CANNON BEACH — Today, almost three months after Valerie Ryan, the Cannon Beach Book Company’s owner and co-founder, died, two of Ryan’s longtime friends and employees officially take over the independent bookstore on North Hemlock Street.

Maureen Dooley-Froufe and Deb Mersereau — who have worked at the bookstore for eleven years and nine years, respectively — will hold an open house reception with “sweet bites and bubbly” from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday to celebrate a new era in the life of the business, which Ryan opened with her partner, John Buckley, in 1980.

Boasting a selection of fiction, nonfiction, new releases, bestsellers, classics, mysteries, young adult novels, travel books, children’s books and books that Ryan loved to champion, the Cannon Beach Book Company will remain independently owned and operated, the new co-owners said.

“We have a great respect for the store that Val created. We’re excited to carry on her legacy,” said Dooley-Froufe, who once co-owned the Lazy Susan Cafe in Cannon Beach. “We will let our personalities into the store, but we think that Val was a perfectly remarkable guide for us.”

Mersereau said that they will continue connecting with customers the way Ryan did, and offering the kinds of books that bespeak Ryan’s discerning and eclectic literary taste.

“We still want to have that small-town feel, that independent bookstore feel,” Mersereau said.

Though they won’t be taking the bookstore in an entirely different direction, the Dooley-Froufe and Mersereau have talked about expanding certain sections and holding more author events.

“We try to get as many Northwest authors to the store to sign their books as possible, and we’ll even increase that, I’m sure,” Dooley-Froufe said.

She added that, though the bookstore relies on the tourist trade, “we totally depend on and enjoy the local customers. We need to be responsive to their needs.”

Including the owners, the bookstore keeps five employees during summer and four during the rest of the year.

During Ryan’s four-year battle with cancer, Dooley-Froufe and Mersereau had taken a larger role in helping to run the business, Mersereau said. When Ryan died in late May, the ownership of her estate was transferred to her four children, Leslie Ryan, Gigi Gilman, William Ryan and Connor Ryan, all of whom waited to find the right buyer for the bookstore.

Leslie Ryan said “It’s wonderful” that the Cannon Beach Book Company is being passed down to people who know the business and love the spirit of it. “Congratulations to them!”

“I think it’s just what Val would have wanted. She was hoping it could be an inside job,” said Cami Lira, a bookseller at the Book Company for more than seven years. “It’s the best possible way this could have happened.”