Exploring Life & Business with Madison & Sal Monzoor of Our Love Story Romance Bookstore

Today we’d like to introduce you to Madison & Sal Monzoor.

Hi Madison & Sal, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I (Madison) didn’t always love to read. Prior to 7th grade, I had no interest in reading. In 7th grade I went to a sleep-over birthday party for a friend. My best friend was there too, and she pulled me aside and told me we were going to watch Twilight that evening at the birthday party. I was such a scaredy cat (I do not do horror), so to me at that time vampires and werewovles were scary/horror. I almost called my parents to come pick me up, because I thought it was a horror movie and I would get too scared. My best friend sat next to me, while I had my blanket up to my nose in case there was a scary part. Within 15 minutes I was completely hooked and captivated by Twilight! My mom came to pick me up the next morning, I jumped in the car and said “please take me to Target!”, my mom ask why and I said “I need to get the Twilight books!”, she said “who are you, and what have you done with my daughter?”. I responded with “I want to read the Twilight books!”. She looked at me like I had two heads haha. We made a stop on the way home and grabbed the Twilight books, by the time our car pulled into my parent’s driveway, I was chapter in already!

My mom always said one day a book will captivate you, and you will love reading. Twilight was that for me. Twilight began my life-long love of reading and romance!

Fast forward to Oct 2021, I met my husband to be (Sal) at work. I had been at the company for one year, and basically was Sal’s teacher/mentor. Sal would book meetings with me even when he had already completed his work, asking me for help, which was really just an excuse to get to know me better. We were remote based employees, and realized we lived about an hour apart. A few days before we planned to meet in person, our office had a party pop up, so we actually met in a work setting, and spent the entire event talking. When I arrived at the office, Sal was in the second room of the office, so I was looking around for him but other employees kept stopping me and greeting me and hugging me, so I quickly texted him that I can’t through to next room. Sal came from the second room, we locked eyes across the room, and we both swear time stood still. Once Sal got with in arms distant of me, we hugged and it felt like I was home. Normally, you give a side hug in a work environment, this hug was a complete embrace and we really didn’t want to let go (now we realize why haha). Two days later I drove an hour to meet Sal for a movie. He texted me as soon as I got off the highway and told me where to park and how to easily navigate to him. We watched “Death on the Nile”, and the whole time we both wanted to hold hands, but didn’t know if this was a date or not. Afterwards, we decided on a second date and called it a “date” this time around. We were inseparable afterward.

For two years we fought to get married. We are an interfaith couple, I (Madison) am Christian and Sal is Muslim, and that comes with some complications, despite the trials and tribulations love overcame. Long story short, we got married May 19th 2024 and it was the most beautiful experience, with Sal’s family all attending and supporting us as we started a new chapter in our life!

Fast forward to 2025, our life started shifting, Sal was working with a different company and I was still at the prior company, however, things were not looking great, so I stepped back from the company in July. This lead me on a path I am forever grateful for. It led me to time to heal, allowed me to be there for family, and allow me to realize my passion was for romance books.

Sal and I started attending romance book cons in 2025. We have been to 7 so far, but back in 2025 it was only 1-3. However, these book-cons really showed us that there is a market for romance books. So, going into an unknown path after stepping away from corporate role was scary, but it was also very exciting! I’m someone who always has a plan, and this time I did not. Just faith that everything would work out, and family who had our backs during this time of limbo in our lives. Throughout my last year of corporate work, I have many times mentioned to Sal about starting a business and it being a romance only bookstore. We agreed maybe in the future sometime. As I looked for another corporate role for 9 months, I realized I had no passion for corporate work anymore and the fire was already lit in me to start something that was ours.

In March 2026, Our Love Story Romance Bookstore broke ground. Within 2 months we had found our physical location, (next to a family-owned coffeehouse that will open soon), and started with demo. Within a month of this we had drywall go up, and a big store sign on order. By July, we were planning our Grand Opening date for August 14th! Throughout the weekend of August 14th – 16th we had 300 book lovers come through our store! We are still shocked at the reception, but so so so grateful for this community response! We are starting to work on hosting bookish events like Author Signings and Book Clubs, with much more in the works behind the scenes! This 6-month journey to starting a business has been so amazing, even through the small setbacks we have had. We are constantly learning and growing OLS each day we open the store. We are only two months into opening and we are so excited to see what the future holds for OLS!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Surprisingly, many of the struggles we faced weren’t related to the store itself. In 2025, we had a lot of personal things going on that we had to overcome. Family members illnesses, our our own sicknesses, and navigating life in general and the sometimes bumpy road it can be. Throughout all this we remained certain that something bigger was coming into our lives and we were adjusting and reprioritizing to accommodate this shift that we felt was coming. Everything we went through, helped prepare us for this gift that OLS is. We had time to heal, time to grow, and time to be faithful and time to believe in ourselves and knowing there is more to life than what we thought originally. We held onto the mantra that better was coming, and usually when that happens life throws some curve-balls and we navigated those the best we could. We are truly proud of ourselves coming out of 2025 and into 2026!

March 2026 we were fully prepared to take on OLS and all its requirements and because we were prepared, all things considered, we handled every bump in the road that came our way with grace and somewhat ease. By no means am I saying we didn’t make mistakes or have struggles, but we were equipped to handle what we faced, and that really helped us move even quicker in our buildout, sign going up, and bringing OLS from concept to reality! We had many great workers/contractors that were amazing and we are grateful for their amazing work as well!

As you know, we’re big fans of Our Love Story Romance Bookstore. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Our Love Story Romance Bookstore came from the love of romance books and a loving a husband. I was struggling with a store name originally, and ended up seeing mine and Sal’s wedding photos and the name hit me in the face! “Our Love Story”. With this in mind, we have now realized that the name fits even better than we realized because it also implies a shared love/space and community of those who hold love for the romance genre like we do!

Our goal is that there is a book on our shelves for anyone who comes into our store. We want customers to see themselves in our selection, and if they don’t, our job is not done! We welcome book suggestions, recommendations, and additional education on sub-genres we may not know as much about. We are always learning and willing to humble ourselves to make our selection even better!

We do our best to speak to the customers while they are shopping in our store! Some prefer not to engage, and that is alright, as we want everyone comfortable when they shop with us. But for those who do appreciate gabbing about romance, we are happy to fully engage with in the store, even if we are busy!

We also believe there is plenty of room for more romance bookstores! These spaces are needed in a world where connection is at its lowest with technology taking over. Tech can be good, but it can also remove from us our communities and remove us from meeting people we need to, in order to grow and better ourselves!

All readers and even those who may be skeptical of the romance genre are welcome to stop by and check us out!

Our store is broken into commonly found sub-genres of romance, so for example: Contemporary/Small Town/ Cowboys, Historical, Self-Love/Non-Fiction, Dark romance, Indie Authors, Monsters/Aliens/Non-Human, and Romantasy. We find this organization is helpful to shoppers looking for specific titles and for book readers who want to broaden their horizon and try a new type of romance book they haven’t before.

Contact Info:

• Website: No website, but email is: ourlovestory622@gmail.com (This is public facing email)
• Other: https://linktr.ee/OurLoveStoryRomanceBookstore