A bubblegum-pink storefront, a lip-shaped loveseat, and shelves full of aliens, pirates, witches, hockey players, dukes, monsters, and emotionally unavailable grumps might sound like the setup to six different novels. In Collingswood, it is just one shop.
Kiss & Tale: A Romance Bookshop sits at 688 Haddon Avenue, right in the middle of one of South Jersey’s most walkable downtowns, and it is exactly as delightfully specific as it sounds. This is not a bookstore with a romance shelf tucked near the back.
Romance is the whole plot. Owner Katie Cunningham built the shop around happily-ever-afters, spicy shelf labels, local authors, blind dates with books, and the kind of browsing experience that makes readers feel instantly understood.
It is pink, playful, deeply organized, and very serious about one thing: helping people find love stories they actually want to read.
New Jersey’s first romance bookshop gets its own love story
The best part about Kiss & Tale is that it feels like the beginning of a novel without trying too hard. Katie Cunningham had already spent years in a different kind of neighborhood business.
She and her husband opened K&A Bagel Cafe, and after stepping back from that chapter, she started thinking about what came next. At the same time, she was reading constantly, visiting bookstores, and watching romance-only shops pop up in other cities.
The idea was simple but bold: if New Jersey did not have a dedicated brick-and-mortar romance bookstore yet, why not build one in Collingswood? Cunningham opened Kiss & Tale in October 2024, and the timing could not have been better.
Romance was already having a loud, joyful mainstream moment, thanks to BookTok, fantasy romance, special-edition hardcovers, and readers who no longer felt the need to hide what they loved. Still, a whole store dedicated to the genre felt different.
It gave romance readers the thing they rarely get in general bookstores: the main character treatment. Cunningham’s standard for what belongs on the shelves is charmingly firm.
A book has to deliver a happily ever after, or at least clearly be heading toward one in a series. That rule gives the shop its personality.
This is not just a place for books with kissing in them. It is a place built around emotional payoff, grand gestures, slow burns, messy yearning, and the promise that the story will land somewhere satisfying.
For New Jersey readers who have been haunting one tiny romance section at a time, that alone makes Kiss & Tale feel like a win.
A pink little escape on Collingswood’s Haddon Avenue
Step inside from Haddon Avenue and the shop immediately commits to the bit. The walls are painted bubblegum pink, the seating leans plush and playful, and the lip-shaped loveseat is the sort of detail people notice before they have even made it to the new-release table.
It is theatrical in the right way, like someone took the fun of a romance novel cover and turned the volume up just enough. The location helps, too.
Haddon Avenue is Collingswood’s main-street spine, a stretch known for restaurants, shops, and easy strolling, so Kiss & Tale does not feel like a destination you have to over-plan. It feels like something you can wander into between coffee, lunch, and one more lap around town.
The shop is about a half-mile from the PATCO Collingswood station, which makes it especially easy for readers coming from Philadelphia or nearby South Jersey towns without turning the visit into a whole production.
Current posted hours list the shop open Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., giving it a nice long-weekend rhythm.
There are a few practical things worth knowing before you go: the entrance has one step up, the upstairs is not accessible, and there is no public restroom listed. But the shop itself has that rare small-business quality where every inch feels used with purpose.
It is cute, yes, but not in an empty Instagram-prop way. The pink walls are just the first clue that the people behind the counter understand exactly who they are welcoming in.
Shelves organized for every kind of happily ever after
Romance is not one lane, and Kiss & Tale treats it like the sprawling, delightfully chaotic universe it really is. The shelves are organized by subgenre and reader interest, which means you can walk in looking for something specific or let the categories nudge you toward a surprise.
Fantasy romance has its moment, of course, because romantasy is still carrying half the internet on its back. But the shop also makes room for historical romance, paranormal romance, sports romance, pirates, aliens, witches, Jane Austen-inspired stories, dark romance, regency, westerns, and more.
That structure matters because romance readers often shop by mood as much as by author. Sometimes you want banter and a fake relationship.
Sometimes you want a brooding immortal with centuries of emotional baggage. Sometimes you want hockey, but specifically hockey with feelings.
Kiss & Tale makes those tiny distinctions feel normal instead of niche. The shop also includes a section for local authors from South Jersey and Philadelphia, which gives the browsing experience a nice regional twist.
That is the kind of touch that separates a specialty bookstore from a generic themed display. The store is not just stocking what is popular online; it is building a map of what romance readers actually ask for, talk about, and recommend to one another.
