Lit Vibes Only

Ep. 65: Lit Bookstores: Beguiled Books

• Lit Vibes Only Podcast

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Join Kelsey and Amanda in their first-ever podcast interview as they chat with Ashley Adair, the spirited owner of Beguiled Books, a romance-only bookstore in Seattle. Expect laughs, bookish insights, and ghost stories as they explore Ashley's journey from HR to heartthrobs, opening just in time for the holiday book rush!

Corrections: Beguiled Books was the first mobile romance bookstore in Seattle but Blue Kettle Books was the first mobile bookstore/bookmobile.

You can find Beguiled Books on Tiktok and Instagram and of course on their website

You can support Beguiled Books at their Bookshop site 


00:00 Welcome to Lit Vibes Only

00:32 Follow Us on Social Media

01:38 Introducing Our Special Guest: Ashley Adair

02:54 Current Reads Discussion

07:48 The Journey of Beguiled Books

26:23 Challenges and Excitement of Opening a Bookstore

32:10 Ghostly Encounters at Pioneer Square

33:48 Bookstore Layout

35:09 Exciting Events and Community Engagement

37:36 Romantic Tropes and Bookstore Journey

39:29 Author Events and Book Clubs

41:04 Future Plans and Dream Authors

51:55 Rapid Fire Questions and Closing Remarks


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See you on Mondays!

Kelsey:

Welcome to Lit Fives only, where we lit the shit outta books we love and hate. I'm Kelsey, the unhinged, diehard, romantic and fantasy reader.

Amanda:

And I'm Amanda, the insightful, thrill seeker and historical fiction nerd. Hey, welcome. Welcome. We are so glad that you're back for another very special episode, which we'll get to in just a second. Never before. Before

Kelsey:

scene.

Amanda:

Never. Never before. Scene on this podcast. We are over the moon, ecstatic. But before we get sidetracked like we always do, we want to direct you to our socials. So if you're not yet following us, please take a moment to do that. We are on Instagram at Lit Vibes only podcast. You can also find us on TikTok and on YouTube at Lit Vibes Only podcast. So lots of ways to connect with us, lots of ways to engage, to get more fun bookish content. So make sure you're liking, following, commenting, subscribing, all of that good stuff. But most importantly, as always, if you have not yet rated and reviewed our podcast, you know what's coming next, head over to do that, whether that's Apple Podcast or on Spotify. Hit that five star button, and if you've got a little bit of extra time today, also make sure to just write a sentence or two about how this podcast has changed your life for the better.

cause,

Amanda:

Abby, we would deeply appreciate it. It goes such a long way as we're continuing to grow our following. So please, and thank you.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Amanda:

And did I forget anything?

Kelsey:

No, I don't think so.

Amanda:

Okay. Okay. I was like, I checking all the boxes in

Kelsey:

my

Amanda:

head.

Kelsey:

Intro. These are amazing, lovely guests.

Amanda:

Yes. So this is like the first, what we hope will be a series of interviews with local bookstore owners and talking more about their bookshops. So this is our first lit bookstores episode and we are here today. With Ashley Adair, who is the owner of Beguiled Books. So welcome Ashley. We're so glad you're here. Yay.

Ashley:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited.

Amanda:

We're so ecst. Oh my gosh. And I think we're all a little nervous because for Kelsey and I, this is our first interview on the podcast. And you were saying earlier that this was your first time doing a podcast in a minute.

Ashley:

Yes. It's my first time doing one, like for Beguiled and to talk. Yay. So I'm so excited

Kelsey:

and

Amanda:

so excited to hear all about it.

Kelsey:

Yes. And we're absolutely honored to be Beguiled first podcast episode.

Ashley:

I'm honored. I can't believe anyone cares, so,

Kelsey:

oh, we care deeply. What? Of course.

Amanda:

We book girlies out here, gotta support each other, you know?

Kelsey:

Oh my gosh.

Ashley:

Absolutely.

Kelsey:

I don't think we could have enough bookstores. Right. Like in every corner, like everywhere in Seattle. I would love to see that. So especially

Amanda:

like themed bookstores like yours, which we'll get into later, like I love that. Where it's just like we're focusing on a specific genre. So perfect. So niche. But before we hear all about book ID books, which we're so excited to do that, let's talk about what we're currently reading. So Kelsey, do you wanna go first?

Kelsey:

Yeah, I will. I have a romance

Amanda:

of

Kelsey:

course. And I wanna know, Ashley, if you have read it or are about to read it. It is Mate by Ally Hazelwood. Have you read Bride?

Ashley:

I have not read either of them. I'm behind. Good

Amanda:

for you. You're just saving yourself so much. I'm

Ashley:

not, I know what they're about.

Kelsey:

Yes.

Ashley:

And I cannot keep mate Inn, like that's the one that's like everybody wants.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda:

So distressing to hear.

Kelsey:

We actually have a podcast episode about bride. Where I forced Amanda to read it and she absolutely, I'll never forgive her, hated it,

never

Amanda:

forgive her. But it made so fun. It was a really entertaining episode. Highly recommend that you check it out once you've read it because Yes. I find that anytime either of us really dislikes the book that the other person Right. Forced them to read. I think I got all those pronouns right. It's so much more fun and so much more heated and entertaining and I really. Disliked that book.

Ashley:

I mean, conflict makes a better story. So that makes sense.

Amanda:

Yeah, absolutely. There was a lot of conflict, a whole lot of conflict and a lot of cringe. So,

Kelsey:

and I was just like, it was so good.

Amanda:

Yeah. She's obsessed. Could not wait for this book to come out. So I

Kelsey:

even bought it in Spanish.

Amanda:

No, you did. That's right. That when I was in Mexico.

Ashley:

All of the above.

Amanda:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Die hard.

Ashley:

That's dedication. That's

Amanda:

so fun. That's obsession. That's what that is.

Kelsey:

I happily take that medal.

Amanda:

I know. I'm happy.

Ashley:

Thank

Amanda:

you. That it makes you happy. But anyhow, actually, what, currently reading

Ashley:

I, okay, so I kind of miss spooky season reads. Mm-hmm. I'm a book reader, but we're doing the build out for the store. We'll get into that. Yeah. So I'm now in the Gingerbread bakery, Lori Gilmore

Amanda:

Perfect.

Ashley:

Book. So I'm only, I was saying that, i'm reading like a chapter at night. That's all I can get in right now.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

But so I'm 12% in, so far, so good. Great. So I really love her voice and I just needed kind of like one of those reads that make you feel warm and fuzzy and so Yeah, absolutely. I, Laurie Gilmore's great for that.

Amanda:

Absolutely. I don't. I again know very little about romance authors, so have never heard of this person. I just instantly think of Gilmore Girls. I'm like, oh, is this somehow connected?

Ashley:

I mean, the vibes are kind of similar

Amanda:

Oh, okay.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

Love that. Yeah. Okay.

Ashley:

I could see that. Yeah,

Amanda:

it's definitely the time of year for cozy read. Like

Ashley:

Yeah,

Amanda:

especially today y'all were in Seattle. It's gray, rainy, it's dark now that it's daylight savings and curling up with a cozy book. Sounds perfect right now. I wish I could say I was doing the same. I wish I could say I also had, yeah. What are you cozy, Amanda? But I'm enjoying right now. I am reading. I'm gonna hold it up for my YouTube folks. I'm reading Quicksilver. Oh, this is a book. Nice. Well, actually can't say too much about it'cause we haven't recorded the episode for it yet. Oh, no.

Ashley:

Everything

Amanda:

I. I'm reading. I have a third of the book left. Okay. And this is a book? Yeah. Kelsey forced me to read. I have a sneaking suspicion. Yeah. It's gonna make for a very entertaining episode, but I won't say anything else aside from that because I wanna save it for the podcast

Kelsey:

actually. Have you read it?

