Newsletter 6/24: Romance novels are picking up steam
Plus: City falls 2 years behind on producing City Council minutes; OrthoCarolina app gives orthopedic advice; Vote on Panthers' stadium deal tonight; New Shibumi colors
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As Charlotte libraries are primed for record check-outs, a mobile bookstore taps into the growing desire for love stories; ‘Bookstagram’ chats about ‘book boyfriends’
Inside Trope Bookshop, a mobile romance bookstore, owner Katie Mitchell organizes the shelves around “tropes,” or how the plot is structured. Mitchell drives the converted school bus around Charlotte, parking outside of coffee shops, breweries, street markets and more.
by Lindsey Banks
Katie Mitchell serves as a matchmaker for women all over Charlotte — not in the traditional sense of pairing them with flesh-and-blood partners, but by helping them find love in a different way.
Outside of her place of business, which happens to be a dark green bus, a sign reveals her mission: “Come on in and find your new book boyfriend.”
Mitchell, 33, is the owner of Trope Bookshop, a mobile bookstore that travels around the Charlotte area, partnering with breweries, coffee shops, street markets and other local events. Inside, she sells a curated selection of romance novels replete with perfectly crafted fictional boyfriends.
Business is hot, Mitchell says. And for those who follow literary trends, it’s not surprising, given the rise of the romance genre in Charlotte and elsewhere. Charlotte’s library system predicts a record number of romance books will be checked out in 2024, and any shyness that might have once accompanied the genre has been replaced by flames.
Most of Trope’s customers are women, Mitchell says, looking to escape into a fictional world where the men are always tall, attentive and sensitive. (Avid romance readers call this phenomenon “men written by women” — or how a woman would cast her ideal man.)
Heterosexual love interests are at the center of most of the books, although the mobile shop does carry a section of LGBTQ+ romance novels. In an occasional plot twist, Mitchell says she’s seen men wander into her English pub-style book bus, usually confused and leaving empty-handed.
“We (women) are taking back something that was taken from us — what people used to call ‘cheugy’ or ‘basic’ or ‘frivolous,’” she said.
Why is romance on fire? Readers have devoured romance novels for centuries, like Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” In recent history, they’ve included the bodice-rippers of the 1970s and the Harlequin romances and prolific authors like Danielle Steel of the 1980s and 1990s. And there have been breakthrough hits, like “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which was published in 2011.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Library didn’t list romance as a genre until 2018, according to the library’s romantic fiction selector, Megan Millea.
Big increase in borrowing: Now, it’s a genre that’s capturing hearts by the thousands. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library patrons checked out 45,767 romance books during the 2023 fiscal year. So far this fiscal year, which ends on July 1, more than 60,380 romance books have been borrowed. The library system has a monthly book club for romance novel enthusiasts, called the “Shelf Indulgence Book Club.”
Nationally, romance is now the highest-earning fiction genre. In the U.S., sales more than doubled from 2020 to 2023, from $18M in 2020 to $36M in 2023.
There are multiple reasons for the love affair with romance books, Mitchell said. Online communities like TikTok’s “BookTok” and Instagram’s “Bookstagram” allow readers to chat about books and their favorite “book boyfriends,” or desirable male characters.
The pandemic was also a defining time for reading, as many people turned to books after exhausting TV show and movie options, Mitchell said, desperate for a good story to distract from all the bad happening in the world. Romance offered lighthearted plots and happy endings.
Cheryl Campbell, a local indie author who appeared at a book signing event Trope held last week at Legion Brewing in Plaza Midwood, said she read 300 books in 2020 during quarantine. She found herself gravitating toward romance novels, which was out of her norm.
“I'm much more of a whodunit (mystery) person, but I didn’t need the angst,” she said. “So I started reading a lot of romance novels, and then eventually I was like, ‘I can do this.’”
She decided to try her hand at writing a love story. Campbell has since written and self-published three sports romance books inspired by the Savannah Bananas baseball team — “Trouble at First,” “Sliding into Home” and “Living the Suite Life” — and is currently working on her fourth.
Kelsey Painter, another local indie author at Trope’s book signing event, said she believes the mindset around the genre is changing, too.
“It’s always been a popular genre,” Painter said, “but I feel like more and more, people are just not ashamed of liking the genre anymore. It does sort of imply sex, and I think that there’s less sexual shame, and therefore, the romance genre has been able to come to the forefront.”
Painter, 29, has written three books — “We’ll Meet Again,” “The Keeper and I” and “Ship of Dreams” — and has another coming out next month. In her day job, she works in sales for an electrical manufacturing representative.
