Small Business Spotlight: Juliet Books & Beautiful Things

Sun-and-sand fiction fans out on a table that turns with the seasonal tides.

Marcie Montague and her husband, Craig, who live just two blocks from downtown Cary, were out for a walk when they first noticed the handwritten For Rent sign on the old barber shop.

“That would be the cutest bookstore,” Marcie remembers thinking.

Over the years, Marcie has spent a lot of time thinking about bookstores.

Yet after noticing the available space, she almost talked herself out of making the call to learn more. “I was like, I’m just going to call,” she says. “I’m sure the rent’s going to be so high … and then the rent wasn’t like I thought, so I was like, wait, that’s not that bad. …”

That was step one. By February 1 of this year, after she’d spent a month researching feasibility and taking a small business class, she’d made up her mind. “I’m doing it,” she told herself — and then Craig. “It’s going to be an experiment, and if it fails, it fails, but I won’t have any regrets.”

Today, that barber shop is a bookstore called Juliet: a two-story, book-heavy independent bookstore with a mezzanine “balcony,” curated shelf of secondhand first editions, furniture with more history than most of its customers realize, and plans to make it the heart of Cary.

With browsers filling from the front door to the back stacks, the bookstore is at capacity on a Tuesday morning.

Marcie’s desire for the bookstore to serve as a community gathering place might seem at odds with her description of herself as a shy kid who found her closest companions on the page, but although she still describes books as her “best friend,” she knows that many others share that same sentiment.

She majored in English, dreamed of a career in publishing, and eventually — because, as she puts it, “you have to make a living” — routed that love of language into a career in communications. First came speechwriting, then a chief of staff role that had her wearing a dozen different operational hats at once.

“I feel like that gave me at least a basis for thinking I could do something like this,” she says.

Even while building a corporate career, the bookstore idea never fully went away. She and her business partner, Kristine Seawell — whose role is behind the scenes while Marcie’s is main stage — have run together for more than a decade as part of the Bond Brothers Run Club, and somewhere in those miles, the daydream became a running joke between them.

“We’d talk about getting tired of our corporate jobs and be like, ‘I just want to open a bookstore,’” Marcie says. “We would just dream and talk about what that bookstore would be … what would we name it … just always riffing on it.”

Marcie Montague cuts the ribbon on Juliet Books & Beautiful Things surrounded
by the friends, family, and community that made July’s soft opening day possible.

The idea got legs when Marcie’s marketing department at a tech startup was let go after the company was acquired by a venture capital firm. She had some severance from her stock, a gap in her calendar, and a decision to make.

“I was so burned out on corporate,” she says. “When I do something, I’m a type A person — I invest myself in it. I was like, I don’t know if I have that in me again, for somebody else’s dream.”

When buying her own books, Marcie always looks for the same thing: a real bookstore, not a coffee shop with a few racks tucked in the corner. “I would go into some and be like, ‘Oh, I thought this was a bookstore, but it’s like 90% coffee shop,’” she says. “I really had the idea that I wanted it to be something for everyone that leaned heavily into books. That was always my idea.”

Even before the store was officially open, with a soft launch July 28 and the grand opening celebration planned for September 19, Cary was excited.

Librarian by training and Juliet bookseller Amy McDonald knows Marcie through her sister. She described the prospect of working in the store as “a dream come true … especially one that was just starting.” Since opening, Amy describes there being a lot of energy in the store. “So many people have told us how happy they are to have a bookstore in Cary,” she says. “One person said it was her favorite bookstore after City Lights in San Francisco!”

Books face out in the children’s loft, where staff turn browsing into discovery.

Obstacles emerged on the path to opening, but the response from the community carried Marcie through. It was an outpouring she still finds hard to fully describe. “I can’t even tell you the number of emails I get, or even the comments on social media, just people saying thank you,” she shares. “I just think book people are different. It’s almost like it’s their calling, or it’s part of their soul. It’s different than opening a deli or something.”

“It’s been invigorating to see,” Amy agrees. “One of my colleagues was saying that it’s just so fun to see how much people read and how excited they get about books.”

For a literary lover like Marcie, and customers certain to appreciate the association, the intentionality in the name isn’t incidental. Marcie’s last name, Montague, connects — at least in spirit — to Shakespeare’s star-crossed families, and she and her daughter made a pilgrimage years ago to Juliet’s balcony in Verona.