Ashley:

Yes.

Amanda:

Yay.

Ashley:

I love pink silver. Are

Kelsey:

you going to see Callie Hart?

Ashley:

No, I I'm, I live at the store until yeah. You know, I'm like there morning, noon, night.

Kelsey:

The tickets are sold out anyway, so

Ashley:

it's a little bummer.

Kelsey:

But I

Ashley:

wish I could like special goodies, so That's cool. So we'll have those things. Yeah.

Amanda:

Oh, sweet. Where is she gonna be? Is it a bookstore? Is it like at a third place? Yeah, third place books. Okay.

Kelsey:

They always have the best people.

Ashley:

Yeah. They have a good space.

Kelsey:

I don't know. It's just always third place.

Amanda:

I mean that it's gonna be wall to wall'cause so many people are obsessed.

Kelsey:

It is. And it's sold out. So with this book,

Ashley:

I think it's sold out real fast too.

Kelsey:

Yeah. It was sold out like a month ago.

Ashley:

Yeah, I believe it. I am so excited for the sequel. So

Kelsey:

sad

Ashley:

that comes out Me.

Amanda:

I am totally out. I can already tell I'm gonna be outnumbered in this episode. Like we've got two romance remains secret. That's, I'm gonna be like, okay.

Kelsey:

Alright.

Amanda:

You know the next person we have on is going to be a thriller bookstore owner. We'll balance the scales because we do have

Kelsey:

one in Seattle.

Ashley:

I know. I was gonna say, are you gonna talk to, but yeah, haunted bro. Great. Yes, we have reached

Amanda:

out.

Ashley:

Love

Amanda:

her. Reached out. So, sounds great. Yeah, so we're excited. We're just gonna dive in because there's so much we wanna know about you and your bookstore and what you're up to. So I think Kelsey, we tried to be as organized as possible because Kelsey and I, we like golf on tangents. We're all over the place.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Amanda:

But we assigned each other's questions. So Kelsey, you have the first question, it looks like.

Kelsey:

Yes. Yes. So Ashley, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey so far with the bookstore? What inspired you to open Beguiled books?

Ashley:

My gosh, I always find this to be like the hardest question first.

Kelsey:

Oh, always fair.

Ashley:

cause the answer's like long and it's Yes, un I mean it. Okay. Yeah. So we'll dive in. So, my name is Ashley grew up in Oregon. I've been in Seattle since 2005, so I started Oh,

Amanda:

okay.

Ashley:

I went to Cornish for theater, so that's where

Kelsey:

I,

Ashley:

oh,

Kelsey:

wait,

Amanda:

pause. Sorry. I have to interject. I also studied theater in college, so I am thrilled to hear this.

Ashley:

Oh my gosh. Theater people.

Amanda:

Yes. This is making so much sense now

Kelsey:

they find each other.

Amanda:

Okay, now things are more balanced. I'm liking this. Okay.

Ashley:

So I did that professionally. I mean, you know, it's conservatory, so it's,

Amanda:

yeah.

Ashley:

Cool. Like 12 hours a day. Oh, wow. That's where I met my husband and we've been together like 18 years at this point. Oh, amazing. Yeah. And then we were in a really bad car accident. Well, pedestrian versus vehicle Oh, zero stars wouldn't recommend birthday. Wow. But definitely like a, I make light of it just because it's uncommon. Sure. But yeah, definitely almost died. And so then went into HR because, so I have a memory problem from the accident, so memorizing lines was like not happening.

Amanda:

Oh, I see. Oh man.

Ashley:

Yeah. Not great.

Amanda:

That's devastating your life

Ashley:

for real. Yeah. Totally. And did that had an HR career and so I had my own practice for six years doing HR consulting and like culture and leadership and I think the fun stuff. Yeah. And during that time I got my MBA at Foster at UDub. And then of course pandemic. So I was pandemic graduate, graduated.

Amanda:

Oh man.

Ashley:

You know, in the parking lot. Yeah. That's

Amanda:

an accomplishment.

Ashley:

Yeah. For real. And and then I see, okay, we're just doing the whole story and then, yeah. My dad passed unexpectedly in 2022. Wow. Yeah. And it was like to, I mean, okay, so he had beaten cancer. He had gotten through an arm amputation and then Oh wow. Heart attack.

Amanda:

Oh

Ashley:

my god. Out of nowhere. And so that, it just turned my world upside down so literally. Of

Amanda:

course.

Ashley:

And I know it's so maybe cringe, but like you do kind of check in and reflect on What's important and like life is short and you just never know. Yeah. And so I was. The HR stuff was like becoming less fulfilling'cause companies weren't interested in like investing in their culture anymore. They were hiring me to lay people off and it was just unfulfilling. And so I have been like in the writing community since 2018 in Seattle. So it was like on the board of Emerald City Romance writers and so Oh yeah. Love that organization. That's very cool. Cool. Yeah. And I got to do the programming for a year, and so that's how I got to know like a lot of authors. And so I was like, wow, you know, like maybe the perfect, you know, mix is something around books. Romance books specifically. So, you know, I don't know, is this common? I don't know. There was this little space available near our home and I was like, Ooh. And I got the crazy look in my eye that my husband is scared of, and he's like, why don't we do a business plan first?

Amanda:

Okay.

Ashley:

And I was like, yeah. Yeah. So at that point I did not, I couldn't make the ends meet. Like I did the business plan, like so many ways. And I was like, I'm just not seeing how, and this is for brick and mortar?

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

I'm not seeing it. But I had seen on TikTok and you know, online, like a lot of these like mobile bookstores and like trailers and like renovated cargo trailers and that sort of thing. Yeah. So then I was like, okay, well maybe like a bookmobile would be possible. And so business me didn't, you know, boring business plan, but I have business nerds, so I love that stuff. Yeah. And so, yeah I did it. The ends met and then it was one decision after the next. So then it was like, okay, well why don't I just look into a trailer? And almost got scammed on Facebook Marketplace. Oh no. Dang. Yeah. And then yep. And then so that didn't work out. Tried to get another one that didn't work out. And so I was like, no more Facebook marketplace. Sure. People buy trailers somewhere else and it turns out there are dealerships for trailers. If you know, you know? And they were great. And like we were definitely not the first mobile business they'd encountered. So they had so many like awesome recommendations, like Nice. Our checkout counter is where it is because ah, that was the recommendation.

Amanda:

Okay.

Ashley:

And I believe we were the first mobile romance bookstore, but I think we were the first mobile bookstore in Seattle at the time.

Amanda:

Oh, okay.

Ashley:

That's a huge accomplishment. I'm like, well, is it because

Amanda:

I think

Ashley:

so.

Amanda:

Why not innovators?

Ashley:

I was like, why is this, why is, you know, what happened? Why is it not here? So it rains in Seattle. Oh. And moisture not good. Not so good. Oh, yeah. Right. So it's kind of, kind of a, you know, I've, there's been a lot of this where I say I am like, I did not think that through. And it's thank goodness, because

Amanda:

yeah, if

Ashley:

I had, I don't know if I would've kept going.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And so, but it's just been off to the races since we launched. So we, we went trailer shopping in October of 2024. Brought it home Halloween weekend. Started renovations on it. And like at the time I did not consider myself. Handy.

Amanda:

Yeah,

Ashley:

just like a trial and error, like I did speaking of theater, I did you know, stage built. Yep. Same in high school.

Amanda:

Uhhuh.

