Fall in love with this community-driven independent business.
Passionate readers and interested citizens: Get ready to fall in love with The Ripped Bodice, the west coast’s only store specializing in romance novels.
Located in Culver City, California, just a stone’s throw from Los Angeles, The Ripped Bodice is packed with tales of whimsical meet-cutes, twisted tropes, and smoldering stares. There are historical novels, YA fare, and tons of queer-friendly page-turners. There are even shelves of progressive kids’ books, poetry, and vintage romance novels, complete with hilariously campy covers.
Leah Koch opened The Ripped Bodice with her sister Bea in 2016 after a successful Kickstarter campaign helped them raise funds to get things off the ground. She says she fell in love with romance novels because the genre focuses on getting to know peoples’ inner emotional lives. “That seemed really radical when I discovered these books around age 12,” Koch says. “I think people love romance for all kinds of reasons, but the most common ones are that it brings them joy, there is comfort in always knowing there is going to be a happy ending, and romance makes people happy.”
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Koch is certainly onto something there. Romance novel sales have been steadily rising in recent years and experienced a big bump during the earliest parts of the pandemic. Each month, dozens of new bodice rippers are published, each seeking to fill an empty space in the literary marketplace—or in readers’ hearts. The Ripped Bodice tries hard to help shoppers find the titles that would appeal to them, and there are recommended reads cards on nearly every shelf in the store.
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While many romance novels are sold online on sites like Amazon, Koch says she’s seen firsthand the benefits of having a brick-and-mortar bookstore. “You can really see how important the physical gathering space is at our events when readers are so happy to get to meet people that love the same things they love,” Koch says. The Ripped Bodice plays into that warm fuzziness by holding frequent readings, author q&as, book clubs, and writer’s workshops.
That community support doesn’t just come from romance enthusiasts, either. Koch says The Ripped Bodice has seen big buy-in from Culver City residents, who’ll stop in just to see what’s new in store. The store carries a wide range of gift items and books, including wooden bookmarks, coyly named scented candles, and packets of looseleaf Trope Tea with names like “There’s Only One Bed” and “Can You Zip Me Up?”
The shop has even seen buy-in from Sony Pictures Television, whose studios are just down the road. The Koch sisters have a development deal with the company, all with the goal of making more TV shows based on their favorite romance novels. “Sony was looking to get more involved in romance adaptation and found us and brought us on board to help with that,” Koch says. “It’s such a different way to spend our time, but it’s an amazing opportunity, and we work really hard every day to get some of the books we love to the screen.”
Being in the L.A. area, the store gets its fair share of famous faced visitors. Koch claimed “bookseller/client privilege” when asked to name names but did shout out political luminary Stacey Abrams as one occasional visitor. The Georgia politician has written numerous romance novels under Selena Montgomery, and Koch says she’s “incredibly supportive of the community.”
The Ripped Bodice is big on the notion of community, to be sure. It fosters it through its events, but it also puts its commitment on display, particularly in relation to the LGBTQ community. The shop is proudly queer-owned, and displays inside the store nod to that, like a pride flag mural made out of romance novel covers. The store stocks dozens upon dozens of queer-centric novels, and that number will only rise.
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“It’s been amazing to see the publication of LGBTQ romance really increase in the time we’ve been open,” Koch says. While she says, indie publishers and self-published authors have always kept the queer romance space humming, more and more mainstream publishers are getting into the game now, with books like Red, White, And Royal Blue making major waves in recent years. “There is always more work to do, but the number of different identities that are now represented is great progress,” Koch says.
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While The Ripped Bodice is well-worth an in-person visit when you’re in L.A., far away fans can check out what’s in stock or place an order through the store’s website anytime. The shop even offers a “Read, Romance, Repeat.” monthly subscription box stuffed with two new novels, plus a cute gift item like a desk calendar, snuggly pair of socks, or some of that aforementioned Trope Tea. It’s the perfect way to dip into something new, all while supporting a small, independent woman and queer-owned business.