Hello From Far Gosford Street

Hello! If you don't know me, my name is Chloe and I am both the owner and the bookseller here at Cupid's Bow! This bookshop has been a real labour of love from its inception in July 2025 to its opening in Spring 2026.

After years of working for chain bookshops both here in the UK and back in Canada, being a bookseller has become an integral part of me that is almost impossible to separate from what consider to be my very essence. I had numerous thoughts across the years — ones that flitted across my brain, here and gone in an instant — about opening my own bookshop. Despite this recurring thought, I never pursued it.

What made me seriously consider opening my own bookshop was when Releasing 10 by Chloe Walsh was released in May 2025. The bookshop that I was working in at the time initially received fewer than ten copies of this conclusion to a worldwide bestselling series. They sold out within the first day, and then when more copies came back into stock one of my colleagues refused to put it on the bestsellers table, despite it unseating Richard Osman as the best-selling novel in the UK for two weeks straight.

As a lover of the genre and of the job, I felt the disrespect straight to my core! I almost took it personally and it felt like, at the time, because the romance genre didn't fit into the image that the company was curating, we could set Chloe Walsh and her success aside because she wrote romance instead of literary fiction.

I continued to see both marketing and quantity issues in relation to romance novels. I used to get so frustrated when they would refuse to market the novel until it blew up and gained cultural relevance, yet would continue to market the same man's coming-of-age novel a thousand times. Witnessing this obvious gap in the market, coupled with my deep abiding love and respect for the genre, led me to believe that a themed bookshop here in Coventry could work.

In truth, it was a most arduous journey! I had left my family home in Canada laden with trauma and quite frankly struggled to show up as a functioning adult when every loud sound made me jump. I quit my job and started EMDR therapy and seriously committed to it, each day doing a little bit more stock research, a little more design planning.

Things really started to come together when I found the right home for my shop here at FarGo Village. Orillia, the town where I am from, prides itself on its downtown strip and the independent shops that line it. I knew I wanted to be somewhere collaborative and indie-focused, and FarGo Village fit the bill perfectly. The second piece of the puzzle was Kamila at Pigeon Makes Art — if you haven't seen her work, you absolutely should (we proudly stock some of it!). It was like Kamila reached into my brain and pulled out the logo and branding of my dreams! With the unit secured and beautiful art in hand, I knew it was all starting to align.

First came keys, then came paint, then came boxes and boxes of stock! What came together was a shop that reflected me in every way!

It is my sincerest hope that when people come into my shop, they feel a sense of whimsy, comfort and joy. The romance genre and all of its happily ever afters have brought me so much warmth over the years, both in difficult times and in times of happiness. If I can help spread even a fraction of that warmth, then I will genuinely feel fulfilled in this life! Thank you for reading my first blog post, and here's to many more!

If you'd like to keep up with everything happening at Cupid's Bow — new posts, events, and book recommendations — you can subscribe at the bottom of the page. I'd love to have you along for the journey!