Ashley:

Uhhuh. Done some home improvement projects that like nearly got us divorce, like not really, but you know, we did a, we stained our deck and like woof, like

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

So don't recommend I still enough to be dangerous. And so we did that renovation over five months, but then Wow. In December, so a couple months later. A friend of ours runs pet rescue. And she'd been granted like, extra space for a holiday market. Oh. And a brewery. And she was like, oh my gosh. She was panicking. She was like, oh no, we don't have enough vendors and I know you're doing this. Could you do a table? And I was like, actually, yeah. Like books just came in.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

I can throw something together. So that was our first ever like thing.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And we did a market at Old Stove gardens Gallery. Oh, okay. Yeah. They have an incredible space and they're really helpful to, especially nonprofits. And that, I mean, talk about newbie vibes, like we forgot our tables. Oh no. It was like, then once we got there, we got tables and then 10 minutes before it opened, like it crashed down. I don't know what happened, but And this was like the first taste of vendor life as far as like community. And I kid you not, I didn't even have to turn around and there were already people like running to like help.

Amanda:

Oh wow. That's amazing. I love that.

Ashley:

Yeah. It's such a supportive community and and it went really well and you know, friends showed up and, but I have never been, other than when we launched the trailer, I don't think I've ever been more nervous. Sure. And I think we made maybe$500, like nothing like, but like it was huge to us.

Amanda:

Yeah, of course.

Ashley:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. And I think to this day it remains like our, like one of the lowest sales days ever, but like it's the most important sales day we've ever had. Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda:

That

Ashley:

makes so much sense.'cause it like meant the most. And it was the first time we could talk about Beguiled. Talk about what we were doing and that's when we launched our blind dates, which we're kind of known for our version of them. Okay.

Kelsey:

Okay.

Ashley:

'Cause we stuff a lot of extra goodies in there and do the tropes, the category that's not new, but you know, I like how we do them and so big shout out to the peop the kind souls who bought those blind dates before I was good at wrapping them. Certainly there were some cat hair for sure,

Amanda:

Some extra love.

Ashley:

But honestly, like those early customers were the most important and yeah. Like just to like stopping and listening. Do hey and caring. What are you doing? Yeah. What is this?

Amanda:

Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing.

Ashley:

And they didn't know it was our first time. Sure. They didn't know. And so it's just I it is just so important. Like everyth means a lot.

Amanda:

Yeah. Well'cause you're building community and connection. I feel like that's such an important facet of bookstores actually. And like local bookstores specifically.'cause they are so community based, right? That's where you go however often you go to buy books, right? You get to know the owners. Right. They get to know you and what you enjoy. And so it really creates this community within a community and I think it's really beautiful

Ashley:

for sure. I mean, I am under no illusion that you can buy books anywhere, like faster and cheaper and, but like truly it is that community experience. Getting to know customers taste. And what's gonna resonate and seeing them again and

Amanda:

yeah.

Ashley:

It is not uncommon for hugs to happen at checkout because Right. Like we get to know their lives.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And it's books, but it's also more than books. And I love that's what connects us all. Yeah. Because it's like such a

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Shared language. Even like the you know, the difference in genres Like between the two of you. Like books still connect us all. Yeah.

Amanda:

Yes.

Ashley:

And it's oh, you're a book person. Okay. I trust you.

Amanda:

I see you. Yeah.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

Which goes to my point. What I was going to say is that in addition to getting to know the owners of these bookstores and these shops, you also run into other people. Well, you're there shopping, right. And oh my gosh, you like go to grab the same book, or you're like commenting on what they've got in their basket. And so it's yeah. I'm like building additional connections with other people, even just by going into a trailer or a brick and mortar store and connecting with other

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Amanda:

Book lovers in the area. So it's really amazing. Okay. I wanted to ask a little bit about,'cause you mentioned the blind dates for the book. And I would love for you to just talk really briefly, especially for folks who might not be familiar with that concept, like what it is and like how you guys specifically do it at Bega books.

Ashley:

Oh, absolutely. Okay. So, blend it with a book is where you take. Book and you wrap it up. Usually there's a lot of like fancy wrapping pocket situation in the wrap. And so what we do is we put the tropes of the story, we do the categories, so, you know, contemporary, historical, romantic on the spine of ours, you'll find like the condition and if it's paperback or hard back. And then we include a steam scale rating. Ooh. Yeah. That's a favorite of folks. We do one and we make it up. We use the one from romance to IO and Okay. And then we stuff a lot of trinkets inside those pockets. So like bookmark stickers, there's a drink, a craft mix drink packet.

Amanda:

Oh,

Ashley:

whoa. Yeah. Yeah. So my, my goal with it is that if you buy one, you it's a treat and you can have an. Like a, an evening.

Amanda:

Yeah. You

Ashley:

can make your drink, you can have your bookmark. There's, you know, key chains and stickers and I wanted

Amanda:

to I love those.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And so it's

Amanda:

like a whole experience.

Ashley:

Exactly. Yeah.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Plus they make great gifts.'cause you know, if the person hates it, it's not your fault.

Amanda:

I technically didn't know what I was getting. You.

Ashley:

I know. We're both finding out. And I also love it because we do, we also feature indie authors and, you know, people don't judge book by their cover.

Amanda:

Yeah. Yeah, I for sure do.

Ashley:

Who doesn't? And so it's a great way to just kind of get books into people's hands that like maybe wouldn't normally pick up or, you know, the cover weird or something. Yeah,

Amanda:

absolutely. It's funny that you mention that because we covered a forbid alchemy. Actually, the episode dropped this week on the on our podcast. And I do not like the cover for that book. And if Kelsey hadn't forced me to read it, I never would've read it. But I loved the book.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Amanda:

And the cover just totally threw me.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Have you seen that one, Ashley? A Forbidden Alchemy?

Ashley:

I try. I'm like looking it up right

Kelsey:

now by Stacey McKeen. She's from Australia. Yeah. She's like the comedian if you know her.

Ashley:

She's, I dunno her. Oh,

Kelsey:

it's so good. She had

her

Ashley:

alchemy.

Kelsey:

Yeah. And she had a book cover reveal for her book too. And Amanda, it looks very similar. It looks very similar.

Ashley:

I just ordered this one actually. I just

Kelsey:

Oh, excellent

Ashley:

order.

Kelsey:

So good.

Ashley:

Okay.

Kelsey:

Yes.

Ashley:

That's what our, one of our new, we have employees now. What in the world?

Kelsey:

Yay.

Ashley:

Said she was like raving about it and I was like, oh, I had to order.

Amanda:

Yeah. Okay. It's so good. It gets the lit vibes only stamp of approval from both of us.

Ashley:

And

Kelsey:

that rarely happens. And that

Amanda:

is rare.

Ashley:

Yeah. Maybe that's just Rose on my TBR like cute.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

It's quite a stamp of approval.

Kelsey:

It's fabulous. And it's like an, it's an easy read too. Like it the font is also big, like it's not Yeah. I love,

Amanda:

It's

Kelsey:

an easy

Amanda:

read. You'll get through it pretty quickly. Awesome. So. I'm, I am curious what kind of factored into the name of your store, how did you end up calling it Beguiled books? Where did that come from?

Ashley:

Oh my gosh. Okay, let, so I'm laughing because I

Amanda:

love this.

Ashley:

I really just wanted something that nobody was using. And that was a cheap domain. Like what?

Amanda:

That's for good reasons.

Ashley:

Practical, like 10 or 12 domain name. And so I was, I never, I love alliteration when In bookshops. And so I was like, okay, I wanted to start with books because I knew I wanted books in the title or, I mean, I know it starts with B. And then I was going through and I was like, be, or, and everyone was like, I don't know what that means. Well, turns out not baggy is currently not. That's a 10 word. And so, like I, I went with be, but I was like, Ooh, bag by itself sounds kind of. Funny. So I was just doing the kind of I ended it with like an LY. No, that's weird. Or then I was like, oh, what a past tense, like you're beguiled. Like it's already happened.

Amanda:

Uhhuh.

