9 January 23 - 29, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents S ad news, John Grisham: Neely Moldovan does not want to read your books. And she’s not letting the girlies suffer through them, ei- ther. Days before a mid-January flight to Anti- gua, Guatemala, the Dallas lifestyle blogger hovered over her suitcase like Regina George over a Burn Book and feverishly scribbled inside the cover of a romance novel. “You deserve to read a fun book by the pool,” read the inscription. The five-star re- sort’s dry reading library wouldn’t do. Mol- dovan made it her mission to provide the women of the resort with sexy reads filled with happily-ever-afters; heaving kissing, light choking and a hair tug or two were more like it. Moldovan and her 222,000 Instagram followers are some of a growing number of women who are wearing their love of ro- mance novels as a badge of honor. Dallas and its skyrocketing romance readership is in on the genre’s resurgence. Over the last year, romance has strutted out of Dallas’ literary shadows. North Texas women are banging down the doors and fill- ing their “to be read” lists with toe-curling titles. Local authors, social media personali- ties and romance bookstores are shame- lessly leading the genre’s renaissance. Busy Reading Smut “R omance books were the first time I saw sex without shame and that was so eye-opening to me,” says Dallas author Rachel Lewis, founder of the Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair. Lewis, who was raised in Bible Belt, Texas, and Moldovan are co-hosts of Dallas’ leading romance novel podcast, Welcome to the Smut Show, where guests and the well- read duo talk all things smut. “The first book that I really remember reading was called The Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting, and it was the first book that I ever read that I remember having ex- plicit spice,” Lewis says. “What is this? This is amazing. Whose idea was this? This is genius,” Lewis recalls thinking. Purity culture be damned. The hosts define “smut” as on-page, de- tailed sexual activity. “Spice” refers to the amount of sexual content of a book. The higher the spice level, the naughtier the read, but don’t confuse smut with erotica. Sex is a fraction of the story. “Erotica, it can be beautifully written, it can be romantic, it can be a great read, but if the majority of that story is taking place in the bedroom with their clothes off, with things happening, it’s probably erotica,” says North Texas romance author Thea Claire. “Smut, to me, is an open-door romance that has a certain level of storytelling that makes you care about the characters before they start doing stuff.” Smut’s fandom is booming. Welcome to the Smut Show enjoyed a 111% growth in 2024. The top-100 arts podcast has listeners in over 42 countries, with 120,000 down- loads and counting. For women like Lewis, romance novels are lifting the veil of shame surrounding sex. Romance’s explicit content, written mostly by women, normalizes female sexual prow- ess through the female gaze. “Talking about your sex life and your sex- uality has always been kind of taboo,” says Denton Square romance bookbar co-owner Dawn Conner. “You weren’t supposed to want it, desire it, need it. In my mind, grow- ing up when I did, that’s kind of what it was about. It was like, ‘Gosh, you don’t talk about that,’ but I think it’s important that it’s part of who we are.” Conner and her daughter, Darci Middle- ton, are co-owners of The Plot Twist ro- mance bookstore and bar. The romance-exclusive bookbar located at 227 W. Oak St. in Denton opened Jan. 18. The Plot Twist is part of a wave of romance-only bookstores hitting North Texas, following Kansas-transplant Blush Bookstore. Money Talks B lush Bookstore, at 432 W. Eighth St., was enthusiastically welcomed to the Bishop Arts District. The frilly ro- mance bookstore broke molds in Dallas. De- spite being neighbor to a handful of bookstores, Blush is the first local bookstore dedicated solely to romance. Dallas’ excite- ment for such a space was unprecedented. “We thought we were prepared,” says Blush Bookstore owner Jaclyn Wooten. “What was the surprise is that we did well, but we did probably at least three times our expectations.” The Eighth Street addition isn’t Wooten’s first rodeo. The cozy girl-coded bookstore is Blush’s second iteration. Wooten’s first en- trepreneurial endeavor is House of Jupiter, an online bookish merch store. On Oct. 5, 2024, Dallas readers rushed Blush. Customers lined Eighth Street and waited upwards of 90 minutes to be one of the first to set foot in the romance-dedicated bungalow. The line held steady all weekend long. “Romance is just now being taken seri- ously,” says New Leaf Literary and Media agent Patrice Caldwell. The Dallas-based literary agent has been in publishing for 10 years as an editor, liter- ary agent and soon-to-be published author. Caldwell’s client roster includes sapphic writer Meryl Wilsner, whose first nonbinary romance character will take the spotlight in the sexy April release, My Best Friend’s Hon- eymoon. “It’s [romance] been selling so healthily for so long,” Caldwell says. “In some, many ways, [it’s] probably keeping the publishing industry afloat.” Caldwell, who was named a top honoree at the 2018 Publishers Weekly Star Watch, is part of the resurgence of vampire novels. Caldwell’s debut, Where Shadows Meet, is the first of a young adult dark romance vam- pire fantasy duology about sacrificial love, and is set to publish April 1. Nationally, romance is outperforming all other genres. According to Publisher’s Weekly, print unit sales of romance titles rose 34.6% in 2023. In 2022, romance unit sales grew 52.4% over the previous year. In romantasy, a subgenre of romance blending fantasy and romance, heavy-hitter Rebecca Yarros’ The Empyrean Series cur- rently holds the top two slots on The New York Times best-seller list. Fourth Wing has charted for 77 weeks, holding steady at No. 1, and its sequel has 51 weeks on the list. Ro- mance’s key to success is predictability. All That Ends Swell “S o many people read romance, not just women, and you can see your- self in romance and you get the safety of no matter what happens in this book, I’m gonna leave it feeling good,” Caldwell says. Romance is also formulaic. “Tropes might be different and the peo- ple might be different, and their jobs might be different, and all the circumstances might be different, but there’s a formula to it,” Moldovan says. The formula is simple. Two people (or more) meet. They fall in love. Conflict ensues. Resolution follows. Happily ever after. Kathy Tran ▼ Culture Heels Over Head Dallas readers are getting smutty. BY DESIREE GUTIERREZ >> p10 Author Rachel Lewis (left) and blogger Neely Moldovan produce the podcast Welcome to the Smut Show.
