For the Love of Books

Three Wilmington women are transforming the world of books. JESSICA TOBIN runs Burning Pages, Wilmington’s only independent bookstore specializing in romantasy books. HEATHER SETZLER narrates audiobooks in a variety of genres. And ANGELA FERNOT illustrates books and produces a local comic book anthology.

JESSICA TOBIN opened Burning Pages in the Cargo District in January 2025. Romantasy – as the name implies – blends romance and fantasy and has quickly grown from an underground subgenre into a highly sought-after literary style with a strong fan base.

Tobin is an avid fan of romantasy with an entrepreneurial mindset, but Burning Pages is her first foray into owning a bookstore. After relocating to Wilmington in April 2021, Tobin ran a social media marketing company out of a shipping container in the Cargo District.

Tobin noticed that most big-box bookstores and general-interest independent bookstores relegated their romantasy offerings to one bookshelf, but the market for this genre was quickly growing. This observation, along with a desire to get out from the behind-the-scenes world of social media and into the community, propelled her to open Burning Pages.

“Reading has always been my therapy throughout life,” she says. “I wanted to have a store for this genre, and I’m also a big supporter of small businesses.”

On January 11, 2025, Tobin opened Burning Pages in a 150-square-foot shipping container in the Cargo District. Her intuition that Wilmington readers would support an independent romantasy bookstore was spot-on. At her opening-day event, customers lined up “down the stairs, through the warehouse and around the corner,” she says, and a strong base of repeat customers has supported the store ever since.

Within two months, the store outgrew its first modest shipping container. On April 25, 2025, Burning Pages opened the doors to its current space, a 500-square-foot store in the Cargo District’s courtyard that offers storage space and more room for customers to explore.

Tobin says she loved the welcoming business community of the Cargo District, and when she decided to start a new business, she immediately knew that she wanted to continue working in that neighborhood. “It’s a great place for small business owners,” she says. “You feel the hard work and the hustle of everyone there and that everyone loves what they’re doing.”

Burning Pages boasts a robust book club of 130 members connected through a Discord channel where members discuss everything from their latest reads to events happening around Wilmington. The book club meets in person twice per month, offering a chance to build community over a shared love of romantasy books.

Burning Pages also brings together romantasy fans through regular author events featuring meet and greets and book signings. Her store is a place where romantasy readers can come to engage with the community or talk to one of the store’s booksellers, who are all genre experts. “One of the things that sets us apart is we are all obsessive readers,” Tobin says of her staff. “You come in and it’s an experience – dark, moody, a whole vibe in and of itself. We talk about our favorite reads, and it’s like talking to a friend.”

One of Tobin’s goals with the store is to use her platform to support local nonprofits. She donates 50% of the profits from every Wednesday’s sales to a local nonprofit organization that supports women’s causes, including the Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center, Fourth Trimester Mission, and A Safe Place.

To view more of photographer Aris Harding’s work, go to arisharding.com.

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