Sisters Jen and Molly Kamrath are in the process of getting ready to open their first brick-and-mortar location for their pop-up bookstore Kiss and Tale Romance Bookshop. Their forthcoming location will take a 1,500-square-foot space at 340 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue, Suite 202, going into the space above Mellow Mushroom, which just recently announced plans to reopen this fall.
The Kamraths both work in costumes for the film and television industry, and during 2023, they spent about 10 months out of work due to the writers’ and actors’ strike. Both avid readers, they began to brainstorm a concept for a bookstore, inspired by other romance bookshops like The Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles.
“We both talked about it and thought: Atlanta needs something like that here,” Jen told What Now Atlanta.
The space will have a sophisticated, feminine design, with black bookcases and touches of blush and pink throughout the store. Their vision is to build a community through the bookstore through book clubs, events and other methods to connect readers and help them find a sense of belonging.
“We’re really looking to create a community, which we started with our pop-ups, and we’re just really looking forward to being able to expand that and have a place where people really feel like they can come and look at the books they want to look at, buy the books they want to buy, have other readers that are of the same mind, meet new readers, meet new books and just have a place to share all of that,” Jen said.
They are looking forward to being part of the Decatur community and have been encouraged and inspired by the support they have seen for local businesses there. They hope to connect with the other businesses there and partner with them for events as another way to bring people together.
“We really want to integrate ourselves into the community in Decatur, and we look at [other businesses there] as something that we would like to [achieve],” Molly said. “We want to be like that. We want to be the store that’s been there for 20 years.”
The team just started construction earlier this week and are targeting a September opening, though it will be dependent on permitting and approvals.
