A romantic hideaway (for you and a book): Entrepreneur’s heart for reading opens store on Independence Square

America Fontenot didn’t plan to launch her new Independence bookstore on national Small Business Saturday — the busiest shopping weekend of the year — but renovation delays just kept pushing back the opening, she said.

So while many small shops were offering Black Friday-adjacent deals to get customers in the front door, Fontenot’s The Littlest Library invited shoppers to open the store’s first chapter at 112 N. Liberty St. on Independence Square with a grand opening ribbon cutting, live DJ, and free books.

“Everyone is already in the shopping mood and spirit,” she said.

Outside the newly opened The Littlest Library bookshop on Independence Square; photo by Joyce Smith

Inside The Littlest Library at 112 N. Liberty St. on Independence Square; photo by Joyce Smith

The crowd streamed in again Sunday, as shoppers perused such popular romance titles as “Cowboy, It’s Cold Outside,” “Lovelight Farms,” and “A Holly Jolly Ever After: A Christmas Notch Novel.”

The Latina heritage section at The Littlest Library, which America Fontenot calls Para la Cultura, is stocked with books for ages toddlers to teens; photo by Joyce Smith

They also stopped at Fontenot’s Latina heritage section, which she calls Para la Cultura, and stocked with books for ages toddlers to teens.

Books are in English and Spanish, sometimes both.

On her website, Fontenot describes her inventory as ranging from “swoony romances that make your heart skip a beat to magical realms that’ll whisk you away, our shelves are bursting with stories that’ll keep you up way past bedtime.”

Romance novels have evolved with so many different subgenres to the category, she said, but Fontenot plans to carry some other favorite reads in the horror and mystery verticals.

The bookstore’s new customers — many saying they were avid readers and avid bookstore shoppers — praised the addition to the community. One called the shop “super cute” and planned to join its book club.

A bookshelf on a back wall within the store is actually a door leading to an event space for the book club meetings — the first scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 18 on “Good Spirits: A Novel” by B.K. Borison.

Shoppers explore a bookshelf door that leads to a tucked events space at The Littlest Library; photo by Joyce Smith

A peek at the hidden event space inside The Littlest Library; photo by Joyce Smith

The tucked-away room also can be a quiet place for customers to sip one of the shop’s Latino blend coffees, or hot chocolates, and dig into a new book.

Fontenot’s Shiba Inu, Cooper, age 3, was a shop dog over the weekend. He will rotate in the role with his parents, Frida and Diego.

In a statement, Independence Square Association executive director Jeff Rogers said, “Adding a Latina owned bookstore continues to diversify our community, creating a vibrant district for all.” 

Fontenot’s love of books started early.

One of her favorite memories is her mother reading the children’s classic “Are you my Mother?”  to her, acting out the parts.

“I don’t think you can replicate that feeling ever. It sets a nice foundation,” she said. “I was reading books and writing stories with her about magical realms around age 6. It was kind of my thing, having my nose in a book all the time, and getting in trouble. I wasn’t eating, coming to dinner, or doing my laundry.”

Fontenot took writing more seriously at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in creative writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2023. 

During college she also had a 16-week internship at Wray Ward, a full-service marketing agency in Charlotte, North Carolina. But during that stint, Fontenot realized she wanted more creative control for a career.

“I did learn a lot about the marketing side of things, a lot of behind the scenes of how to build a brand,” she said. “So now at (The Littlest Library) I wear all the hats — marketing, designer.”

America Fontenot, right, sits inside The Littlest Library at 112 N. Liberty St. on Independence Square, alongside her fiancé Edgar Cerna and their 3-year-old Shiba Inu. Fontenot and Cerna have been dating since middle school, their own romance behind the scenes at the new bookstore; photo by Joyce Smith

She also is a full-time sales manager at Honda of Olathe, while continuing to turn out short stories, poetry, literary long fiction, scripts, and other creative writing projects.

The idea for The Littlest Library sprung from a June 2024 shopping trip to the Painted Tree Boutiques in Barrywoods, Fontenot shared. One of its bookstore vendors caught her eye.

“I’ve always had this mindset that if someone has already done it, why not? If they haven’t done it, more so why not?” she said.

She initially opened The Littlest Library as a pop-up booth using an old-library decor, and sharing titles that she thought of as “really fun and noteworthy.” The name is a play on one of her favorite childhood toys: the Littlest Pet Shop.

During and after the pandemic, people were picking up books after years of not reading and some for the first time, Fontenot recalled.

“Like romance and fantasy drama, and building community around that, especially on platforms like TikTok,” she said. “And making short form content about them. Everyone wants to share what they love.”

Fontenot still has the Northland booth but is redirecting customers to her new Independence Square storefront. She knows the Independence area still misses its Barnes & Noble bookstore, which closed in 2021.

“I really wanted to find a spot that had charm to it, close to where I live and grew up smelling the same air,” Fontenot said. “There are so many small businesses around the Square. I really wanted to give the community something that we lost.”

Startland News contributor Joyce Smith covered local restaurants and retail for nearly 40 years with The Kansas City Star. Click here to follow her on Bluesky, here for X (formerly Twitter), here for Facebook, here for Instagram, and by following #joyceinkc on Threads.