Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

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 BooksJill Barnett's BETWITCHINGTeresa Medeiros's BREATH OF MAGICTeresa Medeiros's TOUCH OF ENCHANTMENTAnnette Blair's SEX AND THE PSYCHIC WITCHAnnette Blair's GONE WITH THE WITCHAnnette Blair's NEVER BEEN WITCHEDNora Roberts's DARK WITCHNora Roberts's SHADOW SPELLNora Roberts's BLOOD MAGICMolly Harper's WITCHES GET STUFF DONEMolly Harper's BIG WITCH ENERGYCelestine Martin's WITCHFUL THINKINGJuliette Cross's RESTING WITCH FACEAJ Sherwood's A FAE COIN TRANSPORTED ME INTO ANOTHER WORLD AND NOW I'M THE GAY HOLY MAIDENKimberly Lemming's THAT TIME I GOT DRUNK AND YEETED A LOVE POTION AT A WEREWOLFMeg Cabot's ENCHANTED TO MEET YOU Alexis Daria's WHAT THE HEXErin Sterling's THE EX HEXThe NotesIf 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 SponsorsBlue 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 RestFor 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 NotesJoanna 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.SponsorsDr. Melissa Dymond, author of Paging Dr. Hart, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle UnlimitedMary 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 RestFor 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 NotesWe’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.SponsorsFrederick Smith, author of One and Done, available at in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your booksAethon Press, publishers of SK Horton’s The Concealed, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle UnlimitedAvon 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 NotesMaybe 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 NotesYou 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 NotesCrush, 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 NotesThe 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 NotesRead 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 KeithShow NotesWe 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 NotesMr. 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 NotesPreferential 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 RestFor 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 NotesThanks 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 NotesOpe! 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. 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 NotesPandora 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 RestFor 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 NotesIf 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 NotesListen 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 NotesWelcome 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 NotesGet 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 NotesOn 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 RestFor 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 NotesWelcome 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 NotesTwo 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 NotesIt’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 NotesYou 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 NotesYou 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 & SarahShow NotesWelcome Joanna Shupe, who writes mafia romance under the name Mila Finelli. The 5th book in the Kings of Italy series, Mafia Virgin, is available now.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.If you haven't listened to the trailblazer episode with Elda Minger, you should.Joanna mentioned this article from Salon about young conservative men and the tradwives fantasy, and a recent CNN article about the phenomenon.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/12/31/s0616-happy-new-year-breeding-kink-with-mila-finelli 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 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 NotesWe 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 NotesGet 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 RestFor 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 NotesGet 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.

It’s the best and worst task for us, because we read so many fabulous books over the course of the year, and choosing ten is hard, ok? But here they are — ten books we adored—books that delivered all the things we love in romance: sharp edges, sparkling dialogue, strong heroines and smoking hot chemistry.

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 NotesIf 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 NotesThe 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 RestFor 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 NotesWelcome 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.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/11/6/s0609-sports-romance-with-jessica-luther 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.

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 NotesAll 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 RestFor 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 NotesThe 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 NotesWelcome 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 NotesCheck 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 NotesWe 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 NotesJackie 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.

Here’s a short one — our first episode of Season 6 is a trailblazer (AND A GREAT ONE) — so here’s a little glimpse of where we’ve been during hiatus, and where we’re going this season! Thanks, as always, for being with us!

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 NotesLil 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 NotesAI 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 NotesWelcome 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 NotesJen 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.