Couple realise 'absolute dream' of opening bookshop

Matt Rawlings and Ally Fir will open their new bookshop on Saturday

A couple have said they have realised their "absolute dream" of converting an online bookshop into bricks and mortar on the high street.

Ally Fir, 31, and Matt Rawlings, 33, created The Mysterious Bookcase on TikTok in 2022 and began selling unidentified books to mystery shoppers.

Now three years on, they are opening a physical store in Westbourne Arcade, Bournemouth, selling romance, sci-fi, fantasy and thriller fiction.

Ms Fir, who is originally from Canada, said they were able to open their shop on Saturday thanks to support from 615 members of their online fan club who helped them raise nearly £32,000.

She said: "This will be a wonderful, beautiful experience for readers to find new titles.

"We've taken the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" literally as our customers come to us, pick a genre and then we'll pick that surprise book for them, beautifully wrap and decorate it and send it off with some goodies for them to enjoy.

"I don't think we would have expected to open a bookshop at all when we started, let alone within three years of starting our business but it is an absolute dream that customers will be able to come into our shop now."

The pair currently have almost 45,000 followers on TikTok and hope to build on that by wrapping people's orders on their livestream.

Ms Fir said it may take them some time to get used to being in a physical shop after being online for so long.

They say they have made sure the décor of the shop will give customers a cosy experience with sliding ladders for the shelves and a "dark academia and Sherlock Holmes" theme to keep up the mysterious element.

"It's been a challenge going from online to bricks and mortar as normally, if it was a quiet day, we would live stream and see the orders come in through there, so this will be a bit strange at first, but it felt like the right step for us," Ms Fir said.