We're so excited to be talking about some of the bright new voices in romance this week -- every book we talk about in this episode is a debut romance from 2024. We're introducing you to eighteen new authors, all of whom you'll be able to meet years from now and say, "I've been reading you from the beginning!"

From chefs to film directors, baseball players to librarians, spies to playwrights, there's a little something here for everyone. You're going to love it.

Guess what? There's a debut romance in the Fated Mates Best of 2024 Book Pack from our friends at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA! There's still time to order...and get a box of our favorite books of the year and support booksellers at a fantastic indie bookstore all at the same time!

If you want to talk romance more ofte, maybe you want to join our Patreon? You get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Judith Ivory's The Proposition, a terrific Pygmalion retelling and one of Sarah's favorites. Find it at your local independent bookseller, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or Amazon.

The Books

• The Prospects by K.T. Hoffman
• Unsteady by Peyton Corinne
• The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez
• The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton
• Sunshine and Spice by Aurora Palit
• But How Are You, Really? By Ella Dawson
• When I Think of You by Myah Ariel 
• Showmance by Chad Beguelin
• The Lovers by Rebecca Faubion
• Say You’ll be Mine by Naina Kumar
• The Slowest Burn by Sarah Chamberlain
• The Spy and I by Tiana Smith
• Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore
• How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
• Pick-Up by Nora Dahlia
• Temple of Persephone by Isabella Kamal
• I’ll Have What He’s Having by Adib Khorram
• Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi

The Notes

• It’s not too late to buy the Fated Mates best of 2024 box available from Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. 
• Jen realized a lifelong nerdy dream by being on Chicago public radio. The show is called Reset, and she was talking about romance with Sonali Dev and Bryn Donovan.
• Jackwagon, defined. 
• Take a look at the feelings wheel.
• The Prom, a broadway show. 
• Sneakers, a movie.
• You can shop this week's books on bookshop.org and choose which local indie you want to support.

The Sponsors

• Book of the Month, bringing the best new fiction to your door. Go to bookofthemonth.com to pick a book and join. For a limited time, you can get your first book for just $5 with code TINSEL! Remember to tell them Fated Mates sent you!
• Pippa Grant, author of The Worst Wedding Date, available in ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lydia Lloyd, author of When the Viscount Wanted Me, available in print, ebook or audiobook, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books.

Let's talk about the over 40s and how they deserve love, too! This week, we're diving into what the industry calls "seasoned" romance, though we're not wild about this phrasing and prefer "Women over forty can get it!" We're talking about romances where, yes, the heroines are older, but they still get to go on adventures, in and out of the bedroom...and with rock stars and incubi, even!

Guess what? There's a romance with a heroine over 40 in the Fated Mates Best of 2024 Book Pack from our friends at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA! You can get a box of our favorite books of the year and support booksellers at a fantastic indie bookstore all at the same time!

If you were shouting book names at your car stereo during this episode and want to shout them at other people, maybe you want to join our Patreon? You get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Judith Ivory's The Proposition, a terrific Pygmalion retelling and one of Sarah's favorites. Find it at your local independent bookseller, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or Amazon.

The Books

• Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
• Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke
• Pick-Up by Nora Dahlia
• Gray Hair Don’t Care by Karen Booth
• Remember When by Mary Balogh
• Come As You Are by Jess K. Hardy
• Reaper’s Stand by Joanna Wylde
• The Art Collector by Katelyn Brehm
• Losing Sight by Tati Richardson
• Role Playing by Cathy Yardley
• The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen
• Candidly Yours by Reese Ryan
• Dirty Little Midlife Mistake by Lilian Monroe
• Beautifully Unexpected by Lily Morton
• Chieftain by Annie Lucas
• Talk me Down by Victoria Dahl 
• Fanning the Flames by Victoria Dahl 
• The Worst Guy by Kate Canterbury
• As the Underworld Turns by Robin Peterman
• It’s a Wonderful Midlife Crisis by Robin Peterman

The Notes

• We had an episode about Daddy romance and age gap romance, but that’s not what this episode is about, this one is about characters over 40. Basically, if you loved Pearl Jam’s Ten, then you are probably the age of the characters in this episode. Now that “spicy” is used to describe sexy books, the word seasoned seems less useful. 
• Veteran’s Day, Armistice Day, and how the wikipedia editors are making war on AI slop. 
• Allie Parker is the host of the Romance Ever After podcast, and she recently suggested “the next wave of historical romance would be the 80s and 90s,” but there’s been way more historical romance kerfuffles happening since then. 
• Sandra Antonelli is a key advocate for romance with older characters. Her site has an essay called Ignored and Misrepresented, which describes why characters over 40 should be leads and not stereotypes. 
• This NYTimes article answers a pressing question: Why Do So Many Women Wear Giant Eyeglasses? 
• A new name for middle aged folks: the sandwich generation.

The Sponsors

• Book of the Month, bringing the best new fiction to your door. Go to bookofthemonth.com to pick a book and join. For a limited time, you can get your first book for just $5 with code TINSEL! Remember to tell them Fated Mates sent you!
• Jenni Bara, author of Finding Out, available in ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Avon Books, publishers of Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone's A Jingle Bell Mingle, available in from your local independent bookstore, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
• Kayla Grosse, author of Axes & Os, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

It's Thanksgiving week in the United States, which means capitalism! We're skipping (mainly) the talk of the midnight electronics runs, and heading straight to Small Business Saturday, when your local independent bookseller is doing their very best to put great books in your hands. Ever been in your local bookstore and thought -- I wish this place was the setting of a romance novel? We've got you, friends.

We talk about the magic of bookstores, about the importance of small businesses, about bookshops as sites for revolution, and about the appeal of running your own little shop around the corner. And we recommend a bunch of books that are...honestly? Charming AF.

Want more indie bookstore content? Support some booksellers at a bookstore we really love by purchasing the Fated Mates Best of 2024 Book Pack from our friends at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. Don’t forget to tag us on Instagram or Threads or Bluesky when you unbox!

If you were shouting book names at your car stereo during this episode and want to shout them at other people, maybe you want to join our Patreon? You get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Judith Ivory's The Proposition, a terrific Pygmalion retelling and one of Sarah's favorites. Find it at your local independent bookseller, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or Amazon.

The Books

• Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange
• The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean
• The Vampire in the Bookstore by Elle M. Drew
• Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee
• Once Upon a Charming Bookshop by Heatherly Bell
• A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
• Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello
• Taken by Charlotte Stein
• Rock Chick by Kristen Ashley
• Better than Fiction by Alexa Martin
• Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever by Molly Harper
• The Earl Takes a Fancy by Lorraine Heath
• Seven Secrets of Seduction by Anne Mallory
• Beach Read by Emily Henry
• Bookshop Cinderella by Laura Lee Guhrke
• The Wrong Mr. Right by Stephanie Archer
• The Adrien English Mysteries by Josh Lanyon

The Notes

• A guide to upcoming shopping holidays, because America: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.
• Some more info about the best time to buy a TV. Returning a perfectly good item after you’ve used it for a holiday (do we call the Super Bowl a holiday? Probably, if Taylor Swift is in attendance.) is called “wardrobing.” Back in 2018, LL Bean changed their famous lifetime return policy. 
• I guess if you need some Chicago stuff, you should check out The Silver Room, and you can use Bookshop.Org to find a local indie bookstore to support. 
• It’s not called Library Thing (that’s an app to catalog your own library), what Jen was talking about is the Library Extension.
• WTF, You’ve Got Mail, the 90s what an innocent time. You've Got Mail is a retelling of the 1940s Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullivan film The Shop Around the Corner which, incidentally, is a perfect movie for a lazy holiday weekend with several generations in attendance.

The Sponsors

• Book of the Month, bringing the best new fiction to your door. Go to bookofthemonth.com to pick a book and join. For a limited time, you can get your first book for just $5 with code STUFFED before December 2nd, and TINSEL anytime in December! Remember to tell them Fated Mates sent you!
• Sara Cate, author of Keep Me, available in print, ebook or audiobook from your local independent bookstore, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of Darynda Jones's Graveyard Dog, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
• Melissa Dymond, author of Holiday Wedding, available in print or ebook from your local independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

The Best Romance Novels of 2024! This is our favorite episode of the year, where we get to shout at you about the terrific books we read this year, and tell you all the ways romance continues to excite us.

It's the best and worst job, because we get to shout about books we love, but we are limited to only ten! And choosing ten favorites is very difficult! That said, we persevered, and here they are: Ten books we loved, books that delivered all the things we love in romance: bold heroines, big heroes, banter, complexity, conflict, impossible situations, and stories that swing for the fences. You're going to love these books.

This year, you can buy the Fated Mates Best of 2024 Book Pack from our friends at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA, and get eight of the traditionally published books on the list and a Fated Mates sticker! A Love Song For Ricki Wilde (hardcover) and Lips Like Sugar (independently published) can be added to the box for an extra fee. As always, you can add other 2024 books by some of our favorite people (or a signed Sarah MacLean book!) to the box if you’d like.

We love the idea of you gifting yourself this box (you deserve it!), but maybe you’d like to slide into someone’s text messages with the link as a very excellent gift for you! Or…you can do what Sarah does, and buy the box and spread the love around—sending each of the books to someone on your list. Let us know what you end up doing with these fabulous books, and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram or Threads or Bluesky when you unbox!

Check out our “Best Romance Novels” lists from previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019. (We were 5 minutes old in 2018 and didn’t do a list that year), and please tell us what your favorite books of 2024 were!

If you want other people to discuss this list with, maybe you want to join our Patreon? You get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Judith Ivory's The Proposition, a terrific Pygmalion retelling and one of Sarah's favorites. Find it at your local independent bookseller, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or Amazon.

The Books

• A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
• The Last Days of Lilah Goodluck by Kylie Scott
• Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous by Mae Marvel
• Lips Like Sugar by Jess K. Hardy
• The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long
• Sex, Lies, and Sensibility by Nikki Payne
• Hans by S.J. Tilly
• No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt
• Sleeping with the Frenemy by Natalie Cana
• Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

The Sponsors

• Avon Books, publishers of Sarah A. Parker's When the Moon Hatched, available in print, ebook or audiobook from your local independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or Amazon.
• Vi Keeland, author of Bossman, available in print, ebook or audiobook from your local independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
• Lois Templin, author of Heart of the Hawk, available in print or ebook from your local independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Melanie Greene, author of Common Ground, available in ebook from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or Amazon.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/11/17/0711-the-best-romance-novels-of-2024
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

Like many people, we don't have much to say this week, and whatever we might have said probably wouldn't have been very eloquent, so we've decided to talk about something we know about: Comfort reading and the way romance provides us solace, peace and hope.

This week's books are our old reliables--books that we turn to again and again for a reminder that love triumphs, hope sings and romance is resolute. We're so happy you're here; we are, too, for as long as you'll have us.

If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Judith Ivory's The Proposition, a terrific Pygmalion retelling and one of Sarah's favorites. Find it at your local independent bookseller, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or Amazon.

The Books

• The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath
• Sweet Ruin by Kresley Cole
• A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane
• Butcher & Blackbird by Brynn Weaver
• A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Cana
• Scoring Off the Field by Naima Simone
• On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera
• Run Posy Run by Cate C. Wells
• Chain Lightning by Elizabeth Lowell
• Secret Santa & All He Wants for Christmas by Kati Wilde
• The Proposition by Judith Ivory
• Tycoon by Joanna Shupe

The Notes

• We’ve talked about “Break in Case of Emergency” reads on an episode back from 2022, and comfort reads with Dani Lacey back in 2020.
• Kaitlyn Greenidge sent out a substack with her 2016 interview with Dorothy Allison, who died this week. 
• Pat the Producer and Clayton have a podcast called The BO Boys, and a few weeks ago they recorded a live episode with guests Sean Donnelly and Brett Arnold. The question was: are we okay? 
• If you happen to be in Chester, Connecticut, visit the romance bookstore Montgomery & Taggert. You should just call them directly and order that romance card game called Romance vs. The World. 
• Follow Fated Mates on BookBub, you can select your preferred eBook platform and get emails when books we’ve recommended go on sale. You can also follow Sarah for information about her books and upcoming releases.

The Sponsors

• Max Monroe, author of Meet Me at Midnight, available in print or ebook from Amazon or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Blue Box Press, publisher of Heather Graham's The Ghost of a Chance, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon.
• Jaime P. Bradley, author of Wait: A 3000 Series Novella, available in print or ebook from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or Amazon.
• Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATED50 for free gummies with a limited time $50 off coupon, or use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.

It’s just a very normal first Tuesday in November, and you need — and deserve — a distraction! We’re here to help with an episode that not only avoids discussing anything that might or might not be happening in the US today, but also lacks anything remotely of consequence (we promise 100% vibes!).

Today, we’re releasing the November 2024 Bantr+, which is usually exclusive to the Patreon, in the main feed, in case you need it. For no particular reason. (But for real, if you haven’t yet, please go out and vote. Don’t wait! Or, better yet, bring us with you and listen to us while you’re in line!)

If you need further distraction/comfort/community (and more Bantr+ episodes), you might find what you’re looking for over at the Patreon.

Today we're talking mermaids with our friend, Zóraida Cordova, an author of many genres who also writes romance under the name Zoey Castile. We talk about the appeal of mermaids, why we're so drawn to them as creatures, their history in mythologies around the globe, and yes, we get into biology, because we give the people what they want.

If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

The Books

• The Captive Merman’s Promise by Zoey Castile
• Mermaids Never Drown edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker
• Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Córdova
• The Penguin Book of Mermaids
• Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan
• Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin
• The Mermaid’s Knight by Jill Myles
• Soul Song by Marjorie M. Liu
• Tentacles and Triathlons by Ashley Bennett
• One Night Standard by E.F. Dodd
• Siren’s Secret by Debbie Herbert
• Whispers of the Deep by Emma Hamm
• Wish out of Water by Holley Trent
• Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
• To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

The Notes

• Welcome Zoraida Cordóva, our resident mermaid expert. Well, everyone’s mermaid expert. 
• Laura Von Holt is another one of our faves, and she has a mermaid podcast you might want to check out.
• The ocean is so deep, we don’t even know what’s down there! 
• Have you ever googled a whale penis? 
• Merman christmas ornaments. What a world. 
• A huge group of YA books sold all at once:  Wake by Amanda Hocking, Fins are Forever by Tera Lynne Childs, Tempest Rising by Tracy Wolff, Of Poseidon by Anna Banks, Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
• Maybe you’ve read a Namor comic, or watched Aquaman with Jason Momoa, or Splash with Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah, or either of the two versions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
• MerPeople is a Netflix documentary about professional mermaids. The Coral Room was a bar in New York the features professional mermaids, such as Julie Atlas Muz.

