Nearly 100 people were already lined up outside a storefront in Hillsboro's Orenco Station before it even opened its doors on Saturday, all waiting to step inside Hidden Worlds, a new fantasy bookstore built around a candlelit Gothic library and a dedicated room for book clubs and Dungeons & Dragons nights. By the time the grand opening wrapped, hundreds of readers had come through, some drawn by a live harp performance and others simply eager to see the shop they had only known from pop-up events.
The store is the creation of owner Hayley Klarich, who according to Oregon Public Broadcasting designed Hidden Worlds around two distinct spaces: the Gothic Library, where most shopping happens amid gilded paintings, golden mirrors, a fireplace and LED candles, and the Reading Room, set aside for book clubs, D&D adventures and other literary gatherings. The Gothic Library's windows are tinted specifically to block out the outside world, and the whole store is wrapped in dark wood paneling and deep midnight blue paint, per the same outlet's reporting.
Klarich's path to opening a bookstore ran through children's entertainment and theater. Roughly a decade ago she opened a children's entertainment company that employed actors portraying party princesses, and she majored in theater arts, OPB reports.
From a Brewery Pop-Up to a Storefront
The idea for an immersive fantasy shop reportedly clicked for Klarich at the Forever Twilight Festival in Forks, Washington, where she said she was inspired by how the event presented books immersively, the outlet's report states. She moved to Orenco Station about five years ago and has said the neighborhood needed activities and gathering spots beyond eating and drinking.
Before Hidden Worlds had a permanent address, it built a following through more than a year of pop-up events, starting with a Silent Book Club at Mazuma Brewing in July 2025, per OPB. Those silent-reading gatherings typically drew 50 to 75 readers, and the store also hosted a book fair in the barrel room at Amaterra Winery in Portland, according to Oregon Wine Press. Klarich has said readers show up and are really supportive, and that the events bring people together and form friendships and communities.
That community-building model echoes a broader movement: the Silent Book Club was founded in 2012 by Laura Gluhanich and Guinevere de la Mare in San Francisco and had grown to nearly 2,000 chapters in more than 55 countries by 2025, with Eventbrite reporting a 223% surge in silent reading meetups, according to the Silent Book Club. Hidden Worlds' early events plugged directly into that national appetite for low-pressure, in-person reading spaces before the store ever had a lease.
What's on the Shelves
Hidden Worlds stocks young adult, high fantasy, paranormal romance, romantasy and historical fantasy titles, including books by Lindsay Straube, Orin Steele, Jenn Neal and Aiden Thomas, per OPB's reporting.
Hillsboro residents Ashley Abigana and Allison Cutter were among those who turned out. Linda Dean, who works in a high school library, told the outlet that her students' interest in fantasy has grown, with their reading habits shifting away from podcast murder mysteries and mystery titles toward fantasy.
A Genre on the Rise, Locally and Nationally
Hidden Worlds arrives amid a broader surge in genre fiction. U.S. print romance sales were up 24% year to date through mid-2025, building on a category estimated at $610 million in U.S. sales in 2024, according to Publish Drive. That demand has produced eye-popping numbers for individual titles, too: Rebecca Yarros's Onyx Storm sold more than 1 million copies in its first week in January 2025, the fastest-selling adult fiction title in Circana BookScan's 20-year tracking history, per Publishing Perspectives.
Oregon has its own foothold in that trend, too — Grand Gesture Books launched online in 2023 and opened a physical location in October 2024.
Hidden Worlds made the leap from pop-up vendor to permanent shop in Orenco Station.
