Romance bookshops and BookTok fuel reading revival for dyslexic woman

Amelia Lord, 28, a dyslexic social media and events coordinator from Newport now living in Cardiff, avoided reading until BookTok posts encouraged her to try. She made a New Year's resolution to read Colleen Hoover's "It Ends With Us" (released as a 2024 film starring Blake Lively) and became hooked, buying many romance books. After moving to Cardiff, she founded Booked Up Book Club, meeting monthly at the play café where she works in Whitchurch. The club focuses on romance, including cowboy romance, and hosts craft sessions. Romance sales hit record levels in 2024 per NIQ. Inspired by similar readers, Aimee Cummings, 31, opened Love Stories in Cardiff's Castle Arcade, the city's first romance-only bookshop, after a PhD in psychology. She researched the market, noting romance's exponential growth since Covid. In Edinburgh, Caden Armstrong, 26, opened Book Lovers Bookstore, the UK's first physical romance bookshop, partly crowdfunded, celebrating its second anniversary in August 2026. Both owners emphasize creating safe, inclusive spaces for women and diverse voices, with BookTok reducing stigma around romance. Armstrong notes romance has been shamed because it's dominated by women writers discussing women's pleasure. The genre now includes romantasy (blending fantasy/SF with romance) and sports romance (e.g., Rachel Reid's "Heated Rivalry").