WAUWATOSA, Wis. — There’s nothing like a happy ending to bring people together.

After all, that’s just one of the reasons Natasha Meyer loves romance books. 

Meyer is the owner of The Well Red Damsel, an all-romance book pop up that is opening a physical location at the end of June in Wauwatosa. It will be the first all-romance bookstore in the Milwaukee area.

It’s the latest addition to a slew of independent bookstores in the area. But The Well Red Damsel is different, offering exclusively a single genre.

Time and time again, Meyer wished romance sections in her favorite bookstores were bigger. So she fulfilled a lifelong dream and open her own.

“A lot of the romance sections [in bookstores] are slowly growing but have been, in the past, pretty small. And a lot of what I love to read you’d have to buy online and so I kind of wanted to create a space for romance readers to one get introduced to new books, especially independent authors, [and] connect with one another and just celebrate our love of romance books,” she said.

She wanted that romantic feel to ooze into the name of her store, too.

Natasha Meyer and her dog, Bert. (The Well Red Damsel/Natasha Meyer)

Meyer admitted she loves a good pun. She has red hair, so that’s where she found an opportunity to play on the words “red” and “read.” There’s a woman with red hair in The Well Red Damsel’s logo. It’s not Meyer, but it’s definitely inspired by her.

Still, a pun wasn’t enough. She wanted people to see the name of her store and know exactly what they were getting.

“‘The Well Red Damsel’ was just a name that kept sticking out to [me and my friends], and I decided it would be fun,” she said. “Damsels, by definition, are just single women; I think everyone goes to like the damsel in distress and I was like, ‘You know what? We’re taking that back.’ Somebody might want to be a damsel in distress but somebody might not and it doesn’t mean you can’t like romance books and like what’s going on in them. You can still be an empowered lady and like these books.” 

In addition to empowering other readers, Meyer said she is stoked to join a community of women-owned businesses in Wauwatosa. Some of those businesses have already been supporting her in her entrepreneurship journey.

“Tosa has such an amazing collection of women-owned businesses. A lot of them I was friends with before have become friends with now. I just think there’s no other place where there is such a strong presence of like collaboration between businesses here,” Meyer shared. 

Nourish Skin and Sugar Studio is one of those women-owned businesses in Wauwatosa Meyer is referring to.

The Well Red Damsel has a book club that is hosted at Nourish.

“We call ourselves Well Nourished Book Club and since I didn’t have the store until [now]… They host it every month for me,” she said.

Once the store opens, Meyer plans to add even more book clubs. The additional space will allow for more people to come together. She said she foresees have book clubs for various subgenres of romance and even movie nights. 

The Well Red Damsel's Galentine's Day event featuring tattoos, permanent jewelry and other local vendors. (The Well Red Damsel/Natasha Meyer)

Before Meyer was able to open her brick and mortar location, The Well Red Damsel has been active in the Milwaukee community as a pop up book shop and host of bookish events.

In addition to book clubs, Meyer plans to continue hosting many of the events — book fairs, author meet-and-greets, book swaps, release parties, book clubs and more — the pop up version of The Well Red Damsel has already successfully executed.

Now, she can just do more.

“What I wanted to create with the store is like a hub for everybody to feel welcome, to have a space where they know they can come and meet new people, make new friends, just hang out for the afternoon, so that was one of the biggest driving factors,” she said. 

At her pop up events, Meyer sees plenty of people come solo.

The surprising part at first, she said, was those same people would come solo again.

“People in Milwaukee want more community events, especially book-related ones. I feel like a lot of events — people wanted events that weren’t just like going to a bar and drinking. They wanted things to meet new people,” she explained. “At so many events, so many people come to my events solo just to branch out and try to meet new friends — people who have moved to the area, started a new job.”

As she prepares to open her storefront, she wants to cultivate that same atmosphere. Her rescue pup, Bert, who is about 3- or 4-years-old, will be a big help in that. Since he's pretty well-behaved around people, Meyer said her "co-owner" will definitely be at the store from time-to-time. 

It's safe to say existing customers will be happy to see Bert. He's at a lot of pop up events and The Well Red Damsel even sells Bert merch. 

In addition to the demand for a community — and Bert merch — Meyer said she’s also realized how much a demand there was in Milwaukee for a bookstore like this.

A big reader herself, Meyer said she slowly found herself reading almost exclusively romance and fantasy books.

“It kind of made the most sense to have a bookstore that just specializes in it. I feel like I can’t give recommendations on nonfiction books, or like books about World War II, but I have so many recommendations for romance and fantasy,” she explained. 

A few of her tried and true recommendations include the “Done and Dusted” series by Lyla Sage, “Swept Away” by Beth O’Leary and pretty much anything by Emily Henry.

The Well Red Damsel actually has an event at the Triple Taproom on April 22 for Emliy Henry fans in celebration of her newest title. The ticketed event isn’t for a few more weeks but Meyer has already sold upward of 60 tickets.

“I haven’t read it yet but I love anything Emily Henry. I think most people do and I’m excited,” she said. “…It’s kind of like a reading party. Everyone bring your book, or you can buy the book, and we have a couple other local vendors that are going to be there, themed cocktails and some fun little giveaways celebrating our love of Emily Henry.” 

A sold-out "Onxy Storm" release party by The Well Red Damsel. (The Well Red Damsel/Natasha Meyer)

While opening a bookstore was always Meyer’s ultimate goal, she said pop up events like this allowed her to get started with the company earlier than she would have if she had gone straight to opening a store first.

“I felt like if I waited for that moment, I would have waited a long time, because it’s just a bigger risk. There’s a lot more to it. I felt like, ‘Okay if I want to open a bookstore, I’m probably five, eight, 10 years out from that,’ but the pop up for me was a way that I could start it now,” she said.

She said her pop ups still require quite a bit of work, but still offered her the chance to learn about the bookselling market and grow her brand with a little more of a safety net. 

She admitted that the opportunity to launch her storefront came sooner than expected.

But when she walked into the space, it felt like home. 

“I had looked at a few spaces and this space, to me, when I walked in, I was like, ‘This is my bookstore.’ It just felt right,” she said. “It has all the space that I want to be able to not just have books, but have events and be like a community space. It just felt like the right time to go for it.” 

Natasha Meyer (left) at a launch party hosted by The Well Red Damsel for Ellie Drake's debut novel, "Ice Contact." Drake is a local author who's next book comes out in July. (The Well Red Damsel/Natasha Meyer)

Right now, she uses a spare bedroom in her house to store all of her books and merchandise. She’s maxed out all 800 square feet.

“I was so limited on what books I could carry because I just couldn’t fit them all in my house. Being able to expand to a bigger store, I now can have the books from dozens of independent authors that I know and love and wanted to introduce to people, but just didn’t have the space to do so,” she said.

Since launching The Well Red Damsel, she’s met tons of authors and loves to host author-based events.

She’s bound to meet more. With Romance Convention (Rom Con), a romancer reader convention, headed to Milwaukee for its second annual event in September, people are already reaching out to Meyer.

She wasn’t able to attend Rom Con last year, but she is already planning her time at the two-day 2025 convention. She’s also planning plenty of unofficial Rom Con-related events at The Well Red Damsel. She plans to do a meet up for people planning to attend the convention so they can meet other romance readers, whether they be traveling solo or live in Milwaukee.

Rom Con hosts hundreds of authors at its event. Meyer said some of those authors will actually be coming to The Well Red Damsel and signing all of their books in the store.

“It’ll be an after hours thing, but then people who maybe can’t afford the ticket of Romance con or weren’t able to make it can still get some signed books from some of the authors,” she shared. 

It’ll be fun for Meyer to meet all of those out-of-towners. After all, they all share a common love of… love.

“[Romance reads] are a fun escape from daily life,” Meyer said. “No matter what’s going on in life — I think some people find romance books to be a little predictable, right? Like the happy ending that always happens, but I think a lot of people find joy almost in that predictability. You don’t know the story that’s gonna take them from A to B, but you know you’ll probably get there.”