The Sponsors

• Avon Books, publishers of Alyssa Cole's How to Find a Princess, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo & Apple Books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Madison Score, author of Happily Never After, available in print or ebook from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
• Alyxandra Harvey, author of The Scandalous Spinster, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• MJ Etkind, author of Dishwasher Safe, available in print or ebook from Amazon.

This is a bit different than our usual Halloween adjacent episodes -- we're talking about the rise of romance centered around ghostly secondary characters (Jen) and funeral homes and mortuaries (Sarah). These two themes have become more and more prevalent in romance over the last few years, and we talk about how and why they've risen and what they might mean -- considering the way romance reflects the world we live in.

We talk about the pandemic, about grief, about community and about the way humor and love find their ways into the cracks left by death.

If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Also! We stay phonebanking! Join us this Saturday and next to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

The Books

• The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
• The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
• Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks
• Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist by Ali K. Mulford & K. Elle Morrison
• Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore
• A Ghost in Shining Armor by Therese Beharrie
• Undertaking Love by Megan Montgomery
• Inheritance and The Mirror by Nora Roberts
• Temple of Persephone by Isabella Kamal
• Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca
• Mourning Wood by Heather Orgeron
• Big Witch Energy by Molly Harper

The Notes

• We have one more Fated States phone bank, or maybe you want to try ballot curing phone banking, which might feel less stressful.
• Reborn Yesterday by Tessa Bailey was released on March 16th, 2020. Three days later, California became the first state to give a “stay at home” order. On March 25th, we had an episode celebrating health care workers. Even at that time, we wondered how romance would process the pandemic, and we weren’t the only ones. In May 0f 2020, the New York Times published the names of 100,000 people who died, with the headline An Incalculable Loss; as of October of 2024, over 7 million people have died in the Coronavirus pandemic.  
• Remember, remember the 5th of November is from Guy Fawkes and maybe you saw it in the movie V is for Vendetta. 
• Tim Walz called Elon Musk a dipshit last week, Eminem (who is hot now?) showed up at a Kamala rally, as did Beyonce. 
• The Day of the Dead is an important celebration meant to honor and commemorate those who have died, and Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art has a different exhibit to celebrate every year.
• Jen discovered there is an entire subgenre of books with ghostly banging that you might like, such as TBR: Dead but Well Read or Gang of Ghouls, but that don’t seem to be part of the pattern at hand we’re talking about. But you know. 
• Mick Jagger went (and dropped out) of the London School of Economics. Who knew.

The Sponsors

• Brianna Bancroft, author of the Dash of Desire novella series, The Businesswoman and the Bartender; The Librarian and the Mechanic; and The Maestro and the Roofer available in ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Robyn Peterman, author of Fashionably Dead, available in print, ebook, or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Katherine Grant, host of the Historical Romance Sampler Podcast. Listen now on your favorite podcasting app.
• M. Jacqueline Murray, author of Out of Time, available in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or in print, direct from the author.

Happy anniversary, Firebirds! Seven years ago this week, we launched Fated Mates with our first Episode, "A Wolf Without a Foot," in which we planned a tight 18 episode series, here and gone before you'd know it. Seven years later, we're still here, and we're celebrating by doing the obvious: Talking about Sin!

We've taken the seven deadly sins and assigned a great romance novel to each one, and we've dug deep into the dark recesses of our minds, our bookshelves and our psyches to do it. This is a long one (obviously), and full of some real "abandon all hope, ye who enter here" vibes. Thanks for being with us new listeners and longstanding ones...we love you!

If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Also! We stay phonebanking! Join us this Saturday and next to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

The Books

Envy

Barbarian’s Taming by Ruby Dixon

Sin and Ink by Naima Simone

Staying in Vegas by Sam Mariano

The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath

Lust

Uncivilized by Sawyer Bennett

Bass-Ackwards by Eris Adderly

Stolen Desire by Robin Lovett

Gluttony

Fury on Fire by Sophie Jordan

Cajun Hot by Nikita Black

Beautiful Stranger by Christina Lauren

Greed

Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie

One and Done by Cynthia Sax

Sloth

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey

Fan Service by Rosie Danan

Don’t Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be Scoundrels by Louisa Darling

Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt

Wrath

A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane 

Wait for It by Molly O’Keefe

Nero by SJ Tilly

Pride

The Bride Price by Anne Mallory

Double Standards by Judith McNaught

The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale

The Notes

As we all know, there are 3 kinds of pipe.

The Seven Deadly Sins are:  sloth, wrath, gluttony, envy, lust, greed, and pride. In case you not a sinner, you may be more familiar with the seven virtues: humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience, and diligence. 

Historically, it was illegal for a man to marry his brother’s widow. 

“I am in lust with Dain,” is a line from Lord of Scoundrels. 

With some further researching, Jen discovered that there is a podcast by Stephen Fry about the 7 Deadly Sins.

The Sponsors

• Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer Probst's Book of the Month, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo & Apple Books.
• Kylie Scott, author of Text Appeal, available in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo & Apple Books, or in audiobook from Audible.
• Stephanie Rose, author of Safe With Me, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Laura Moher, author of What She's Having, available in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo & Apple Books.

We're starting our Season 7 read alongs off with a bang! M. O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology is some of the best contemporary romance out there, and if you need proof, here it is: The first book ends on a cliffhanger and it holds a prime spot on Jen's keeper shelf. We're talking about all the ways this book works, the way O'Keefe wields tension and description and narrative voice and point of view like an absolute master and delivers a series that is not only deeply representative of the contemporary romance of the mid 2010s, but also a near perfect example of how contemporary can fire on all cylinders. Clear your calendar, you're going to want to read all four books in this series back to back.

If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

The Books

• Everything I Left Unsaid by M. O'Keefe
• The Truth About Him by M. O'Keefe
• Burn Down the Night by M. O'Keefe
• Wait for It by M. O'Keefe

The Notes

• Raise a glass to the Old School Romance Book Club on Facebook. They had their final zoom on October 14, 2024.
• Problematic vs. Dated originated with a discussion of Rocky Horror Picture Show on Twitter, a conversation that has been ongoing for a long time. 
• Just to be clear, when Jen said “it’s 2015 so it’s in past” she’s referencing that although some books were written in present (like 50 Shades, published in 2011), the wholesale shift to present tense that we see in romance now hadn’t happened yet. 
• Researchers and law enforcement professionals have determined that nonfatal strangulation is a leading indicator of escalating violence in a relationship and an important risk factor for homicide in women, and the fact that choking is on the rise in teenage sexual encounters is especially troubling.

The Sponsors

• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Audrey Carlan's A Christmas Auction, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
• Aethon Books, publishers of Belle Walker's Blood and War, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Gummies--use the code FATED50 for $50 off your first order, or use the code FATEDMATES for 30% off your next order.
• Meghan Quinn, author of How My Neighbor Stole Christmas, available in print, ebook, audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Don't forget to keep listening for an audio excerpt of June Westwood's Grave Temptation, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

An episode for the old school romance readers in the audience, we're talking about kidnapping this week! A trope that either absolutely works for readers (aka us) or absolutely doesn't, we talk about why that is, how the original romances of the 80s and 90s installed these buttons and how we still see the bones of old school kidnapping in delicious romances of today. That, and Jen reminds Sarah of books wrote one time.

If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Next week, our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

The Books

• A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
• It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas
• The Master by Kresley Cole 
• Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey
• The Windflower by Laura London
• A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
• Perfect by Judith McNaught
• Demon Lover by Kathleen Creighton
• Prisoner of My Desire by Johanna Lindsey
• Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole
• The Outlaw and the Lady by Lorraine Heath
• The Hawk by Monica McCarty
• Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews
• A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet
• The Hostage Bargain by Annika Martin
• Mafia Mistress by Mila Finelli 
• Twisted Pride by Cora Reilly
• Taken by Charlotte Stein
• Savage Hearts by JT Geissenger
• Hell Breaks Loose by Sophie Jordan
• Captive of the Horde King by Zoey Draven
• The Grabbed Series by Lolita Lopez
• My Favorite Kidnapper by Melanie Moreland
• Chieftain: The Outlander Book Club…in Space! By Annie Lucas

The Notes

• Nobody has ever quoted me back to me before
• Learning the Tropes has covered every Kleypas book if you’re in the mood for that. 
• Next week, our read along is Everything I Left Unsaid and The Truth About Him by M. O’Keefe, so get to reading.

The Sponsors

• June Westwood, author of Grave Temptation, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• KL Parsons, author of Love By a Landslide, available in print and ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Jenni Bara, author of The Foul Out, available in print and ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

We are so thrilled to have thee Meg Cabot with us, one of the original queens of YA romance. We talk about her longstanding writing career, about the authors who inspired her, about her early historical romances, written as Patricia Cabot, about her pivot into young adult romance and the power of the subgenre, about her own love story, and, of course, about The Princess Diaries of it all. It will surprise absolutely no one that Meg is a delight as a guest--we're so grateful for her time and her insight, and she's welcome back any time.

If you also love romance, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

Looking for Sarah's Conflict Writing class? It starts this Sunday--find it right here.

The Books

• Where Roses Grow Wild
• An Improper Proposal
•  The Princess Diaries 
• The Black Canary: Ignite 
• The Mediator: Shadowland
• Educating Caroline
• The Boy Next Door
• Enchanted to Meet You 
• All-American Girl

Show Notes

• Meg Cabot. has written over 50 young adult romances, including The Princess Diaries. Meg also wrote adult romances under the name Patricia Cabot, and her first book Educating Caroline has just been re-released under the name Meg Cabot. 
• Jen recommends the book Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of 80s and 90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss. 
• Publishing Professionals and Authors Mentioned: author Barbara Cartland, Jennifer Weis was an agent at St. Martin’s Press and is now at the Weis Agency, editor Amy Pierpont, editor Carrie Feron, agent Laura Langlie, Sarah Davies with MacMillan in the UK, author Judy Blume, author Michelle Jaffe, author Susan Isaacs, author Susan Elizabeth Phillips, author Bolu Babalola, author Lee Child, publisher Erica Sussman, author PD James.
• Books & Movies mentioned: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Romancing the Stone, Daughter of Hassan by Penny Jordan, Anne McCafferey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, Blubber by Judy Blume, The Cat Ate my Gymsuit by Paula Danziger, Norma Klein, Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman, Born in Ice by Nora Roberts, In Bed with the Devil by Lorraine Heath. 

The Sponsors

• Book of the Month, bringing the best new fiction to your door. Go to bookofthemonth.com to pick a book and join. For a limited time, you can get your first book for just $5 with code PUMPKIN. Remember to tell them Fated Mates sent you!
• TL Smith, author of When He Reads to Me, available in print and ebook, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Claire Therese, author of The Starling Inn, available in print and ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Isabella Kamal, author of The Temple of Persephone, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

There's a particular kind of romance hero who makes us feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy, because all he wants to do is stare in awe at his partner and tell everyone in the world to do the same. The Wife Guy is everything we love when it's done right, and we're so very excited to share a list of books that deliver this straight shot of serotonin every single time.

If you also love romance, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

The Books

• The Bride by Julie Garwood
• A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
• Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• The Secret by Julie Garwood
• Knockout by Sarah MacLean
• Worked Up by Tessa Bailey
• Bombshell by Sarah MacLean
• Naked In Death by JD Robb
• American Royalty by Tracey Livesay
• The Favor by Suzanne Wright
• Wild Pitch by Cat Giraldo
• The House on Mulberry Street by Jeannie Chin
• Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• Sweet Ruin by Kresley Cole
• Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole
• Demon from the Dark by Kresley Cole
• MacRieve by Kresley Cole
• Wicked Abyss by Kresley Cole
• Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
• An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera
• Up in Smoke by Tessa Bailey
• Prince of Broadway by Joanna Shupe
• To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins
• Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez
• Engaging the Enemy by Reese Ryan
• Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
• Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

The Notes

• We are not the only ones just discovering what 6-6-6 means. 
• There is evidence that women in Georgia have died as a result of abortion bans, and it’s true in other states as well. 
• Some of our favorite wife guys: Doug Emhoff, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Tim Walz, and Hunter Woodhall. 
• The Jayne Ann Krentz trailblazer episode has a great discussion of core story. 
• Jen thinks the Julie Garwood book with the wolf is actually Honor’s Splendor, which we do not recommend due to very problematic portrayal of a gay character.

The Sponsors

• Sarah Chamberlain, author of The Slowest Burn, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Avery Maxwell, author of Late Nights & Love Lines, available in print and ebook, from Amazon.
• Erin Langston, author of The Finest Print, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Everything is new and crisp in the fall, as F. Scott Fitzgerald likes to say, and the romance novels are no different! We're starting to think about cozy fall reads under warm blankets with cider and pumpkin spice...and we're talking today about our massive autumn TBR piles! There’s something here for everyone — chefs, witches, sexy anthologies, vampires, sports, dragons, hot air balloons and, of course, dukes.

If you also love romance, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.

The Books

Contemporary 

• I’ll Have What He’s Having by Abib Khorram
• Marriage and Masti by Nisha Sharma
• A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley
• Deja Brew by Celestine Martin
• Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi 
• Love in Bloom by Lucy Eden
• Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen
• Give It To Me by Angelina Lopez 
• Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff / 831 Stories
• Prime Time Romance by Kate Robb
• Wished by Sarah Ready
• Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London
• All Signs Point to Malibu by Jennifer Snow
• Love and Sportsball by Meka James
• YA Romance
• Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot by Preeti Chhibber
• The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew 

Romantasy

• The Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan
• Twisted Shadows by Allie Therin
• The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning
• Blood and Magic by Lauren Dane
• Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
• Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley
• This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher
• HISTORICAL
• My Rogue to Ruin by Erica Ridley
• Three Sins and a Scoundrel by Tracey Sumner
• Educating Caroline by Meg Cabot
• The Duke’s Sister and I by Emma-Claire Sunday
• The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long
• The Highlander’s Return by Lynsay Sands
• A Tempest of Desire by Lorraine Heath
• The Wallflower List by Jess Michaels
• The Trouble with Inventing a Viscount by Vivienne Lorrette
• No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt

Romantic Suspense

• I Did Something Bad by Pyae Moe Thet War
• You Can Kill by Rebecca Zanetti
• Mr. Nice Spy by Tiana Smith

The Notes

• You can join us for Fated States phone banking this Saturday, Sept 21, 2024, and then starting Oct 5th, we’ll be phone banking every Saturday until Election Day.
• A great clearinghouse for all your voter information needs (yes, you should check your voter registration one more time) is Rock the Vote or Vote.org
• Find out more information about The States Project and join the Fated Mates Giving Circle.
• After watching this great video from John Legend, who was born in Springfield, you can also support Springfield, Ohio and its Haitian immigrant population by supporting any of the following organizations: Haitian Community Help & Support Center of Springfield, The Second Harvest Food Bank, The Rocking Horse Community Health Center, and the Springfield chapter of St. Vincent De Paul.