A bookstore on wheels — and a community: Mitchell, who’s from Arkansas and moved to Charlotte in 2013, left her corporate logistics job in July of 2022 and worked at a wine and cheese shop in the Belmont neighborhood. Her love for reading reignited during the pandemic, and when she stumbled upon a romance-only book store in Los Angeles called the Ripped Bodice on social media, she was inspired to open one of her own.
Mitchell searched for potential storefront locations in Plaza Midwood, but she realized that with high rents, a brick-and-mortar store wouldn’t be possible. One of her friends mentioned a mobile book cart she saw in Central Park on a recent New York City trip. Mitchell went on Facebook Marketplace and found a school bus on her first search, something she calls “happenstance.”
Mitchell purchased the bus and hired the seller to help her convert it into an English pub-style, dark and cozy bookstore. In October 2023, Mitchell opened Trope Bookshop.
The bus, known as “Green Girl,” is organized by tropes, ranging from workplace romance to romantasy (romantic fantasy). There’s even a section for local romance authors.
Trope Bookshop, affectionately known as “Green Girl,” was once a school bus. Owner Katie Mitchell (pictured) hired someone to convert the vehicle to a bookstore, which involved removing the seats, laying down flooring and building shelves. (Headshot courtesy of Katie Mitchell)
Mitchell spends her free time scouring BookTok and Bookstagram, searching for books to add to her store and own reading list. She also sells bookish merchandise, like T-shirts, tote bags and stickers for Kindle covers.
Mitchell has created a community for romance book lovers in Charlotte. She started a book club in January, called the Troop Trope Book Club, which is held on the second Thursday of the month at Monday Night Brewing in South End. The club averages about 30 to 40 people at each meeting, and they spend the time sharing their thoughts on the selected book and discussing which actors they would cast if the book were to be made into a movie.
Playing literary matchmaker: When someone comes into Trope Bookshop asking for a recommendation, Mitchell says she first asks if they have any hard boundaries on things they don’t want to read. She then asks for their favorite TV shows or other books they like.
Mitchell says the appeal of a romance book is similar to that of watching a comfort show — something you return to again and again because it’s a familiar and warm escape from the real world.
📕 Curious about romance? Here’s a glossary of terms and some notes on trends:
Romance subgenres: It’s not just “romance” anymore. It’s romantasy (a mix of romance and fantasy), or it’s sports romance (a love story that takes place in a sports setting) or it’s dark romance (which usually features a toxic male lead with trauma), among many others.
Tropes: Tropes describe the type of love story that unfolds between the love interests. There are more than a dozen, including enemies-to-lovers or friends-to-lovers, grumpy-sunshine (which usually features a bubbly main character who softens the heart of the grumpy love interest), one bed (which means the love interests are forced to share a room with only one bed) and fake dating (when two people decide they’re going to pretend to date to make someone jealous, and then they accidentally fall in love).
Spice level: It’s a common inquiry these days to ask what the “spice” level of a certain book is before reading, referring to the amount and intensity of the sex scenes in the book.
Interconnected standalones: This refers to a series of books that can be read out of order. There are overlapping characters among the books, but each character gets their story to shine, Mitchell said.
Third-act breakup: It’s typical for the two romantic leads in a book to have a big fight or breakup toward the end of the book before they inevitably get back together. But some romance authors are straying away from that, Campbell said she’s noticed. (All of her books have a third-act breakup, she says.) Some readers purposefully seek out books without a third-act breakup.
Ending acronyms: If you see HEA or HFN written in a book review, know that HEA stands for “Happily Ever After” and HFN stands for “Happy For Now.” HEAs wrap up the love story in a neat, pretty bow in which the couple stays together indefinitely. Books that end with an HFN mean the couple is in a good spot for now, but their future together is not guaranteed.
Lindsey Banks is a staff reporter for The Ledger: lindsey@cltledger.com
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Charlotte is now more than two years behind in producing minutes of City Council meetings; How did they vote? Good luck finding out.
When Charlotte City Council members raise their hands tonight to vote on the Bank of America Stadium renovation deal — a vote that seems sure to pass, probably with ease — you’ll have no trouble knowing how individual members voted. Local media will widely report the vote results.
But if you want to know how council members have voted on hundreds of lower-profile issues, from rezonings to contract awards, good luck with that. The city has made it unnecessarily difficult, if not nearly impossible, for most people to learn the voting records of City Council candidates.
The city has now fallen more than two years behind in completing and making available minutes of City Council meetings, a record that is by far the worst of any unit of local government in Mecklenburg County. The last full council meeting that has minutes posted on the city’s website is May 5, 2022. Since then, on the 11-member City Council, five new council members have taken office.
One could reasonably look at this as yet another example of the lack of transparency and accountability by the city government, which includes complaints about slow-walking public records requests and the tendency to shape decisions — like the stadium deal and the future of light rail — behind closed doors. Even one City Council member has said the stadium process feels “staged.”
