Fall In Love With The Cutest Romance Only Bookstore

Let's throw it back to March 1st, 2025 when the most amazing bookstore opened its doors in Charlotte, NC for the first time.

TROPE HQ!!!!!!

I got to Trope at 8:30 am for their 10am grand opening and I promise you it was 100% worth the hype worth the wait and basically everything else in between.

Taking a second to drop back to before HQ opened, if you are from Charlotte or in the area or know me you have absolutely heard about the book bus and its owner, Katie. The book bus was easily one of my favorite aspects of living in Charlotte because it popped up randomly and was so fun and sweet to go visit.

Not to mention Katie the owner is literally the kindest human ever. Katie welcomes everyone into the bus, into HQ, into the bookclub (don't fret we are getting there) into the book world with open arms and makes you feel welcome, and loved in a community that she created.

so after a year of the book bus, a book club and the bookish world she decided to open the only romance-only bookstore in Charlotte and my life was made 100%.

This bookstore is located in Plaza Midwood and has 4 distinct rooms with every type of romance book you can imagine.

The room immediately to your left when you walk in hosts the stickers, sports romances, local authors, and THE MERCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The merch is beyond amazing, relating to bookish things, romance only items, Trope themed, but also some romantasy themed items (relating to Fourth Wing or SJM books). I truly wish I had a photo of this section for y'all. The back two rooms are dark romance and romantasy respectively. The opposite side in the front is contemporary romance, LGBTQ and historical, western and literally everything in-between.

Except this is so much more than just a cute bookstore.

Trope HQ is a community and a family. We have a monthly book club hosted at a local brewery on the second or third Tuesday of every month. As someone who has only missed 2 or 3 maximum in the entire year and change this has been going I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. It is busy, it is potentially overwhelming but I always show up by myself and ALWAYS can make connections, and friendships with those around me and have an amazing time.

Katie and Amanda go above and beyond to build a community within the Charlotte book world that is a safe and welcoming space for EVERYONE!!!!

I could probably write about this bookstore for literal days but really the important information is that YOU HAVE TO VISIT TROPE HQ (and the bus) and if you are in the CLT area looking for a book community, please consider the Troop Trope Bookclub!

<3 S