The Sponsors

• Aethon Books, publishers of KW Foster's A Curse of Breath and Blood, available in print or ebook.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of J Kenner's Craved By You, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
• Meghan Quinn, author of Bridesmaid Undercover, available in print or ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATED50 for free gummies with a limited time $50 off coupon, or use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.

Seven is heaven! Today, we are celebrating seven seasons of Fated Mates and this genre that we just can't get enough of with two people we just can't get enough of--Kate Clayborn and Adriana Herrera! We're talking about books, about the tropes we love, about the little bits of romance that make it the very very best. We're also thanking you for listening for seven seasons--and also being the very very best.

If you also love romance, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

The Books

• The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn
• Luck of the Draw by Kate Clayborn
• On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera
• An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera
• Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
• Hollywood Wives by Jackie collins 
• The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
• Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
• The Gift by Julie Garwood
• Run Posy Run by Cate Wells
• The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
• Flowers From the Storm by Laura Kinsale
• Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews
• Lover Eternal by JR Ward
• Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
• Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath 
• Only You by Elizabeth Lowell
• Lothaire by Kresley Cole

The Notes

• Welcome Kate Clayborn and Adriana Herrera, we’ve had both of them on more episodes that we can count. Kate’s latest book is The Other Side of Disappearing, and Adriana’s is An Island Princess Starts a Scandal. 

The Sponsors

• Katelyn Brehm, author of The Art Collector and The Siren's Song, the first two books in the Demons Among Us series, available in print or ebook.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of Kristen Ashley's Embracing the Change, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
• Avery Maxwell, author of Love Notes and Lifelines, available in print or ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Buns & Roses Romance Tea for Literacy, Sunday, October 20th, in Dallas, TX. Proceeds go to the Richardson, TX Adult Literacy Center. Get tickets and more information.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/9/10/s0701-the-magnificent-season-seven-with-kate-clayborn-and-adriana-herrera
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

While we're off this week, we're encouraging everyone to listen to our Stop Book Banning episode, rereleased with new content! This week, we're talking to Maggie Tokuda-Hall, one of the founders of Authors Against Book Bans about the growth of book bans around the country in 2024.

Book bans in United States schools and libraries are at their highest since the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom started collecting data, happening around the country, in every state, and disproportionately affecting books by and about LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people. What’s more, challenges are likely underreported, because librarians who are resisting them are facing unprecedented workplace retribution and in some cases physical danger.

Book Bans are on the ballot this year in every state and local election, up and down the ticket. State legislatures, local town councils, county leadership and school boards are being overrun with candidates supported by conservative activists looking to limit access to books and ideas that offer identity, empathy, awareness, and power to young people around the country.

We’re concerned, so today, we’re releasing a special episode of Fated Mates focused on book bans across the country. We interview three experts on what’s happening, who is most impacted, and how we can all help. Show notes are extensive, and we hope you’ll take a look at them.

The Guests

Maggie Tokuda-Hall, author, activist, podcaster and founding member of Authors Against Book Bans

Jarett Dapier, librarian, activist and author of Mr. Watson’s Chickens. Jarrett is offering his complete stage adaption of Chris Crutcher's YA novel "The Sledding Hill" to the Office for Intellectual Freedom in support of Banned Books Week as a free download to read. Schools and communities interested in performing the play can do so with a $75 donation to the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom.

Lily Freeman, activist and student in Central Bucks County, PA. Read Lily’s op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer and follow her instagram at ProjectUncensored. Congratulations, Lily, on your graduation!

Melissa Walker, political activist at The States Project, journalist, and Middle Grade and YA author of Violet on the Runway, Let’s Pretend We Never Met, Small Town Sinners and more.

The Resources

Authors Against Book Bans, the author and creator wing of the fight for the freedom to read

The Youth Censorship Database at the National Coalition Against Censorship

Book Riot’s censorship coverage is excellent and updated almost daily. They have an excellent explainer for how to find and develop a local anti-censorship group

Intellectual Round Table Freedom Blog: an exhaustive list of links related to news about challenges, censorship, and banning incidents, developing issues, and controversies that is updated weekly

PEN America’s data on School Book Bans and Index of Educational Gag Orders

American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, full of resources and toolkits on challenges and how to combat them

What’s happening in Central Bucks County, PA is happening all over the country. Kids, families and educators are protesting loudly

Advocates for Inclusive Education, for more information on what’s happening on the ground in Bucks County, PA

A map from ALA Banned Books week at the University of Illinois Library, and another from Red Wine & Blue.

Teens around the country can get library cards from the Brooklyn Public Library. To apply for the card, teens can send a note to [email protected], or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture. The $50 fee normally associated with out-of-state cards will be waived

Learn more about the Book Ban Busters at Red Wine & Blue.

Ballotpedia is a resource for your local ballot and your local election maps

Vote.org, to check your voter registration, locate your voting place and more

How to Help

Educate yourself about the book challenge process in your school district: How it works, who sits on the book challenge committee, how those committee members are appointed.

If there are book bans and protests in your school district, attend local school board meetings and support students, teachers & librarians who are speaking up.

Tell your local public and school librarians they have your support. Write letters. Visit the library. Thank them for standing for intellectual freedom.

Research school board candidates in your district. Vote accordingly.

Consider running for something! Your school board and your state legislature need you! Consider this us telling you seven times! (We’ll phonebank for you!)

Vote to flip your state legislature blue. Rally your friends to join you in a Giving Circle at the States Project.

If you're an author or creator, join Authors Against Book Bans.

Donate to organizations (listed below) that support intellectual freedom and combat book bans.

Organizations to Support (and Volunteer with)

Donate to the Freedom To Read Foundation and become a member. The Freedom To Read Foundation effectively conducts important first amendment legal work regarding book bans and censorship.

GLSEN, Creating a Better World for LGBTQ Students

Intellectual Freedom Endowment Fund at the American Library Association

The National Coalition Against Censorship, providing direct intervention for people and groups facing censorship

The States Project, helping to flip (or keep) state legislatures blue

The Trevor Project, supporting LGBTQ young people 24/7, all year round

We Believe in Education, a movement of parents and families fighting for students’ freedom to learn

Your local Freedom to Read organization, which you can find with a quick web search!

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Everything old is new again...or young again? We're talking about New Adult romance today, that is, romance novels where the love story is set at or during college! We're hopping in the time machine and headed a generation or two back in romance to talk about the first time New Adult came around changing the contemporary romance game. We're getting to the bottom of why these particular love stories work so well when it comes to feelings, and asking that eternal question -- has anyone involved in this subgenre actually met a 19 year old man? (JK, we support you!)

We're taking next week off, but we'll be back the week after for the start of our Seventh Season! If you'd like more romance chatter in the meantime, we encourage you to join our patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

The Books

• 50 Shades of Grey by EL James
• Wait for You  by Jennifer Armentrout
• The Wild Seasons Series by Christina Lauren
• Butterfly by Jo Brenner
• First Semester by QB Tyler 
• Losing It by Cora Carmack
• Never Sweeter and The Professor by Charlotte Stein
• The Unrequited by Saffron Kent
• Sincerely, Carter by Whitney G
• The Boys Next Door by Miranda Silver
• The Game On Series by Kristen Callihan
• The Deal by Elle Kennedy
• Foreplay by Sophie Jordan
• Lick and Play by Kylie Scott
• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros
• One and Done by Frederick Smith
• Wicked Serve by Grace Reilly
• Real by Katy Evans

The Notes

• At the beginning of season 6, Sarah and Lo (Lauren Billings from Christina Lauren) recorded a Hot for Teacher episode. Also a popular Van Halen song from the 80s, and the video is honestly something else. 
• What is new adult as a subgenre?
• Risks of college life are well-documented, depression, substance abuse, and higher rates of violence toward women.

The Sponsors

• Roxy Sloane, author of Cross My Heart, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of Rachel Van Dyken's Love Hazard, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
• Sara Cate, author of The Heartbreaker, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Gummies--use the code FATED50 for $50 off your first order, or use the code FATEDMATES for 30% off your next order.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/8/27/0651-college-bound-new-adult-romance
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We're back with Christopher Rice celebrating one of the longest running themes in romance: Daddy Issues (not the good kind)! Christopher writes romance under the pen name C. Travis Rice, and today, we're talking about his recent banger, Sapphire Dawn. We talk about the longstanding history of characters with terrible fathers, about why romance seems to love a bad dad, about our favorite characters with terrible fathers, and about why terrible fathers make the best heroes? (we know! it's problematic!) All that, and we're talking about Nora Roberts and (gasp!) Janet Dailey!

We're coming up on the end of Season 6 (what?! how!?), and so incredibly grateful to you for listening. If you'd like more romance chatter, we encourage you to join our patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

The Books

• Sapphire Sunset by C Travis Rice
• Sapphire Spring by C Travis Rice
• Sapphire Storm by C Travis Rice
• Sapphire Dawn by C Travis Rice
• The Dream Trilogy by Nora Roberts
• In Death by JD Robb
• The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews
• The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
• Love in the Time of Scandal by Caroline Linden
• Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey
• 52 Reasons to Hate my Father by Jessica Brody
• A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
• Her Naughty Holiday by Tiffany Reisz 
• This Calder Range by Janet Dailey
• Duke of Desire by Elizabeth Hoyt

The Notes

• Welcome author Christopher Rice who writes gay romance as C. Travis Rice. His current series is called Sapphire Cove, and his most recent release is Sapphire Dawn. Christopher and his best friend Eric Shawn Quinn host a podcast called The Dinner Party Show. 
• The great dish soap decision: Dawn vs. Ajax. 
• Check out some of our trailblazers referenced this episode: Vincent Virga, Radclyffe, and Nora Roberts. 
• If you want to learn more about Janet Dailey and the plagiarism scandal that tarnished her name, check out the Reformed Rakes episodes about her. 
• Maybe you want to read what the New Yorker has to say about pirates.

The Sponsors

• Robyn Peterman, author of As The Underworld Turns, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of Kristen Proby's The Substitute, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
• Victoria Hamel, author of Is This Love Fur Real?, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Bri Castellini, author of Rehabbing the Billionaire, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/8/20/s0650-daddy-issues-with-chris-rice
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

This week, we're back to Mafia books, because it's been a few years since we've tackled this one and the landscape has changed drastically. We're talking about the appeal of the organized criminal, the way the genre is the direct descendant of the Medieval romance, and the fact that it underscores some of the deepest seeded patriarchy in the genre--for good and bad. Sarah shows off the Italian and the Italian American in her past, and tells a few stories about people and places she doesn't name because did she see anything? No she didn't.

If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

The Books

• Deviant Hearts by Jagger Cole
• Mafia Virgin by Mila Finelli
• Bound in Honor by Cora Reilly
• Scorned Vows by Victoria Paige
• Because You’re Mine by Claire Contreras
• Going Rogue by Amelia Shea
• Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks
• Her Dark Salvation by Katelyn Brehm
• Vow of Revenge by P. Rayne
• 7th Circle by Tate James
• Ruthless People by JJ MacAvoy
• Nero and Hans by SJ Tilly

The Notes

• Back in 2020, we recorded our first mafia romance interstitial with author Nisha Sharma, that season we also had a dark romance interstitial, and those two genres have only become more popular over time.
• If you’re interested in the real life story of how Providence RI was a hotbed of organized crim activity, check out season one of the Crimetown Podcast. But every town has their famous mobsters: Al Capone in Chicago, John Gotti in New York, etc, etc. As Jen was preparing show notes for this episode, she discovered there is a Mob Museum, The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement in Las Vegas, so add that to your bucket list. 
• Lorenzo Lamas was a favorite 80s Hottie, and the movie The Shawshank Redemption had a very important scene with a tunnel behind a movie poster.
• Watch this scene with the horse head and tell Jen she didn’t NAIL it with her impersonation of the guy’s scream. Part of the reason he sounds so horrified…that head was real and he didn’t know it?!?!? 
• Apparently Joseph Campbell said, “Women don't need to make the journey. In the whole mythological journey, the woman is there. All she has to do is realize that she's the place that people are trying to get to.” And well, we hate it. You might be interested in reading The Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger if you would like to learn more about other ways stories can be organized, and also The Heroine with 1001 Faces by Maria Tatar.

The Sponsors

• Sophie H. Morgan, author of De-Witched, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books,
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Jennifer L. Armentrout's Born of Blood and Ash, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books,
• TL Swan, author of The Bonus, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/8/12/s0649-mafia-romance-reasons
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

It's coming up on the end of Season 6, and that means we're talking about one of Sarah's books! We're finishing up (or beginning?) the Bareknuckle Bastards series today with a deep dive of Sarah's Wicked and the Wallflower, the first in her Bareknuckle Bastards series--part Rumplestiltskin retelling, part Peaky Blinders fic, all justifiable face punching and ode to the darkness. This is the series she loves the best, and Jen just might agree.

You can get Wicked and the Wallflower in print, ebook and audiobook at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books. It's also currently free with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Books

• Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean
• Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean
• Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean
• The Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean

The Notes

Wicked and the Wallflower was so early in the life of the podcast that we didn’t do a deep dive, so here you go! You can follow up by listening to deep dives of Brazen and the Beast and Daring and the Duke, both available wherever you get your books, and free with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Last week, Sarah and Jen were at Steamy Lit Con in Anaheim. There was a terrific panel on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Beverly Jenkins's Night Song. Artist Shannon Donahue made a very cool sketch of the panel, which along with Beverly Jenkins included Jeanne Lin, Adriana Herrera, Diana Quincy, and Alyssa Cole.  

Some of the influences on Wicked and the Wallflower include the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin, Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, the 99% Invisible podcast about Perfect Security, the Disney movie Frozen, and Gavin Weightman's The Frozen Water Trade. 

The Sponsors

• Kayla Grosse, author of Silver Foxed, available in print, ebook, and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Lexi Blake's The Bodyguard and the Bombshell, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon
• Leslie Hachtel, author of Come Back to Me, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Serena Akeroyd, author of Broken, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/8/6/s0648-wicked-and-the-wallflower
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We're back this week living Olympic vibes and recommending books with big Olympic vibes! Whether you're drawn to the sports of it all or the France of it all or you just really love Flavor Flav stanning women's water polo, or you were very drawn to the wild, exciting, perplexing opening ceremony and just want to read a romance with beheading, we've got you covered.

