I think a part of me has always wanted an outlet to talk about my love of books and how I got here. However, this is a store, and you're probably not here just to hear about my past. You want to know who we are and where we're going. So let's call this our official hello.

If you've landed here, you probably already know the shape of the place: an independent romance and romantasy bookshop, run out of Normal, Illinois, online for now. But a catalog doesn't tell you why it exists or where it's headed. So here's all of that, in one place.

Grandma Kelly's Bookshelf

My Grandma Kelly was a bookworm at heart; it really is no surprise that I read as much as I do now. When I was little, she'd take me to the Odell library to look at books while she picked out her next audiobook for the drive to and from work. But the clearest moment in my memory is when I was at her house and asked about a particular book on her shelf. It was a light hardcover book with a painting of a boy flying on a broomstick, and she told me it was about a boy my age who finds out he has magic. You already know the one. It was Harry Potter. After that, every visit meant borrowing the next one, the two of us working through them together.

When I got my first dog in 2018, I named her Luna, after Luna Lovegood, and the shop is also named after her. It felt like the right way to keep that memory going.

Falling Back In

I didn't always read this much. I was a true millennial about most things, the type who'd rearrange her bedroom furniture late at night, and somewhere in high school, I bought and built my first cheap bookshelf. That one followed me through every college rental, and it stayed mostly empty the whole way. It finally gave out on my last move, so I swapped it for something sturdier, though it still didn't have much to hold.

That changed when I bought my house in 2022. I burned out a little and needed something light, something to make me laugh, so I picked up my first Emily Henry book, Book Lovers. I absolutely loved it. It was lighthearted, with an enemies-to-lovers trope I didn't even know would become one of my favorites (don't judge me, you know it's yours too). So naturally, I read more of her books. But at some point, I started to feel like something was missing. I missed the magic and the found-family that Harry Potter gave me all those years ago.

That's how I found Fourth Wing, and it was exactly what I was looking for. That feeling of falling all the way into a book and not wanting to climb out.

Now, I'm also a stubborn person at heart. When someone who, let's just say, wasn't my favorite person recommended A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR), I silently vowed I'd never read it. But my neighbor, whom I love, told me I absolutely had to, that it would change my life... so I did. To say I fell in love with the series doesn't do it justice. I read all five ACOTAR books and all three Crescent City books in just under 38 days. (For those keeping count, that's around 5,200 pages total, or 140 pages a day.)

Down the Rabbit Hole

One could say I spiraled from there. 113 books last year, if you're keeping score. I wasn't, until I checked. I went from epic romantasy to light-hearted romantasy with Hannah Nicole Maehrer's Assistant to the Villain series, which, if we're being honest, is still one of my favorites when I need a good laugh to go with my obsession with magic.

If you love romantasy and dark romance, you've probably seen @Mariannasreads on your feed. I'm a huge fan, and she has yet to recommend a book or series I haven't loved. She's the reason I picked up the War of Lost Hearts series by Carissa Broadbent, the Legacy of Gods series by Rina Kent, and Fairydale by Veronica Lancet. Marianna, if by some miracle you ever see this post, thank you so much for all the recommendations.

What Lunaria Is

For now, Lunaria is an independent online romance and romantasy bookshop. Every order ships from Normal and is hand-packed.

We stock everything from light romance to dark romance, plus the romantasy that's been carrying indie bookshops over the last few years. You'll find used books with a life already in them, listed one at a time, and new releases through our Bookshop.org affiliate shop, where every order supports independent shops (including ours). It's curated by someone who reads the genre obsessively, which means nothing on these shelves is filler.

It is, for the record, one person and one golden retriever. Luna doesn't read (though there are photos on Instagram of her trying), but she has been present for the reading of approximately all of them, and she takes being the shop mascot very seriously.

The Lunaria Dream

Right now, Lunaria lives online, but the community has been the point from the start. We've already started a book club, The Lunaria Society, on Fable if you'd like to read alongside others.

And then there's the vision I'm not going to pretend I don't have: a real space here in central Illinois. Navy walls, warm wood shelves, a coffee bar, and a room where book clubs actually meet in person. The kind of place you stay in longer than you planned because you got talking about books and lost track of time. That's a few years out, and I'm building toward it on patience and cash flow, not in a hurry. But it's the direction, and I'd rather say it out loud than keep it quiet.

What I’m Reading Now

For my fellow romantasy readers, you've probably seen that The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker, the second book in the Moonfall series, came out on May 19. It's also our current Lunaria Society book club pick, and I am absolutely obsessed. I'm not as far into it as I'd like, which is what starting a business does to your reading time, but I am already completely in love with Kaan Vaegor (please tell me I'm not alone).

As for what's next, a few new books came in last week, and I'm torn between The Kings' List by Jade Presley, Death's Daughter by S.A. Barnes, and Dhampira by Amy Pennza. If you've read any of them, tell me where to start. I genuinely can't decide.

Thank You For Visiting!

That's the place, and that's me. If you read the genre the way I do, the stay-up-too-late, rereading-the-same-chapter way, you're going to feel at home here.

This blog is where I'll talk books between the shelves: what I'm reading, what's actually worth your time, and the read-alikes for when you finish a book and need the next one immediately. Pull up a chair.

Happy reading,
Lauren & Luna