Pages & Ink is the first romance bookstore and candle bar to open in Arkansas and has already found a dedicated community since opening April 25 in downtown Conway.
When Madison Walters, 27, opened the store last month, the line wrapped around the sidewalk outside on Van Ronkle Street and down close to Larry’s Pizza off Markham Street.
“I expected maybe a small line to start at nine o’clock, maybe,” Walters said. “But the fact that the first person was out there at eight, and it went all the way around to Larry’s Pizza. I didn’t really expect that.”
Walters’s journey to opening the state’s first romance-focused bookstore grew out of pop-ups and local markets, including Conway’s Mirror Market. She wanted more, so about six months ago, she issued herself a public challenge on social media: Open a store or walk away for good.
“I think people were really just invested in my story,” Walters said. “But they also enjoyed my stuff. It is bright and whimsical and brings something else to the table. I had a niche that maybe wasn’t being met.”
Before Pages & Ink, Walters managed the floral shop Three Poppies, where she fell in love with the downtown Conway retail experience.
“That really showed me the downtown Conway experience and what it means to be in charge of a local business,” she said. “It’s such a hub. It’s the place to be, in my opinion.”
Her spot on Van Ronkle opened before she was necessarily ready, but it was an opportunity Walters couldn’t pass up.
“It was small enough to work for me and big enough to be the space I needed,” Walters said. “I wasn’t even technically ready to do that full jump, but I was like, ‘OK, this is a one-time opportunity. There aren’t many that pop up of this size. I need to hop on it.’”
So, she did. And Pages & Ink was born.
The shelves mix well-known titles with Indie authors, several of them local writers.
“I am a cover buyer, so if I find something that I think is really beautiful, I’ll also add that to the store, and then I also try to think about representation. I want to represent everyone, from Sapphic romance to BIPOC authors,” Walters said. “I also carry Indie authors, because if I expect people to support local, I want to support local as well.”
The candles at Pages & Ink are Walters’s own creation, each one hand-poured and tied to a specific romantic trope.
“I do specifically trope-related things,” Walters said. “If I’m reading an enemies-to-lovers book, well, what does that smell like? What is that feeling? The candles connect to the books through the tropes.”
Her Enemies to Lovers candle, for example, carries a cherry woodsy scent, evoking, she said, a fantasy story with a sultry edge.
Walters offers 10 year-round scents and rotates seasonal ones. Current offerings include Cowboy Romance, Grumpy x Sunshine, Dragon’s Breath, and One More Chapter.
For Walters, the store is about more than books and candles. It’s about giving romance readers a place where they don’t have to apologize for what they enjoy.
“I feel like romance often has a little bit of a stigma around it, where it’s looked down upon as the lesser genre because it doesn’t take much brain power to read, or it’s not a classic,” Walters said. “I want to break that, and I want a woman to come in and feel like she can ask me for a recommendation on anything. Feel like she’s safe to do that and not be judged for the content she consumes.”
Walters has started a book club at the store and holds regular events with authors to help create a community.
“It’s something that I wanted, so I grew it so I could have it, and others could have it, too,” Walters said.
Pages & Ink is located at 1018 Van Ronkle St. in Conway. The store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Leave a Reply