Ashley:

And I mean the, I am such a nerd. So like the meaning of it, like used to be like, have kind of a negative connotation of oh, it's like you were like enchanted, but like deceitful.

Amanda:

Yes.

Ashley:

But then I learned that it was Shakespeare who like changed the meaning of it to be more like entrancing and you know? You're, you know, you're just kind of like under a spell. And I really liked that because

Kelsey:

Yeah,

Ashley:

when I think of the trailer, like you are not expecting to find it.'Cause we usually do like markets, fairs and festivals.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And so it just you're like, what is happening here? And so I really like the idea of you are beguiling, but like we've already beguiled you. Yeah. You think you found us, but we actually found you like we uhhuh in this market a while ago. That's good. You paid the thing we Yeah. You know, we showed up at, you know, 7:00 AM to set up. It looks like we just like magically appeared, but truly it's a lot of work and planning. And effort. Yeah.

Amanda:

Oh yeah. But you've cast this amazing spell now. And now everyone is entranced.

Ashley:

Can't

Amanda:

good enough. Very

Ashley:

entranced. And oh my gosh though. But at first, nobody, and it was, I was like, oh man, I've really messed up. And now everything is says Beguiled. I off like Beil edd, I dunno. And I was like, oh shoot. And sometimes like to this day, like I still will miss emails because I'm like, oh yeah, you know, it's dah duh bugga books. And they're like, yeah, I sent it there. And I'm like you did. Like it's a little

Kelsey:

off.

Ashley:

So, yeah. You know. But I love it now and it's pretty cool that it took like the, certainly the first few months people were like, huh. And now they're like, oh, I beguiled. Yeah.

Amanda:

Yeah. And they're also like in the know, you know? Yeah. There's that extra element.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

So,

Ashley:

so that's the really long answer of how I came up with Beguiled books.

Amanda:

That's a great answer. And I am a nerd too, in that I love words and wordplay and just like the etymology of words. So I love that response actually. And

Ashley:

Oh, perfect.

Amanda:

Did not know that tidbit about Shakespeare. And now I know. So thank you.

Ashley:

Oh, my family lore is that, and this is lore I is not confirmed, but is that he's technically, I think, not technically, but the lore is we are first cousins, 14 times removed.

Amanda:

Oh, it's from Shakespeare.

Ashley:

Yeah. Which I really wish I would've known that in theater.

Amanda:

That I know what collapse you would've had. You could've gotten any role, like I'm directly descended from Shakespeare.

Ashley:

Well, I was the one who was like, the teacher would be like, who hates Shakespeare on like day one and I was the only guy raised their hand. It was like me, so boy, my

Amanda:

cousin. You know what's wild though, is one of my old coworkers at my previous school, I won't say her full name for privacy sake, but her last name is Shakespeare and she is a direct descendant of Shakespeare. She has her family tree. It was as a theater person who was currently, I was at that time like performing with a Shakespeare company. I was like, this is in. That is amazing. Like I have kind of met Shakespeare. This is cool.

Ashley:

I think

Amanda:

he did think, I think he did. I mean his DA is there course,

Ashley:

right?

Amanda:

But yeah, it was pretty wild. And she's yeah, people ask me all the time if I'm related to him'cause my last name is Shakespeare and she's yeah, I actually am. And I'm like, that is crazy.

Ashley:

So cool.

Amanda:

He just keeps her family tree on her for that purpose because she has to prove

Kelsey:

people

Ashley:

like really?

Kelsey:

Has like a magnet of it.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

That's funny. Oh my goodness.

Ashley:

Gosh. Someday I'll have to do the, my uncle did the tree and I'm like, Doug, where is that?

Amanda:

Yeah, you gotta let people to start it pretty

Ashley:

I certified or something. I dunno. It's probably gonna come out that it's so like a family lore and it's not real, but. In my head.

Amanda:

Yeah, maybe don't look too deeply into it, because if it's not true, then you can't, you know what I mean? Ignorance is bliss. Let's just go with the fact that maybe you are,

Ashley:

Maybe. So

Kelsey:

it's fair.

Ashley:

Who knows?

Amanda:

Love that.

Ashley:

I'm a fan. I'm a fan.

Kelsey:

Well, to mention like the timeline of podcast recording, we are currently recording before your bookstore opens, which it opens in a week, but our episode is gonna drop like right after your bookstore opens, which is wild, right? You're probably feeling so busy in this time of your life. But I'm, we're wondering like, what's been the most exciting part of bringing the store to life?

Ashley:

Ooh. Well, I mean, everything is exciting, like We got, we're in Pioneer Square and so there's like a special program. Around garbage that like, you can't have the cans in the alley, so we have to order these special garbage bags and when they arrived I was like, garbage bags, like everything exciting. And we have a friend who, you know how you have those friends who have weird jobs and you're like, huh. Well, she like works at a company that like designs and produces shopping baskets for the gap and Oh yeah. That kind thing. So we're like, oh, would you like, we're not gonna order that many, but would you? And they did. And so we just got like shopping baskets.

Amanda:

Oh my God. That

Ashley:

is a thrilling out. Every time the delivery person comes I'm like, and they're like, lady, it's like garbage bags.

Amanda:

But they're my garbage bags.

Ashley:

Yeah. Oh, sweet. It's every time we, something new happens. So like we got the stripes painted professionally and so we'd walk down the stairs and I was like, ah. Like it's looking know a bookstore. And we just started like putting actual books on actual shelves.

Amanda:

Oh wow.

Ashley:

Yeah. Like yesterday. And I was like, that's, oh my gosh, this is store. There are books. Now it's happening. Yeah. It's

Amanda:

Yeah. You're so close.

Ashley:

So close and so far away. I'm very much thinking of it like, this is tech week. Yeah. Going back to Yes. Love

Amanda:

the theater. Yep. Uhhuh.

Ashley:

I'm like, okay, well this has been run throughs. Now we're in tech week, so opening night. It feels really close and really far. Well, you said it's next week. I was like, wait, really?

Kelsey:

Yeah. And of course I know next Saturday, right? Is your first day?

Ashley:

Yeah. Oh yeah. 15th. Yeah.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Yeah. That's, and it's there's no VIP anything. There's not any previews. It's dropping the album, no singles. Yeah.

Amanda:

I love that. Well, like to that point, since you're like just diving right in, obviously you're expanding, you know, into the brick and mortar store, lots of things to be excited about. Have there been like particular like challenges or like huge learning curves that you've had to navigate as you guys are like. Expanding into this new space that it's just been like front of mind?

Ashley:

Oh yeah. I mean the, we have this picture of this like little mouse on the wall. I was influenced by the way, this was like totally late night Instagram purchase. And it's just as everything is figureoutable. And that has been our motto with the trailer. Because something always happens that you're not expecting. When we launched the trailer, that on our way to that opening, it came unhitched in the middle of the road. Oh my god. Near disaster. And just by grace of whatever, like nobody was around, we were safe. Everything worked out. We re hitched. And so, so that time it's okay, what's gonna be the thing at this event that goes along? So it's almost exciting when you find it because you're like, aha, okay, we're done now. But gosh, I mean. I the first thing that's coming to, I'm like, everything, all of it. Sure. That makes so much sense coming to mind is I didn't realize we have a shared bathroom with our neighbors next door. Oh. And I did not realize we needed to do that, like in a design way. And it. I posted something recently, I'm like, here's my like serial killer bathroom because like the light's flickering. Oh my God. There's it's not cute at all and like we're not allowed to change anything, so it's just gonna be very Oh no, I'm allowed to aesthetically change things, so. Okay. I'm gonna, my, I'm not gonna reveal.