We're coming up on the end of Season 6 (what?! how!?), which means a deep dive of one of Sarah's books, even though she doesn't have a new one this year! We're talking Wicked & the Wallflower next week, the first of her Bareknuckle Bastards series. Get it at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

Books Mentioned This Episode

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera

Love Me in the Dark by Mia Asher

Kayla in Paris by Theodora Taylor

Broken French by Tasha Boyd

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase

Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren

The Brightest Star in Paris by Diana Biller

We’ll Never Have Paris by Adriana Anders

Duchess by Night by Eloisa James

A Bride Unveiled by Jillian Hunter

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

Let the Games Begin by Rufaro Faith Mazarura

Nothing But Trouble by P. Dangelico

Stroked by Meghan Quinn

Just This Once by Rosalind James

Heart Breaker by Elle Kennedy

Heart and Hand by Rebel Carter

Take Me by Bella Andre

Shadow’s Claim by Kresley Cole

Too Hot to Handle by Elizabeth Lowell

Remember Summer by Elizabeth Lowell

Pardon My Frenchie by Farrah Rochon

Show Notes

It’s the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and we’re having a ball. Beyonce introduced the USA Olympic Team, and Flavor Flav’s support of the women’s water polo team, and Snoop Dogg love for the games have made them America's elder statesmen of the Olympics. Watch this 2020 clip of Snoop and Kevin Hart watching Equestrian. 

The Opening Ceremonies were wild, and you can also watch a documentary about the making of it called Le Grand Siene. 

Olympics lawyers have always been hypervigilant about removing copyrighted videos, but this year after complaints about a scene that appeared to show drag queens arranged like The Last Supper, the entire opening ceremony was removed from YouTube, leading people to believe the IOC was hiding its censoring behind copyright protections. 

Americans Lee Kiefer and Gerek Meinhardt are Fencing’s first couple.

The first “baby with headphones” of Paris is the son of swimmer Caleb Dressel. 

They’re surfing Teahupo’o, a massive deadly wave in Tahiti with Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost as the on site reporter. One of Jen’s favorite books about surfing is The Wave by Susan Casey.

Sponsors

• Rose Prendeville, author of Maggie & the Pirate's Son, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you buy books
• Pippa Grant, author of The Secret Hook-up, available in print, ebook, and audiobook, and Kindle Unlimited from Amazon
• Elliot Fletcher, author of Whisky Business, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you buy books

This week, we are doing something a little different, talking about the New York Times's Best 100 Books of the 21st Century, a list that Sarah was asked to contribute a ballot for. We talk about how Sarah made her list, what she put on it, and why...and why we think there are no romance novels on the final top 100 list.

Don't fret, though -- on the Discord, FM listeners have started collecting nominations for the 100 Best Modern Romance Novels (since the publication of The Flame and the Flower)! Join the group to submit your own nominations and vote on the final list throughout August.

We're coming up on the end of Season 6 (what?! how!?), which means a deep dive of one of Sarah's books, even though she doesn't have a new one this year! We're talking Wicked & the Wallflower, the first of her Bareknuckle Bastards series. Get it at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

The Books

We talk about lots of books today, but most of them aren't romance novels. The nine romances on Sarah's list for the New York Times are:

Kate Clayborn's Georgie, All Along

Kresley Cole's Dark Needs at Night's Edge

Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me

Uzma Jalaluddin's Hana Khan Carries On

Beverly Jenkins's Forbidden

Lisa Kleypas's Again the Magic

Angelina M. Lopez's After Hours on Milagro Street

Sherry Thomas's Ravishing the Heiress

Milla Vane's A Heart of Blood and Ashes

Show Notes

In between the recording of this episode, about two hours after Biden dropped out of the race, and the time we released it on Wednesday: Kamala Harris has locked up the delegates for the nomination and raised 100 million dollars from small donors, a majority of whom are first time donors.

Click here to express your interest in joining us for Fated States phonebanking. If you’re an author who would like to donate books to phonebankers, please fill out this form.

We’re mad at Aaron Sorkin for writing a boneheaded oped in the New York Times, which was truly the dumbest thing, and then retracting it later.

The New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century list is interesting, not only for the list itself but for how it was made. If you don’t want to go to the New York Times site, You can see the entire list on Goodreads or Instagram. You can see Sarah’s ballot and those of other authors and literary luminaries, as well, and they also compiled a reader’s list. You can also listen to the New York Times Books Podcast for discussion of the process and the final product!

Sarah Jessica Parker is a big reader who loves libraries.

We still don’t actually know who Elena Ferrante is, so it's not officially not Scott Turrow's sister.

Sponsors

• Danica Nava, author of The Truth According to Ember, available in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you buy your books,
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATED50 for free gummies with a limited time $50 off coupon, or use code FATEDMATES for 30% Off, and
• Stephanie Rose, author of Second Time’s the Charm, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/7/23/s0646-the-perils-amp-promise-of-the-new-york-times-best-100-books-list
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

Jen and Sarah are together at last (again), and we’re taking your questions! Listen as we revisit some of our favorite past episodes of the podcast, as we discuss our favorite books with our least favorite tropes, and recommend a bunch of books that take the finger. We’re also talking about historical romance, and why it remains an absolute bop.

We're coming up on the end of Season 6 (what?! how!?), which means a deep dive of one of Sarah's books, even though she doesn't have a new one this year! We're talking Wicked & the Wallflower, the first of her Bareknuckle Bastards series. Get it at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

The Books

• The Next Best Fling by Gabby Gamez
• Chef’s Kiss by TJ alexander
• Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian
• Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall
• The Perks of Loving a Wallflower  by Erica Ridley
• Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
• An unsuitable Heir by KJ Charles
• The Ghost Town East Series by Amelia Shea
• Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera
• The Duchess Hunt by Lorriane Heath
• Morning Glory Milking Farm by CM Nacosta
• Just Playing House by Farah Heron
• The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe
• Mystery Man by Kristen Ashley
• Preacher Man by Jessa Kane

The Show Notes

• Jen went to go see Illinoise when she was in New York, and the Fated Mates team ate at Claro in Brooklyn.
• Some of our favorite episodes of the podcast: the Derek Craven episode with Kate, the first category romance interstitial, and trailblazers Vincent Virga, Elda Minger, and Nora Roberts. 
• Our walk up songs are Too Funky by George Michael for Sarah, and Every Day I Write the Book or Town Crier by Elvis Costello. 
• The Comstock Laws were bad and they are still on the books, which is gonna turn out to be a bad thing. 
• Alexa Riley also writes as AR Taboo, for the truly dirty stuff. Check your content warnings.

The Sponsors

• Blue Box Press, publishers of Audrey Carlan's The Marriage Auction, Season 2, available in print or ebook from Amazon.
• Lucy Score, author of The Body in the Backyard: A Riley Thorn Novel, available in print, ebook or audiobook, from Amazon.
• Jess K. Hardy, author of Lips Like Sugar, available in print or ebook from Amazon.
• Liana De la Rosa, author of Isabel and the Rogue, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/7/16/s0645-ama-jen-and-sarah-are-taking-your-questions
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

For the last few years, The Ripped Bodice bookstore has published a Summer Romance Bingo Card and this year, we're helping you win! With absolutely no prep, we're recommending books for every bit of the game, from Lost Treasure to Time Travel to the Olympics. Head to The Ripped Bodice's instagram feed to see the bingo card and get reading!

Books Mentioned

• Only and Forever by Chloe Liese
• A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston 
• One Last Shot by Betty Cayouette
• Remember Summer by Elizabeth Lowell
• Fire on the Ice by Tamsen Parker
• Seduction on the Slopes by Tamsen Parker
• From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata
• The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton by Miranda Neville
• Hottie Scotty and Mr. Porter by R. Cooper 
• Breath of Magic by Theresa Medieros
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
• Shaken and Stirred by Kathleeen O’Reilly
• Double Down by Katie Porter
• Copper by Lily Atlas
• Santa’s Baby by Chloe Maine
• Lighthouse on Moonglow Bay by Lori Wilde
• Dragged to the Wedding by Andrew Grey
• Looking for a Sign by Susie Dumond
• Star Crossed Seduction by Jenny Browna
• A Touch Magical by Sonia Hartl
• Reaper’s Property by Joanna Wylde
• Waylon by Theodora Taylor
• Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan
• This Scot of Mine by Sophie Jordan
• Summertime Punchline by Betty Corrello
• Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
• Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
• Romancing Ms. Stone by M.C. Vaughan
• Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura
• The Red by Tiffany Reisz
• Faking It by Jennifer Crusie
• Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
• A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan
• Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
• Way Down Deep by Charlotte Stein & Cara McKenna
• Written on His Skin by Simone Stark
• Lovers in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas
• The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest
• The Gift by Julie Garwood
• After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelia M. Lopez

Show Notes

• This week, we’re making suggestions in case you’re trying to complete The Ripped Bodice’s 8th annual summer reading bingo game. Some of the squares we’ve had full episodes on, so check it out for ideas: Duels with special guest Chels,  Runaway Brides, and Grumpy/Sunshine. 
• Control rods are what cools down a Nuclear reactor, or in the case of Chernobyl what causes one to melt down if they are all moved simultaneously. 
• “You wanted to tussle, we tussled,” is a line from Out of Sight. “The pressure of a name’” is a line from Pretty Woman. 
• A quick guide to book trim sizes: hardback, trade paperback, and mass market. 
• There was a great article in the New York Times this week about the explosion of romance-only bookstores.
• Jen doesn’t do RPF and she doesn’t really know anything about Taylor Swift. 
• You might want to enjoy Andrew McCarthy’s navel gazing in the documentary Brats, even if it’s just to roll your eyes. 

Sponsors

• Blue Box Press, publishers of Aurora Rose Reynolds's BRODIE: An Until Her Novella, available in print or ebook, from Amazon.
• Aethon Books, publishers of Hannah Levin's THE TREASURED ONE, available in print, ebook or audiobook, from Amazon.
• Tara L. Roí, author of HOPE, available in print or ebook from Amazon, Apple Books, or Barnes & Noble.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/7/8/s0644-summer-romance-bingo-recommendations-2024
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We're taking a break this week, but we forgot to tell anyone about it.

We’ll be back next week. In the meantime, check out Romancing the Vote 2024!

Who says it has to be Halloween to celebrate witches? It’s 2024 and frankly, we could do with a few more powerful, spell-casting women around here. We’re talking about our favorite witch romances, many of which (see what we did there) have nothing at all to do with spooky season! There are rumors of a new Practical Magic in the air, which (ope!) makes us extremely happy, and we’re just trying to decide which (!!!) of these fabulous books to reread this week. We’re going deep into romance history to talk about why witches are so compelling, why they’re perfect for a light, frothy romance, and why magic in the hands of men doesn’t hit the same way.

We are the weirdos, Mister.

The Books

• Jill Barnett's BETWITCHING
• Teresa Medeiros's BREATH OF MAGIC
• Teresa Medeiros's TOUCH OF ENCHANTMENT
• Annette Blair's SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCH
• Annette Blair's GONE WITH THE WITCH
• Annette Blair's NEVER BEEN WITCHED
• Nora Roberts's DARK WITCH
• Nora Roberts's SHADOW SPELL
• Nora Roberts's BLOOD MAGIC
• Molly Harper's WITCHES GET STUFF DONE
• Molly Harper's BIG WITCH ENERGY
• Celestine Martin's WITCHFUL THINKING
• Juliette Cross's RESTING WITCH FACE
• AJ Sherwood's A FAE COIN TRANSPORTED ME INTO ANOTHER WORLD AND NOW I'M THE GAY HOLY MAIDEN
• Kimberly Lemming's THAT TIME I GOT DRUNK AND YEETED A LOVE POTION AT A WEREWOLF
• Meg Cabot's ENCHANTED TO MEET YOU
• Alexis Daria's WHAT THE HEX
• Erin Sterling's THE EX HEX

The Notes

• If you liked the post-it note situation in The Fall Guy, or the low-tech pre-post it note version from Romancing the Stone, Aqua Notes may be for you. 
• Today banter portion was very into “Great Lakes, Great Times.” If you would like to talk to Sarah about the Wisconsin fish boil from Top Chef, please take that up with her and leave Jen out of it. Or travel across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger ferry. (But you cannot drive across Texas in one day). 
• The entry point for witches tends to the fun, silly ones: Bewitched and Hocus Pocus, but also because it’s the realm of women, we love movies like Practical Magic, The Witches of Eastwick, and The Craft. Willow’s arc on Buffy the Vampire Slayer goes from rom-com witch to strong witch to evil witch. Here’s a critique of Yennefer’s transformation in The Witcher.
• Emily Alexander and Heidi Rehwaldt host a Nora Roberts podcast called Romancing the Shelf, so check it out if you love La Nora!
• The Winchester Mystery House in California is pretty wild and worth going on a tour!
• Listen to Iris Johansen’s Trailblazer episode.

The Sponsors

• Blue Box Press, publishers of C. Travis Rice’s Sapphire Dawn, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATED50 for free gummies with a limited time $50 off coupon. Or use code FATEDMATES for 30% Off.
• Grand Central Publishing, publishers of Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen’s Flashback, available in print, ebook, or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or your local bookseller.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/6/24/s0642-witchy-romances-are-not-just-for-halloween
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We are talking about a full on banger this week — Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, which is Sarah’s favorite of the Uptown Girls series (Jen is a The Prince of Broadway fan, but honestly, all three are basically perfect). We love this one so much, you’re about to get an hour or so of squeeing and sighing — Jack Mulligan is everything you could possibly want in a romance hero, Justine Greene is the do goodingest do gooder who ever was, and the way they adore each other is enough to wreck you. If you haven’t read this one yet, do yourself a favor and go read the whole series right now…Joanna Shupe proves that historical romance is everything you want.

If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

• Joanna Shupe also writes mafia romance under the pen name Mila Finelli, and we love The Kings of Italy series. 
• The Greene sisters are loosely based on the Schuyler Sisters, made famous by the musical Hamilton. 
• On the TV show The Wire, a popular drug dealer named Stringer Bell only moved up to the big leagues of evil once he started buying up real estate and rubbing elbows with politicians and businessmen, who are portrayed as the biggest crooks of all. 
• The story of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire is tragic, and ultimately led to labor reforms around the country. 
• The Sex in the City gals have some thoughts about butt stuff.

Sponsors

• Dr. Melissa Dymond, author of Paging Dr. Hart, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
• Mary James Ketch, oil painter. Find her new series of paintings and prints, Book Lovers, at her online studio.
• Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. Check out their new $40 Swoony Subscription Box for a monthly delivery of brand new, hand-selected romance novels and access to a discussion Discord. July’s box includes TRIPLE SEC by TJ Alexander, FOR REAL by Alexis Hall, and A LIAISON WITH HER LEADING LADY by Lotte R. James.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/6/18/s0641-the-devil-of-downtown-by-joanna-shupe
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We’re talking about brothers and sisters as secondary characters in romance today — by popular demand from listeners, it’s our sibling episode! We get to the bottom of why we all love secondary siblings—the overbearing olders, the wild child middles, the delightful youngers, the equally handsome and broad shouldered boys, the snarky, stunning girls, and everyone else who’s ever caught our eye and made us say “now where’s there book?!” We tackled complicated relationships, shared history and the perfect fantasy of family that romance delivers so well.

