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Katherine Morgan always reads romance novels on a plane because if anything goes wrong, she knows how it’s going to end—the couple always end up together.
But within the comforting confines of the genre, Morgan, 30, is ready to break down the walls to what else romance fiction can be. Morgan’s online bookstore, Grand Gesture Books, is all about plots that go beyond the white, hetero, young and thin protagonists in the bodice-rippers of yore.
Once Morgan opens a physical location, which she is still searching for, it will be the only romance bookstore, and one of only two Black-owned bookstores, in the city. In the meantime, she also curates the romance section at Powell’s City of Books.
“I think of it like this: I’m Black, I’m a woman, and I’m plus size,” she says, as her cat, Ramona (yes, after the Beverly Cleary character) meows in the background. “Any of those options means I don’t often see myself portrayed in books. I want people to come into the store, see me, and think, ‘This can be a genre for me.’”
Morgan says a 70-year-old woman recently emailed her with a request for romances with older characters getting a second chance at love. She jumped at the chance to make recommendations.
“That’s why I do what I do, the idea of giving someone that joy,” she says. “Male, female, nonbinary—that’s what I’m delivering to you, so you can see yourself on a page and feel comforted.”
For romance lovers looking for a sweet read, here are Morgan’s five favorite authors:
Jasmine Guillory “She’s the one who first got me into romance and I have a very soft spot in my heart for her.”
Lyssa Kay Adams “She wrote The Bromance Book Club. I think her romance novels are a good place to start. All of her characters are men who read romance novels to get a better sense to learn how to open up to their partners. I recommend it to men to read; it’s very insightful and fun.”
Elise Bryant “She writes the kind of books that if I had read them as a teenager, I’d have felt a lot less alone. They’re cute romances about quirky Black girl characters. You’re learning how to be an actual person, everything has big feelings, everything is kind of messy.”
SJ Tilly “Her mafia romance series is the first series I read, and they’re surprisingly fun, and very unhinged. The books (The Alliance Series) get progressively crazier. You finish a book, and you’re like, OK, gotta start the next one.”
Karelia Stetz-Waters “She writes these really heartfelt lesbian romances, and she’s in Portland. So many romances will just forget that they’re real people. Sex is fun, but it’s awkward and funny and sometimes you have anxiety about sex with your partner. Her books make a really good point, where ‘sex positive’ means different things to different people.”