Amanda:

Yeah,

Ashley:

I'll have you go into the bathroom and see, but there's gonna be, the floor is just so ugly. Like it's so ugly and so I'm going to be doing everything in my power to distract you from

Amanda:

the floor. Got it. Keep that in mind. There

Ashley:

might be some stuff on the ceiling, who knows?

Amanda:

Okay.

Ashley:

Yeah. I mean, that's been a challenge. All Sure. Well, okay, so we are in historic Pioneer Square. Yeah. So the original Romance bookstore in the original Seattle neighborhood, love

Amanda:

it.

Ashley:

I mean, pet Match made in Heaven. But because it's a historical building, so, and all that comes with that, and, you know, it was, they made it sound real simple, real straightforward. All of these, you know, oh, you just have to ask, you just have to, so it was a really involved process to get just our decals on the windows. Oh. To the point of you have to like, apply is really it application. And I had to tell them the exact height of each letter. Dear Lord. Whoa. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh my God. So that was just huh? I don't, I dunno if this is a normal problem for, you know, normal brick and mortar and also certainly not for someone like launching it the first time, but yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

I don't know what, I dunno. So that was maybe for the best that was a challenge, but it's also there's so much cool history that Oh,

Kelsey:

yeah.

Ashley:

Building, I'm

Kelsey:

sure.

Ashley:

It like used to be called like the Northern Hotel and it's like where all the gold miners used to stay. Yeah. And our space has always been retail, so it was a fine cigar shop.

Kelsey:

Oh

Ashley:

wow. I found like some old photos we're, we'll have'em in the store.

Amanda:

Very cool.

Ashley:

Yeah. And so far our ghost seems to be. Really polite because,

Amanda:

oh my, wait, tell us more. Why do you think you have a ghost?

Kelsey:

Oh, wait, hold on though. Amanda doesn't believe in ghosts. I do. Okay. And so that's where that's coming from.

Ashley:

Oh fair. So, I mean, it's Pioneer Square it's pretty much, I think it's like a known that it's a very haunted, haunted, haunted neighborhood.

Amanda:

Yeah. I've heard this for sure.

Ashley:

Yeah. Yeah. There's like a, that's like where the ghost tour goes.

Amanda:

It, yep. It sure does.

Ashley:

Yeah. But no, I was like changing outta my paint clothes. Like we have a back office area and it was just us there, so I was just changing and all of a sudden the door not slam shut, but like definitely close this and there was a door stop oh, it had been closed all the time. So we house.

Amanda:

Alright, well hopefully this ghost loves books. Hopefully they're and will be otherwise entertained.

Ashley:

I think so. Our journalists had noticed a few things and she's there late at night, and so, I'll keep it posted. I don't know.

Amanda:

Yeah. You know what this made me think of actually, because I'm assuming you've read the Acotar series.

Ashley:

Oh yeah.

Amanda:

Okay. So this makes me think of Nester's book where they're in the House of Wind and the house is sentient and like also loves, and I'm like, what if the bookstore, what if your bookshop like, you can

Ashley:

make it a thing that sounds like book you need to write.

Amanda:

I maybe I'll, I do

Ashley:

have, that's a good one.

Amanda:

I might have to because I honestly, not to go on a tangent, but I love that aspect about Nester's book.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

That she had this like really hardworking relationship with the house and I'm like, yeah, maybe I'll write that book and then I can have it in your store. How cool would that be?

Ashley:

Please do. Yes, let's do it. I love that.

Kelsey:

I was also curious,'cause you're talking about, you know, the bathroom, obviously. Yeah. That got me to thinking about the different areas of your bookstore, because I think you have an upstairs, right? And

Ashley:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

A downstairs. And I'm curious what are the envisioned spaces? Are you have cozy areas or just Yeah,

Ashley:

exactly. So I'm like, Ooh, I can reveal a lot of stuff on here because it'll come after.

Kelsey:

Yep.

Ashley:

Okay. So, we do, I'm calling it the Loft. It's like cute. But it's up some stairs and so the thought behind that is it's big enough, but small enough that it will be for like, book clubs. I would love to host writer groups, like any kind of like small group gathering. But then if it's not like reserved or booked or anything like that, then I envision it just you know, go next door to loon, go get your bev. You know, get it. Yeah. I can highly recommend the chai pumpkin latte love chai lattes.

Kelsey:

They're

Ashley:

so good. It's, that one in particular is life changing. Bring it on over. And you can, a lot of our customers are like, I'm gonna be there, like working, like I'm just gonna come work, you know, remotely. Oh yeah. At your store all the time. And I'm like, come on over. Yeah. This. So that would be cool. Downstairs will be like the main shopping area. And it's, yeah.'cause it's 2300 square feet, so.

Amanda:

Oh, wow. Okay. That's a lot.

Ashley:

Yeah. And then we have a back office set. It's just no one will ever see. I hope not. But yeah. So that's it. But, oh, but the secret of the loft, if all works out I'd love to, well, we have a projector. We got the rights to do this and so we are gonna be. Like for vibes, like silently projecting on this really big wall, like 90s and 2000's like rom-coms.

Kelsey:

Oh

Amanda:

my gosh. Oh my God. Okay. I'm done. Done. Sold. Great. Alright. I will be there every

Ashley:

fun.

Kelsey:

That's perfect.

Amanda:

That is fabulous. And such a good idea.

Ashley:

Well, thank you.

Amanda:

So smart, so creative. Have not seen that done at a bookstore before.

Ashley:

I just, I love everything about the genre and

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

It's so fun and so, yeah, I'm really excited for it.

Amanda:

Oh my

Ashley:

gosh. And there's, I think it'd be like cool to sit up there and like work and then

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Glance over and you know, see that, or you're reading, you know, you're just like, yeah, nice reading moment and,

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And then there's that's such a

Kelsey:

good idea.

Ashley:

There's a caveat to the like licensing thing. I'm learning so much. You know, when you, I can imagine All I notice now.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

So I can't, like we can't because we're not a cinema, right. So we can't sell tickets, we can't do anything like promoting and be like, this is gonna show. But we could do blind date with a movie.

Amanda:

Ah, the movie. Oh, that would be very

Ashley:

cool to say, you know, here are the tropes. Yeah. You know,

Amanda:

yeah.

Ashley:

And it would be like probably a free event. I don't think we can, you know. Yeah. But what a fun community event.

Amanda:

Absolutely. And it's still bringing like foot traffic into your store as well. Right. So just spreading the word and bringing more people in and there's so many classic, just like excellent, like nineties, early 2000 rom-coms. Like so many good ones. Yes.

Kelsey:

Yes.

Ashley:

What are your favorite.

Amanda:

Oh my God. All of them 10

Kelsey:

things I hate about You.

Amanda:

Okay. That was one that I was thinking of for sure.

Ashley:

It's so Seattle, right?

Kelsey:

Yeah. So Seattle

Amanda:

27 Dresses is great. 13, going on 30 is another one that I like would watch like Totally all the time. Like I, it's hard for me to think of a romcom I've met that I haven't liked especially from that era. Right. There's some like new ones that pop up on Netflix. I'm like, this is so cheesy. Yeah. I'll also watch it, but I'm like, this is so clean. Crazy. But yeah, I, oh, I love all of them so much. Yeah.

Ashley:

I definitely feel like I'm in my Kathleen Kelly like bookstore era from You've got mail.

Amanda:

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh,

Ashley:

yes. I was like, that

Amanda:

is so perfect.

Ashley:

I need to get some good sweaters. Yeah. I need some tights.

Amanda:

Yeah. It's the perfect time of year as well,

Ashley:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Amanda:

Fully live into that.

Ashley:

Totally.

Amanda:

I love that for you. Yeah. Well, since we're like talking about tropes, this actually leads, because I'm gonna jump one question. Yeah. So if your store's journey was a romance story. Okay. What tropes would be included? So we have some examples. So for example, is it like an enemy to lovers trope with figuring out the logistics Right. Or like a slow burn with getting documents and like permits approved. What, how would you, yeah, how would you, what TRS would you give to this journey?

