “Because there are many women who enjoy it, it is not taken for granted, or seen as a real race,” she says. “But it’s popular for a reason.”
Marot believes that focusing on this type of imagery obscures what draws readers to read it in the first place. She said: “People discount it as a treat, but a lot of books have a few short chapters in a 500-page book. “It’s a safe place to explore relationships and happiness from a woman’s point of view – I think it’s empowering.”
Rebekah Finch, a writer at Darley Anderson, says that the genre has been reduced because it sits on the line between two types of fiction that have been fighting for respectability: romance and commercial fiction. “Readers who may have hid their interest now have the opportunity to bond about the characters, exchange ideas and celebrate the books without texting less than readers of romance and commercial fiction,” she says.
TikTok has been the key to this brand’s success. Videos featuring #BookTok have garnered hundreds of billions of views, turning little-known authors into global bestsellers almost overnight. The platform’s influence has been so great that in April this year, The first UK bestselling series #BookTok has been launched, which includes UK sales and demographic data. Unsurprisingly, love has dominated the charts so far.
“The ‘discovery’ of these books has never been easier,” says Calah Singleton, operations editor at HarperVoyager and HarperMagpie. “Social media has allowed word of mouth to go further and to more people than ever before.”
But while BookTok may have fueled the romance boom, readers insist its appeal runs deeper than virality. “There’s desire, there’s desire, there’s love, there’s magic and magic,” says Cat, another woman in line. “And yes, there is a bit of confusion too!”
