Overview:
Two South Denver teachers turned a restored 1955 Airstream into A Novel Affair, a mobile bookshop centered on romance novels.
Rachel Barbe and Britany Borel spent years teaching together before they decided to take their shared love of books on the road.
The South Denver metro teachers, who have been friends for 15 years, launched A Novel Affair in May 2025 from a restored 1955 Airstream trailer they call “Doris.” What started as a side business selling romance novels has grown into a mobile bookshop and community space for readers of contemporary romance, romantasy, dark thrillers and queer romance.
“Women, lots and lots of women,” Borel said when asked who shops at A Novel Affair. But the readership is broader than that.
“We have a lot of the queer population come in as well because we do carry a selection of (queer romance books), and it’s hard for them to find those out in public places,” Borel said. “We even have this one lady, she finds out where we’re gonna be, and she buys all our books by Black authors.”
Barbe added, “We do have men come in as well. They tend to be interested in our queer book selection, or they’re looking for a book for a woman in their life. Those are fun conversations too. Or sometimes we get couples in, which is adorable.”
A Novel Affair travels to markets and events throughout the Denver metro area, allowing readers to step inside Doris and browse a curated selection of romance books. The business has also expanded beyond the trailer with a satellite booth at the Maker’s Market inside Southwest Plaza in Littleton, where readers can shop for new and used books, “blind date” books and merchandise whenever the mall is open.
Barbe and Borel initially viewed the shop as a way to supplement their teaching incomes. They quickly found that the experience offered something else.
“When we go to the bookstore, everybody just comes to us smiling,” Borel said. “It rejuvenates us, I would say. We originally went into this just looking to break even.”
Instead, the shop became a passion project rooted in the kind of connection they were seeing with readers. Barbe believes that the appeal of romance novels goes beyond escapism, giving readers a way to see experiences outside their own.
“It allows readers to develop empathy for either people in their own group or people outside of their group,” Barbe said. “The beautiful thing about literature is that it gives people a chance to understand someone else’s point of view, perspective, and experience. Whether they are interested in that experience themselves or they just want to broaden their horizons.”
The authors whose books populate the genre see a similar appeal. Shaylin Ghandi, a romance and romantasy author who lives in Golden, Colo., said the genre allows her to write directly about women’s experiences and relationships.
“I’m really happily married, and that was not always the case,” Ghandi said. “I kind of kissed a lot of frogs before I found my prince. But now that I have, I like to write for other women to give them some hope that love really does exist out in the world and that they can go find it.”
She also sees significance in a genre dominated by women writers and readers.
“It’s one of the only genres out there that’s primarily written by women also primarily for women,” she said. “And that the female experience, what it’s like to be a woman in this world, is given a different sort of treatment within the romance genre than it is elsewhere.”
Paranormal romance writer Zoey Indiana, who lives in Denver and is a member of the Romance Writers of the Rockies, echoed that idea, drawing on her own experiences with sexual violence when writing characters who survive trauma.
“As someone who experienced a lot of sexual violence and being a victim of that, where I did not have a whole lot of support, I did not have access to those resources,” Indiana said. “I did not have any way to really see that things would be okay. Reading about characters having gone through that, still dealing with issues and then being able to find love.”
Indiana said romance can allow readers to engage with difficult material while maintaining control over the experience.
“You always have the power to close the books,” Indiana said. “You always have the power to control what is it that may have been taken from you in a different situation.”
That sense of choice and acceptance is part of what Barbe and Borel hope readers find when they step inside Doris. Borel said their years as teachers have shaped how they approach the people who enter the shop.
“Just part of being educators in general is we see children or young adults at all stages of life, and whatever’s going on in their life, we are there to support them regardless,” Borel said. “That naturally translates over to our books and our store.”
Upcoming locations where A Novel Affair will be parked can be found on its website. When asked what their plans are for the future, Barbe said that she and Borel have tried not to think about that because they like where they are now.
“We don’t want to put that pressure on ourselves,” she said. “We’re doing this, but it’s not a reality, so it’s our escape for now. We’ll have to figure out what the future is.”
Barbe and Borel said that they view romance books as a way of providing people with happy endings that they might not be able to experience in their current lives.
“The world is a hot mess, so it’s a little bit of hope; it’s a little bit of escapism,” Barbe said. “You know what’s going to happen — they’re going to get together. There is going to be a love story that gets fulfilled. That certainty is not something we get to hold onto in real life.”
