Last call! For a special issue next Monday, August 24, about Halloween books and retailing, Shelf Awareness is seeking information from publishers about their four or five (please, no more) most important current and backlist Halloween titles and from booksellers about Halloween trends, how they merchandise and promote for Halloween, big Halloween titles, and more. Please send information to news@shelf-awareness.com. Thank you!

At Innisfree Bookshop

"Today is all about celebrating you and the indie bookstores that bring happily-ever-afters to your communities every day. From beautifully merchandised romance shelves and staff picks to themed events and heartfelt recommendations, you help readers discover the stories they'll be talking about long after the last page. Happy Bookstore Romance Day! Thank you for championing romance authors, creating welcoming spaces for readers, and proving that some of the best love stories begin in an indie bookstore." --The American Booksellers Association, in a social media post

Saturday, August 15, was Bookstore Romance Day, which is "designed to give independent bookstores an opportunity to celebrate Romance fiction--its books, readers, and writers--and to strengthen the relationships between bookstores and the Romance community." Shelf Awareness featured a preview of the festivities earlier this summer. Here's a sampling of indie bookshops sharing #BookstoreRomanceDay fun on social media:

At Sweet Reads Society

Sweet Reads Society, Newton Falls, Ohio: "BOOKSTORE ROMANCE DAY IS HERE! We're ready for ALLLLL you romance readers today! Come find your next book boyfriend, grab a stuffed cookie, sip on something sweet.... And PLEASE take a photo with your new book boyfriends in front of our wall!"

Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn.: "It's the most romantic day of the year! Join us today in store for Bookstore Romance Day, where we have a very lovely storytime, a bouquet bar, a pop-up bracelet shop, and so so so much more!"

Next Chapter Booksellers, St. Paul, Minn.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day! Presenting our newest coworker! (Thank you, @ashleyndiers for introducing us to him) Help! He needs a shirt! And a name! Stop in today to say hello and help us out!"

Cupboard Maker Books, Enola, Pa.: "A Huge Thank You to Quenby Olson, Author for helping us open our new Embedded Romantasy and Paranormal aisles.... We can now stock over 10,000 new books along with our 100,000 used books. Bookstore Romance Weekend has officially begun! We'll have over 40 authors visiting us this weekend."

Booksellers Mayzie, Ellie, and Matt at Unabridged Bookstore, Chicago.

Bookends: Literature & Libations, Tampa, Fla.: "Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to get through this thing called 'Bookstore Romance Day.' We have an exciting day of festivities lined up for you!"

the river's end bookstore, Oswego, N.Y.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day! Come fill out our romance trivia sheet and be entered to win this romance basket! PLUS 20% off all romance titles!"

Round Table Bookstore, Topeka, Kan.: "Love and books are in the air today! Celebrate Bookstore Romance Day with us, romance books are buy one get one half off, two golden heart tickets are hidden in the store to win a free book, blind date with a book, and Romance Bingo." 

Morgenstern Books, Bloomington, Ind.: "Can we take you on a date? Stop by the store today for a day filled with Romance."

At Writer's Block Bookstore

Writer's Block Bookstore, Winter Park, Fla.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day from Gabe, Park Ave's favorite UPS delivery guy! This day wouldn't be complete without a TBR from Gabe so make sure you check out our 'Gabe Recommends' book display in-store today!"

Bibliobar, Plano, Tex.: "It's Bookstore Romance Day!!! Stop in for a free cookie with purchase of any book. And don't forget our Words & Wine event with two romance authors tonight."

The Book & Cover, Chattanooga, Tenn.: "It's Bookstore Romance Day! Love is in the air! We're canoodling in corners! Serving up lewks and bewks! We've still got a full afternoon of fun and games--come knock your Saturday out of the park!"

Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore, Middletown, Conn.: "Celebrate romance with us! In honor of Bookstore Romance Day, we're showcasing some of our booksellers' favorite romance novels."

At Content Bookstore

Content Bookstore, Northfield, Minn.: "We had a fabulous time at our Bookstore Romance Day book talk this morning!"

The Quill & Candle Bookshop, Longmont, Colo.: "Today, is the day! There's nothing like falling in love with a good book. Come browse our shelves and meet your next book boyfriend or girlfriend that will make you swoon."

Lost & Bound Bookstore, Oklahoma City, Okla.: "We're having the best day!!!"

Raven & Pines Bookstore, Oakhurst, Calif.: "It's Bookstore Romance Day! Giveaways, raffle, photo booth, blind dates. Come on in and find your next great romance novel. See you at the bookstore!"

