Few people understand the feeling of being lost in a book as well as Renee Houtstra. She is a serial entrepreneur, a top mindset and accountability coach for global business strategist Lisa Johnson, and also a mother of two, yet Renee still manages to read 200 books a year.
And it was reading – specifically with her “smutty” book group – that sparked her idea of creating The Boyfriend Book Box, a premium subscription service bringing literary heroes to life by delivering luxury gifts with an NSFW element.
She and co-founder Kristy Martin launched the quarterly subscription service in October 2024, and within six months, the company was turning over six figures and had a 10,000-strong waitlist.
Here, Renee shares her tips for bringing fantasy to life – and creating a world that customers can’t get enough of.
Your passion is your inspiration
Renee has always loved reading and describes a stint working in a bookstore as her “favourite job”. But her real eureka moment came when she saw a meme, saying: “Out of seven billion people, I had to fall in love with a man who doesn’t even exist.”
Renee said, “I couldn’t stop laughing because it was so true. When you read a book, you fall in love with the main male character. I thought: what if we could make him exist?”
Turn customers’ dreams into a reality
By delving into her own relationship with romances and remembering the intensity of the feelings readers can have for literary heroes, Renee knew what her customers wanted.
“I was thinking that I would have died if one of my childhood crushes had given me one of their T-shirts, but I asked myself, what can I do to bring it even further?”
The key was taking the fantasy from between the pages and weaving a one-off experience that would make the readers’ dreams and desires become a reality.
The result is a high-end black gift box with magnetic closures, tied with a white bow, containing a special edition steamy romance novel, an item of the male main character’s clothing, bespoke fragrance, jewellery and its NSFW element – an adult sex toy.
Authenticity thrives on the details
In each box, every detail is drawn directly from the novel. If the book describes the hero as smelling of cedar and whiskey, perfumers blend a custom cologne to match. If he’s a mafia don who gives the heroine a ring, the box might contain a necklace etched with her “safe word.”
Renee said: “It’s not about white-labelling a product. It’s about taking the author’s vision and making it real.
“Inside are all of the elements to remind you of him. It’s a way of making the fantasy physical. Every time you wear the necklace or light the candle, you’re pulled back into that love story.”
Have fun with hidden meanings
Subscribers to The Book Boyfriend Box don’t just get a plain necklace; they receive an item of jewellery that is intimately connected to each book’s hero.
“There’s a dynamic in the book that we take and turn into the necklace concept,” Renee said.
In one box themed around a steamy romance between an ice hockey player and the object of his desire, the accompanying necklace featured a discreet circle pendant. Yet only the reader would recognise that circle as a collar, hinting at the kinky thread running through the characters’ interactions.
Renee said: “You can wear it every single day, and people outside of that book wouldn’t know what it was. But you would – and it represents what your book boyfriend would do to claim you.”
Create a space for your community
The Boyfriend Book Box Instagram account had more than 30,000 followers before the first box had been released by speaking directly to its audience with alluring imagery and memes.
Any romance fan visiting The Boyfriend Book Box’s social media would feel instantly at home, assured that they were among their people – readers who also go feral for literary bad boys, swooning over them (or clutching their pearls, depending on the book!) with each turn of the page.
Renee Houtstra is a mindset and accountability coach and the co-founder of The Boyfriend Book Box. Visit boyfriendbookbox.com and @‌boyfriendbookbox on Instagram and TikTok for more information.
