I'm dyslexic and avoided reading until BookTok got me hooked - now I run a book club

Romance is the key that finally unlocked the world of reading for Amelia Lord after she had avoided it throughout her life.

Love was all over her TikTok feed in the form of BookTok – the app's literary subcommunity - just as she was searching for a new hobby to take up after moving from her home in Newport to Gloucester.

The 28-year-old social media and events coordinator did not read at all before she was 21.

Although "intrigued", a dyslexia diagnosis made her think she couldn't do it.

"I kept seeing BookToks on my TikTok," she said. "I was seeing loads about it and it piqued my interest."

She made her first ever New Year's resolution, to read just one book, Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us, which was released as a film starring Blake Lively in 2024.

"I didn't want to set the boundary too high," she laughs.

"I'm a dyslexic girl and I've always thought, can I do it? Then I read it and I was hooked straight away.

"I went into town two days later and started buying loads of romance books."

Amelia, now living in Cardiff with her partner and young daughter, has used books to build a very local community.

She said: "When I came back [to Wales] I didn't really have many friends around me anymore.

"And then I became a mum and hobbies which I had before I wasn't interested in or didn't have the time for anymore. So I feel like books were the only thing that was still a part of before I had my little girl."

She established Booked Up Book Club after her boss gave her space at the play café where she works in the suburb of Whitchurch.

There is a monthly meeting to discuss whichever book the group has chosen and another "scrap and yap" session, which focuses on book journalling and craft.

Amelia combines discussion of the books with quizzes and games, and events such as book bedazzling.

"I was so nervous when I launched the tickets," she admits.

"I thought 'what if nobody comes to this'? But it's going well."

The club mainly focuses on different aspects of the romance genre – this month's pick is a cowboy romance, although she is open to other types of books such as thrillers.

"One of my friends had only ever read one book before book club. She started coming and now she reads all the time."

Romance - always a solid performer in the publishing world - has rocketed in popularity in recent years, with sales figures in 2024 reaching record levels in the Romance and Saga category, according to industry analysts NIQ.

It was women like Amelia who helped inspire another Cardiff reader to open the city's first bookshop dedicated solely to romance.

Unlike Amelia, Aimee Cummings has always loved books, with stories about love central to her enjoyment.

"I've been reading romance since I was old enough to borrow my mum's books when I probably shouldn't have been," she said wryly.

Her shop, Love Stories in Cardiff's characterful Castle Arcade, nestles among a group of other independent businesses.

Aimee, 31, was on a steady path to a career in academia when she had her "road to Damascus" moment.

After doing a degree, two masters and a PhD in psychology and social sciences, while applying for jobs in the field, she realised: "I don't really want to do this for the rest of my life."

An "off-hand" comment to her husband of "why don't I just open a bookshop?" prompted the response "let's do that".

During a trip to the US, she visited the New York outpost of The Ripped Bodice bookshop, which was originally set up in Los Angeles as the first bricks and mortar romance bookstore in the US.

Now she wondered if she could make it work in Cardiff.

"This is borne of passion rather than practicality I guess," she said.

Despite her love of romance, Aimee did question whether focusing on one genre would be the right move.

"It's all well and good saying 'this is something I love', but it's finding the market for it as well.

"But I am, first and foremost, a researcher, so I did the research into it. And romance has the highest portion of sales in the publishing industry, it's growing exponentially since Covid and it's taking over publishing."

She's not the first to think this could work.

In Edinburgh, Caden Armstrong, 26, a Los Angeles native who spent her teenage years visiting the original Ripped Bodice, studied publishing and worked in a bookstore but struggled to find romance books when she first moved to the UK.

She said: "One day I just researched it and found out there wasn't a single bricks and mortar one in the entire UK and thought, 'that's crazy. That needs to change'."

Partly financed by crowdfunding, she opened Book Lovers Bookstore and will celebrate its two-year anniversary next month.

Aimee came for a visit while planning her own venture to look for tips and advice, something Caden was "very excited" about.

At the time, Book Lovers was the only physical romance book shop in the UK.

In the time between their meeting and Love Stories opening, others have opened their doors.

Both Caden and Aimee aimed to create a space for people, particularly younger women, who are looking for a community to feel comfortable and supported in.

They both say online spaces like BookTok have made an enormous difference to how women now feel able to express their interest in romance.

Caden said: "A lot of people around my age or going on to their 30s as well who are going onto BookTok and saying 'you know what, I love reading this, and I don't want to feel shamed just because a) the books have a happy ending and b) there's some adult sexual content written by women in it'.

"I think romance has been shamed for a very long time and I think it's primarily because it's a genre that's been dominated by women writers talking about women's pleasure. That in and of itself is a very radical act, and a very powerful act."

Although romance is a defined genre, Aimee says it is still a broad church that . "means a lot of different things to different people".

"You think bodice rippers, contemporary things, fantasy. It covers a broad spectrum. So it's not maybe as niche as you think initially."

But how does she define a romance novel?

"If you were to take the love story out of the book, would it change it significantly? If it would, I'd say it is considered a romance."

The rise of romantasy – the blend of fantasy or science fiction with romance – has been well-documented, and bestselling authors such as Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarrow will certainly feature heavily in the shop, but Aimee also points to other growing areas.

"Sports romance has gone huge recently. Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry [now a hit TV show] is absolutely incredible. The Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy.

"But for me, I really want part of the ethos of the business to champion inclusivity and community. Queer authors, black authors, smaller authors who you wouldn't see in Waterstones."

Caden concurs - describing Book Lovers Bookstore as a queer and disabled-owned business, she added: "Our entire ethos is creating a fun, creative and safe space for romance fiction but also for uplifting, diverse voices within romance fiction."

Caden thinks the nature of the genre helps bring people, especially women, together.

"I think a lot of the times we're told when we're adults that we can't enjoy things with this sense of childlike joy any more," she said.

"That kind of joy of enjoying life and connecting with people is a huge aspect of romance.

"That might be because for the longest time it has been a community really built by women, for women."