Books & Books: "Romance is in air. Check our stories for the full lineup of today's festivities in Coral Gables and Coconut Grove [Fla.]."

Romance Trope Bingo at pages: a bookstore, Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle, Wash.: "Happy Bookstore Romance Day, Seattle! Come by the store to celebrate!"

Books on 7th Ave., Phoenix, Ariz.: "It's Bookstore Romance Day, and Dorian is here to remind you that you're beautiful and don't need those other hairless cats. But if you're looking for less-feline dream hunks, we have the largest collection of romance novels in Arizona!"

Innisfree Bookshop, Meredith, N.H.: "Bookstore Romance Day is here!... A special thanks to Bookseller Bev for bringing this all together. Love is in the air, at Innisfree Bookshop! #bookstoreromanceday2026"

The Next Chapter, A Romance Bookstore, Clio, Mich.: "Thank you to everyone who stopped out to celebrate romance bookstore day with us today. We truly appreciate all your support."

Square Books, Oxford, Miss.: "Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who came out for #BookstoreRomanceDay2026! We had such a great time with y'all and hope you had as much fun as we did."

Following its debut as a pop-up store, Exes & Ohs Books has opened a bricks-and-mortar location in Bozeman, Mont., KBZK Bozeman reported. The romance-focused bookstore soft-opened at 3505 Laramie Drive earlier this month and has a grand opening celebration planned for August 29. Alongside romance titles, shoppers can find apparel, candles, and an assortment of bookish merchandise. Event offerings include book clubs, release parties, trivia nights, author readings, and more.

Prior to opening the bricks-and-mortar store, co-founders Jin-Ju Jahns, Sarah Gullickson, and Wren Goodman ran Exes & Ohs as a pop-up shop located within a comedy club called Last Best Comedy. The pop-up was in residence for five months, and the trio opened the bricks-and-mortar with the help of a crowdfunding campaign that they ran themselves. Rewards ranged from having a chosen title on display to sponsoring an entire bookshelf.

Jahns told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle they were inspired to open a romance store of their own after Gullickson told her about a romance bookstore she visited in Idaho. "I was like, 'Sarah, we can do that.' We literally went to my house after that walk, called Wren on the phone and were like, 'Come over, we're writing a business plan, we're opening a romance bookstore,' " Jahns recalled.

Earlier this month, Exes & Ohs partnered with local romance author Christina Hill to host the first Bozeman BookCon. It took place at Montana State University and featured 36 authors and 10 vendors. Before the event, Hill told KBZK Bozeman that tickets sold out quickly and some 475 readers were expected to attend.

Exes & Ohs was open for Bookstore Romance Day. After its grand opening on August 29, the bookstore will have regularly scheduled hours.

The Book Industry Study Group has named Kris Kliemann, founder of Kliemann & Company and longtime chair of BISG's Rights Committee, as the recipient of its 2026 Industry Champion Award, which honors an individual whose efforts have advanced the publishing industry as a whole. Kliemann will be recognized during BISG@50: Book Publishing Next Forum & Anniversary Celebration September 16 in New York City.

Kris Kliemann

Kliemann is being honored for her longstanding leadership in advancing rights management in the publishing industry and, in particular, her work to bring greater standardization, transparency, and accessibility to rights and royalties, BISG said. Throughout her tenure as chair of BISG's Rights Committee, her leadership has repeatedly turned difficult, industry-wide rights problems into concrete infrastructure--standards, tools, resources, and programs designed to make rights work better for everyone.

BISG executive director Allison Belan said, "Kris has a remarkable ability to see where complexity and friction are holding the industry back and then bring people together to do something about it. Her vision for how rights can work better for everyone in the supply chain, and her dedication to bringing order and transparency to rights management, have had--and continue to have--an industry-wide impact. In the year the Translation Rights Royalty Statement Standard was published, we can think of no one better to recognize as our Industry Champion."

Kliemann said, in part, "Rights are at the center of everything we do in publishing. They determine how intellectual property travels, how it reaches new audiences and markets, and how its value comes back to the people and organizations that created and invested in it. That's why it matters that BISG has created a place where the industry can look closely at the challenges surrounding rights and bring people together to solve them. Stronger rights practices don't just benefit rights professionals--they help create a stronger, more successful publishing ecosystem."

John Crowley, an author of "sweeping fantastical narratives whose ability to blend such disparate material as American history, dreams of lost utopias and Alice in Wonderland-tinged occult allowed him to transcend the fantasy genre in novels like Little, Big," died August 8, the New York Times reported. He was 83.