The failure to produce timely meeting minutes isn’t illegal, because the city posts videos of council meetings with no delay. But the lack of a written record does make it harder to find accounts of discussions and votes.
The Ledger first encountered this issue last summer, as we were compiling our Election Hub, as we wanted to share how council members running for re-election had voted on key issues. With no searchable written record, the only options were watching hundreds of hours of meeting videos or relying on reports from local media, which understandably report on only a small fraction of City Council business.
The Ledger reported in August 2023 that the city was 17 months behind in posting meeting minutes. At the time, a city spokesman said the city clerk’s office had experienced staffing challenges, and that the city had hired a contractor and hoped to be caught up on minutes by the end of 2023.
Since we reported that in August 2023, which was 10 months ago, the city has posted minutes for eight full council meetings — in March, April and May of 2022. It is now more than 25 months behind.
Last month, when we asked about the status of meeting minutes, a city spokesman said a contractor had completed draft minutes through April 2023 that were awaiting review by the clerk’s office. “In the meantime, video of all Charlotte City Council meetings is available and accessible on our website,” he said in a statement.
Raise for city clerk: Responsibility for keeping minutes falls squarely on the office of City Clerk Stephanie Kelly, who reports to the City Council (not the city manager, as with most city employees). City salary records published online appear to show that the council gave Kelly a 6% raise sometime since August 2023, to $161,504 a year.
The mission of the city clerk’s office is to “provide professional support and a high level of customer service to the Mayor and City Council, staff, and the public that encourages transparency and participation in city government, accessible and accurate public information, and official records,” according to city documents. Budget documents show that for 2023-24, the clerk’s office has 9.5 employees and a $1.1M budget.
Documents also show that the clerk’s office achieved an 87% score on “percent of meetings completed, published to web, and available for public access upon request within 30 days of original meeting.” Asked how that is possible given the long lag in posting minutes, a city spokesman said the score reflects the posting of “audio/visual meeting minutes,” which apparently means posting meeting videos.
Ironically, the city’s long delays in producing meeting minutes come as artificial intelligence should be making meeting records easier to complete. There are a number of publicly available and inexpensive technology tools that can transcribe and summarize videos, though in our experience they are not good enough to provide complete and accurate accounts of meetings without human assistance.
(If you want to know what that might look like, check out this AI-generated summary we produced of the June 10, 2024, council meeting, which lasted for 3 hours, 35 minutes. It took less than 1 minute to generate using a commercially available AI tool that is $5 a month. It needs work and doesn’t contain information on votes, but it is a start.)
In Mecklenburg County, Charlotte is alone in having such outdated written meeting records. Cornelius has already posted meeting minutes of its commissioners from June 3 — as in, three weeks ago. Maybe Charlotte should ask Cornelius for some advice on how to get the job done. —TM
Related Ledger articles:
“The city of Charlotte has not published minutes of City Council meetings for 17 months” (Aug. 18, 2023)
➡️ Alternative publication Queen City Nerve typically has a good summary of each City Council meeting the morning after in its “Council Quickies” feature.
Think you broke a bone? OrthoCarolina has an app for that.
A year after OrthoCarolina launched a smartphone app to connect injured patients virtually to orthopedic specialists for advice, more than 2,300 people in the Charlotte area have downloaded it and about 600 have used it, the company said.
The HURT! app is designed to give patients access to “immediate medical advice from medical practitioners in real time,” diverting those with non-emergency musculoskeletal injuries away from hospital emergency rooms, said Dr. Leo R. Spector, CEO of OrthoCarolina. “And by doing that, to hopefully lower the cost of care.”
Nationally, about 75% of orthopedic injuries don’t require emergency care, he said.
The app also gives OrthoCarolina a way to capture patients who might otherwise go to rival hospital-affiliated orthopedic practices in Charlotte’s competitive healthcare market. Company data show patients who initially got advice through the app were responsible for 2,955 patient appointments and 43 surgeries at OrthoCarolina.
Shannon Graham, 48, who lives in University City, said she downloaded the HURT! app last year because her son was on the football team at Northwest School of the Arts, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools encouraged parents to get the app.
But she ended up using it for herself, she said, after she did a lunge while working out and “felt something pop.” She worried she had a broken bone because her foot was bruised and she couldn’t put any weight on it.
“I got on a chat with an orthopedist who asked me a bunch of questions and looked at pictures of my foot,” she said.
The doctor advised Graham to ice her foot and elevate it and said she didn’t need to go to the hospital. He made her an appointment at OrthoCarolina for the next day. Her injury turned out to be just a sprain.
“That was a $1,000 ER bill I didn’t have to pay,” she said. “It was an all-around helpful experience.”
