Create a 10-word scroll-stopping headline for: At Bright Side Books & Wine, a Romance Reading Community | Vibe NC

If social media presents an existential threat to reading as a pastime, no one has yet told the romance readers.

Apps like TikTok and Instagram have thriving communities of readers—nicknamed BookTok and Bookstagram, respectively—ready to dissect their favorite books. Within these online communities, romance fans are a particularly visible set. 

Bright Side Books & Wine, a romance-only bookstore that recently moved into a permanent home in downtown Raleigh, is, in some ways, the physical manifestation of these online communities. 

Here, fans of the genre can find as niche a novel as they could possibly desire. There are sections for queer and local authors, the classics, the breakout hits. Visitors can post up on plush leather couches or at bright café tables, and attend book clubs and signings.

“It feels settled,” owner Susannah Baird told the INDY recently, surveying the shop. “My friend jokes that this is ‘Susannah’s Barbie Dreamhouse.’ It is, though—how it was built and decorated, everything. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be.”

Romance novels have always been a cornerstone of the publishing industry, though it’s harder than one might expect to pinpoint the genre’s exact heft—the most commonly cited figure, a valuation of $1.4 billion, is based on outdated data from the trade association Romance Writers of America, which went bankrupt in 2024 after being clouded by scandals. 

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Nevertheless, romance novels are certainly more visible than ever, particularly among millennials and Generation Z readers. Many readers got into the genre (and into sharing their reading journeys online) during COVID-19, shortly after the cartoon covers trend emerged to catch new readers’ eyes.

Since then, a handful of other dynamic factors—social media, the rise of self-publishing, the popularity of shows like Bridgerton and Heated Rivalry, and updated mores within the books themselves—have contributed to a spike in popularity. 

The publishing industry has certainly paid attention, and media has followed suit, giving the once-sidelined genre consistent coverage. The biggest beneficiary of this increased attention is the corner of the romance world known as romantasy, or romance novels set in a fantasy world.

This fall alone, romantasy fans have new releases to look forward to from Sarah J. Maas, Carissa Broadbent, Rachel Gillig, and Sarah A. Parker (all No. 1 New York Times bestselling authors)—all of which you can preorder at Bright Side Books & Wine.

“There’s so many incredible authors that write about really, really important topics that are very—I don’t want to say more easily digestible, because that devalues it—but because of the context…