Next week, we’re reading Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. There are sisters! Also, it’s Jen’s favorite in the series and an absolute banger. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.

If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

We’ve done twins, and we’ve done siblings’s best friend, but this time we’re talking about plain old siblings in romance. We’re definitely not talking about anything Tangled Lies adjacent this time.

If you want the deep dives we mentioned, they are Preferential Treatment, Gentle Rogue and Devil’s Bride.

Illinoise is playing on Broadway if you’re in New York this summer. 

They’ll be a meet-up at Steamy Lit Con for us with our listeners, details coming soon! 

There’s a dark romance podcast called Trigger Warning you might want to check out, and in case you want to read that romance with mummification but no cheating, it’s Dead Love by Audrey Rush 

The Orphan X book with the evil killer siblings is Prodigal Son.

In case you have ever wondered about the provenance of the beloved Fated Mates phrase, “take the finger” this is an episode where Sarah talks about the book that inspired it.

Sponsors

Frederick Smith, author of One and Done, available at in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books

Aethon Press, publishers of SK Horton’s The Concealed, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited

Avon Books, publishers of Alexandria Bellefleur’s Truly, Madly, Deeply, available at in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

School’s out for Jen’s summer and Sarah’s in the final stretch so we’re dreaming of romance beach reads and talking about our massive summer TBR piles! There’s something here for everyone — hot librarians, superheroes, heists, funeral homes, wedding planners and baseball players and F1 drivers and, of course, dukes.

Our next read along is Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. It’s Jen’s favorite in the series. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.

If you love a fire hose of romance recommendations, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

Maybe men shouldn’t cover the WNBA, tbh. 

All about The electric slide.

You can follow DodoTheBookBitch on Instagram; follow Sarah there to see the scratch-off TBR poster. 

Jacque is one our romancelandia faves, and she has a Pride reading challenge for you all. RomanticallyInclined is on Threads reading books with fewer than 100 reviews all through June.  

For reviews in advance of publication, your best bet is Kirkus (Jen reviews for them), but you can also try Booklist or Publisher’s Weekly. We also talked about NetGalley and Edelweiss to discover upcoming books.

If you’re in NYC, don’t miss the launch event for Liana de la Rosa’s Isabel and the Rogue next week! She’ll be at The Ripped Bodice with Sarah and Adriana Herrera…and Sophie Jordan will be there, too! Tickets and info here.

One of our most popular interstitial topics, we had to come back for a third run at Curvy Heroines this month in celebration of Bridgerton-mania online and our absolute delight that we finally get to see Penelope get that handsome man who is just back from his long trip to glow-up-land (we deserve nice things, and so do curvy heroines)! Sarah’s talking exclusively about historicals today, and Jen is bringing new-to-the-pod authors to the table…all that, and we’re naming the six historicals Sarah’s written with curvy heroines (There’s also a contemporary! Check the photo array, below). This one is a lot of fun.

Our next read along is Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. It’s Jen’s favorite in the series. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.

Happy anniversary to our founding Patreon members — May marks one year of our Patreon and our Discord! We love you a whole lot. Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

You can visit the Sleeping Beauties Exhibit at the Met, which sounds pretty fascinating, is there all summer through September 2nd. 

All about smelling salts, Kardashian levels of rib removal which is called tight lacing, Each and Every brand deodorant, and retinol. If you’re interested historical fashion and lingerie, follow Cora Harrington on twitter, she wrote about corsets on her blog back in 2012. If you’re interested it watching a guy talking about cologne, here is link to Joshua Godfrey, the guy with the labyrinth tattoo and his journey. 

If you loved Fury Road, you should read Blood, Sweat, and Chrome, which is the story of how the movie was made. Here’s a supercut of Tom Hardy grunting.

Gather together your bouquets and boutonnières, wedding season is here! But, in typical Fated Mates fashion, we spend the first 20 minutes talking about Pulp Fiction (just go with it, these are the mysterious ways of the podcast and you just need to trust the process). Then, we’re talking weddings in romance novels—not the books where the main characters get hitched, but instead they are guests at a wedding. Maybe they’re fake dating, maybe they’re the wedding planners, or maybe they’re the runaway bride or abandoned groom. Of course, we can’t wait to hear about your favorite books that happen at a wedding..

We don’t often talk about secondary characters in romance, but this week, we’re talking about the women who provide wisdom, council and laughs in romance—moms, grandmothers and aunties! We talk about the shocking epidemic of orphaned main characters in romance, about how extended family provides nuance in the books, and about our very favorite mothers, grandmothers, aunties and adopted older ladies in books.

Thanks to all the women who provide care and sage advice out in the world. We appreciate you.

Our next read along is Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. It’s Jen’s favorite in the series. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.

Happy anniversary to our founding Patreon members — May marks one year of our Patreon and our Discord! We love you a whole lot. Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

Crush, the new apple ad is honestly so bleak, and the backlash was so extreme that they pulled the ad. Look how easily they could have made it cool, though.

The Matriarchy isn’t just a dream, as it turns out.

The Gaza Evacuation Fund Auction raised $160,000 and it’s not too late to donate to one of the funds of people trying to get to safety.

This one is for our historical lovers! We’re talking about everyone’s favorite title — Dukes! We get to the bottom of many duke questions, including: Why so many? Why are they always dukes? What’s wrong with princes? How do these guys make their money anyway? What’s with all the normies inheriting dukedoms? What about duchesses? And more! Please remember that everything we are about to say is romance fact. Don’t @ us with real life fact. We don’t want it.

Happy anniversary to our founding Patreon members — it’s one year of our Patreon and our Discord today! We love you a whole lot. Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

The tree thing about pollen and allergens is called botanical sexism (god it’s everywhere) and this claim, like all things, is complicated. 

Defining the title of duke.  What are the corn laws or the laws about chimney sweeps? You don’t really care—it’s just fossils. 

The Reformed Rakes podcast had a recent episode about pregnancy.

The Unites States Congress is comprised of incredibly wealthy people. 

In 2009, Tatler got 10 of the 24 living non-royal dukes to sit down for lunch. There’s a photo. It’s exactly what you would expect. This 2021 article from Tatler lists the 4 living single dudes that either are or will be a duke. Shoot your shot, ladies.

Question: has Sarah really written more dukes than fewer?

A Duke: Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart, No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, The Rogue Not Taken, A Scot in the Dark, The Day of the Duchess, Daring and the Duke, Heartbreaker, The Duke of Christmas Present, and A Duke Worth Falling For (9)

Not a Duke: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord, A Rogue by Any Other Name, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover, Wicked and the Wallflower, Brazen and the Beast, Bombshell, and Knockout (9)

For our forever favorite, Kate Clayborn, our third Fated Mates Live episode! During the absolutely delightful event (we had so much fun!), Kate selected an interstitial topic that we’ve never tackled, somehow? It’s time for Marriage in Trouble! We talk about the old school bones of the trope, with ingenue wives and the jaded heroes who have to crawl over glass for them, about marriages that carry enormous secrets, the grovel, the heir, and about the threat of divorce motivating men toward being their best selves. Is this good marriage therapy? It is not. Is it good podcasting? It is.

We also want to thank the following publishers and authors for their incredible generosity in making sure that almost every attendee of the Live went home with a romance novel. We are so lucky to share Romancelandia with you: Avon Books, Ballantine Books, Blue Box Press, Dell, Grand Central/Forever, Gallery Books, Lauren Blakely, LJ Evans, Pippa Grant, Ana Huang, Parker S. Huntington & LJ Shen, Elle Kennedy, Avery Maxwell, Ava Miles, Max Monroe, Kathryn Nolan, Amari Nylix, Meghan Quinn, Piper Rayne, P Rayne, Stephanie Rose, Lucy Score, & TL Swan.

If you want more discussion of banana-pants romance, join our Patreon and get access to our Discord, where a thousand other listeners are hanging out and giggling all day long.

Show Notes

Read Kate Clayborn’s The Other Side of Disappearing, which is a beautiful road trip of a romance that does not have a marriage in trouble but does have a hero who is pure fire.

Sarah used to work for Susan Miller of Astrology Zone, so when she tells you that Mercury is in retrograde, you better listen. Even if it’s about The 2000 election 

Like Jen, you may have thought the superhymen was a myth! But now you know better because of romance, Fated Mates Live, and Megan Frampton.

Headphones in! This is not for beginners. Our second Fated Mates Live episode is live! During the event (which was so so fun we love every single one of you who came!), the fabulous Nikki Payne selected one of the most challenging interstitial topics we’ve ever tackled—Inanimate (and sentient!) objects! So! This one is very very odd, and filled with a number of recs that just prove that there is literally something for everyone in this big, beautiful romance pool.

We also want to thank the following publishers and authors for their incredible generosity in making sure that almost every attendee of the Live went home with a romance novel. We are so lucky to share Romancelandia with you: Avon Books, Ballantine Books, Blue Box Press, Dell, Grand Central/Forever, Gallery Books, Lauren Blakely, LJ Evans, Pippa Grant, Ana Huang, Parker S. Huntington & LJ Shen, Elle Kennedy, Avery Maxwell, Ava Miles, Max Monroe, Kathryn Nolan, Amari Nylix, Meghan Quinn, Piper Rayne, P Rayne, Stephanie Rose, Lucy Score, & TL Swan.

If you want more discussion of banana-pants romance, join our Patreon and get access to our Discord, where a thousand other listeners are hanging out and giggling all day long.

This is the first of three episodes inspired by the incredible time we had at Fated Mates Live in Brooklyn. During the event (which was so so fun we love every single one of you who came!), we asked guests Nikki Payne, Kate Clayborn and Lauren Billings of Christina Lauren to choose an interstitial topic they would like us to tackle on the show. Lauren chose a great one: Exceptions to our rules, meaning…tropes we don’t care for that are done really really well.

So! This one is for everyone who’s ever asked Jen for Secret Baby or Virgin Heroes and anyone who’s ever asked Sarah for Friends to Lovers or Spies. We talk about the books that make us go…not that…but maybe that?

We also want to thank the following publishers and authors for their incredible generosity in making sure that almost every attendee of the Live went home with a romance novel. We are so lucky to share Romancelandia with you: Avon Books, Ballantine Books, Blue Box Press, Dell, Grand Central/Forever, Gallery Books, Lauren Blakely, LJ Evans, Pippa Grant, Ana Huang, Parker S. Huntington & LJ Shen, Elle Kennedy, Avery Maxwell, Ava Miles, Max Monroe, Kathryn Nolan, Amari Nylix, Meghan Quinn, Piper Rayne, P Rayne, Stephanie Rose, Lucy Score, & TL Swan.

Photo credits: Stephanie Keith

Show Notes

We had the very best time at Fated Mates Live, and it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without Lauren being there. Christina Lauren’s newest book, The Paradise Problem, is out May 14th. Preorder it now, and check out their tour schedule to go see them (they’re even more terrific in person) when they’re near you!

Solar eclipses are very cool, and Jen really should have gone home…. as it turns out, 95% is not anything like 100%! If you have the chance, you should go get in that path of totality. Jen’s brother Erik was at his office rooftop in downtown Cleveland and saw people getting married, and also took a very cool video at totality. New York earthquake twitter was pretty funny, too. 

Jen, staunchly anti- virgin heroes since 2018.

Kevin Costner’s speech about luck from Bull Durham. 

The book about women in the CIA is called The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy.

This week, we’re talking about film adaptation and romance novels with Yulin Kuang, filmmaker and romance novelist. We discuss her work as both a screenwriter and director (she’s writing and directing the adaptation of Emily Henry’s Beach Read), and her debut romance novel, How to End a Love Story, set inside the writers room on a television show between the author of the books the show is adapting (the heroine) and one of the writers in the room (the hero). We talk about why romance adaptations are so difficult to find, why they don’t often hit quite like we expect, and we pitch a few books we’d like to see Hollywood take a crack at.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

Mr. Sunshine is the name of the K-Drama that Jen’s friend Sunhee recommended, but also everyone loves Crash Landing on You.

If you’re in New York City, you can see Sarah and Yulin together in conversation Thursday, April 11, at The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn. Get tickets here.

Find and follow Yulin Kuang at her website.

We’re finally diving into alpha submissive romance novels during this deep dive of Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s best books of 2022. We’re talking about the way some romances do such immense work today—this one really digging into something that romance usually steers clear of…money. We know money and power are inexorably intertwined, but what does that really mean when relationships are budding, and when sex is on the line? How do power dynamics shift and move, how does money impact our ability to be honest in a relationship, and most importantly, should billionaires exist? All that and we finally get to the bottom of the Alpha submissive kink, why Sarah thinks it’s great, and why it just doesn’t move Jen.

Oh, and for those of you who’ve been asking for years, Sarah’s doing a mini interstitial in here about books that feature alpha submissives — enjoy!

Read Preferential Treatment at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

• Preferential Treatment was on our Best of 2022 list.
• Preferential treatment is a word used to describe unfair labor practices.
• Here are some of the most common financial problems in relationships and marriages. 
• Mackenzie Scott’s strategy for getting rid of money through her foundation, Yield Giving.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/4/2/s0630-preferential-treatment-by-heather-guerre
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

An absolute classic for a reason, we’re talking about Beauty & the Beast today — about the trope itself, about how the 1991 Disney movie brought it back to life (yes, we see you, Dain), and about why we love the vibe of scarred and broken men in a castle being found and renovated by whip smart, bookish heroines. Spoiler: It’s patriarchy.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Next week, we’re finally getting to Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

Thanks for joining us last week at Fated Mates Live!! We had a great time, and it was amazing to see everyone. Thanks for being on this journey with us. Stay tuned for photos and more recaps—and for the recording of the Live, which will be our May 1 episode.

We love soundtracks, we played the Dua Lipa song from the Barbie soundtrack, and back in the day, the Pretty in Pink soundtrack was Jen’s jam. Cassette tapes anyone? 

We have talked about romance retellings of all kinds with Kate Clayborn, and fairy tale retellings with Zoraida Cordova.

You can find links to all of the books we discussed at fatedmates.net.

The cornerstone of the genre. The one thing that, when thrown into question, is guaranteed to enrage every corner of Romancelandia. We’re talking about Happily Ever After (HEA). Its promise, its importance, its relevance to us as readers, writers and people in the world. We talk about what really makes it hard won and deserved for us — which means yes, we’re talking about grovels and yes, we’re talking about third act break ups, and yes, we’re talking about patriarchy. Because of course we are. You’ve probably heard us talk about all the books we’re mentioning here…greatest hits are hits for a reason, y’all.

