The grand opening of this West Chester bookstore went exceptionally well. The owners had to close early after they almost sold out.
Leaves & Lore, a fantasy-focused bookshop, saw long lines and hundreds of orders when it opened its doors for the first time Saturday.
Jessie Hilker and her father, Jeffrey, knew that they had built some buzz and intrigue ahead of opening their West Chester fantasy bookshop, Leaves & Lore, this past weekend.
But nothing could have prepared them for the hours-long line that wrapped around the building and left their shelves “pretty much barren.”
“We’re a little, like, what just happened,” Jessie Hilker, 29, said.
Leaves & Lore, located at 118 N. High St., officially opened its doors Saturday, and the response was immense and instantaneous. The bookshop, which is themed around fantasy novels, had a line for six hours. They sold 600 orders on their first day. Jeffrey Hilker, 64, estimates about 1,500 people walked through.
“I’m a pretty optimistic person, and I thought we would do well,” Jeffrey said. “I just didn’t think it would be like this.”
Though spotlighting fantasy and “romantasy,” the bookshop also sells genres like romance, dark romance, mystery/thriller, horror, fiction, plus books for kids and teens.
It also carries “bookish merch” like apparel, bookmarks, themed candles, stickers, and more. Customers can purchase a “book bouquet” — a book, swaddled with flowers — or privately book the space for events (think birthdays, or girls’ nights) and photography sessions (like engagement shots, or bridal portraits).
A sweet treat or freshly brewed coffee are also on offer.
By Saturday night, the shelves were nearly empty, Jessie said. On Sunday, they planned to open during normal hours, from 10 to 4 p.m., but had to close early because they had run so low on stock.
“It’s definitely a passion project,” Jessie said. “I wanted to open a bookstore because I enjoy reading. So to see so many other people enjoy it, as much as I do, makes it very special.”
Jessie is a lifelong reader. If she was punished for something as a child, she’d get her books taken away, she said. Jeffrey had a hard time giving her enough books to read. During college, she fell out of the habit for a bit, but the fantasy genre sparked the love within her again.
She’s not alone.
“Romantasy,” a blend of romance and fantasy, has buoyed the publishing industry in recent years, selling millions of copies and generating hundreds of millions of dollars. You’ll see those novels, like “A Court of Thorns and Roses” or “Fourth Wing” and plenty more, on Leaves & Lore’s shelves. Traditional fantasy, alongside romance and dark romance, have also seen staggering success.
Propelled in part by social media, like TikTok’s “BookTok” community, independent bookstores are also seeing a boost from the books’ popularity. Across the region, themed bookshops have done well; Philadelphia’s Cupid’s Bookshop, which is entirely dedicated to the romance genre, drew in hundreds when it opened last year.
Fantasy is not exactly Jeffrey’s genre, but he and Jessie always wanted to open a business together. When it became clear that business would be a bookstore, he was down to see her vision through. They went to Europe, traveling across Scotland and the U.K. to peruse bookshops that they wanted to emulate.
For about two years, they kept an eye on available spaces in West Chester. They knew that’s where they wanted to be since they both live in the borough, and it felt like the right spot for such a shop.
Jessie wanted Leaves & Lore to feel like stepping inside a fantasy novel, with the space “Renaissance inspired, very medieval.” She pictured bookcases that stretch floor to ceiling and a moving ladder; Jeffrey was “just trying to make it happen,” he said.
They built up a following on social media. A peephole let passersby take a peek as the Hilkers brought Jessie’s vision to life, creating some in-person interest, they said.
Still, their opening was unbelievable, Jessie said.
But they plan to keep the momentum going. They have events scheduled for some upcoming book releases in the fall, and an interest to partner with local authors on signings.
Jessie was “ordering like crazy” to replenish their stock, though they have some supply left to fill the shelves for Tuesday.
“I wanted to just be a place where people feel like they can come and just escape for a little bit. Whether they come to study, whether they come to pick up a book, … whether that’s picking up just their coffee for the day, I hope it’s just a place that many people feel like they are accepted and welcomed,” she said.
Want to get Inquirer Chester County straight to your inbox every week? Sign up here for our guide to the news, stories, and events shaping life in your community.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.