The HURT! app is free and available on both Apple and Android devices. —Michelle Crouch
Event supplies for nonprofits at discounted prices
After our article Wednesday on the rising costs of putting on arts and cultural festivals, we heard of a helpful solution from Maureen Krueger of the Charlotte ToolBank, a nonprofit that allows other nonprofits to use tools and event supplies at steeply discounted rates.
“Our member agencies — all charitable organizations ranging from the nonprofits you highlighted in your piece to faith communities to schools to neighborhood associations to government departments and more — can borrow tools and event supplies from our inventory of more than 13,000 items for 5% of the retail cost for seven days of use,” she wrote.
For instance, a folding chair rental is $1.26, she said. She said most of the organizations cited in our article appear to qualify for a free membership. —TM
➡️ Find out more about the Charlotte ToolBank.
You might be interested in these Charlotte events: Chamber of Commerce coffee, ‘Zodiac’ screening and discussion
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
TUESDAY: Coffee with the Chamber, 8:30-9:30 a.m., Henderson Properties, 3030 Latrobe Drive, Charlotte. Join the Charlotte Area Chamber of Commerce for an invigorating morning event that brings together coffee lovers and business professionals from across the Charlotte area. Whether you’re a startup founder, a seasoned executive, or just a morning person, this event is the perfect opportunity to brew new connections and spark innovative conversations. Free (registration required).
TUESDAY: The Critic’s Eye film series: “Zodiac” screening and discussion, 7 p.m., The Independent Picture House, 4237 Raleigh St., Charlotte. Join The Charlotte Ledger, CXN Advisory and the IDP for The Critic’s Eye film series. The series will screen Zodiac on June 25 as part of its exploration of notable films from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s that transcend their genres and permanently redefined how storytelling formulas are approached. The presentation includes a post-screening talkback with Lawrence Toppman, former Charlotte Observer film critic and lifetime member of The Southeastern Film Critics Association; with conversation moderated by Tim Whitmire, Founder of CXN Advisory. $8.45.
◼️ Check out the full Ledger events board.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief:
Future new stadium: One of the provisions of the deal between the city and Tepper Sports and Entertainment over stadium renovations is that the two sides have agreed to begin negotiations for a new stadium before the spring of 2037, with the new stadium ready by 2046, according to documents released Friday. That provision had not been previously discussed publicly. The City Council votes tonight on a plan to contribute $650M in tourism tax money toward renovations of Bank of America Stadium.
More healthcare consolidation: Greensboro-based Cone Health, one of North Carolina’s largest hospital systems, agreed to be acquired by a company affiliated with California-based health giant Kaiser Permanente, the companies said Friday. Cone has more than 13,000 employees and four hospitals. (Modern Healthcare)
Cooper vetoes campaign finance and masking bill: Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would add penalties for wearing masks while committing a crime and would change campaign finance rules. Republicans in the state legislature could override the veto. (Associated Press)
Bishop and Jackson square off: Republican Dan Bishop and Democrat Jeff Jackson — both Charlotte-area lawyers running for N.C. attorney general — offered contrasting views at a debate Friday. Bishop called for more “law and order” and securing the border and derided the record of Democrats. Jackson touted his record of bipartisanship and called Bishop an extremist. (Observer)
Truist sued over data breach: Truist Bank is being sued by customers who say they were victims of a 2023 data breach and are at risk of identity theft by cybercriminals. (WCNC)
Public records restrictions praised: Republican N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore says he thinks a new law shielding state legislators from releasing their communications is “working just fine.” A wide range of groups from both sides of the political spectrum have said the law granting legislators discretion on what records to release undermines government transparency and accountability. (The Assembly)
Disappointment over Pineville pride silence: The owner of an ice cream shop in Pineville says she is disappointed that town council members have not replied to her request to line Main Street with rainbow pride flags for the month of June and to hold a festival celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community. (Observer)
Legal leader: Rob Harrington, who co-chairs the litigation department of law firm Robinson Bradshaw, was elected to serve as president-elect of the N.C. Bar Association.
Brooklyn Village delayed again: Developers of the Brooklyn Village project uptown have notified Mecklenburg County that high interest rates and financing challenges are leading to a delay in the first phase of the long-awaited development. BK Partners now says it plans to start building apartments in the summer of 2025. It was chosen by the county as the site’s developer in 2016. (Biz Journal, subscriber-only)
A new shade of Shibumi: The company behind the Shibumi Shades that are ubiquitous on Carolinas’ beaches says it will start offering a pink-and-orange variety this week, in addition to the traditional teal-and-blue. The company has also introduced a “quiet canopy” version that reduces the noise of the tarp flapping in the wind. (News & Observer)
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman, BC Creative