There are a handful of tickets left for Fated Mates LIVE in Brooklyn, NY, this Saturday, March 23, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel! Join us, along with Kate Clayborn, Lauren Billings (one-half of Christina Lauren), Nikki Payne, and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. Get Kate’s The Other Side of Disappearing three days early (and books from everyone else!) from The Ripped Bodice—links, tickets and more info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Our next read along is Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subsc

Show Notes

Ope! Jen’s mic wasn’t fully connected for the first 10 minutes of the episode, so that’s why it sounds terrible. User error on her part, Eric would never. Hang in there, she figures it out!

Let John Green and the good folks at Crash Course teach you about European History and The Hundred Years’ War. 

The 2024 Audie Award winners included The True Love Experiment for best romance. 

Three more days until Fated Mates Live… a handful of tickets are left! Join us!

Looking for all kinds of perfect HEA stickers, check out the Romancelandia Shop!

UPDATE: The book Sarah was looking for when she was talking about Enemies to Lovers was Johanna Lindsey’s Prisoner of My Desire. All the content warnings, friends…but if you do wade in, don’t miss our chat with Joanna Shupe where we talk about it from Season 1.

A classic among classics, we’re talking enemies to lovers this week! We get to the bottom of what we think of as “enemies,” and how it differs from “rivals-to-lovers” and “friends-to-enemies-to-lovers” and “friends-to-lovers” (jk, we’ll never understand friends-to-lovers). We revisit some of our very favorite romances, talk about stakes, about impossible situations, and about how sexy hating someone can be.

There are a handful of tickets left for Fated Mates LIVE in Brooklyn, NY, on March 23, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel! Join us, along with Kate Clayborn, Lauren Billings (one-half of Christina Lauren), Nikki Payne, and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live! Preorder Kate’s The Other Side of Disappearing three days early (and books from everyone else!) from The Ripped Bodice—links, tickets and more info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Our next read along is Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

• Pandora Ravenel owns a boardgame company, but I don’t think she made ouija boards. You should watch Only You (1994), directed by Norman Jewison who also directed Moonstruck! Don’t forget how charming Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is, a very different vibe from Ripper Street.
• Jen thought about Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips when she read an article about the updating of the gorilla enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo. IYKYK, and if you don't, listen to Jen on Learning the Tropes.
• Sarah said there's only one friends-to-lovers romance she likes. It's Christina Lauren's Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/3/12/s0627-enemies-to-lovers-romance
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

Sometimes you just have to get to the bottom of something, and that’s what we’re here for. Today, we’re taking an unexpected, unexpectedly thorough at what might be one of the rarest and most maligned heroes in Romancelandia—the Himbo. He’s darling, he’s sweet, and he’s made of nothing but love and abs. Journey with us as we consider the place of these lovable dummies in the pantheon of this great genre of ours.

We just released a final 25 tickets to Fated Mates LIVE in Brooklyn, NY, on March 23, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel! Join us, along with Kate Clayborn, Lauren Billings (one-half of Christina Lauren), Nikki Payne, and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live! Preorder Kate’s The Other Side of Disappearing three days early (and books from everyone else!) from The Ripped Bodice—links, tickets and more info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Our next read along is Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

If you like Matthew Macfadyen in Pride and Prejudice, perhaps you will also like him on Ripper Street.

Coming to Fated Mates Live this month? Go see a musical or a dance performance or eat some pizza when you’re in New York.

Apparently, we’re all talking about himbos, and because of Ken, apparently 2023 was the year of the himbo.

A truly excellent himbo: Chris Hemsworth in Ghostbusters.

Y’all enjoyed Romance Science so much, we figured, why not tackle romance law next! This week, we’re discussing wills and trusts, inheritances, guardianship, and more than a few HR violations! We also begin the episode with an important addendum to Romance Science (apologies to the Passion fans in the crowd).

There’s still time for you to join us for Fated Mates LIVE in Brooklyn, NY, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel, on March 23rd, along with Kate Clayborn, Lauren Billings (one-half of Christina Lauren), Nikki Payne, and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live! Preorder Kate’s The Other Side of Disappearing three days early (and books from everyone else!) from The Ripped Bodice—links, tickets and more info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Our next read along is Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

Listen to the Romance Science episode.

Pride & Prejudice won the 2024 romance bracket, hosted by Ali Parker of the RomEverAfter Pod.

Romance biology addendum: the hymen, the Passion episode.

Romance Law probably started with our love of TV Law: LA Law, Ally McBeal, The Good Wife, and Law & Order.

We’re joined this week by the fabulous Nikki Payne, author of Pride & Protest and this month’s new release Sex, Lies & Sensibility to talk about home renovation romance and why we all love it so much! Is it because of competence? Yes. Because we like it when characters have to walk through fire together? Definitely. Because of the metaphor for our lives and futures? Absolutely. We talk about all these things, and how Old School historical really did the business on this trope. And — a bonus! Sarah finally gets to talk with someone about Jane Austen!

Nikki is joining us at Fated Mates Live! Join us in Brooklyn, NY, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel, on March 23rd, along with Kate Clayborn, Lauren Billings (one-half of Christina Lauren) and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live!

Preorder Kate’s The Other Side of Disappearing three days early (and books from everyone else!) from The Ripped Bodice—links, tickets and more info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Our next read along is Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

Welcome Nikki Payne, author of Sex, Lies, and Sensibility. She’ll be at the Ripped Bodice on Feb 23, and at Fated Mates Live, along with Kate Clayborn, Lauren Billings from Christina Lauren, and a few hundred Magnificent Firebirds on March 23, 2024. You can get signed copies of her books at East City Books in DC.

Jen had to read A Separate Peace in high school and doesn’t have the best memories of it, to be honest.

The mid-90s were a real high tide for Austen adaptions: in 1995 the movies Clueless and Sense and Sensibility and a miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, and the following year the movie Emma.

A little bit more about the rights of American women to have their own bank accounts, but women’s access to fair credit is still unjust.

A few movies we discussed this week: The Money Pit, Something New, and Baby Boom.

We’re talking about gaming hells! Is it residual Derek Craven love? Probably. Why does Sarah love a casino so much? Why are we so into ladies being wagered by the idiot men in their lives? What makes these places that are so not sexy in real 2024 life so incredibly hot in a) James Bond movies, b) heist movies, and c) historical romances? We’re getting to the bottom of it—or at least, we’re going to talk about books we love. That’s the Fated Mates promise.

We’re betting you’re going to love this one! (see what we did there?)

We also talk about Fated Mates Live! Join us in Brooklyn, NY, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel, on March 23rd, along with a collection of special guests and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live! Tickets and info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Our next read along is Heather Guerre’s Preferential Treatment, one of Sarah’s favorite romances of 2022. Get it at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

Get Fated Mates Live tickets for March 23, 2024 in Brooklyn.

We think that waking up married is different than casinos.

Derek Craven is of course our favorite casino-owner, but Sarah wrote a pretty famous casino series, too.

In modern times, casinos are owned by giant conglomerates and they are definitely making a ton of money, Especially this past weekend since the Superbowl was in Vegas.

The Taylor Swift Effect is real.

Have we mentioned that there are lots of movies about casinos out there in the world.

“Fuck me gently with a chainsaw” is a reference to Heathers, not a dark romance.

An explainer about fantasy sports and where they are legal.

You can join Sarah and Julia Quinn next Tuesday, February 20, online via Zoom. They'll be talking about all things Bridgerton, about romance, about reading and writing, and taking questions! Register for the free event, sponsored Illinois Libraries Present, and join them!

We’re so excited for today’s deep dive on Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot — a sexy, second-chance romance that gave us so many feelings, including delight that Natalie is at the very beginning of her romance writing career! Here we talk about taking big swings in romance, about telling love stories against the backdrop of real life issues, and about how this book’s ending might be the closest thing to Kleypas we’ve read in a long time. Get the book at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

We also talk about Fated Mates Live! Join us in Brooklyn, NY, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel, on March 23rd! Join us along with a collection of special guests and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live! Tickets and info are at fatedmates.net/live.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

• On March 16 2024, Jen will be at the Forest Park Library for an event called Book Buzz. Use this link to register. It’s all about romance, and Natalie Cana, Nicole Falls, and local Forest Parker Maria Monroe.
• Selective mutism is a type of anxiety disorder.
• Humboldt Park is a Chicago neighborhood that has been ethnically Latine with the largest Puerto Rican population in the city, for a long time. The gentrification described in the book is a real problem facing the neighborhood. If you were inspired by this story, you can support La Case Norte, a real Humboldt Park organization that supports homeless teenagers.
• This whole Arrested Development thing about Army was very funny, just trust us.
• The Rock having a tea party with his daughter is very adorable.
• February romance articles are coming, including one written by Jen for Kirkus.
• You can sign up for the virtual conversation with Sarah and Julia Quinn, hosted by the Illinois Libraries (which includes Oak Park) on Feb 20th, 2024.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/2/6/0622-a-dish-best-served-hot-by-natalie-cana
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

It’s February which means it’s time for the biggest holiday in romance — Derek Craven Day! We’re so thrilled to be able to celebrate this remarkable man—born in a drainpipe, named himself, turned to a life of spectacle stealing—with all of you! This year, we’re so excited to have friend of the pod and of Cravens, Sanjana (follow her on TikTok at baskinsuns), to chat with us about her landmark research: A Comprehensive Categorization of Kleypas Heroes. We laugh, we get serious, and yes, we even talk about Zachary Bronson. — calm down, Bronsonettes.

Also — it just feels right that we’re announcing Fated Mates Live on Derek Craven Day! Join us in Brooklyn, NY, at the gorgeous William Vale Hotel, on March 23rd! Join us along with a collection of special guests and a roomful of other romance-obsessed listeners for a night of romance shenanigans at a live taping of Fated Mates! While we’re never sure quite how it’s going to go, we can guarantee there will be books, booze and bantr…and you’ll leave full of joy from all the fun. We’ve even got The Ripped Bodice on hand to sell books, and the room will be available for hanging with other Firebirds after the live! Tickets and info are at fatedmates.net/live.

Next week, we’re deep diving on Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot. Find it at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

• Welcome Sanj. You can find her on TikTok or twitter. Her “Comprehensive Categorization of Kleypas Heroes” below went through several iterations during the pandemic, you're looking at v4. Lots of people have organized their thoughts about Kleypas characters, we also liked this one that’s a Venn Diagram.
• Kate Clayborn joined us in 2021 to address a deeply silly list of questions and scenarios submitted by Magnificent Firebirds. It is absolutely worth a second listen.
• In 2023, we dropped That’s So Craven. And then there’s our Dreaming of You read along.
• If you’re looking for hard data about what Derek Craven would or would never do, or just want to browse some absurd memes, the official Derek Craven Day master page has you covered. There are a few new memes this year and an answer to an important new question about Derek shopping at Winterborne’s.
• Finally, the YouTube version of the 2021 Derek Craven Day episode will light up any display from phone to TV with an exhaustive list of Derek Creaven would/never scenarios. You can turn down the sound and just have it loop all day long. It’s very possible that only Eric thinks this is a good idea, but you never know.
• Oh, and this.

This one is probably as goofy as we get — we’ve spent six years talking about Romance Science, and now class is in session! We’re talking biology, human physiology, astronomy, neurology, urology, gynecology, obstetrics and dermatology. Basically, we’ve studied this enough to hold multiple MDs & PhDs. If we’re ever on a plane and someone needs a doctor, we’re volunteering. Love doctors count, right? We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording.

Our first read along of 2024 is Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot. Find it at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

Two brothers who are both in the NFL, that’s romance science. Kylie Kelce seems pretty cool. Too bad we missed her book.

On twitter, you can check out the Male Scent Catalog, and Jen has talked about this flower thing, too.

Conveniently, Jen wrote a review of the book where that guy had Periwinkle eyes, it was called A Very Private Love by Melinda Cross.

What are Palazzo pants, you might be wondering.

When it comes to superheroes, everyone is beautiful and no one is horny. Believe it or not, that’s not even how we ended up on Christopher Reeve as Superman.

You should definitely pee after sex if you have a vagina.

There is a huge difference between a million and a billion, or here’s [another way] to see it11, or another way.

Jen is obsessed with lens wipes, and you will be, too, if you try them.

It seems impossible that we haven’t done this one, but we haven’t done this one! We’re talking one night stands—the absolute classic that ends up being a part of so many chaotic, wonderful romances. We’re talking about how they work, why its so important for them to make sense in the context of the story, and how the best authors inject emotion into one life-changing moment (often) early in the book. Enjoy!

Our first read along of 2024 is Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot. Find it at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the The rom com brackets are out, hosted by Allie Parker of the RomEverAfterPod.

Joy Ride was a great movie, even if Jen bungled the plot description. She was excited, okay!

Sarah and Jen have been doing some other fun reading. Sarah read Jess K Hardy’s forthcoming Lips Like Sugar and she also got some cool paperbacks from the inlaws: Gift of Fire and A Coral Kiss by Jayne Ann Krentz along with Nora Roberts’ Charmed. Jen and Ernie were reading Reacher short stories.

Is it getting hot in here? It is! We’re talking about firefighters this week — arguably the best of the hero(in)es in uniform because, let’s face it, there’s something pretty sexy about someone who will run into flames to save a stranger…let alone to save you. We’re talking about primordial firefighters, about patriarchy (obviously), about the difference between city firefighters and smoke jumpers, and about about the nature of a love interest who puts themself in danger for a living. All that, and they can dead lift you, too. 

Our first read along of 2024 is Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot. Find it at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

You can watch some movies and shows about firefighters and paramedics: Backdraft, Chicago Fire, and Sky Med.

Here’s a snipped of the scene from Backdraft where they break a car window to get the hose to the hydrant.

Wildland firefighting is dangerous and often underpaid, and the Marshall Project has written extensively on prisoners forced into these jobs. Also, here is a first person account of two men who used emergency fire shelters to survive a wildfire.

Firefighting demographics are actually pretty bad in Chicago, and here’s a libguide (a library designed portal for collecting links/info on a certain topic) from the University of Illinois about this history of women in firefighting.

Too bad about Charmed by the Alien Vampire Firemen!

Is it getting hot in here? It is! We’re talking about firefighters this week — arguably the best of the hero(in)es in uniform because, let’s face it, there’s something pretty sexy about someone who will run into flames to save a stranger…let alone to save you. We’re talking about primordial firefighters, about patriarchy (obviously), about the difference between city firefighters and smoke jumpers, and about about the nature of a love interest who puts themself in danger for a living. All that, and they can dead lift you, too. 

Our first read along of 2024 is Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot. Find it at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes

You can watch some movies and shows about firefighters and paramedics: Backdraft, Chicago Fire, and Sky Med.

Here’s a snipped of the scene from Backdraft where they break a car window to get the hose to the hydrant.

Wildland firefighting is dangerous and often underpaid, and the Marshall Project has written extensively on prisoners forced into these jobs. Also, here is a first person account of two men who used emergency fire shelters to survive a wildfire.

