Meet Cute Romance Bookshop hosted a grand opening celebration on Saturday at 4048 30th St. in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, Calif. KPBS reported owner Becca Title, a lifelong reader of the genre, said that during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, she had reflected on her next career steps and decided to quit practicing law to open a small bookstore in the city.
"It's the best selling genre in the United States. It has been for a very long time. It's a billion-dollar (per) year industry. I think people really underestimate that about it," Title noted, adding that her goal for Meet Cute is to create a vibrant space for romance readers to meet and bond over the books they love: "In a world where you can buy almost anything online, a physical storefront is really a place for communities to gather and that is something that the romance community looks for."
The store will feature decorative displays that "highlight stories and authors often underrepresented in the genre. Title said she is also looking to direct more attention to these authors through book clubs and events," KPBS reported.
Susan Lee, author of Seoulmates, observed: "When you have just a general bookstore, we're all fighting for space on shelves. Meet Cute is already committed to really showing off a diverse display and offerings of books, and I'm really excited about that. And I think that's exactly what we need."
For Title, the romance genre's appeal is about hope. "I personally prefer not to be put through the emotional wringer and then end up sad in the end," she said. "There's enough of that for me in the world. So I think it's a hopeful genre, and I think that's something that is really valuable especially now."
On the bookshop's website, Meet Cute describes itself as "a queer-owned, feminist bookshop focusing on genre romance. It's a place for romance readers (and the romance-curious) to meet up, hang out, and generally get nerdy about kissing books. We love books telling stories about people not often at the center of a narrative and even less frequently at the center of a happy one, finding joy and community and love. We've got contemporary, historical, paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, and YA romance as well as romantic suspense and mysteries. We've got stories that are swoony and zany and delightful. (And sometimes very angsty, but always, eventually, have a happy ending!)"