Bea and Leah Koch are the co-founders of The Ripped Bodice, a bookstore that centers on the ever-so sprawling romance genre. The bookstore’s Los Angeles location—its first one—is going to celebrate its tenth anniversary next March. Just two years ago, in the summer of 2023, The Ripped Bodice opened its second location in Brooklyn, bringing the romance-only bookstore to the East Coast and into its vibrant literary scene. This expansion is not only a testament to its success and popularity of the oftentimes brushed aside romance genre, but the NY store has given a home to book lovers and a very niche book club community.
NYC Book Hoes, created, hosted and organized by Zoë,boasts five different genre book clubs and hosts her monthly romance club, Happily Everyone After, at The Ripped Bodice. After its original venue shut down, Zoë turned to Leah and Bea’s bookstore, which happily took them in. BUST sat down with Leah and Zoë, to chat about all things romance, readers, and raunch.
How did this all begin? Well, after graduating college, the Koch sisters came upon the idea of opening a bookstore. The idea of a romance bookstore was born out of a love for books, yes, but the sisters also found a business opportunity in having a unique niche within the bookselling industry. “Someone was leaving a lot of money on the table,” Leah said, and continued, “The idea came from a desire to have a shop that we would ourselves shop at.” For Zoë, it all began in the summer of 2022. The city was so big and Zoë was starting to feel the loneliness creep in from this big, fast-paced city. She started with her favorite hobby, reading, and organized meetups every month hoping to meet new people. Over time, the growth of her brand book club business finally allowed her to dedicate herself full-time to being a host, a dream she has always had.
Romance genre novels are a billion dollar industry, stretching shelves at most bookstores, but somehow a store dedicated only to romance was still unthought of before. Perhaps a reason why, touched upon by both Leah and Zoë, is the widespread misconception that romance is “fluff” or “girly shit”, “sexy but not smart”. “I went on a date with this guy. Ew, I know, gross?!,” Zoë laughed, then continued, “and he was reading Infinite Jest. I mean, I don’t know if he was actually reading it, maybe it was macho to seem like he was, but I told him I was reading this historical romance novel and he thought it was smut.” Yes, they read smut and raunchy books, alone and at the book club but “It is good times with the girls!”
Widely consumed by women, the romance genre has often been dismissed of its artistry. “As if joy, pleasure, and emotional intimacy aren’t worth writing about with depth and care,” said Leah. The dismissal of the romantic imagination of women—and more broadly, avenues of female pleasure—is nothing new. Objects that brought pleasure to women often dealt with being denigrated as nonsensical or unrealistic. The private and liberating nature of women seeking their own pleasure has historically been vilified. Hysteria, with one of its symptoms being “deficit of sexual interest with ‘an approved male partner’”, was said to affect over seventy percent of women in eighteenth century Europe, writes Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood and Body Work, in ASTRA.
Photo courtesy of Megan Kantor
In conversation, both Leah and Zoë highlighted the importance of giving a voice to romance through community. “At The Ripped Bodice, we hope to be the kind of space where romance is treated with the reverence it deserves,” noted Leah, who pointed out that staff are always keen to share their recommendations, which you can also find on their website, under “Staff Picks.” For romance, there always seems to be “the next hot read.” BookTok and pop culture regularly bestow celebrity status to an ever changing roster of books, like the crave for celebrity and athlete romance when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce started dating, or the spike in Jenny Han sales when The Summer I Turned Pretty aired its final season (spoiler alert: we are definitely NOT Team Jeremiah). Noting this, Leah mentioned that she regularly stocks the bookstore not only with books that are getting a moment on social media, but also those that should be seen. When discussing the beauty of discovering new voices, Leah and Zoë both mentioned the immense opportunities that come with having a platform. From contacts with the publishing world to constant book recommendations, they have both leveraged their respective voices to spotlight amazing books that are under the radar. In highlighting books that might not already have a large fanbase or books by debut authors, Leah hopes that this romance-only bookstore doesn’t just stock up on the most popular titles right now, but also has a hand in shaping the trends of the genre in the future.
“We only read debut authors at our book club,” Zoë said. The genre has never lacked devotees. However, directing this vast amount of attention to debut authors, particularly stories underrepresented in the genre, including ones that center on BIPOC love and joy, has been an important mission for Book Hoes, which recently celebrated its three year anniversary. Some past book club picks have included Alisha Rai’s Partner in Crime (Rai is an author also strongly recommended by Leah), Eden Appiah-Kubi’s Her Own Happiness, and K.C. Mills’s Christmas in Spite of You, amongst others. Choosing the next book of the month is always an art. In a readerly matchmaking process Zoë called, “very incredibly messy,” she mused on the challenges of always being given incredible book recommendations from her book club goers and the desire to create as expansive and dynamic of a selection as possible.
The biggest challenge, and fun, of it is just how familiar she is with people at the book club. With that layer of connection in mind, Zoë’s curation of her book titles is a delicate balance of wanting to indulge her audience while also challenging them. “I know their tastes, so I know certain books and parts will definitely provoke lots of discussion, but then I might want to bring something else in too, something they wouldn’t have otherwise paid attention to or talked about.” Reading is an incredibly private experience, and one that can be quite vulnerable too, especially as we engage with books through the lens of our entire lived experiences. Romance novels were never just about happily everafters, but also people, like everyone else, baring themselves for potential damage. “This is a safe space, and we handle every discussion with absolute care to the people participating.” Whether it is the hot, raunchy scenes or the difficult, painful moments in life reflected on these pages, discussions don’t shy away from them. Rather, Happily Everyone After uses their community as a soulful discussion space to explore the most intimate questions folded within these love stories.
Photo courtesy of Vico Perez
The family that Zoë has found through reading began as a weekly gathering in Central Park. At first, it was her excitement to meet people who liked to read that encouraged her to coordinate these meetups. Now, it is still about those very things, but NYC Book Hoes has officially taken off. After three years, more than half of the participants choose to return month after month (Zoë calculated the specific percentage to be 67%). “They are like my family,” she said, smiling as she pointed out how much the book club has become an outlet for connecting with other readers, in her words, the most generous people there are.
When asked about a tip for running such a vibrantly successful book club, Zoë pointed to the importance of giving readers their choice. “You don’t want them to feel pressured to come back,” she said, “Reading and sharing what you read can be such a scary thing, so you really want to assure those who come that they can show up however much they want.” The book club continues to run strong today, with successful fundraisers and merch supporting its growing operations.
Photo courtesy of Vica Perez
In the vastness of New York City, people show up, month after month, to sit with others and talk about a romance novel, unpacking plot points, characters, frustrations and swoons. As Zoë closed out her gushing sesh about the ventures of The Book Hoes—her eyes still sparkling from the moving conversation—she expressed the greatest appreciation for the people who have become her friends. Her book clubs have always sought to be a space of solace, and throughout the years, dozens have found a home here. What started as a desire to connect, has become a space beyond its founder’s wildest imagination and continues to be fueled by our incessant desire to connect with one another.
