The UK’s First Romantasy Bookstore is Open Now
Article excerpt
The girls! want! spice! And Bad Girl Books in Oxford, the UK’s first romantasy bookshop, is giving it to them.
These days, some of the bestselling and most popular books are romantasy, but not just any romantasy, the girls want spice! Think: shadow daddies, hot fae, fated mates, and morally gray characters.
This is evident in the units a couple of the biggest romantasy series have moved:
Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series has sold more than 75 million (!!) copies
Rebecca Yarros’s 2025 release, Onyx Storm, was the biggest adult book release in both the UK and the US
The subgenre is so poppin’ in the UK that 30-year-old Starlin Marot was able to open up the country’s first romantasy bookshop.
She did this by running romantasy book pop-ups all over the country and raising £30,000 (roughly $40,000) from said pop-ups.
The result? A bookstore with shelves that are labeled things like “Monster Smut,” “Unhinged,” and “LGBTQ.”
This bookstore is the latest in a trend that seems to favor indie bookstores and even holds space for specialty indie bookstores. We’ve pondered whether we’re in an age of indie bookstores given the comeback we’ve been witnessing. Short answer: we are.
Not only that, but romance and romantasy need respect put on their names, because they are some of the biggest sales drivers making this resurgence possible.