On May 11, 1999, a mother and daughter went out to dinner for the mother's birthday. Over the course of this dinner, the subject of, "If you could own any business in the world, what would you choose?" came up. Without hesitation, a bookstore was the answer from both mother and daughter, and a momentous decision to follow that dream was made.
The next question was, inevitably, "OK, so what do we do now?". The first step, besides learning everything possible about the book business, was finding the perfect location. After a few false starts at Stony Point and Cary Town, the two intrepid partners found a terrific location at the Steinmart Festival Shopping Center on Midlothian Turnpike.