Ashley:

Okay, so for the trailer I would say that one was a slow burn.

Amanda:

Okay.

Ashley:

Because I took, this is funny, I took five months to do that one and we are doing this whole build out for the brick and mortar in six weeks. Oh

Kelsey:

my God.

Ashley:

What in the world? What? Yeah. Instant

Kelsey:

love there.

Ashley:

Instant love. It's for the brick and mortar for sure.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. For sure. Wow.

Ashley:

There was another one that came to mind. You know, sometimes it's always enemies to lovers. Sure. Because, you know, there's so much that's I have definitely been more stressed out, but this is like a special edition stress.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

But I've also never been more like engaged and happy and Fulfilled and like. All of those wonderful adjectives that Yeah. So it definitely vacillates.

Amanda:

Yeah. That makes so much sense considering Yeah. Everything you have going on and Yeah. Venturing into this expansion and all that entails,

Ashley:

it's Yeah. I, yeah.

Amanda:

Just like a rollercoaster every day, I'm sure. Yes. Like high highs, maybe some like low lows and everything in between.

Ashley:

Absolutely.

Amanda:

Yeah. Yeah. That makes so much sense. But

Ashley:

I'm still not over, like some of the authors we got for our opening event. Like I, it's still, I'm still like, what you like, why do I have your phone number now? Like what? Wow.

Amanda:

We're

Ashley:

chatting. We're just

Amanda:

chatting. Yeah.

Kelsey:

So thinking about, you know, the authors that you're connecting to now and folks in the community, are there special opening events that maybe after, like when this is coming out or book clubs you're starting or other author highlights?

Ashley:

Oh my gosh, yes.

Kelsey:

That you have planned.

Ashley:

So for the opening we have 18 authors.

Kelsey:

Oh my God.

Ashley:

Are

Kelsey:

they all local?

Ashley:

What

Kelsey:

are they all local?

Ashley:

Almost all of them. So a co my writing group is coming. That's pretty

Kelsey:

cool.

Ashley:

Mallory Marlowe is loving other conspiracies. We're in the same writing group. And they're coming a couple of pre-published authors. So they're not local, but everyone else is local, I believe.

Amanda:

That's amazing.

Ashley:

You're rich in

Kelsey:

Oh yeah.

Amanda:

Oh yeah. The p and w. Oh my God.

Kelsey:

Also send them our way. We wanna interview them. Yes, please. Hi. Oh, we have a guest.

Ashley:

A guest. We had a guest cat.

Kelsey:

These are a second official guest.

Ashley:

Yes. Yes. There you go. Beepy. Yes. BEP there. And then the second weekend, we already have two authors coming. Oh my gosh. Alona, I'm like, I like, or Alana. And then Jar Kas who is our first touring author. Wow. Coming in town from out of state. That's amazing.

Amanda:

How cool. Yeah.

Ashley:

What

Amanda:

a big deal.

Ashley:

Yeah. So that's pretty exciting. And then we're gonna cool it for the holidays because I'm nervous. I don't know what to expect. I wanna get our feet under us. But I say that and just watch like I feel to resist something and I'll be like, okay, let's do it. And then I, we are absolutely doing book clubs. I think we are gonna be, we book Clubbing Hard. Sure. But we're gonna launch that in the new year. Okay. I think that's a good time to like fresh start. Sure. We can get some things in order. The goal, I've already kind of tapped a few people so we'll have I guess book club captains, I guess. Who like lead the,

Amanda:

yeah.

Ashley:

You know, the event kind of organize and whatnot. But I'd like to do them based on like sub genre, so

Amanda:

Oh yeah.

Ashley:

Fantasy, dark, you know, you know, whatever historical. And then maybe one that's just like new releases, but all sort of sub-genres, so,

Amanda:

yeah.

Ashley:

Yeah. So we'll be doing that and those will happen in the weeknight, I believe.

Amanda:

Okay. Very, we are both in book clubs and so we're a huge fan.

Ashley:

Awesome.

Amanda:

Yeah, we love book clubs. We did one at Elliot Bay, which was our first time doing kind of like a public book club. That's right. And had an interesting experience, but they did have, I guess kind of to use your term, like bookstore captains who Yeah. Yeah. Kind of worked with the bookstore to arrange it, organize it, you know, get in touch with folks. So that makes so much sense, and I'm sure lightens your load considerably. So,

Ashley:

yeah, I can't do it all. I don't wanna do it all. I leave it to some experts. That's fair. So then like I'm open, like I, there, you know, one of the florists we're working with for the opening, I was like, would you ever teach a class? So maybe we'll do

Amanda:

Oh my gosh, that's for Valentine's Day or something. That could be so cool.

Ashley:

Exactly what I was thinking.

Amanda:

Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Ashley:

And then our muralist used to do sip wine and sips or whatever. Would've been

Amanda:

paint and sip.

Ashley:

Paint and sip. That's it.

Amanda:

Yep.

Ashley:

I was like, would you, she was like, yeah. Yeah. Wow. So I really think the space is so, it's one long rectangle. And so if we just push the fixtures in the middle to the side, like we can, wow.

Kelsey:

Okay.

Ashley:

It's, yeah. Wow.

Kelsey:

That is significant. Yeah.

Ashley:

Yeah. And we've been recently contacted sort a public partnerships, so I won't name them, but a workout company. Wow. I don't know how to talk about it. But it's gonna be really fun class. And they might do a special class in store

Amanda:

Oh wow.

Ashley:

That's fun. You know what? Why not?

Amanda:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Amanda:

That just, I feel like I keep bringing up aar, but so many things are like true my friend. I think it's aar.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Which by the way, I made Amanda read aar and that's

Amanda:

the only reason she did. And now I has read these books like yeah. That she, I would never have read them without this podcast. So huge props to Kelsey. But there's like a workout program that is based on Oh yes, the Alies from NASA's book. And I was like, that's what it made. And

Kelsey:

also the 10,000 stair challenge.

Amanda:

And there's also the 10,000 stair challenge as well, but there's like a specific workout program, like multi-week that's like basically, oh

Kelsey:

my gosh,

Amanda:

a Valkyrie and my friend does that. So.

Ashley:

That's hilarious. That is probably what would motivate me is trained to be like a heroine and a romantic.

Amanda:

Yeah. Yeah. My brain, as soon as she said workout in books that's where my brain instantly went and made that connection. That makes sense.

Ashley:

I was like make it very beginner for, you know, people who are new. I was like, it's me. I'm people.

Kelsey:

That's me. I'm new

Amanda:

everyone. And also

Ashley:

I, listen, I'm open to pitches and I mean, we, I have already like a list of folks who, or folks meaning like authors who are like, we wanna, you know, my book's coming out next year. Ah, you know, and I'm like, yeah.

Amanda:

Yeah. Well that like perfectly segues.'cause I'm curious, like, how do you decide, like which books make it onto your shelves?

Ashley:

Ooh.

Amanda:

Is there, like what's your process? Yeah. There's like criteria or is it just like anything in any, if someone gives me a recommendation Yes. Like I'm curious how that. Process is for you.

