By Sophia-Joelle McDowell

What’s cooler than smutty books on wheels? Trope Bookshop stands out as a romance focused mobile bookstore operating in Charlotte, NC. 

Founder Katie wasn’t always a romance book-slinging bus driver. She grew up in Arkansas and moved to Charlotte after graduating from the University of Arkansas. Katie worked some corporate jobs before getting COVID and experiencing burnout. This weight encouraged her to kick the corporate scene to the curb and find her way to the world of bookstore ownership. 

Katie’s been enjoying the ride, and she recently announced her plans to put down roots with a brick and mortar location—Trope HQ opening March 1. The green gal on wheels will still continue to bop around Charlotte once the new location opens. We spoke with Katie about her journey so far and the love she carries for the genre. Maybe we can convince her to take a road trip to Kansas City? 

Catcall: Why did you decide to make a mobile bookshop?

Katie: Well, truth be told, it was sort of out of necessity, it was not the initial plan. I was really interested in opening a brick and mortar. I was really inspired by, it’s so stupid, but by BookTok, and I just got really into it during COVID and loved it. Of course, I found the Ripped Bodice and Beach Read and all these other romance only bookstores and I was like, Charlotte needs this there is a hole that I can fill. I feel like we were primed for something like that. We don’t have a ton of Indie bookstores here. So I thought I wanted to do that. But man I did not anticipate how expensive it would be, which was dumb because we’ve had such a huge influx of people into Charlotte during the pandemic. All of our rents have just gone crazy, stupid high, so that dream kind of faded. My friends were like, why don’t you do something mobile? Truthfully, I wasn’t totally sold on the idea, but then I found the bus on Facebook marketplace, and it was like it was meant to be.

What all went into building the bus. Was it quite a project?

Well, yes and no. I didn’t do the renovations myself. The people that I bought the bus from, they actually do conversions on buses, typically into like tiny homes or food trucks, so I told him that’s not really what I’m wanting to do, and he was not understanding and was like, so like a library and I was like yes that’s what you need to think about, and he ran with it.

You focus on spicy books, romance, and female authors. Why did you choose to go that route?

I mean listen, I’m an elder-millennial and that’s what we read. We all started out with Harry Potter, then it went to Twilight, and Hunger Games, and 50 Shades of Grey. I don’t know what that pipeline is, but it’s definitely there, and now we all read fairy smut and just sort of dissociate from the realities of life. I just felt like, oh my god, we need something that is just fun and frivolous and doesn’t feel so heavy. Like everything that’s happening that we can’t control in the world and politics and everything, and so I’m like, let’s just do something that we all love. And I love the idea of it being a hyper specific niche bookstore. And frankly, because it’s a bus, it’s so small, it kind of helps because I could never be able to cover all the genres. It just would never be feasible, and truthfully, it’s what me and my friends read and we love it. You know what they say, do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life, so that was definitely part of it after having jobs that I did not love. 

Do you have a message to the romance haters out there?

I mean, do you want the truth? Fuck off honestly. Leave us alone! Let us live, my god. Stop. You’ve taken everything from us, and I’m saying, like, particularly women. We’ve had everything taken from us. We’ve had our reproductive rights taken away, we’ve had any choice of bodily autonomy… Leave us alone, just let us have our thing. You know? So, frankly, they can fuck right off. That’s not very nice, but like, let us live, God. 

But really, I really don’t get it. Why would I? I feel like I’ve built a community brick by brick, if you will, and I don’t really hear a lot of complaining. I mean, every now and then someone will come in and have something to say, but it’s usually guys, and they’re like, “Oh, romance isn’t really my genre,” and then they leave. That’s like the extent of conversation. Every now and then I’m like, “You can learn a thing or two. You can learn some tricks in one of these books”.

You select books that are mainstream and indie. How do you find the books that you want to carry? 

Oh, my gosh, it is a hope and a prayer. I’m a fully licensed retailer, so I have a retail license to buy books at wholesale price from distributors and then directly from publishers. But man, it is hard. It’s my favorite part of my job, but the ordering is probably the most stressful and tedious part of the job because there are so many options. I think that’s something that people don’t realize the options are almost limitless. Truly, unbelievable.

In 2023 alone, romance book sales doubled from 2020. According to the very cursory research that I’ve done, somewhere in the ballpark of like 39 million copies of romance books. This is the fastest growing genre of books, and so the people who want to hate on us, I say, well, here’s the numbers.

Yeah, I’ve never looked at the numbers, but that totally makes sense. Just going off like BookTok content and stuff.

Totally! I think BookTok has really revived a love for reading for people, and reading is cool again. Reading is fun. It’s not lame. It’s not like, “dorky” or l “lame.” We stay home. We don’t go out with like, hitting the clubs and hitting the bars like we used to. It’s just different. I think the going out culture especially since COVID has fundamentally changed. And this is what we do, you know?

This might be hard to answer but, what’s your favorite book?

I knew you were going to ask that. Gosh. Okay, well, I’ll say this. I’m definitely a romantasy girl. That is number one in my heart. Like I love a romantasy… Oh, no, don’t make me pick. It’s like picking a favorite kid.

If you want to name a few, that’s totally cool too. 

Okay, yeah. Let me give you a few. I love the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. It is just to me a work of art. I absolutely love it. I really loved Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. Stunning. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Ashley Poston’s Seven Year Slip. Unbelievable.

When the Moon Hatched, that is an incredible read. It’s a big book, so don’t let that scare you. Because the book… she a thick girl, but it’s so worth it. It’s very Sarah J. Mass coated in like, the lead is a female assassin, she’s a total baddie. It’s so great. I mean, truly everything you want in a fantasy, there are dragons, but they’re not like Fourth Wing dragons, they’re not sentient.

How can people support you and your business?

Shop small, keep it local, but, if you’re not local, always support your indie bookstores near you. Amazon and Barnes and Noble don’t need your help, so go support the little guys in your local community, whether that’s me or anybody else. It’s also as simple as a follow on Instagram or engaging. If you can’t buy, support by “Oh my gosh, love this store here” and tag them and post about them like that. It will cost you $0 and that really goes a long way for small businesses. 

Is there anything you’d like to add before we go? 

I think people have a very specific idea of what they think a romance book is, and it’s just, it’s not. It’s not your grandma’s, you know, checkout grocery store with a Fabio on the cover. That’s not it anymore. It’s very different. If you think that’s all that offers in the romance space, you couldn’t be more wrong, and there’s something for everybody. We try to cover stuff for everybody in the store. LGBTQIA+, plus, I’ve got trans couples, we’ve got male male, sapphic bondage, light spice or closed door romance implied—implied sex not on page—to like really graphic, or, you know, stuff with lots of trigger warnings. I just think people have an idea of what they think a romance book is, and there’s so much more to it. 

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Photos courtesy of Trope Bookshop.