Kim and Rob Rickard, owners of Ten Trees Books, smile in front of the shelves and decor inside their store. (Photo by Jennifer Lambert)
Kim Rickard walked downstairs one August morning two years ago, uncertain about her job in executive recruiting at a small accounting firm, and made an announcement to her husband, Rob.
“I think I might want to open a bookstore,” she said.
Rob was unsure about the idea.
“I said, ‘Yeah, let’s think about it,’” he said. “I mean, with e-books and everything, it’s like, really?”
Now, nine months after Ten Trees Books opened its doors in Natick Center, the shop has become what Kim calls “a third space, where it’s not work and it’s not home.” Inside The Hive building, which was once home to several women-owned businesses, Ten Trees Books offers a cozy, independent bookstore open every day.
“I’ve always been a reader, and I’ve always wanted to be around books,” Kim said.
After working at Barnes & Noble in college and briefly wanting to become a librarian, Kim started looking into what it would take to open a bookstore, something she said the Natick community needed. She tapped into the American Booksellers Association, which advocates for the success of independent bookstores, to help her assess Natick’s viability.
“[Natick] just met all of the check marks of a town that would make a successful business in terms of the size [and] the education of the people,” she said.
“We’re open into the evening, which no one else [downtown] is … and we’re just going to be the store that Natick needs.”
The Natick community’s response to the shop “has been incredible,” Kim said. The family-run business has all five-star reviews on Google.
Mary Vasquez, a Natick resident and member of the romance book club at Ten Trees, appreciates that the store is a “third space.”
“One of the nice things about the store is that it’s not just a store–it’s also a place to gather,” Vasquez said. “Kim has been doing a lot more book clubs and events, and I think it’s a really nice thing to have in our community as well.”
The entire Rickard family is involved, with the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, Cassidy, working the register on Saturday afternoons, and their dog, an Irish Setter named Piper, keeping the guests company during story times.
“It was my birthday yesterday, and [Cassidy] said, ‘You are the most awesome mom in the whole world, and you’re doing so good on your bookstore,’” Kim said. “Because she watched me do this when there were no shelves.”
Rob, who works full-time in finance for a quantitative hedge fund, spends weekends supporting the store however he can.
“It’s [Kim’s] vision and her idea, so I just let her go with it,” Rob said. “I’m behind the scenes.”
The Hive is a retail incubator, giving early-stage businesses a chance to launch and grow. Kim said Ten Trees’ lease runs until February 2026, and then they will move into a new space, which she and Rob will start looking into over the summer.
“The idea is, you think you have a concept that might work in Natick, and you want to test it,” Kim said. “It’s low capital investment in the beginning to get us in.”
(Photo by Jennifer Lambert)
The world of independent bookstores has been expanding in recent years, according to the Associated Press.
“There’s a need for independent bookstores now more than ever, because of what’s happening in the administration, what’s happening in schools: banning books or putting them under critique,” Kim said. “And I think there should be independent bookstores where you can go buy anything you want.”
With recurring book clubs, literature groups, poetry nights, visiting authors, weekend storytime, and other events, Ten Trees has quickly become a downtown gathering place. Kim said she wanted to foster that community after reading posts in a Natick Moms Facebook group.
“There were women who were bold enough to say, ‘I need friends,’ and I felt that way for a long time, because you reach a point in your life where it’s hard to meet friends,” Kim said. “So it was very intentional for me, when I opened [Ten Trees], I planned to have activities for people to get out of the house, specifically women.”
The store’s name is connected to Natick’s town common, Kim said. In 2020, Natick removed 10 trees from the town common, sparking an uproar on Facebook. The town later replanted 10 diverse species—an act Kim saw as symbolic.
“It’s new beginnings, it’s growth … and it’s diverse,” Kim said. “That speaks to a message that I’m interested in.”
Rob said the most rewarding part of the store’s nine months in business has been the sense of community.
“People come in all the time and say, ‘Thank you. We love that you’re here.’ And you’re like, ‘Wow, OK, I’m making a difference.’”
The couple hopes that Ten Trees becomes a lasting part of the town.
“I hope that it exists here, even if we don’t own it for a very long time in this town,” Kim said. “And because I think the town wants it and needs it. So I do look at it a little bit like my legacy.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Natick Report and the Boston University Department of Journalism.