Several bookstores in the D.C. area have big plans to celebrate the seventh annual Bookstore Romance Day on Aug. 9.

As a genre, romance is often snubbed by the literary community. Critics have deemed it unserious and trashy, and have cast its more lighthearted nature in a negative light. But booksellers and fans alike are starting to push back, especially given the increasingly stressful daily news cycle. “I think especially now, we need something that is both hopeful and realistic,” Mylo Garrin, a bookseller at People’s Book in Takoma Park tells City Paper. “It’s nice to be in a world where it doesn’t matter if you’re Black or if you’re queer or if you’re plus-sized or whatever; romance exists for everybody.”

But it’s not just about seeing oneself reflected in the pages of a novel with

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