John Crowley (photo: Mikhaylo Nazarenko)

Crowley's 14 novels and 10 volumes of essays and short fiction "explored a considerable range of subjects and genres," the Times noted. His first novel, The Deep (1975), "was set on a disc-shaped world and involved a war between two factions, the Reds and the Blacks, loosely based on the 15th-century War of the Roses in England.... Even his most straightforward, realistic novel, Four Freedoms (2009), about the workers at an airplane factory in Oklahoma during World War II, is an alternative history of the home front."

In 2000, in the Washington Post, critic Michael Dirda described Crowley as "arguably the most original and accomplished American fantasy writer ever."

Crowley was "consistently interested in the way that narrative shapes perception; in the sometimes murky line between fantasy and reality," as well as "the possibility, as he wrote in his 1987 novel, Aegypt (eventually republished as The Solitudes), that 'there is more than one history of the world,' " the Times observed. 

His fourth novel, Little, Big, was his best known work. Poet James Merrill, a fan of the novel, arranged for Crowley to receive a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, which Merrill directed. Ursula K. Le Guin said that the book "calls for a redefinition of fantasy," while Harold Bloom observed that it was "literally the most enchanting 20th-century book I know." It was named the best novel at the 1982 World Fantasy Awards.

In 2009, Crowley told the Believer magazine: "The kind of fiction that always interested me is stuff that somehow manages to be convincingly actual--in the sense that you believe that truths are being told about the world you live in--and are also somehow connected to the imaginary in some way."

His film scripts include The World of Tomorrow (1984), about the 1939 World's Fair, and, with his wife, Laurie Block, Fit: Episodes in the History of the Body (1991), about American fitness culture.

As a lecturer at Yale, the Times wrote, he "insisted to his students and readers that fantasy was, at its heart, no different from any other genre, and could achieve greatness if it followed the rules of literature."

He told Locus magazine in 2010: "To actually articulate a way of being in a literary world without boundaries between reality and fantasy--it can't just be a bunch of craziness and surreal carrying on.... Fantasy fiction at bottom, or at its best, is about making true fictions by the rules, in worlds you make up out of whole cloth, or out of your heart."

Caitie Donnelly (l.) and Dana Terpening (r.), owners of the mobile children's bookshop Traveling Tales, with Shelf Awareness children's and YA editor Siân Gaetano (far right) at the Washington County Fair in Richmond, R.I.

To enhance the mood for Bookstore Romance Day, Lovestruck Books & Cafe in Cambridge, Mass., "asked our booksellers who they'd cast as the lead in their favorite book... and the answers did not disappoint. Who would you cast?"

Lerner Publisher Service will be the exclusive distributor of print titles in the U.S. and Canada for Flowerpot Press, effective in January.

Flowerpot Press publishes fiction and nonfiction titles for children from birth through fifth grade, featuring a variety of S.T.E.A.M. titles, early learning titles, adventure stories, photo-based titles, and much more. In Spring 2027, Lerner Publisher Services will distribute 27 titles across six series and a picture book, The Share-a-Not, by Adam Wallace. Flowerpot's inaugural season with Lerner Publisher Services includes new releases in the How Do? and Why Do? series, as well as the new board book series High Contrast and Some Babies.

Flowerpot Press publisher Anne Hayes said, "Partnering with Lerner Publishing Group marks an exciting step forward for Flowerpot Press. This collaboration allows us to stay focused on creating books that entertain, educate, and inspire young readers, while relying on Lerner's exceptional reputation and robust distribution network to ensure our titles reach the families, schools, and libraries we create them for."

David Wexler, executive v-p of sales for Lerner Publishing Group, said, "Flowerpot Press has built an impressive list of distinguished books for young readers. We are excited to amplify Flowerpot's established market presence through our proven sales and distribution channels."

Julianne Clancy, senior director of marketing at Vintage, has been named vice president. She has long been a key member of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group marketing team and has been responsible for deep backlist marketing work, marketing campaigns for many authors, launches of the Vintage Originals program, and more.

Story Rug by Sophie Blackall, illus. by Phoebe Wahl (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers).

Today:
WNYC's All of It with Alison Stewart: Emil Wilson, author of The Nightingales (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, $38, 9781668217771).

Fresh Air: Daniel E. Lieberman, author of Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating (Knopf, $30, 9780593537992).

The View repeat: Jill Biden, author of View from the East Wing: A Memoir (Gallery Books, $32, 9781668222881). 

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Pierce Abernathy, author of Every Leaf, Every Stem: Craveable, Creative Vegetables All Year Round (Clarkson Potter, $40, 9780593800171).