Firefighting demographics are actually pretty bad in Chicago, and here’s a libguide (a library designed portal for collecting links/info on a certain topic) from the University of Illinois about this history of women in firefighting.

Too bad about Charmed by the Alien Vampire Firemen!

It’s New Years Eve, and that means tackling some of the more headphones-in stuff in the Romance Pool, we don’t make the rules. Ok. We kind of make the rules, and this is the New Years Eve service we provide. Today, we’re talking breeding kink in romance with one of our faves, Joanna Shupe! She’s here in disguise though, as Mila Finelli, author of absolutely fire mafia romances, including her latest, Mafia Virgin, which features this particular trope and is a full on delight.

As usual, we start out giggling and then get serious as we try to get to the bottom of this very specific thing that seems to have had a recent resurgence in romance. We do patriarchy, body autonomy and heteronormativity, then get into the provenance of this particular romance trope, and finally to the but why tho part of the discussion with a minor detour about spelling. We net out at…well, just give it a listen. But for the love of all that is holy, put your headphones in.

Happy New Year, Magnificent Firebirds. We love you a lot and hope that 2024 is the best year yet. xx Jen & Sarah

Show Notes

Our New Years Eve episodes are always...interesting. Listen to past years:

2019: Pegging in Romance with Sierra Simone

2020: Jessa Kane extravaganza with Andie Christopher, Alexis Daria, Adriana Herrera, LaQuette, Tracey Livesay, Nisha Sharma, and Joanna Shupe

2022: Omegaversity with Adriana Herrera and Ali Hazelwood

In 2021 we released the Season 2 Ted Lasso Roy Kent lovefest on New Year's Eve, but we were still pandemic-ing, so please don't blame us for the detour in brand that year. We came back with a bang in 2022, and now, in 2023, we're the full banana, as surely you can agree.

It’s our annual holiday romance episode, and we’re so excited to have you with us! No Santa this year, but we’ve got Toy Runners, audio sexitimes in the Alps, menage in NYC, and more than one snowy cabin just waiting to keep us isolated from the outside world. You’re going to love it. Headphones in, though, please!

We don’t have an episode next week, but we’ll be back with a special guest for our annual New Years Eve episode. In the meantime, we hope you get everything you want from whomever you believe in. Thanks for being with us in 2023 — we can’t wait for what comes next.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

We read a bunch of books for the holidays, but mostly they lean Christmas this year. Last year’s episode was just about Santa.

Our listener Katie sent us the Instagram Reel about Daddy December, but it's gone now!

Subscribe to the BookBub daily email. You won’t be sad! I also followed @Shadesnpages who had two different #jinglebooks games, one for Naughty and one for Nice. The Lifetime movie that promised a sex scene failed to deliver, and Jen made a joke about it on Twitter, of course.

Audio porn exists -- check out the British Filth archive on Tumblr, MitchellASMR on Patreon (some free stuff on Patreon without subscription, too), and apparemtly, the place to find audio now is Quinn. Try it here.

You didn’t think we were going to stay silent during the current dragon frenzy, did you? We absolutely have things to say about dragon heroes, and the one from Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound in particular — which meant we had no choice but to do a surprise deep dive, read along! We talk about dragon shifters, about the history of dragons in romance, about why we think this is a near perfect example of paranormal romance and road trip romance. Also, if you are looking for rom com, look no further. This is a funny funny book.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

• Get our Best Romance of 2023 book box from Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. We're excited to be partnering with them on this one!
• Dragons are kind of big right now.
• A Cowby Christmas Romance, the Lifetime Movie with the sex scene, failed to deliver.
• Wikipedia 0, Jen 1. Playing records backwards used to be a big thing everyone was worried about, but then we got over it and it's just something Harry Styles does.
• Ladyhawke is a super great movie from the 1985, but then again, we’re old.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/12/11/0614-dragon-bound-by-thea-harrison
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

It’s December, Jen is in NYC, and we’re taking questions from our Discord and Instagram! Listen to us talk about how we read, what makes us DNF, how we met, the books we loved this year (that weren’t published this year), and more. We love these episodes, and not only because they happen when we’re together on Sarah’s couch, but also because we get to talk directly to you!

Next week’s episode is a surprise deep dive, because y’all are wild about dragons! We’re reading Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound, available in print and ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo and your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Get our Best Romance of 2023 book box from Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. We're excited to be partnering with them on this one!

You know what we meant when we talked about Bart writing on the chalkboard.

If you’ve never been to New York City at Christmas, we would highly recommend it. This year, the windows at Saks were cosponsored by Dior and celebrated the signs of the zodiac, and it’s pretty awesome. But there’s also the angels and the Rockefeller center tree, and the Bryant Park holiday market.

Jen also went to Back to the Future the musical and ate at the place with two bulls, which was actually called Benny John’s.

Tillie Cole has bigger problems then Jen not liking any mention of cults in the books she reads.

Should you DNF? Yes.

If you’re looking for a romance writer’s conference, check out the Chicago North conference in April of 2024.

Some bookish gifts: a Book stand, a bluetooth page turner for your eReader, and get a stand while you’re at it.

Tracey Livesay made a very funny and very perfect video this week about the rise of Romantasy.

This week, we’re doing things a little differently! A while back, we donated an episode for bid in the Lift 4 Autism auction, arranged by friend of the pod, Kennedy Ryan. Listener Julie won (thanks, Julie!) and selected Roan Parrish’s Rend for a deep dive read along, which we were so happy to do! After a shocking amount of Bantr, here it is — we’re talking about POV, about sadness in romances, about the way romance represents loneliness, and more.

We’re also taking a bit of time to recommend a group of books that have autism spectrum rep on page and that we, members of our Discord, and other authors adore. Enjoy!

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

If you’re looking to buy stuff, especially this weekend during holiday-sale-extravaganza, you should probably check out Wirecutter.

You should subscribe to the Bookbub daily email, choose what kinds of books you want and watch your wallet!

Order the best of the year box from Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. The Best of 2023 list comes out next week!

We’re feeling silly and spicy this week, so we’re delivering the silly, spicy niche content you’ve come to expect from us now and then — we’re talking Men in Fur! This one is for alien lovers, medieval warlord stans, and everyone who’s ever messaged us to ask for a Viking interstitial. We’re talking about fur in all it’s function—luxury, warmth, competence, historical necessity—and getting to the bottom of why we like it so much. It’s not the mojo dojo casa house vibe, but it sure is something. Headphones in because fur, and proceed with caution…these Viking books are a lot. You’ve been warned.

Our next read along, and last of the year, will be Roan Parrish’s Rend. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Kobo.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

• The Nora Roberts book where the hero smokes is Born in Ice.
• Our Deep Dive on Milla Vane's A Heart of Blood and Ashes.
• Season 1 of Game of Thrones aired in 2011, and Jason Momoa’s character Khal Drago did not wear fur as far as we can tell, but you still deserve nice things.
• Carding wool is strangely calming if you ever have a chance, and all about alpaca fibers.
• If You're ever in York, check out the Jorvik Viking Center. Volcanoes are erupting all the time, no need to worry! If you’re in the mood for some non-romance Viking content, read the short story Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/11/14/s0610-men-in-fur-aliens-warlords-and-vikings
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

It’s another sports interstitial! We’re talking sports, balls & sports balls with the brilliant Jessica Luther, sports romance lover, podcaster, and author of Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape and Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan. Everyone came to this one with their own strategy, so we’re talking everything from beach volleyball to hockey, surfing to F1. Of course, we talk about Beckham, but surprisingly, we don’t even say Jurgen Klopp one time.

Show Notes

• Welcome Jessica Luther. You can read her books, Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape and Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan, or listen to her (on hiatus) sports podcast Burn it All Down. Her dissertation is about Retha Swindell and the first integrated women’s basketball team at UT, and she recently wrote about the 50th anniversary of "The Battle of the Sexes."
• WNBA stuff we talked about: Teresa Weatherspoon is the new head coach for the Chicago Sky, Allie Quigley and Courtney VanderSloot, Dawn Staley supporting her players, and the WNBA pandemic bubble, and that dumb man who thinks a high school boys basketball team could beat a WNBA team, which by the way dumb men have been saying this about the WNBA for a long time.
• Football stuff we talked about: Taylor Swift has caused a spike of interest in the NFL, the SNL skit with the football players, women on TikTok getting their husbands to say that Taylor Swift is putting Travis Kelce on the map, the real life football cupcake shop in Austin, and why it’s a dumb idea to use betting apps on your phone.
• MNBA stuff we talked about: That tall man who plays for the Spurs is Victor Wembanyama and he’s 7’4” and it’s honestly quite startling! Bobby Knight was a terrible man. Jen’s too cheap to pay $300 a seat for a Bulls game.
• Hockey Stuff we talked about: the openly homophobic NHL banned pride tape this year, and even though they rescinded the ban, it’s still pretty awful for queer players and fans, the Blackhawks abuse scandal.
• Racing stuff we talked about: The Racy Books Podcast, F1 racing, Lewis Hamilton, Drive to Survive on Netflix, and NASCAR in Chicago. An important addition: a reader contacted us and let us know about Robbie Wickens, a race car driver who suffered a spinal cord injury in an Indy Car race and has returned to racing.
• Soccer stuff we talked about: Ted Lasso and the Beckham documentary on Netflix.
• a folder of PDFs for ya.

Today, we’re reading an absolute romance classic — one of those books everyone tells you is a must read, and one that neither of us had read before the podcast! We’re taking a few minutes at the top to admit our mutual folly, though, because Flowers from the Storm is stunning, and we now feel grown up enough to appreciate it.

We talk about Quakers, about dogs and kittens and apes, about men with pirate smiles and vengeance in their heart, about thees and thous, about capitalism and happily ever after and about how internal conflict can sometimes be the most difficult hurdle to overcome. Also, we find an undeniable reason to learn trigonometry.

Our next read along, and last of the year, will be Roan Parrish’s Rend. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Kobo.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

• All about the Quakers, including some thoughts about pronoun usage.
• You definitely did not want to be in an Insane asylum in the 1800s...or in 2023. Just ask Britney Spears.
• People we think have read this: Ruby Dixon, Lisa Kleypas, Kresley Cole, Elizabeth Hoyt, Kerrigan Byrne.
• People we know have read this: Kate Clayborn (this is her favorite book) and Kennedy Ryan (this is one of her favorite books)
• The narrator of this audiobook is Nicholas Boulton, and Jen highly recommends it. Let Boulton do all the decoding for you. Here is a short YouTube clip of him talking with Kinsale about reading steam scenes.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/10/30/s0608-flowers-from-the-storm-by-laura-kinsale
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

Jen’s been asking for this for six literal years, and we’re finally doing it! It’s Halloween and we’re talking Devils! Sure, we’ll touch on demons, but aren’t the scariest Devils the granite-jawed feelingless scoundrels who are definitely never going to fall in love? We’re talking Wicked Cynsters in Winter, Scoundrels of Downtown, Deals in Bed with Hades. You’re going to love it. All trick, no treat.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

The Las Vegas Aces won the WNBA championship for the second year in a row, and twitter was actually fun for a few days.

Jen ranted about this dumb Washington Post article about Lee and Andrew Child.

We have some documentaries to recommend: Sarah liked Beckham on Netflix and Jen liked The Supermodels on Apple Plus. Linda Evangalista’s “We don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day” has aged better than Kate Moss’s, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” Either way, GenX has some body issues.

Devils are just morality chain when you think about it.

There actually is a place in VA called the Devil’s Bathtub! I wonder if there are any camps nearby.

Here’s a handy explainer on the difference between homophones, homographs, and homonyms from the good people at Merriam-Webster. Looks like Cynster and Sinister would be homophones.

Speaking of Cynsters, listen to our deep dive of Devil's Bride.

Here’s the video about the audiobook of Unhinged.

Are you in Florida? Sarah will be at the Off the Page Book Festival in Sarasota in November.

Our Trailblazer conversations continue this week with legend Nalini Singh, whose groundbreaking paranormal series changed the game. We talk about the early days of her writing (when she was a kid!) about building her career in New Zealand, about how she came to publish in the US, about her beautiful relationships with readers, about the way she thinks about her series and how the stories hang together, and about her moves into contemporary and beyond.

We are so grateful to Nalini Singh for making time for us, and for her amazing books.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

• Welcome Nalini Singh, author of dozens of romance novels, including several popular paranormal series. You should subscribe to her newsletter on her site! We did a deep dive of Caressed by Ice in Season 4.
• Preorder her new thriller, There Should Have Been Eight, coming November 21st, right now.
• Authors & Books: The Time is Short by Nerina Hilliard, Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jayne Ann Krentz, Yvonne Lindsay/EV Lind, Karina Bliss, Louisa George, Helen Bianchin, Emma Darcy, JD Robb, Meljean Brook.
• Publishing Professionals: Berkley editor Cindy Hwang, bookseller Barbara Clendon owner of Barbara’s Books.
• A transcript (by a human being!) is available for this episode.

Oh no! Jen has bronchitis or at least something with bronchitis vibes and her voice is barely with us, so Sarah went rogue and brought Lauren Billings, the Lauren half of Christina Lauren, with her! While Jen is taking this week off, Sarah & Lauren are taking this opportunity to talk about a topic that is deeply Not For Jen™️, Hot for Teacher!

We talk about Anne of Green Gables, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other teachers who just might have installed our buttons, and then we get to absolutely crushing TBR piles! Headphones in for this one — it is not for all markets, and you’ve been warned!

Jen will be back next week along with a very fun Trailblazer, and then we’ll be tackling our first read along of Season 6, Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

This week is full ✨vibes✨ and we’re not sorry about it. By request, we’re doing a “Romances for Sweater Weather” which aren’t spooky for Halloween and aren’t (mostly) snowbound romances, but are just…full of apple cinnamon, pumpkin spice, fuzzy socks feelings. We’re talking about sports, about crunching leaves, about small towns, about pumpkins and about elections, so it must be fall here on the pod. Light that fire, put on that cable knit sweater, and get to reading. We’ve got you sorted.

Our first read along of the season will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Check out Louisa Edwards’s chef romances. The first is called Can’t Stand the Heat.

We like a man in a cable knit sweater. So sue us.

Katy, Texas is home of a lot of football and a lot of book banning.

We don’t really have any opinion about Taylor Swift’s new boyfriend, but his mom seems great.

We’re so excited for today’s episode—in which we topple TBRs worldwide in support of the #23for23 Challenge! Spearheaded by Adriana Herrera, Nikki Payne and Nisha Sharma, 23 for 23 encourages romance readers to read 23 books by BIPOC authors about BIPOC characters before the end of 2023.

Nikki Payne joins us for a bit to talk about the challenge and why it’s important, and to lay out some clear ways we can all help boost BIPOC books and authors….and then we get down to business, recommending a truly enormous number of books. Get your pencils ready, you’re going to want to take several notes.

