Oregon’s first romance-only bookstore is now open in Portland

More than 400 people made their way to downtown Portland on Saturday to celebrate the opening of Grand Gesture Books, the state’s very first romance-only bookstore.

“Isn’t love grand?” the lettering on the store’s exterior window asks. Walking inside, you’ll see the answer is, of course, “Yes.” Muted pink walls, a rosy rug, delicate vases of blooming flowers and velvety armchairs surround dark brown bookshelves filled to the brim with every romance reader’s dream: a wide variety of subgenres to please even the pickiest of customers.

Katherine Morgan, romance enthusiast and owner of Grand Gesture, hopes the bookstore will offer a plethora of books about love, provide a space for book clubs to meet and host romance authors on book tours. It’s also one of just a handful of Black-owned romance bookstores in the nation.

At the store’s grand opening, Morgan estimates at least $15,000 worth of books were sold, with the line extending out the door and around an entire block. The store remained packed until 10 minutes before closing.

“Within five minutes, the whole store was full,” Morgan said. “... It was a lot, but it was wonderful.”

The local author section was particularly interesting to customer Kate Szorm. Currently, she’s reading the third installment of “The Murderbot Diaries” by Martha Wells, which chronicles the story of a cyborg searching for the meaning of life. Now, Szorm wants to branch out and try reading a sci-fi romance novel.

“The line to check out is super long and everybody’s just chatting, so the vibe is great,” Szorm said.

Filling a long-empty space in Oregon’s romance literature community, Grand Gesture boasts books focused on love with all kinds of central themes: LGBTQ+, mystery, paranormal, erotica, contemporary, historical, fantasy, nonfiction, self-love, platonic love and Pacific Northwest authors.

“It’s the one genre where you know for sure how it’s going to end, and that’s one of the things people like to make fun of,” Morgan said. “But it’s like no, how it ends doesn’t matter. It’s what happens on that journey. You want to root for these people.”

Growing up a lonely child in an environment with frequent abuse, Morgan said she discovered reading as a means to escape into a wonderful world separate from her own. She fell out of reading but came back into the romance genre with full force with “The Wedding Date” by Jasmine Guillory in 2019 when she was managing the romance section at Powell’s.

“Something about it just makes me swoon and realize how I want to be loved as a person, and how I want to love people in my life, whether it’s platonic in a friend group or romantic with my partner,” Morgan said.

OPB previously interviewed Morgan when she was a Powell’s bookseller. She left her job at Powell’s to fully run Grand Gesture, which first opened online last November.

The love spreads

Romance bookstores are still something of a novelty though. In 2016, there was only one dedicated romance bookstore in the United States — The Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles.

But love for the love genre has grown quickly over the past eight years, corresponding to the opening of more than 20 romance bookstores in the nation. Until now, the closest romance bookstore for Oregonians was The Romance Era, a queer and Black-owned used romance bookshop in Vancouver, Washington, opened by Ren Rice in 2023, who has been a big supporter of Grand Gesture’s opening in Portland.

“Grand Gesture is the hard work of someone who really loves what they do,” Rice told OPB in an email. “I am excited that Katherine is able to bring all the knowledge and skill she has to provide books and titles to everyone in the PDX community. I love that she has her own spin on the bookstore and between us we have a great deal of coverage, something for everyone!”

Romance sales have soared in recent years, from 18 million copies sold in 2020 to more than 39 million in 2023, The New York Times reported. Some point to readers’ desire to escape from certain circumstances, like the pandemic or increasingly stressful politics, while others say younger generations, through spaces like BookTok, are embracing the formerly stigmatized genre with open arms and less shame.

The romance genre has not just boomed nationally or only in sales — Portland metro area libraries have also observed the increase. The Multnomah County Library organization, which manages more than 20 libraries across Portland, has observed a doubling in the number of romance checkouts in e-books and audiobooks since 2018.

Washington County Cooperative Library Services, which is a partnership between Washington County, nine cities and three nonprofit organizations that operate local libraries, also noticed a skyrocketing increase in romance novels post-pandemic.

WCCLS saw the number of physical romance novel checkouts increase by nearly 30% from 2017-18 to 2023-24. In the same time frame, romance audio checkouts increased by around 16% while romance e-book checkouts grew by around 40%.

“I think there’s a parallel to a rise in the popularity of (cozy) mysteries — as the real world becomes more fraught with uncertainty and things beyond our control, it seems only natural to turn to reading that will have a full and satisfactory conclusion: all conflicts are resolved, the couple lives happily ever after (or happily for now), the murderer is caught,” said Rian Debner, WCCLS library systems and collections supervisor, in an email.

Courtney Sheedy, an e-content librarian with WCCLS, noted that romance sub- and micro-genres have grown massively as previously niche areas of interest have become mainstream, and self-published authors used social media to gain an engaged audience.

“The genre as a whole has also expanded in its inclusivity with regards to body size, gender expression, sexual orientation, non-monogamy, and beyond,” Sheedy said.

For Chris Walters, a Portland author who writes cozy contemporary romance and urban fantasy/paranormal romance, Grand Gesture is a chance to help boost the genre locally by attracting more authors to this city, from bestsellers to small-press and indie authors.

“I feel like romance has this weird reputation as perhaps not real writing or only for women, and Grand Gesture can hopefully help break some of those stereotypes,” he told OPB via Instagram. “Romance is for everyone, and I believe Katherine is going to help spread the word about how incredible romance books can be.”

Inclusivity is definitely at the heart of Grand Gesture. That’s why, in addition to housing BookTok’s most popular romances, Morgan is focusing on highlighting underrepresented love stories — from a Sapphic Black romance to a multiracial zombie love story — you name it, she’s got it (or something similar).

Happily ever after

And Grand Gesture doesn’t just house books. Morgan knows her target audience too well.

“Romance girlies love three things,” she said. “They love books — and they get more than one book, they’re not just buying one — they get tote bags, and they get stickers.” The bookstore has all three things, she promises, as well as t-shirts and literary-themed candles.

On top of all that, Morgan — who is an ordained minister — would love nothing more than to host weddings at Grand Gesture. Or at least have it be a couple’s meet-cute (definition: where two love interests meet for the first time).

“I am very open and honest about the fact that my whole personality is wanting people to get married in my store, or engaged in my store, or first dates, I want that to happen,” Morgan said.

Grand Gesture is located at 814 Southwest 10th Avenue in Portland. Morgan will be tabling at the Portland Book Festival on Nov. 2.

Go-to romance recs from the two PNW bookstore owners:

Morgan’s recommendations:

• “Before I Let Go” by Kennedy Ryan
• “The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy” by Megan Bannen

Rice’s recommendations:

• The Brown Sisters trilogy by Talia Hibbert
• The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater