As a young girl, Myla Rose kept a life-sized cardboard cutout of Legolas from ”The Lord of the Rings” in her bedroom. She spent hours reading fantasy novels or playing “RuneScape” on dial-up internet under his watchful gaze. These early obsessions grew into “Skyrim” marathons and Renaissance festival outings, cosplay and even fantasy “fae” balls. Threaded through it all was a love of meticulously crafted storylines, rich characters and epic adventure.
“Add romance and I’m completely sold,” Rose said.
She began taking romantic fantasy (often called romantasy) more seriously, and it wasn’t long before she decided to try writing it herself.
“The pipeline from reader to writer happened quite unexpectedly,” Rose said. “The words poured out, and I knew almost instantly that this was what I was meant to do.”
Drawing inspiration from her favorite characters and the worlds they inhabit, she began work on “The Witching Wood” series. In 2025, Rose self-published the first installment, “Threads of the Maiden’s Moon,” and has since held events at bookstores across Rochester including Burn Bright Books, a romance lit-only space on Park Avenue.
In Rose’s stories, readers encounter “lush fantasy worlds, high-stakes romance, sharp banter and powerful female leads,” she said. The books lean into empowerment, resilience and desire, offering something more than escape and leaving readers “feeling seen, stronger and maybe a little feral.”
“What I love most about romantasy is finding a strong heroine who rises into power against all odds,” she added.
Writing also offers Rose relief from the pressures of her everyday life.
“Romantasy gives women permission to step away from the endless demands of work, parenting, mental load and body-image battles,” she said, “and sink into stories where women are powerful.”
At the center of Rose’s work is the character Nolei, a gifted healer whose quiet life is shattered when forbidden magic awakens within her — forcing her into flight, a reckoning with a hidden heritage and a battle against the Dark Queen. Through Nolei, Rose celebrates female pleasure and unapologetic desire, creating a heroine who claims power on her own terms. Nolei’s journey continues in 2026 with the upcoming release of “Of Coven and Crown.”
Another local writer who prefers romantic tension to anything overtly schmaltzy is Norma Hopcraft. In love with storytelling from a young age, Hopcraft was a reporter in New Jersey before graduating magna cum laude from New York University’s creative writing and literature program.
“As soon as I realized that these little black squiggles on the page created exciting moving pictures in my mind, I wanted to create that joy for other people,” she said.
That instinct for close observation carries into Hopcraft’s fiction, inspired by Jane Austen.
“She, too, was single and an acute observer of human nature,” Hopcraft noted.
She centers her novels on Tricia Maguire, a sharp-witted journalist whose professional ambition is matched by an irresistible pull toward trouble. Across a trilogy of mystery-romances, Maguire’s curiosity leads her into crimes she cannot leave unsolved, most recently in “Envy Kills,” published in October 2025.
If Maguire’s love life remains complicated on the page, Hopcraft seems content to redirect her own romantic longings into fiction. She channels that energy into Maguire’s chaotic entanglements, tempering danger with humor and emotional spark.
“To help people escape day-to-day life with an absorbing story that gives them a chuckle and lightens their load is one of my fondest wishes for my writing,” she said.
Hopcraft will read aloud Maguire’s latest adventure at Writers & Books on Valentine’s Day, a fitting date for a writer who understands that romance does not always announce itself with roses and candles.
After having lived in Paris, Barcelona and Brooklyn, Hopcraft says Rochester holds its own.
“It has a big, creative community,” she said. “There is more going on to feed a person’s creativity than anyone can take advantage of, which is quite wonderful.”
Rose agrees.
“We’re incredibly lucky to live in such a beautiful area,” she said. “From hidden waterfalls and fairy trails to silent, snow-covered forests. Nature plays a huge role in my stories, and this region constantly fuels my imagination.”
It is no coincidence, then, that a city long known for nurturing writers has embraced romance so fully. That passion now has a physical home at the aforementioned Burn Bright Books, owned by Shauna Cox.
Inspired by other women-owned, romance-only bookstores elsewhere in the country, Cox began imagining a space of her own.
“The romance genre has been criticized for years, despite it being the top-selling genre in all of publishing,” she said. “Now more than ever, our community needs a safe, inclusive space to explore romance books.”
What started as a playful hyper-fixation became a brick-and-mortar reality in April 2025, hosting book clubs, craft events, small business pop-ups, author signings and even yoga. Most ticketed events, Cox said, have sold out.
“Our first year has been amazing, the Rochester book community is incredible and so supportive,” she said.
In a city already rich with writers, Burn Bright Books has become something rarer still: a place where romance is not dismissed or diminished, but welcomed, championed and shared. Here, stories are not just read. They are worlds to be entered and believed in, where desire simmers, magic stirs, secrets unravel and love — whether hard-won or softly earned — always matters.
“There has never really been a dedicated space [here] to explore romance books without judgment from others,” Cox said. “Our slogan really rings true: ‘Where every love story burns bright.’ We celebrate every love story and every person within those stories, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity or anything else.”
Jon Heath is an English writer now based in Rochester who enjoys getting to know people and teasing out their stories; he writes about music, literature and friendly folks.
