Under the Covers: The Spicy Librarian Is Head Over Heels for Romance

In a brick-walled former office building at 3040 Blake Street in RiNo, something steamy is going on.

"I've always read and loved romance books," says Sydney Ivey, owner of the Spicy Librarian, a bookstore that will celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, January 18. "I couldn't get enough of romance growing up, and then, like a lot of adults, I kind of fell out of reading when I was in college and starting my life.

"It was about two years ago, though, where I jumped headfirst into romance again — specifically, romance fantasy, which I had never gotten into before. It really opened my eyes to all these new sides of the genre that I first fell in love with."

Ivey cites the New York Times best-selling romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas, as being pivotal in her return to fantasy fandom....and she's not alone. Maas's books are part of a massive romance renaissance that has taken place in the publishing industry over the past few years. According to research firm Circana, annual sales of romance novels in the U.S. have grown from 17.2 million to 43.2 million books between 2019 and 2024. And bookstores that exclusively carry romance have caught on nationwide — most notably, the Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn, which helped inspire Ivey to launch the Spicy Librarian.

Not that she'd ever owned a bookstore before, or even dreamed of doing so.

"I have absolutely no experience doing this," Ivey admits. "I was actually a kindergarten teacher up until Christmas. I saw myself getting very burned out and really losing my love of teaching. So I was looking for something else to do, and my other love and passion in life is reading. So I went looking for a space to open a bookstore, and I fell in love with this one. I just got the keys in December. It's been a very quick turnaround, a whirlwind."

Whirlwind romances have long been the core of Ivey's favorite genre, but the changes in romance novels over the past couple of decades have been profound. Besides folding in elements of other literary genres, such as fantasy, science fiction and crime, entirely new hybrids have sprung up: Everything from home-renovation romance to hockey romance now crowds the shelves alongside works that are more dimensional and poetic.

"It's not like the Harlequin romance that a lot of our older generations think of anymore," Ivey says. "This is real literature. It is amazing stories. And I also fell in love with the fact that almost all of these stories, specifically in the romance fantasy world, are centered around women becoming extremely powerful and empowering themselves. It really just resonated with me. I got back to where I couldn't stop reading, like I was ten years old again and reading The Hunger Games for the first time, where you just can't put down the book. And that's when I really got back into the adult reading world. All of a sudden, I was reading so much that I needed to find people to talk to about reading."

Ivey's desire for connection led her to join the Denver chapter of the Silent Book Club, which sponsors groups around the country that gather and read quietly together. From there, she began organizing Silent Book Club events herself, as well as interacting with other romance fans online — or as she says, "I got sucked into the whole book-talk world."

It didn't hurt that Colorado has a thriving scene of not only romance readers, but romance authors. Colorado Springs residents Meghan Quinn and Jennie Marts are two of the best-selling writers of romance in the country, and veterans such as Carrie Vaughn and Jeanne C. Stein call Colorado home. A host of up-and-coming local authors are grabbing attention, too, most notably another Springs-dweller, Rebecca Yarros. Since hitting the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list in 2023 with her novel Fourth Wing, she's become one of the hottest stars of the genre, and her Empyrean series of romantasy books is being developed for television by Amazon. There's even a local guild, the Romance Writers of the Rockies, which promotes networking and solidarity among its members.

Not only is Ivey a Yarros fan, but she's giving away a deluxe version of the author's newest book, Onyx Storm, which comes out January 21; anyone at the Spicy Librarian's grand opening on Saturday is automatically signed up for the drawing.

In addition to loving the sheer thrill of romance random, though, Ivey sees a deeper evolution within the genre. "I think romance is a great example of a marginalized community of women being able to take things even further and make sure that authors of color and different kinds of relationships are being seen," she says. "And that's why, in my store, I have an entire LGBTQ+ section. I also have an entire section of authors of color, so that those voices can really be spotlighted and heard when they are often pushed aside. I think one of the arguments that is often made with the romance and book-talk community right now is that the authors are still mostly white, and heteronormative relationships are still dominating.

"One of the things I love most about romance is that the women in these books can become very powerful. They help save the world or save a society while also being able to have their own romance in their own lives. I think romance is just such a great example of women really being able to take back some of their power and create a space for themselves that really works for them."

In the Spicy Librarian, that space isn't just literary, it's literal. For interested adult customers, the store sports a room called the Vault that's "hidden behind a bookshelf, kind of a like speakeasy," Ivey says. "There's a range of what I call intimacy wellness products, everything from handcuffs and bed ties to different types of lube and things like that. What I love about romance is that there's a little bit for everybody. Some of it is closed-door romance, where no one in the book even talks about sex at all. And then there are books that are very spicy and very erotic in nature, very explicit.

"Readers can find the things they already gravitate toward," she adds, "or they can experience something new that maybe they would never feel comfortable with in the real world. Reading these stories is a safe way of being able to experiment with what you may or may not like. I think it also creates this culture and environment where these conversations about sex and a woman's pleasure are not taboo."

To that end, Ivey is planning to bring in sex therapists for occasional talks, along with booking more conventional bookstore events such as author signings. But she also wants to use the store for trivia nights, Silent Book Club meetups and holiday-themed parties, with Valentine's Day being her first, naturally enough. And since the Spicy Librarian will include numerous cozy rooms featuring dedicated subgenres and age levels, the shop has the potential to appeal across the widening romance spectrum.

"It's so amazing to see the romance genre become so much more respected," Ivey says. "I remember when I started reading romance when I was younger, and it had to be a secret. You didn't tell people that you read romance. It was always kind of a shameful thing. But now the romance genre has become so much bigger and so much more.

"It's definitely one of my goals to help bring the online romance book community into the real world, which is what I was looking for when I got back into reading," she continues. "Yes, we can talk about books online all we want, right? And you can watch a million different TikToks and things about the right romance novels. But being able to fully meet people and connect with them over your favorite books is one of the best feelings in the world to me. I want to provide a space for that. It's a hefty goal, but it's definitely a goal of mine. I want to allow people to come into the store and really voice their love of romance books. I want them to have that space."

The grand opening of the Spicy Librarian is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, January 18, at 3040 Blake Street, Suite 110. For more information, visit spicylibrarian.com.