Ashley:

Yeah. I mean, it has to be romance only. Sure. So we'll start there. But I mean, it's, I've been accused of being like, not accused, but like people are like, you're so strict about it. And I was like, what? It's not me. It's the genre. If it doesn't end in a happily ever after or happy for Dao, and if the main plot is not, centered on the romance it is not a romance. Yep. Those are the genre conventions and so it must be romance. Not all romances, most love stories are romances. Not all romances. Wait, no, I did it wrong. Anyway. A love story is different than a romance. Sure. So the ones that are love stories, but they maybe don't, you know, end up in a happy for now happy ever. We love'em. They're great. I, them, I'm a romance only bookstore. I won. Know what you're getting and

Amanda:

sure. That

Ashley:

could be a broken expectation, I think. Certainly my taste like has to do with it. You know, people that I'm really passionate about. But you know, I'm not well read in all of the sub genres. Like I romantic, I've always loved, I'm not as well read as some of the, our customers. And so I ask them, I'm like, what did you think? Yeah. Tell me, you know, how did that work for you? Or even if it's at checkout and they're like, have you bought or have you read this? And I was like, well, no, but let me know what you think. Yeah. I'm like, what's great? Is it they do they're like, oh, I like this and it worked for me. Or it was a four star and here's why. And I was like, that's really good to know.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And then of course, you know, just hearing what's popular, seeing what's selling. Yeah. I mean there's definitely some analytics that go into it.

Kelsey:

Oh, for sure.

Ashley:

Because yeah, you can see that on some of the publishing sites.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And some of it, you know, is not my taste. And it's just, you know, it's there. Yeah.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

But I feel like our whole thing is don't yuck, anyone's yum. Sure.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Like it's. I prefer Dark Romance that has comedy in it, like Brent Weaver and you know, those kinds of things. And like some people are like, no. Make it like really, you know, Really dark. And I'm like, okay, hope you know, I'm gonna, now that we have employees, I, one thing that I focused on when we were hiring the team is making sure like everything was represented. Yeah. And so we'll at least have an expert in something.

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

You kind of ask, so

Kelsey:

that's great.

Ashley:

It's more of it definitely started as like my, you know, I was the one doing the buying, but now it's definitely kind of morphed into a community thing. I would say.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And I love indie authors. I am willing to give everyone a chance. I don't have the shelf space to do it all at the same time, is how I'll phrase it. Yeah. But i'll give it a go. Like why not?

Amanda:

Sure. I love that.

Ashley:

Let's go. Yeah. And

Amanda:

will you guys be doing like kind of a staff pick section as well for like you and your employees to highlight? For sure. Okay. Okay. They're excited. I love when bookstore do that,

Ashley:

they're like, what can we like, fill out the shelf talkers? So we just got like custom shelf talkers and so they're like, we wanna do it. And I'm like, I know, but we gotta fill the shelves first.

Amanda:

Wait time out. What is a shelf talker?

Kelsey:

Yeah.

Ashley:

What is that? Oh, so that's the the piece of paper that like hangs up the bed?

Amanda:

Oh yes. Okay. Oh, okay.

Ashley:

Well that official term is shelf talker. Well I think it's official. I dunno. All I've ever heard

Amanda:

we're making it official now

Ashley:

It's official.

Kelsey:

I'll now refer to it as shelf

Amanda:

as the shelf talker, not the little paper taggy thingy.

Ashley:

Paper taggy thing.

Kelsey:

Yes.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

So, thinking about the future for the bookstore. What is your like, long term dream for Beguiled books and like, how do you hope it grows?

Ashley:

Ooh. I mean, right now I'm just trying to get to opening for sure.

Kelsey:

Fair.

Ashley:

I'm like day to day. Oh gosh. I had I hope I, my like, pipe dream is I hope someday I make Barnes Noble nervous.

Amanda:

Oh, love

Ashley:

that. I would love that.

Amanda:

Or Amazon, right?

Ashley:

Yeah. I take on bow giants. Like eventually we would show up in like a, you know, a strategy meeting or something that like, I'll never know. But that would be cool. But that's so far down the pipeline. Sure. I just hope that it becomes like my. Goal is that everyone feels like the main character when they're in our store. Oh,

Amanda:

yeah.

Ashley:

Because I really believe in people remember how you make them feel. And so even if you don't buy anything I want you to have a good experience. Yeah. Because when you are ready to make a purchase I hope you think Beguiled I hope you wanna, I hope you wanna buy your book with us.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And so I want you to feel like one thing that, that is like our core values is well it's given s but you know, give a crap, like you matter

Amanda:

also, you can totally swear on this podcast.

Ashley:

Yes. Can I really? Oh,

Amanda:

literally our tagline is, we lit the shit out of books we love and hate.

Ashley:

So, oh my God. I, okay. I was like, but wait, how

Amanda:

polite

Ashley:

you're being. My, I've been holding back, let it loose, let it like, give, we give a shit like you matter. Like I care, I care about you. Yeah. And so I hope that it becomes a place that you feel represented and seen and that you can find like a love story to use that. But that you see yourself represented in no matter, like who you love or how you love, you know, what your background is. Yeah. And I hope it's a place where like you look forward to coming. Like something that like just makes me so warm and fuzzy is there's some people who are like planning trips to come to Beguiled. Like there, there one person planned a book crawl, like for our opening weekend Oh. For their birthday.

Kelsey:

Oh, wow.

Ashley:

And that's special. That's a great

Kelsey:

birthday weekend.

Ashley:

And I'm just like, wow. You wanna spend it here And Yeah. So I make sure it's a place that's worthy of that kind of, yeah.

Amanda:

Absolutely. And

Ashley:

There are two best friends who are gonna meet there'cause they live far apart. Cute. And like my best friend since fourth grade lives in like Oregon. We meet up places Uhhuh. So I know how like important that is.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

So I, I have a lot of dreams

Amanda:

And

Ashley:

I, yeah. Give some of'em to myself'cause I don't wanna be like

Amanda:

Sure.

Ashley:

You know?

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

Putting it all, but

Amanda:

that's beautiful. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Kelsey:

Also,

Amanda:

I like wanna steal that book crawl idea. That sounds amazing. Especially'cause there's so many good local bookstores in the Seattle area.

Ashley:

Totally.

Amanda:

Well,

Ashley:

and two blocks away is Arundel books, which is

Amanda:

Yep.

Ashley:

Crystal of all gorgeous. They have such a beautiful space. Yeah,

Kelsey:

they

Ashley:

too. And then

Kelsey:

Yeah,

Ashley:

Phil, the owner has been so kind. He's been in book selling for 40 years, and so Oh

Amanda:

wow.

Ashley:

Yeah. So he remembers when Pioneer Square used to have 25 bookstores. Oh

Amanda:

my gosh. That's insane.

Ashley:

Right?

Amanda:

Talking about a book crawl, like you could just

Ashley:

Like he cluster effect is so real. You can't have too many books.

Amanda:

Right, exactly. Ah, I love it. Yeah,

Kelsey:

absolutely agree. And I also wanted just say too we are so here for that. We wanna run the big businesses out business, run them outta Seattle. We're totally here for that. Yeah. For our

Ashley:

podcast. I just make a little nervous surprised their boots over there. Yeah. I.

Amanda:

I love that. Okay, so we'll do a really quick, this will take two seconds. We've got some fun, like rapid fire questions, and then we wanna make sure that we end with letting folks know, reminding them exactly when you're opening and how they can like, get in touch if they also wanna like, follow you on socials, all of that good contact information. So Kelsey, I think you've got the first question for rapid fire.

Kelsey:

Yeah. So first question, what is your favorite romance trope of all time?

Ashley:

Oh God. Okay. Oh, all time. All time.

Kelsey:

Yeah. Yes.

Ashley:

I'm gonna have to say enemies to lovers, which is so boring. No,

Kelsey:

but it's

Ashley:

okay. Safe dating or hurt? Comfort. Hurt. Comfort. Or only one bed. Okay. I just did all of them Bed. Only one bed always gets me.

Amanda:

Okay.

Ashley:

It ha it's the same thing every time. Oh no, what will we do? And it always hits.

Kelsey:

I love that.

Amanda:

Yes. Only one. But Kelsey loves that. I do not. I know I do. Okay, second question. What is one book that made you believe in love again?

