Romance readers are about to take over North Avenue again. The second annual From Milwaukee With Love festival runs Sept. 10 through 13, bringing four days of author panels, book crawls, meet-and-greets, and themed parties to Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, with organizers expecting an even bigger turnout than last year's inaugural event.
The festival is the work of Natasha Meyer, founder of Wisconsin's first romance-only bookstore, The Well Red Damsel, and Destiny Van Hoesen, who runs the pop-up book fair brand MKE Books & Beers. As reported by TMJ4 News, Meyer and Van Hoesen are bringing back a celebration built specifically for romance authors, readers, and the local businesses that support them, and organizers say it is designed to welcome book lovers from around the world into Milwaukee's literary community.
The weekend kicks off Sept. 10 with a paid Meet Cute Mixer & Craft Night at Prairie Springs on Park, according to The Well Red Damsel. Sept. 11 brings free author panels at the Milwaukee Central Library along with a paid Romance Rave dance party, and the weekend wraps with a paid Drag Bingo & Brunch at Pilot Project Brewing on Sept. 13.
Free Library Panels Pair Craft Talk With a Building Tour
The Central Library programming on Sept. 11 features visiting romance authors discussing book-to-screen adaptations, how they begin the writing process, and representation in romance, per the same event listing. The panels are followed by a public building tour led by the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library, and the library sessions require free online RSVPs, with an on-site coffee truck for attendees.
The Main Event: An 80-Author Book Crawl Down North Avenue
The festival's centerpiece remains the Meet Me On North book crawl on Sept. 12, a free event that this year features more than 80 romance authors and vendors stationed across over 30 small businesses along North Avenue in Wauwatosa, according to Visit Milwaukee. Participants collect passport stamps at each stop for a shot at prizes, including a $500 bookstore gift card.
That scale marks real growth from last year. During the inaugural From Milwaukee With Love weekend in September 2025, the book crawl featured 70 authors across 21 participating locations, but demand was so overwhelming that organizers ran out of printed event passports, as reported by Tosa Forward News. More than 2,000 romance fans turned out for that first crawl, setting a high bar organizers are clearly building on for 2026.
A Bookstore Born From a Single Table
Meyer's path to co-organizing a citywide festival started small. She launched The Well Red Damsel as a single-table pop-up in November 2024 that drew 300 customers, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee, before opening a permanent storefront at 6429 W. North Ave. in June 2025. The self-funded shop is woman- and queer-owned and sits right on the Wauwatosa-Milwaukee border.
Van Hoesen's MKE Books & Beers, meanwhile, grew out of a simple idea: recreate the nostalgia of childhood school book fairs for grown-up audiences by pairing independent booksellers with local craft beverage venues, per Urban Milwaukee. She founded the brand in 2024 with co-founder Marianna Maisonet, and it now runs regular summer book fairs at the Deer District beer garden. Van Hoesen also operates the local event planning firm Blush Weddings & Events.
North Avenue's Emergence as Milwaukee's Romance District
The Well Red Damsel isn't the only romance-focused shop anchoring the corridor. Thirst Books, an inclusive, LGBTQIA+-affirming romance bookstore opened by Kerrie Berg at 5209 W. North Ave. in May 2025, has joined it, and local podcasters and booksellers have started calling the stretch Milwaukee's Romance District, according to CBS 58.
That local cluster reflects a much bigger national wave. U.S. print sales for romance novels have held at roughly 51 million units annually with 3.9% year-over-year growth as of August, according to Circana BookScan figures reported by Publishers Weekly. The romantasy subgenre alone generated nearly $1 billion in U.S. sales in 2025, a 7% annual increase fueled by viral discovery on BookTok and major series expansions. More than 300 romance-exclusive bookstores opened nationwide between 2021 and 2024, part of an industry-wide push to give romance readers physical third spaces after years of connecting mostly online.
Milwaukee's version of that boom now plays out over four days each September, with authors, vendors, and neighborhood businesses along North Avenue all pulling in the same direction. Whether this year's crawl tops the 2,000 attendees and 70 authors from 2025 won't be clear until the passports run out again.
