There are times of year when romance is particularly in the air: Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, prom season. But at one bookstore in Wauwatosa, it’s there all year round. The store is called the Well Red Damsel, which owner Natasha Meyers started as a pop-up in 2024.
“We were the first romance only booksellers in the state of Wisconsin,” Meyers recalled. “Our first event was pretty crazy. We had like over 300 people come out, and it was just me and a table and a bookshelf. And then things just got crazier over time, and in June of 2025 we opened our store.”
Along the pink walls, you’ll find an endless array of romance options ranging from books about self-love to tales of dark romance.
“We have a little bit of everything from baby books all the way to the spiciest books you can imagine,” Meyers said. “We have middle-grade fantasy and romance books and YA. And then we have sports romance, hockey romance, we have cowboys, we have fantasy, we have paranormal, we have a werewolf section.
“We have pretty much everything you could imagine in the romance world. You'll find it here somewhere.”
Meyers opened the store out of her own passion for the genre, and she was met with an overwhelmingly positive response. With hundreds of readers visiting the store and attending events, the Well Red Damsel has provided an empowering space for fans to engage with romance without judgement.
“For generations, it was very secretive, and now people are talking about it more freely and embracing it and cheering people on,” Meyers said. “It's just been amazing to kind of foster more of that sense of belonging instead of like my aunts and grandmas who would read it and say they had to hide it. They'd hide the books that they were reading because they were ashamed of it.
“We're getting rid of that. And I think by having a space that's only romance only kind of helps cultivate that.”
Meyers’ personality is a major reason for the business’s welcoming atmosphere. But that’s not the only way the store reflects its owner. Even the name has details that are personal to her while also being universal to all romance-enjoyers.
“I love the idea of using the phrase ‘Well Red’ because I have red hair, my sister and I are redheads,” she said. “We do get the name misspelled all the time because everyone thinks it's like read, like R-E-A-D. [But] I love the play on words.
“I also like the idea of damsel. I think we always think of a damsel in distress, but ‘damsel’ at the heart of it is just a single woman. That's the definition. So I kind of like taking that word and flipping it on its script. We're not in distress. We're in charge. We're empowered.”
Empowerment is at the core of the Well Red Damsel. Not only can readers access their favorite books, but they can also connect with other romance lovers and engage with authors through the events that the store hosts. That includes five book clubs that cover everything from fantasy to queer to a “well-nourished” club in partnership with local spa Nourish.
The store’s connection to other Milwaukee businesses and organizations doesn’t stop there, either. The Well Red Damsel has partnered with the Milwaukee Admirals, the Brewers, the Milwaukee Public Library and the Wauwatosa Public Library — all in an effort to reach more readers and end the stigma placed on the genre.
As Meyers put it, “We've just been lucky to have a group of readers that are so excited to just embrace it all and with no shame.”