That’s why when she toured the old barber shop and saw its mezzanine level overlooking the main floor, the idea arrived fully formed. “I was like, oh my gosh, we can make our own balcony,” she shares. Now visitors can leave written notes to Juliet — reflections, confessions, questions — especially for the store’s teen and YA readers.

“Whatever your dreams are — I just had my heart broken; is there hope for me? — it’s just an outlet,” Marcie says.

A shopper, already several titles deep into her stack, flips through a paperback.

The same sense of purpose behind the balcony influenced other decisions. Almost nothing in the store was bought new. The bookcases came from Facebook Marketplace and were painted and finished with crown molding Craig built himself. The sidewalk sign came from Marketplace too. A framed photograph hanging near the entrance is the work of a local photographer.

“I don’t have unlimited resources,” Marcie explains. “And the other thing is, I don’t want to just order stuff — I want everything to have meaning. To go thrift a really beautiful bowl, I love it. It means more to me. It’s not just disposable.”

Some of the best pieces (be sure to check out the wallpaper) have their own history attached. A blue settee, a matching red chair, and an 1892 clock in the upstairs children’s books area came from a Cary couple who moved to Colorado to be near their children. The furniture had been in the wife’s family in Leesburg, Virginia, for a century. Marcie paid $25 for the distinctive clock.

“His wife’s father won it as a top salesman,” she says. “He said, the clock’s not worth much — it’s old, but it’s not a collectible clock. So I thought, hickory dickory dock.” The grandfather clock now anchors the loft space.

The used books on the shelves are curated the same way. There is no general buyback program. Instead, Marcie sources them from estate sales and thrift stores. “I like the thrill of the hunt,” she says about her curation. “So when people come in, I’m hoping I’ve already done the hard work.”

Staff Picks have their own space and feature handwritten reasons for belonging there.

Not everything is strictly literary. A rotating display near the front is dedicated to her daughter’s favorite artist, bundling books whose titles match Taylor Swift song names. It’s a display Marcie describes as seasonal fun (though she also references Swift’s business prowess), meant to change with whatever else catches on next.

Local voices are already woven into the shelves. Marcie has made a point of stocking work from area authors and highlighting regional makers wherever she can. Opening weekend brought in Charlotte-based novelist Megan Church for a signing, and Marcie is continuing to build relationships with Triangle writers for future events. She’s also hoping to expand into locally made goods. “I want to get more and more Cary-centric things,” she says. “More community things in the store, so when people come in, they identify with it.”

Juliet Books holds a beer and wine license, with a short, intentional list: two Italian wines from the Verona region, a nod to the theme, plus a New Zealand sauvignon blanc recommended by Marcie’s beverage distributor after noting the neighborhood’s taste.

“I tested them all to make sure I liked them,” Marcie says. “I’m not serving any wine that I don’t like.”

Wine by the glass, beer on tap, and a little chalk-drawn book to remind you why you came

The wine list supports book club nights, open to those who register in advance, with discussion questions printed and left around the room for anyone to pick up. “People like their wine while they discuss books,” Marcie says. “It’s a way to make friends or meet people that have similar interests.”

Despite a full slate of programming that includes regular author events, Marcie is deliberately pacing herself. The advice came from another independent bookstore owner she met on her travels.

“She said, ‘Don’t try and do everything at once. You will burn out,’” Marcie says. It’s advice she is holding onto closely in her events calendar and her approach to social media alike. “I’m not going to try and imitate what all the other bookstores are doing just because they’re doing it. I’m going to be more thoughtful.”

For now, Marcie plans to be in the store nearly every day it’s open — Juliet Books & Beautiful Things is closed Mondays — though she hopes to eventually carve out the occasional morning or a day off. She’s already planning to fold her personal love of travel into the business, with a bookstore conference in Galway, Ireland, already on her spring 2027 calendar.

“I need to keep visiting all of my far-flung bookstores,” she says. “That’ll help with my learning, I think.” She pauses. “And it’s also my love.”

Galaxy cap pulled low and completely absorbed, a young reader claims a corner.

It’s a sentiment that runs through everything about the store — the balcony, the secondhand clock, the wine chosen from Verona. Not a checklist of bookstore features, but an arrangement made almost entirely out of things Marcie already loved and assembled on her own terms, two blocks from home.

julietbooks.com
@julietbooksnc