After Dark Socials & Reader Games
Find your next favorite romance by following the tropes you love most.
During the signing, participating authors will have trope markers at their tables so readers can easily discover books by mood, heat level, and favorite storylines. Whether you are searching for fake dating, small-town romance, sports romance, historical scandal, cozy witches, romantasy, second chances, slow burn, sweet romance, spicy contemporary, morally gray love interests, or something more dangerous, the signing floor will guide you straight to the authors writing what you crave.
Pick up a Romance Passport at check-in, then visit participating author tables to collect stamps, initials, or stickers as you explore different tropes across the room. Complete your passport and turn it in for a chance to win a romance reader prize basket.
It is part scavenger hunt, part reader discovery guide, and part excuse to walk up to an author and say, “Tell me why I need this book.”
After the signing floor closes, trade your event shoes for your comfiest reader uniform and join us for Pajamas & Paperbacks, a cozy Friday night romance reader social made for book swaps, games, snacks, and low-pressure mingling.
Come in pajamas, lounge sets, robes, oversized bookish tees, slippers, or whatever feels like your perfect “one more chapter” outfit. Bring a romance book to swap, meet other readers, play bookish games, take photos with your book friends, and settle into a night built for every kind of romance lover.
Sweet, spicy, cozy, chaotic, modern, magical, historical, or dark, this is your chance to unwind after the signing floor, trade recommendations, and stay up a little too late with people who understand exactly why fictional men keep ruining your sleep schedule.
Snacks will be available, and attendees are encouraged to bring one gently loved romance book for the swap.
When the signing floor closes, the evening opens.
Join us for The Black Rose Ball, an after-hours celebration filled with music, dancing, masks, photo moments, and the kind of atmosphere made for readers who have always wanted to step inside the pages of their favorite love story.
Come dressed in your version of romance after dark, whether that means gowns, suits, corsets, crowns, cloaks, florals, velvet, lace, fantasy formalwear, gothic elegance, or anything that makes you feel unforgettable. Sweet, spicy, modern, magical, historical, or dark, all romance readers are invited to spend the night surrounded by stories, music, and a room full of people who understand the power of a happily ever after.
When the signing floor closes, the night does not.
Join us at the on-site bar for Literary Libations, a relaxed DARK mixer featuring themed drinks inspired by the moods, tropes, and stories woven through the event. Guests can gather between the close of the convention floor and the opening of the after parties to unwind, meet other readers and authors, and enjoy specialty cocktails and mocktails available for purchase.
Whether your drink of choice feels soft and sparkling, sharp and forbidden, sweet with a dangerous finish, or dark enough to keep secrets, this is a chance to linger in the atmosphere before the evening turns into something more.
Every romance reader has a trope they would step inside.
For the DARK Costume Contest, guests are invited to dress as their favorite romance trope, character archetype, or story aesthetic. Bring us your enemies-to-lovers tension, gothic heroine, masked noble, cozy small-town sweetheart, monster romance muse, pirate rogue, fae court favorite, tragic bride, sunshine love interest, morally gray obsession, or romcom disaster waiting to happen.
Costumes can be subtle, dramatic, handmade, elegant, playful, haunting, or completely over the top. This contest celebrates romance in all its forms, from soft and sweet to strange, sharp, forbidden, and unforgettable.
Some books do more than stay with us. They haunt, heal, ruin, restore, and become part of who we are.
Guests are invited to write a love letter to a favorite book, character, couple, author, trope, or fictional world. Whether the story made you believe in love again, shattered you beautifully, carried you through something hard, or simply gave you a place to belong, this is a space to put that devotion into words.
Letters may be kept as a personal keepsake, shared on the event wall, or left as an anonymous tribute for other readers to discover throughout the weekend.
Some things are healthy. Some things are horrifying. Some things belong exactly where they are, safely on the page.
In this game you will judge fictional scenarios as Green Flag, Red Flag, or Book Flag. Green means good in real life and fiction. Red means bad in both. Book Flag means terrible in real life, but irresistible on the page. Expect morally gray choices, dramatic devotion, questionable grand gestures, debates, and plenty of “I would never date him, but I would absolutely read him.”
Build your perfect fictional man one questionable choice at a time. In this hands-on paper doll party game, teams will assemble a book boyfriend using body pieces, outfits, accessories, trope cards, personality traits, green flags, red flags, book flags, secrets, fatal flaws, and one unavoidable third-act mistake. Once he is built, named, and emotionally complicated, each team will pitch him to the room and compete for prizes like Best Book Boyfriend, Biggest Book Flag, Most Green Flag, and Most Likely to Get His Own Series.
It is part craft, part romance trope chaos, and part group therapy for everyone who has ever said, “I would never date him in real life, but I will absolutely read 400 pages about him.”
Some fictional crushes are easy to explain. Others require evidence, courage, and a room full of readers willing to understand.
Take the floor to defend the book crushes that make perfect sense on the page, even when they would be impossible to justify anywhere else. Villains, monsters, morally gray love interests, suspicious immortals, haunted men, feral protectors, charming murderers, alien warriors, wicked fae, strange creatures and characters with every reason to be a warning are all welcome here.
Each participant will make their case, plead their trope, present their red flags, and explain exactly why the character deserves devotion, obsession, forgiveness, or at least one very questionable chapter. Expect laughter, dramatic arguments, reader confessions, and the kind of romance logic that only works when the book is good enough.
Sometimes a book finds you through fate. Sometimes it finds you through a thirty-second video and a comment section full of warnings.
This reader-focused discussion explores the books, tropes, authors, couples, and chaotic recommendations that BookTok pushed onto our shelves. Guests will talk about the viral romances that lived up to the hype, the ones that surprised them, the ones they bought at midnight, and the ones they are still recovering from.
From dark romance and fantasy obsession to cozy romcoms, monster romance, contemporary favorites, gothic longing, sports romance, paranormal devotion, and the books everyone seemed to be screaming about at once, this session is a celebration of reader influence, internet chaos, and the stories we never planned to love.