'Love stories matter because love matters'

A new bookstore that only sells romance is opening in Wellington. The owner hopes it will take the edge off "grim" winters in the capital.

"Thinking of Wellington winters and how they can be a bit grim at times, I wanted it to be a place where people would come and spend time and cozy up with a great book," owner Juliet Gengenbach said.

To qualify for a spot on the shelves at XO Book Co Gengenbach said a romance novel needs to centre on a relationship and have a happy ending.

Bookstore focused on selling romance novels opens in Capital

Checkpoint

Gengenbach fell in love with the genre as a teenager, she told RNZ's Checkpoint.

"Love stories matter because love matters," she said.

She hoped the store would shift the perception about the genre, often dismissed as "fluffy" or unimportant.

"I think that it's a shame that romance as a genre is looked down upon because everybody wants to be loved, right?

"Everyone is interested in love in its many different forms. And that's what I think is so great about these books. I would also say that I have read so many thought-provoking, beautifully written, lovely, wonderful, life-changing romance books."

Gengenbach described "romantasy" - a portmanteau of romance and fantasy - as the "new era" of the romance genre. Wome, she said, were into it because they found it empowering.

"It generally centres a female main character who comes into or discovers her own strength. It's often a female main character who's thrown into what feels like an impossible situation, and she's got to fight her way through that in some way."

Gengenbach invited avid readers Kat and Maya to Xo Book Co last weekend for a peek. Kat said romance books made her feel seen as a a "hopeless romantic".

Maya added that the genre made her feel that love was still possible. She said romance portrays men and women as equally respected and respectable.

"Like a lot of things that you see about men on the media are quite violent and scary. And being a young woman, it's quite hard to like see yourself out there trying to fall in love."

Gengenbach said that centering women's sexual fantasies was equally empowering.

"It also kind of provides this safe environment to think about that and explore that in a way that again centers women instead of the male gaze or what men are interested in."

But these books are not "all about sex" - a common criticism launched at the romantasy genre.

"I find it a bit difficult that an entire genre is kind of reduced to this 'smut' label because that's really not the focus of what these books are."

Lisa Page, a local romance writer, said the romance genre ran the gamut from "the Christian to the erotica".

Kelly Lyndon, president of the Romance Writers of New Zealand, said romance-only stores like Xo Book Co, Enamoured in Auckand and The Ink Pot in Dunedin, allowed a community which had mostly existed online to carve out a physical space for themselves in the real world.