For first-time romance readers, that organization can be a relief. Instead of standing in front of a wall of covers and wondering where to start, you can follow the shelves toward the kind of story you already know you enjoy.
For longtime readers, it is even better. There is a particular thrill in seeing your oddly specific favorite trope treated like it deserves its own little kingdom.
The clever details that make browsing feel personal
One of the smartest things Kiss & Tale does is remove the awkwardness from asking for recommendations. Romance readers can be very particular, and that is a good thing.
Maybe you want sweet but not closed-door. Maybe you want spicy but not emotionally devastating.
Maybe you are fine with dragons, but you draw the line at a third-act breakup that makes you stare at the ceiling for twenty minutes. Cunningham’s approach leans into those preferences instead of pretending every romance reader is shopping for the same kind of book.
She has been known to ask customers whether they want something lighthearted or emotional, which is a simple question that does a lot of work. The shop also uses spice-level markers, including on its wrapped “blind date with a book” picks, so readers can choose surprises without going in completely blind.
Those blind-date books come wrapped with clues on the outside while hiding the title and author, and they are sourced from a local secondhand bookstore, adding a small community-minded twist to a fun bookstore ritual. Details like that make the place feel less like a store and more like a friend who knows your reading habits slightly too well.
The merchandise adds to the same effect. Alongside the books, shoppers can find romance-reader gifts like tote bags, bookmarks, stickers, Kindle or phone accessories, mugs, clothing, and other bookish extras.
It is the sort of place where buying a gift for a romance fan becomes dangerously easy, because the non-book items still feel connected to the reading life rather than tossed in as filler. Everything points back to the same idea: browsing should feel playful, useful, and a little bit personal.
More than a bookstore for South Jersey romance fans
A specialty shop only works when it gives people a reason to come together, and Kiss & Tale seems to understand that from the jump. The store was created as a home base for romance readers, not simply a place to ring up paperbacks.
Its calendar has included author conversations, signings, book-club-style gatherings, and events big enough to move to the Collingswood Community Center right behind the shop. That is a pretty good sign that the audience is not imaginary.
Romance readers have always been a community, but now they have more visible spaces to gather offline, trade recommendations, talk tropes, and meet authors whose names they have been seeing all over their feeds. The shop’s appeal also stretches beyond the stereotype of who romance is “for.”
Cunningham has pointed to the genre’s growing openness and inclusivity, and the store’s selection reflects that with categories and shelves designed for different tastes, identities, comfort levels, and favorite flavors of love story.
There is no need to perform literary seriousness here. You can walk in wanting a soft contemporary romance, a queer love story, a witchy fantasy, a sports romance with excellent banter, or something with enough spice to require a glass of water nearby.
It all belongs. That welcoming specificity is why stores like this matter. General bookstores are wonderful, but a romance-only shop changes the energy. Readers are not apologizing for what they like.
Authors are not being treated like guilty pleasures. The genre gets room to breathe, and the people who love it get to browse without translating their tastes for anyone else.
In a state full of excellent independent bookstores, Kiss & Tale has found its own very pink lane.
Why Collingswood makes this the perfect bookish day trip
Collingswood is doing half the work here. The borough already has the bones of an easy South Jersey day trip: a walkable downtown, the PATCO station nearby, plenty of restaurants, and that old-school main-street feeling where you can park once and keep finding reasons not to leave.
Kiss & Tale slides neatly into that rhythm. You can browse the shelves in the late morning, grab lunch on Haddon Avenue, circle back for the book you almost bought, and still have time for coffee before heading home.
The shop is also only a couple of miles from Inkwood Books in nearby Haddonfield, which makes it possible to turn the outing into a small independent-bookstore crawl without spending more time in the car than in the shops. That is the underrated charm of this part of Camden County.
The towns are close together, the downtowns are active, and the distance from Philadelphia is short enough that “let’s go look at books” can become an actual afternoon plan instead of a logistical undertaking. Kiss & Tale gives that plan a centerpiece with personality.
It is specific enough to feel special, but easy enough to visit casually. You do not need to be a romance expert to enjoy it, either.
The whole place is built for discovery, whether you are a devoted reader with a towering TBR pile or someone who has only recently learned that modern romance goes way beyond the old clichés.
In Collingswood, that discovery comes wrapped in pink walls, sharp recommendations, and a downtown that knows how to stretch one bookstore stop into a very good day.