S07.26: Romance Novels With a Ticking Clock

This one's for those of you who've been asking us to talk more about craft on the podcast! We're talking romances with ticking clocks and clear time frames, about how this impacts conflict and makes books more breathless, and of course about the books that deploy this strategy perfectly. Inside, you'll find road trips and adventures, vacation romances and romantic suspense, house parties and that classic romance chestnut: "I have 30 days to get pregnant." It's going to be fun.

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Next week, we're reading Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

The Books

• It Had to Be You and Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Hot Touch by Deborah Smith
• Whiteout by Adriana Anders
• Waking up with the Duke by Lorraine Heath
• Perfect by Judith McNaught
• Fiasco by Constance Fay
• One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean
• Her Night with the Duke by Diana Quincy
• Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria
• Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen
• Sexy in Stilettos by Nana Malone
• Fan Service by Rosie Danan
• Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
• One Last Night by Lauren Ford
• Tycoon by Joanna Shupe
• Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday
• One Stormy Night by Jules Bennett
• Sins of a Wicked Duke by Sophie Jordan
• To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins
• Pleasure of a Dark Prince and Lothaire by Kresley Cole
• Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
• Luck of the Draw and The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn
• Dionysus in Wisconsin by E.H. Lupton

The Notes

• Join TJ Alexander and Joanna Lowell in a conversation at Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY on March 31st for a conversation about trans rep in romance, moderated by Sarah.
• Learn more about Run for Something and What You Can Run For in 2026 (don't forget to tell us you're running!), and preorder Amanda Litman's book, When We're in Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership wherever you get your books.
• Four Minutes is a very shallow cut, actually.
• This is the good stuff: Casey Kasem’s Top 40 and Friday Night Videos, boom boxes, and cable TV. Also, The Sound of Music on has an actual running time of 2 hours and 52 minutes and an “on-TV- with-commercials" running time of 200 hours and 52 minutes. The best scene is the curtains one, the dancing one, or the tearing down the flag one.
• That leg lamp is a reference to the movie A Christmas Story. 
• Conflict defined. Or, next time Sarah gives it in October 2025, attend her conflict workshop. Speaking of tension, how about that moment in Toy Story 3 when they are headed to the incinerator. 
• We’ve talked about Ted Lasso season 1 and season 2. Sarah wasn’t the only one disappointed with season 3, Jen felt the ship going down and bailed right out of it. 
• In the book Techniques of a Selling Writer, Dwight Swain described his scene and sequel theory.

The Sponsors

• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Office Sparks: A Workplace Romance Collection, with novellas by C.D. Reiss, K. Bromberg, Laurelin Paige, and Heather Graham, available in ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
• Lucy Score, author of Story of My Life, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• TJ Alexander, author of A Gentleman's Gentleman, available in print, ebook or audiobook, at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon, 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/2025/3/10/0726-romance-novels-with-a-ticking-clock
• 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.