Ashley:

Aw. You know, it came out a while ago, but the Bromance Book Club, so Oh. My husband and I were like, you know, we've been together forever. So of course there's ups and downs, and so we were kind of in a down like era. And we both read that book and it like, gave us a language to talk to each other, but it was like through the characters. Yeah. So I would say for sure

Amanda:

That's beautiful. We love that. We love it.

Kelsey:

Next question. Who is your all time favorite book crush?

Amanda:

That's a good one.

Ashley:

Oh, Mr. Darcy. Snap.

Kelsey:

Yes.

Amanda:

Okay.

Kelsey:

Of course. But of course

Ashley:

that was the correct answer with Lydia's Lydia ing and

Kelsey:

Uhhuh.

Ashley:

It's just gotta make it right for her. Oh,

Kelsey:

yep.

Ashley:

Yeah. Ability. Oh,

Kelsey:

I also, I wanted to ask you if Pride and Prejudice was ever gonna make it to your, upstairs loft. Oh, the projecting

Amanda:

on the wall. Yeah, for sure. Oh my

Ashley:

gosh. I got a, check's a good movie if it's like covered, but um, yes. Oh man.

Amanda:

Oh my gosh. That would

Ashley:

be a great one to have.

Amanda:

So good. And the score for that. I play piano when I have the sheet music for the the soundtrack. Oh yeah. But it's so good. I love playing through it. Okay. Okay. Who do you think is the most or one perhaps? An underrated romance author?

Ashley:

Oh, I have. A list, but the one that I just really wanna feature is Jen Comfort. Okay. So she is a local author. And I think her book, what Is Love? Which is a jeopardy, inspired like premise

Amanda:

Oh, okay.

Ashley:

And has like really good a DHD rep and and really steamy, her steamy scenes are so good. I love ly these two characters are like champions of in their own right of forget the name of the pretend show, but it's not Jeopardy. But it's Jeopardy. And they're doing like an All Stars challenge. And so there's you know, the big bad guy and they had to team up together to beat him down. But she has really kooky premises. Okay. Or not kooky, but like bonkers where you're like, you gotta be bought in on some of them.

Amanda:

Yeah.

Ashley:

And but I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. And she's a friend of Beguile. She comes, she came by, she stopped by, she signs some stalk, like

Amanda:

Nice. Okay. Love that.

Ashley:

I feel like everyone needs to read her and I mean, Mallory Marlowe, but I already talked about her and she's my friend, so I'm very biased.

Amanda:

That's okay. That's totally fine. Yes. Jen. Comfort, we got it.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Kelsey:

Okay. What is the Spiciest book that you secretly keep behind the counter.

Ashley:

Okay. We're unapologetic about loving ghost. Yes. Get freaky Get your monster on I don't, yes,

Amanda:

we're

Ashley:

here for it. But I think the one that made me I was like, what is happening? Stop. I was, it was audiobook.'cause I was listening while loading the trailer. And I was like, did I just hear that correctly? Is Dena Vipers oh,

Amanda:

I've never

Ashley:

heard Dark Romance. Oh, what a great question. Oh, dark Romance don't that by there's a scene where basically the hero is getting impaled by a knife while, you know,

Amanda:

oh, you're kidding me.

Ashley:

Spoilers. And I was like, I'm sorry. What?

Amanda:

Oh my God. Okay. I like

Ashley:

that. That one tested my limits and I was just like, super. Like total sitcom moment.'cause of course my headphones had died and so, oh, listening to it like, my god, you know, on my phone out loud. That's

Amanda:

so

Ashley:

much. And then I forgot like our like neighbor. Like teenager. Oh no. Like young man keeps his like window open. So all of a sudden I hear like a slam and I was like, oh,

Amanda:

hear the whole thing.

Ashley:

Yeah.

Amanda:

Oh, that is so funny. I would imagine, oh God, how embarrassing. I wonder what.

Ashley:

Who knows.

Amanda:

I wonder what he told like his siblings, friends, parents after you would not believe

you

Ashley:

would not what are not believe what's going on over there? And so it's like we're so family friendly too, Yeah, like first crush middle grade books we've got,

Amanda:

oh, that's great. Picture

Ashley:

books. Like I want you to be able to bring your grandma or your you know, young little niece

Amanda:

Or Amanda

Ashley:

or Amanda. No, it's really, okay. So this is why I like, love this podcast. And I like was really excited you reached out because. I always say that yes, we are like the book for the book release, but we're also for her best friend. And so that's great.

Amanda:

That's me. I am the friend of the romance book and I'm dipping, continuing to dip my toes in the water and I'm so far mostly enjoying it. Exactly. Okay, really quick final question for Rapid Fire. Who would be your dream author? Like signing at Beguile books? If you could get this author in, it'd be like, oh my God, we've made it.

Ashley:

Okay. We're manifesting here.

Amanda:

Yeah. Yes,

Ashley:

absolutely. So, Emily Henry

Amanda:

that

Ashley:

mean

Amanda:

Yep.

Ashley:

Rebecca Yaros.

Amanda:

Okay.

Kelsey:

Yes.

Ashley:

But then like also the queens, like Nora Roberts, Uhhuh, kins, like the og, the

Amanda:

OGs,

Ashley:

like For sure. I feel like if I was graced by one of the OGs, I would just be like, oh my

Amanda:

God. Yeah.

Ashley:

We made it. So, yeah, for

Amanda:

sure. They've graced your bookstore with your pre, with their present. They've blessed it.

Ashley:

Yeah. It's yeah. So I would be, wow.

Amanda:

Those are great answers. Oh my gosh. And it's been so fun getting to chat with you. Yes. So as we're closing things up, can you let folks know one more time. I know this is gonna come out after your opening, but anyway, just let us know when you're opening, and also where they can find you online.

Ashley:

Absolutely. Thank you for letting me do that. So we are opening on November 15th and 16th. It's like a two day extravaganzas. Tattoos, there's like a hosted charcuterie cart for half a time. Woo. There's like photo booth there's a lot of like special giveaways and freebies and so many sweetss. Oh my gosh. Oh my God. Yes. Get ready to eat a lot of it. And but you can find us. We are on first and ler, like literally, we're on the underground tour. It's pretty cool. Oh, that's

Amanda:

very cool.

Ashley:

Pretty cool. Yeah. But more approachable. We're at Beguile books on Instagram and beguile dot books on TikTok. We pretty much live on Instagram. Okay. If you want the latest and greatest. Okay. Yeah, so

Amanda:

Awesome. Of course we

Ashley:

have a website.

Amanda:

And then one more thing because you know, a fair amount of our folks aren't local to Seattle. Can they purchase books online through your store? Is the way for them to support you kind of from afar?

Ashley:

Yeah, so we're, right now it's bookshop.org. Okay. So we have our bookshop.org, we've got our Libro.fm. And we are in the process of getting like our actual like inventory online. So we just, we're growing up. We've got a fancy inventory, this thing now we're getting there, but right now these bookshop.org. Yeah.

Amanda:

Perfect. Okay. All right guys. Well you heard it here. Even if you're not local to Seattle, you can still support Ashley. You can still support Beguiled books. Thank you so much again. Yeah. For hanging out with us on a random Wednesday evening, and I can't wait to see you.

Ashley:

I can't wait to see you there. I'm so excited to welcome everyone to this space.

Amanda:

Yeah, love.

Ashley:

It's

Amanda:

truly gonna

Ashley:

be

Amanda:

incredible.

Ashley:

I love it. I hope I've made it for all of us. I hope you love it.

Amanda (2):

We're so excited to support, to spread the word and yeah. Just thank you again, and for all of our listeners, thanks so much for joining us for this very special, very first lit bookstores episode. We hope there are many more to come. Thanks and We will see you next Monday. Bye bye.