Find Your Happy Ending at Romance Bookstores

Published 1:30 am Monday, March 16, 2026

MILL CREEK — It’s just like a fairy tale.

Girl (Lindsey Tabor) meets girl (Carlie Rawson) at a bookstore. One recommends a book to the other. They become friends and bond over their love of romance books.

A few years later, they open a romance-only bookstore in Mill Creek that’s become an instant success, selling 500 books a week.

Hardcovers Romance Bookstore opened last March. By June, the store’s growing success, prompted them to move to a larger space just seven doors down at 4008 133rd St. SE, Suite 117.

Print is having a comeback — especially in the romance niche, where it’s all butterflies. In 2023, 767 million print books were sold in the United States.

The genre experienced a revival during the pandemic.

In 2020, the Netflix regency-era romance show “Bridgerton” saw 40% of subscribers tune in for at least part of the series. TikTok’s #Booktok, a niche within the social media app in which readers talk about books, rose in popularity, lifting romance sales.

A second brick-and-mortar Snohomish County romance bookstore opened last summer in Snohomish at 1116 First St.

In July, Amanda Warren and her two daughters, Celeste Summers and Alexandra Summers, launched Eternal Endings.

A romance-themed bookstore was an easy choice for the trio. “I usually won’t read a book unless there’s romance in it,” Celeste Summers said.

The independent bookstore offers a wide range of titles, along with lots of personal attention.

“We’ve had a passion for reading our whole lives,” Summers said. “Between the three of us we have hand-selected and read every book in the store. We’re great with recommendations — that’s why we have a lot of repeat customers.”

The store also allows them to spend time around like-minded people.

“We love people that love books,” she said. “We have people come up on their lunch break just to talk to books.”

Romantasy

Tabor and Rawson weren’t expecting a honeymoon rush when they opened the Hardcovers store.

“From day one, we’ve been bombarded in the best possible way with amazing customers. It’s been absolute insanity,” said Tabor, who’s reduced her own reading goal from 250 to 100 books a year.

Initially, the plan was for Rawson, Tabor and Tabor’s mother, who recently retired, to run things. But two weeks in, they realized they couldn’t do it all. So they hired a reader, book concierge and social media manager.

Daily social media posts drive their business. Tabor says that 75% of their stock is “indie,” published outside the mainstream industry, through self-publishing or smaller presses.

Readers often refer to those books as “unicorns,” impossible to find, except at Hardcovers. Tourists from as far away as Georgia and Texas have gone out of their way to stop in, Tabor said.

The digital world is useful for outreach, but Hardcovers is distinctly set in a physical space. The decor goes for a cozy and girly atmosphere, with a pink couch, hearts, frames and neon lights. It’s instagrammable without being generic.

Hardcovers has subgenres sections like paranormal, LGBTQ+ (also interspersed in the other categories), romantasy (romance plus fantasy), sports contemporary, fairytale retelling, romantic comedy, rockstar, cowboy small town and trigger warning/dark romance.

Dark romance, which explores more mature themes and morally ambiguous characters, is their most successful genre, selling 20 books a day.

Their “blind date with a book” is also a popular draw — accessories like under eye patches and heart-shaped glasses add to the reading experience. E-book readers will find accessories like earbud cleaning kits, e-book cases and charms.

For the trigger warning section, the goodies include an adult toy. You can also bring home bookmarks shaped after a certain part of the male anatomy.

Melting pot

Some authors stop by to deliver their books in person. K.L. Parson, an Auburn author with three books on the shelves, brought in her second batch of books on a June morning. She first heard about Hardcovers on social media, just as they were about to open. She reached out, and Tabor was all-in to carry Parson’s books.

“Because Hardcovers is genre-specific, there’s an extra sense of appreciation for what I write,” Parson said. “Then, of course, selling online through the big retailers feels so … distant, separated, impersonal … I much prefer working with independent brick-and-mortar shops like Hardcovers.”

Tabor says events are a key part of their business, such as a monthly book club and author events.

“We’re making it an introverted extrovert melting pot,” Tabor said. “Events bring out all the book people to make jokes about Twilight, talk about spicy scenes or how much they hated a book. Love means something different for everyone.”

Contact writer Aina de Lapparent Alvarez at aina.delapparent.alvarez@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared in Sound & Summit magazine, The Daily Herald’s quarterly publication. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each issue. Subscribe and receive four issues for $18. Call 425-339-3200 or go to soundsummitmagazine.com

If you go

Hardcovers Romance Bookstore

4008 133rd St. SE, Suite 117, Mill Creek

hardcoverswa.com

Eternal Endings

1116 First St. (second floor), Snohomish

eternalendings.com