There's a book on Lauren's grandmother's shelf about a boy who finds out he has magic. She was little when she asked about it. Her grandmother handed it to her and said: read this.

That's where this started. Not with a business plan. Not with a market gap. With one person handing a child a book and trusting her to love it.

She did. And for years after that, every visit meant borrowing the next one, the two of them working through the series together. When her grandmother eventually passed her collection along, Lauren wound up with two complete sets of Harry Potter. She doesn't have the heart to part with either of them.

When she got her first dog, she named her Luna, after Luna Lovegood. The shop is named after her. It felt like the right way to keep that thread alive.

Lauren lives in Normal, Illinois. She builds websites by day and reads romance novels at every other available hour.

She didn't always read this much. There was a Single Lonely Bookshelf that moved with her through every apartment, never really growing. Then she bought a house, burned out a little, and picked up Fourth Wing, and it hit the same way Harry Potter did when she was a kid. Her neighbor recommended ACOTAR. It spiraled from there.

She started Lunaria because she loves The Last Chapter in Chicago and the Bookish Shop in Arizona and kept wishing something like that existed in Normal. Eventually she decided to build it herself.

She is also, for the record, very opinionated about sprayed edges.

Luna is a golden retriever named after Luna Lovegood. She doesn't read books, but she has been present for the reading of approximately all of them.

She takes her role as shop mascot very seriously.