Under the Cover | Kansas City Romance Bookstore

In today’s edition of “I know cool people who do cool things” my friend Carley opened a Romance Bookstore in Kansas City!

It’s located at 31st & Cherry at what google is telling me is “North Hyde Park”. Yes, I did have to google it because I know nothing about my own city and its neighborhoods. I am trying to do better!

Carley has been featured on the Good Bodies Blog not once, but twice. Her first time was at another studio a lifetime ago, but you can see her second round on the blog right here. I’ve been on Carley’s podcast years ago when her and her pal Jesicha were using their voices to highlight cool women in our city.

Now, she’s pivoted to a smut podcast you can listen to called Smut Stuff. But that just wasn’t enough for her because a few months ago she texted to tell me about her plans to open a romance bookstore in Kansas City. From the absolutely incredible turnout, it’s clearly something that’s been wanted/needed around here for quite a while.

Above you can check out a picture we took opening night. We all were around towards the end of the day and I wanted to cement this moment in time forever. Carley had already sold quite a few books and did a test drive and let us know that the grand opening was on the 25th. I’d planned to be there anyway, so I packed up my camera and went to check it out.

The Grand Opening

Under the Cover had an incredible first showing for Kansas City. Kelsey Pike from Cherry Pit Collective came to make custom stamps for folks as they shopped the store. It was absolutely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. You can have your own custom stamps made by Kelsey or pick from any of her pre-designed options on her website.

In addition to the hand carved stamps, the Happy Belly Food Truck parked out back for folks to grab food. They had so many comfort favorites of mine and it was an incredible idea to host food so people could stay and enjoy the space.

Finally, the one and only Sierra Simone came by and was signing books for folks! She’s a travel queen and it was great she was able to come in after yet another jaunt on a book tour and come hang out with us. I had the honor of photographing her boudoir session a few months back and she’s every bit as incredible as she seems.

So if you’re looking for a way to support your favorite smut/romance authors and would love the opportunity to do it locally? I can’t recommend Under the Cover any more.