Today: Laura Moriarty, author of Sunlight Finds You: A Novel (Riverhead, $32, 9781594487170).

Jennifer Hudson Show repeat: Taylor Cassidy, author of Black History Is Your History (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665957700).

Apple TV has released the trailer for Last Seen, a new TV series based on The Dispatcher by Ryan David Jahn and starring Patrick Brammall (Colin from Accounts, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Evil). Produced by 60Forty Films, the project was adapted by writer and executive producer Kris Mrksa, with Christian Schwochow directing and exec producing. The series, which is set and filmed in Victoria, Australia, will make its global debut on September 9 with two episodes, followed by a new episode every Wednesday until October 7. 

In Last Seen, "police detective Ian Ridley's (Brammall) life fell apart 11 years ago when his young daughter, Maggie, disappeared without a trace. Now working as a police dispatcher, the only thing that has kept him going is his implacable refusal to accept that she might be gone forever. When he receives a distress call from a teenage girl he is certain is Maggie, he will stop at nothing to find her and reunite his broken family, whatever the cost."

The cast also includes Maxine Peake, Brendan Cowell, Daniel Henshall, Zahra Newman, Jessica Wren, Tobias Muhafidin, and Chloe Jean Lourdes. 

Continental Drift: Stories by Tim Bascom (Mint Hill Books) has won the $1,000 2026 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Fiction, sponsored by Washburn University's Center for Kansas Studies, the Thomas Fox Averill Kansas Studies Collection at the University Library and the Friends of the Library. The award will be presented September 24, the day before the annual Kansas Book Festival on the Washburn University campus.

Judge Catherine Browder wrote, "In Continental Drift, writer Tim Bascom has given us a book that matters. Set largely in Africa, or a foreigner's United States, the characters in these stories encounter their own foreignness as Western culture clashes with an African understanding of the world. In pitch-perfect dialogue and sensual language, Bascom's people--whether Ethiopian, South Sudanese, South African, Kenyan or American--come alive through pivotal moments, often unsettling, that will shape their understanding of the world. These are memorable stories from a talented writer, a work of fiction that fulfills what the writer John Gardner once defined as the moral responsibility of Art--to explore and rediscover our values and humanness."

In her lushly described seventh historical novel, The Queen of Roses, Julia Kelly (The Dressmakers of London) takes readers into the foothills of California's San Gabriel Mountains, exploring the intricate gardens and equally complex social dynamics of Pasadena society through the life of English immigrant Adele Pearce.

Kelly's narrative opens in 1960 with newspaper reporter Theresa Johnson stuck writing mostly obituaries, though she longs to write features and hard news stories. Theresa receives a phone call from the septuagenarian Miss Pearce, pointing out some errors in her obituary of well-known Pasadena hotelier Guy Whitley. Theresa drives to Adele's home, Rosewood House, in the Altadena hills, where Adele makes a surprising offer: she will hire Theresa to write her biography. As the women spend time together, Theresa is plunged into the glittering but still-evolving world of Pasadena in the early 1900s, where wealthy transplants from the East Coast and various European cities struggled to establish a new social milieu on untested ground.

Adele, freshly arrived from London in 1903 to join her parents in Pasadena, is stunned to learn that their move to California was prompted by more than just her father's failing health. An unwise investment led to the loss of her family's fortune, and she must find a husband among the brash California businessmen she meets in their new home. Her marriage to Guy, while practical, proves unsatisfying. Adele finds solace in making Rosewood House and its gardens a true oasis--though even Rosewood's beauty provides only a temporary respite from harsher realities.

Kelly deftly moves back and forth between her dual narratives, drawing subtle parallels between Theresa's struggles at the office and Adele's frustrations at being reduced to a society ornament before and after her marriage. The earlier narrative also provides fascinating historical context about Pasadena and the Los Angeles area when both were still considered upstart towns. The two women find ways to exert their influence in their chosen spheres, and they also find love (or at least the hope of it) in unexpected places. As their friendship grows, so too does Theresa's concern for Adele's well-being, and when a dangerous wildfire looms in the foothills, both women must draw on their inner reserves of strength to save what matters most to them.

Depicting sharp contrasts between the beauty of Rosewood's gardens and the stark loss occasioned by California wildfires, The Queen of Roses is an absorbing portrait of two women who find the courage to pursue their dreams even under difficult circumstances. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Julia Kelly's lush seventh historical novel paints an absorbing portrait of an Englishwoman who becomes a doyenne of Pasadena society and the young reporter hired to write her life story.