Learn more about the #23for23Challenge and see the full list of participating authors at 23for23.net.

Our first read along of the season will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

We’re so excited you’re with us for this season! The first interstitial episode of Season 6 drops today and it’s the full banana, meaning—here’s where we talk about the absolutely bonkers romance novels we’ve encountered over our decades of romance reading. Sentient doors, 24-ounces of liquid, gorilla attacks, kinky bank robbers, and Tarzan retellings are here…and so much more!

Our first read along of the season will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

We had a great time at the Popular Romance Fiction conference at Yale. We met Carole Bell, one of our favorite reviewers. We were also joined on our panel by Julie Moody-Freeman of the Black Romance Podcast and Kinohi Nishikawa from Princeton. Our moderator was Jeania Ree Moore, a PhD student at Yale and one of the lead organizers of the conference. It was spectacular, as were all the panels and classes at the event.

Jen has decided, a group of Magnificent Firebirds is a phalanx, it just rolls off the tongue: a phalanx of firebirds!

Check out the great selection of romances and book boxes at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA.

The drilldo book is called Laying Pipe by Kate Allure, and here’s a little illustration from our fave, Jennifer Porter. Don’t worry future Fated Mates listener, I took a screenshot for posterity once twitter is gone for good.

You can listen to Sarah do a deep dive on Gorilla Twins over at Learning the Tropes.

You should really watch the movie Lone Star starring Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, and a young Matthew McConaughey, but we are less sure if you should read The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Season Six! How is this even possible!

Season One gave us a full lAD deep dive (if you’ve never read Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark, general existential malaise is a really good reason to start), and Season Two gave us The Books That Blooded Us, the books that made us the romance readers we are. Season Three was during a pandemic, and celebrated that thing we were all desperate for—joy. Season Four introduced the Trailblazer episodes, where we featured interviews with the people who have built the romance house over the last fifty years.

Season Five built on all of that, deep diving on books that are new and fabulous, old and transformative, and generally celebrating the vast and magnificent romance pool. Season six will do the same. We’ve got interstitials, trailblazers, read alongs and interviews planned, so head over to your favorite podcasting app and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute.

The season launches today with what we thing is an absolute banger—a trailblazer episode about Jackie Collins, legend, juggernaut, author and lady boss, who was gone too soon.

We’re so lucky to have had a chance to talk to Collins’s daughters, Rory Green and Tiffany Lerman, who were immensely generous with their time and storytelling, to talk about their mother’s life and work. We love this conversation, and are so grateful to Ms. Green and Ms. Lerman for their time.

Our first read along of the season will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Jackie Collins died in 2015. You should watch the Netflix documentary Lady Boss for more about Jackie’s life, as well as her YouTube channel.

Chels wrote a great essay about the infamous interview between Barbara Cartland & Jackie Collins.

Authors and publishing professionals mentioned Enid Blyton, Harold Robbins, Sidney Sheldon, her editor was Suzanne Baboneau at Simon & Schuster.

Season six is almost here, but not quite yet. To keep you entertained, we’re sharing Sarah’s latest appearance on the excellent Failure to Adapt podcast. FM listeners will thoroughly enjoy this discussion of the 1933 short story Night Bus and the 1934 film adaptation It Happened One Night.

Listen to Failure to Adapt on Overcast, Podcast Addict, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere you enjoy podcasts. You can also keep up with the show on Instagram.

Maggie’s next book The Siren, the Song, and the Spy drops later this month.

We’re still on hiatus, but we’ve got more goodies for you. We recently stopped by Likewise for a chat, and they were gracious enough to let us share it with you. We talked about romance novels and recommended books, if you can imagine. There’s no host. It’s just us. So give it a listen!

If you’re looking for more fun stuff to fill the time between now and next week’s season six premiere, we’ve got plenty of Bantr+ and Five Minute Firebird at fatedmates.net/patreon.

And check out Likewise to get great recommended TV, film, podcasts, and BOOKS!

We’re on hiatus this week (next week, too!), but we miss you, so we’re bringing you treats! On our Patreon, we host a short-video conversation series with our favorite people, sometimes about romance, and mostly about other things they are into. We’ve had Adriana Herrera, Dani from Ice Planet Pod, Maureen Lee Lenker, Eloisa James and Jen’s friend Ernie, among others! This week we thought we’d share the audio from our chat with Christina Lauren, which, as you can imagine, is more than five minutes.

Enjoy this fun chat with our friends and stay tuned for more goodies over the next two weeks…and learn more about our Patreon at fatedmates.net/patreon!

Sarah has a new book out, so as is tradition for our last episode of the season, Jen is playing host, and Sarah is playing guest, and we’re talking about this gorgeous cover, about secrets and power, about Exasperated Man vibes, about characters having to learn lessons, about writing propulsive stories, about how bored Sarah gets by ballrooms and about how fun it is to write in a big fictional, fantasy world. Jen talks about how Bruce Springsteen understands romance novels better than most people.

It’s mostly a spoiler free episode, but you might prefer to finish your read before listening. Enjoy! And don’t miss the first two chapters of the magnificent Knockout audiobook, narrated by the incomparable Mary Jane Wells, at the end of the episode!

If you still haven’t got a copy of Knockout, you can get it signed, with exclusive FM swag, from Book Club Bar in NYC, or at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or Apple Books, or in print from your local independent bookseller.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Lil Romance is in Europe, and apparently will become very familiar with Eurail. Why because Europe is so small compared to the US, for example, check out this map of the Great Lakes basin compared to the continent of Europe.

Imposter syndrome explained.

Join us in New Haven CT at the Yale Romance Conference Sept 8-9, 2023. We are both very excited to meet Carole Bell, a romance advocate and a crackerjack reviewer. If you are listening to this the day it released, you can tune into Likewise tonight and hear us chatting about Knockout and recommending books.

Read Adriana's An Island Princess Starts a Scandal.

Sounds like if you need to learn more about explosions, gunpowder, nitroglycerine, and TNT, the person to call is Elena Armas. Preorder The Long Game, which comes out on Sept 5, 2023.

Other pirate ship desks include: Chase's desk in Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover, Whit's desk in Brazen & the Beast, and Max's desk in A Duke Worth Falling For.

In 2005, Bruce Springsteen was on VH1’s Storytellers, and his description of the work of Thunder Road is exactly how we think of the work of romance. Watch all the way until the end, when he says, “Nothing left but the ride. So this was my big invitation to my audience, to myself, to anybody that was interested. My invitation to a long and earthly, very earthly journey, hopefully in the company of someone you love, people you love, and in search of a home that you can feel a part of.” A perfect description of the romance genre, Bruce!

The Hell's Belles playlist got a major Knockout update. Listen on Spotify and Apple Music.

We’re talking about a classic trope that we’ve somehow missed over five seasons — Grumpy/Sunshine! Of course our favorite brand of this particular trope is what our friend B.andherbooks calls “Exasperated Man™️,” but we’re talking about the whole continuum of grumps and sunshines, including grumpy women (because it’s 2023, and aren’t most women pretty grumpy, honestly). Check out this list of books, and share your own faves!

Next week, we’re reading Knockout! Get it signed, with exclusive FM swag, from Book Club Bar in NYC), our next read along will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

AI is for scamming, and scamming, and more scamming.

Perhaps you, too, would like to see Denzel Washington not as the enforcer, but as the Equalizer. The 3rd installment will be released on Sept 1, 2023.

We’re talking fairytale retellings today with Zoraida Córdova, the author of Kiss the Girl, a new retelling of The Little Mermaid. We talk about the responsibility of authors when they tackle retellings, about the relevance of fairytales in the world, about the history of fairytales, and about why they resonate so powerfully with us as authors and readers.

After Sarah’s Knockout (preorder it signed, with exclusive FM swag, from her local bookstore), our next read along will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Welcome back, Zoraida Córdova. She was on the podcast back in Season 3 talking about fantasy romance. Kiss the Girl is a Little Mermaid retelling, and the third book in the Meant to Be series. You can check out her other mermaid books, a YA series that starts with The Viscous Deep, or the forthcoming anthology Mermaids Never Drown.

Are we billionaires from winning the MegaMillions? Probably not. But if we did, Jen is planning to renovate the Jackson Park Beach House. The great thing about helping refugees and immigrants is you can do something about that even if you haven’t won the lottery.

It’s a million degrees and no one has time for slow burns right now, y’all. This week, we’re talking books that start with a bang — and we mean literally. We talk about how difficult it is to thread the needle on romance that starts with sex, about the tropes that lend themselves to this particular theme, about sex work, one night stands, about erotic romance vs. romance, and about how pulling this set up off takes masterful skill with character. There are so many great books for you in here. Enjoy!

After Sarah’s Knockout (preorder it signed, with exclusive FM swag, from her local bookstore), our next read along will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Jen using the phrase “fast, incendiary burn” to refer to books that start with a bang dates all the way back to season 2. The Twitter thread where Funmi compared slow burns to crockpots is here. If I could figure out how to save it (screenshots, I guess, sigh), I would.

We had Nikki Sloane on to talk about taboo romance, but we also like Jennifer Porter’s definition of erotic romance from a 2019 twitter thread, where she said, “I don't think the sexual relationship has to be the conflict. But sex/sexual interaction/etc has to be critical to the development of the relationship….I think their has to be some type of sexual journey for the main characters for a book to be erotic romance…Ultimately, if there is sex in a romance, it should be important to the couple's journey, but maybe in erotic romance, the main characters need to have a sexual or erotic journey of some sort.”

Knockout arrives on August 22! Join Sarah at her NYC launch party (a real party!) and meet new friends at a romance-specific hang on August 24th. Tickets and details here.

Take Sarah's Mastering the Art of Great Conflict the week of August 6th. More info here.

Head to Yale University to take Sarah & Adriana's writing romance class, and to hear Fated Mates & The Black Romance Podcast talk about oral history and romance.

After literal years of requests for this one, we’re finally tackling the divorced main characters in romance! We talk about romance between grown ups, about bad exes and good ones, about marriages that were mistakes and ones that help characters learn. This one is full of contemporaries and historicals, and you definitely don’t want to miss it.

After Sarah’s Knockout (preorder it signed, with exclusive FM swag, from her local bookstore), our next read along, the first of Season Six, will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Jen saw Beyonce for the Renaissance Tour at Solder Field this week for the Renaissance Tour, and also Barbie and Oppenheimer, although not on the same day, so not the full Barbenheimer experience.

Divorce is becoming less common in America, but it might not be a good thing.

No, Elizabeth Taylor didn’t have violet eyes.

A folder with PDFs of this week's articles.

Today, we’re talking about books we’re excited about this Summer! We’re toppling TBRs with books you can get now, books you can preorder, books that are terrific beach reads, books that gave us big feelings, and books that made us really very happy. Enjoy!

For the readers in the group, preorder Sarah’s book, Knockout, now. For the writers in the group, register for her conflict class, at her website.

Our next read along, the first of Season Six, will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

We go back to the OG DNA of the contemporary boom of the early 2010s today, with a read along of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, with fabulous fan fic writers turned brilliant romance novelists, Christina Lauren. Christina and Lauren talk about the way the books inspired them to write, helped them find a community, and their fated mates (each other). Jen talks about reading Twilight as a middle school teacher, and Sarah talks about never reading it at all…until now.

Within, we’ll talk about characters feeling big feelings, about how Twilight inspired romance novelists across the board, about third acts that go hard, and about how Alice is unquestionably the best character in the whole thing.

Get Christina and Lauren’s most recent book, The True Love Experiment, wherever books are sold, and this week from Bookshop.org, where you get free shipping and help your local independent bookstore.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

• Welcome back Christina and Lauren! After listening to them talk about Twilight, don’t forget to pick up their latest book, The True Love Experiment. We’ve had Christina and Lauren on a bunch of times to talk about FanFic, The Soulmate Equation, and the forced proximity trope.
• Not sure of the exact article that Lo read about brain scans and married couples, but this seems like a good overview.
• And a selection of some of our favorite articles about Twilight:
• From The Atlantic: At Its Core, the ‘Twilight’ Saga Is a Story About
• From Entertainment Weekly: The Twilight Effect
• From The New York Times: Love and Pain and the Teenage Vampire Thing
• From Slate: All 349 “Murmurs” in the Twilight Saga, Charted and Ranked
• From Salon: Meet the Twilight Dildo Inventor
• From Vogue: 56 Thoughts I had While Rewatching Twilight
• From Vulture: The Most Horrific Twilight Character Backstories, Ranked by Absurdity and a video about The Rise and Fall of the Vampire Romance Craze in Film and TV.
• A Google Folder with PDFs of this week's articles.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/7/11/s0543-twilight-by-stephenie-meyer-with-christina-and-lauren
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We were devastated to learn of the passing of Julie Garwood, honest to God romance doyenne, last month. Garwood installed many of our buttons, and the buttons of so many romance readers who came up reading “The Four J’s,” and, more importantly, paved the way for historicals with humor. She was, without question, a trailblazer. While we were unable to interview her for our trailblazer series, we couldn’t let her passing go without an episode, so please enjoy our read along of The Bride, which is a nearly perfect book even now, decades after she wrote it.

While our thoughts are with with Julie Garwood’s family, her friends, and the legions of readers she delighted over her long and legendary career, our endless gratitude is with Julie Garwood herself—for the laughter, the sighs, and the absolute bangers that were her books.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

• We were devastated to learn about the death of romance great Julie Garwood. You can read her obituaries in the New York Times and the Washington Post. In 2022, Julie Garwood was a guest on the Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast.
• Are we at the end of the usable internet?
• A google folder with PDFs of this week's articles.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/7/4/s0542-remembering-julie-garwood
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We’re talking about worldbuilding this week, and you’re getting a glimpse into Jen and Sarah’s everyday non-podcasting romance chatter.

This one is for everyone — we talk about paranormal and historical romance, about what we think fantasy means when it comes to romance, and (most importantly) about how contemporary romance just might require the most worldbuilding of all of it?

Separately, Eric points out the irony of us referring to “two people in a phone booth” in an episode where we talk about how kids today don’t know about cassette tapes.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Show Notes

Donald Trump was indicted and was storing his documents, including some with nuclear secrets, in his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

Thread by Angus Johnson about ChatGPT and writing, which was in response to this article at PW about how AI will soon replace editors.

Sarah’s editor Carrie Feron says, “Your opening has to tell a story and leave the reader asking a question.”

A classic reaction video from Tim and Fred Williams to In the Air Tonight, Questlove was nervous about In the Air Tonight, and a terrific episode of Hit Parade about how Phil Collins changed the sound of drumming.

NPR did a terrific piece about Kennedy Ryan and why she’s so big right now, and we were briefly interviewed talking about her legacy.

Jen tries to make as many of those links as possible into PDFs! Thinking of you in the future times, wondering wtf we were talking about.