Passionate Pages, Pittsburgh’s first romance bookstore, invites readers (spicy and otherwise) to Lawrenceville.
If anyone knows how to make the most of being snowed in, it’s a romance reader.
Passionate Pages is Home to Pittsburgh’s First Romance Bookstore
On January 31, six days after a once-in-a-decade snowstorm, Joedda McClain celebrated the grand opening of Passionate Pages, her romance bookstore. The Central Lawrenceville shop is the city’s first dedicated to romance — although another, The Shelf Love Society, opened down the street in April. At Passionate Pages, readers can snuggle up with tomes in any varietal of romance they desire, whether contemporary, LGBTQIA or young adult.
In 2025, McClain, a lifelong reader, noticed the growth of romance bookstores across the country. She told her husband, “Somebody’s gonna do this any minute in Pittsburgh.”
By August, McClain decided that somebody would be her — even if it meant leaving retirement. Her 16 previous careers contained a dozen brick-and-mortar businesses, including a mansion turned wedding venue.
“I’m feeling really excited about this one,” she says. “I can’t imagine anything better than being in a room full of books and having people talking about books all day.”
A Themed Romance Bookstore Experience
The store’s eclecticism fits right into the Butler Street aesthetic. The walls are a mix of exposed beige brick, deep pink paint and bold floral wallpaper. Racks of vintage clothes intermix with the white bookshelves. A red velvet curtain blocks off the adults-only “spicy reader” section. “Everybody’s got a different definition of ‘steamy,’” McClain notes.
Passionate Pages brings in both dedicated fans and the genre curious. The store’s opening coincided with the prolonged hype around the sports-romance television series Heated Rivalry. The show, based on a book of the same name, brought about a new audience to the sub-genre; McClain was happy to oblige. (A resurgent interest in classics such as Wuthering Heights helped, too.)
Romance Trends and Reader Demand in Pittsburgh
McClain herself loves genre-blending romantasy — “The imaginative fairytale basically gone awry, gone adult,” she says.
Customers often tell her, regardless of subgenre, “It’s just what I need to read right now.” That doesn’t surprise her. “[The world is] a little unnerving and dark right now, and I think everybody’s trying to find something to hang on to, to brighten the gloom,” she says.
Elle Brown, who writes Formula 1-themed romance novels for Harlequin, agrees. She says it’s important to be educated and socially conscious, but “you’ve also got to replenish your heart. I think that’s what romance, and a romance bookstore, does.”
She is one of dozens of writers who make up Pittsburgh’s diverse romance community, both self- and traditionally published. They are as eager to partner with McClain as she is with them. “We have been inundated with Pittsburgh authors who write romance,” she says. “I’m thrilled.”
Brown kicked off the store’s slate of author-related events. “She’s really committed to making it that third space where people can gather,” Brown says, “and I think Lawrenceville is perfect for that.”
McClain designed the store to prioritize gatherings, keeping a large area open in the center of the room. She says, “My purpose is to sell books, definitely, but also I want to have the space to do some community stuff and have some fun.”
Story by Amy Whipple
Photos By Laura Petrilla