Tag: romance bookshops

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Main Character Books

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It’s Saturday and I’m back with another bookshop post and it’s another post for a specialist romance bookshop, which makes my third this year after The Spicy Librarian and Saucy Books. And I would like to go on record with how happy it makes me that we have specialist romance stores popping up and increasing. I’m not a romantasy reader but I do credit that genre with helping make this happen and so it’s probably apt that I was in Main Character Books (the day) after the new Sarah J Maas came out as you can see from the window.

Main Character Books is in Spital Square, in Spitalfields which is a five minute or so walk from Liverpool Street Station (if you manage to use the right exit, which I am so bad at you wouldn’t believe) and near lots of interesting looking food spots.

I’m staring with their selection of classics because there are some really, really pretty ones. I don’t need any more hardback editions or special-design paperbacks, but they’re beautiful and I’m tempted every time. As you may be able to see at the bottom left there is the Virago Designer edition of Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women that I have on my shelf.

I mostly took this for the merch – not for the SJM, and I’m not really giving you many photos of the romantasy selection beyond this, because it’s not what I’m interested in, but trust me when I say that there is plenty of it, the stuff you’ll have heard of and new things to discover.

What I am interested in is the contemporary section of which this is a small part. Alongside the more usual/common authors and books I found stuff that I haven’t seen in physical copies before, old favourites and quite a few US format paperbacks of books that just aren’t available over here yet (and aren’t on Kindle either) which were very, very tempting.

Among the books I hadn’t seen before was the new Jenny Holiday Book Club Boyfriend which came out in July and has a formerly-famous heroine and a grumpy bestselling author hero and enemies to loves and forced proximity vibes which sounds like it might be fun. (also next to it and partly out of shot is Kate Stayman London‘s vampire book – she has a new one out at the moment which also looks interesting, but I’m not sure I can cope with an enemies to lovers romance set in the world of US politics at the moment – may be after the midterms?

And finally before I go, a copy of Season of Love by Helena Greer in the wild – which I don’t think I’ve seen before and which made me very happy because I enjoyed it so much and feels like I read it more recently than I did but it was actually one of the last things I read in 2025. Yes I did buy a couple of books and no I won’t tell you now, you’ll have to wait for the next Books Incoming.

Have a great Halloween if that’s your thing, otherwise I hope you’ve safely tucked away at home in the warm with some good food!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Saucy Books 2

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It’s been more than a year since I originally went to Saucy Books in Notting Hill – and they’ve moved! They’re about three doors down from the original location but it’s much, much bigger.

Now I should say I don’t have loads of photos because I was having a delightful chat about books rather than doing anything else and so the pictures don’t do justice to the much bigger size. This is a built out section full of contemporary romance that’s basically the size of the original store!

This is the other side of it – as you can see there’s loads of books here that I’ve already read (among them Book Lovers, Husband Material, Star Shipped, The Bodyguard) as well as some that I still want to (Atmopshere, Father Material, And Then There Was You). There is also a huge section – easily the same size as this again of Romantasy and Romance-with-Dark-Covers. And it’s still got loads of space for events and signings – it’s clearly a much, much better space for a bookshop (given how much revenue can come from events) than the old one was.

I’m finishing with their cork board to vote for your favourite trope – I’m not going to tell you what I picked, but do tell me yours in the comments!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Spicy Librarian

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Happy Saturday, I’ve got another bookshop this week from the Bristol Odyssey and this time it’s The Spicy Librarian, a relatively new romance specialist (and bar!) in Leamington Spa. And it’s even great timing because today is Romance Bookstore Day in the US so I’m vaguely timely for once.

Firstly, I want to say that it’s big! I know their instagram says it’s Europe’s biggest independent romance bookshop, but I was not prepared. And it’s got a lovely corner plot too so hopefully everyone going past gets a good eyeful!

And let us take a moment for how pretty this is! Look at the indoor tree! And the rug! And the seats and tables for you to have a drink and a sit down with a book.

And this is the table underneath it, which I think gives a good idea of the selection – which felt very carefully curated. There’s authors here that you will see in other stores – Tessa Bailey, Lila Sage, Josie Silver – and then Kayla Olson, whose first book didn’t get a paperback release over here, the second did and now the third is getting into more stoies and then some stuff I hadn’t seen anywhere else (r at least don’t remember seeing anywhere else!) like The Singer Sisters (actually two years old), Fallen Willow and Forsaking Midnight which was a very new release at the time.

I was expecting the store to be really heavy on the romantasy and also on the self-published, but actually it’s more balanced than that. It has got a big romantasy section but as well as the usual suspects there were some lesser spotted ones – or at least lesser spotted by me, admittedly not a romantasy reader or connoisseur.

But there was also a lot of other romance as well – this is part of the contemporary romance section – with quite a lot of sports romances but I promise there were other things there too. I could easily have bought more than I did. I’ve spent a lot of time in various romance sections of bookstores and there were plenty here that I hadn’t seen before – including a bunch of US imports that aren’t in Kindle in the UK.

And finally as well as the (licenced) bar, there is merch. I’m not meant to be acquiring any more tote bags and although I did acquire tote bags over the course of the weekend, on Friday afternoon my will power was in tact. It was also about 30 degrees so I managed to resist the hoodie, but whether I’d be as strong on a chilly day in the autumn who can tell.