Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

It’s Priest week! Sarah put Sierra Simone’s Priest on her Books that Blooded Her list, and this episode is a ride! Jen’s reading first person narrative, we’re both escaped catholics, Sarah imprinted on The Thornbirds, we’ll get to the bottom of anal sex in church (see what we did there?), and fully disagree about how much guilt is too much guilt for a hero. Plus, you’ll hear us tell you how brilliant we think Sierra is. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review!In two weeks, we’re going to a classic of classics! The read was on both Jen &amp; Sarah’s list—Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, which is on the lions’ share of Best Romance Novels Ever lists. We’ll get into why. Read Lord of Scoundrels at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.Show NotesWe love Sierra Simone! Sarah talked about Sinner on the Best Friend's Sibling episode, and Sierra was a special guest on our MacRieve episode. She'll also be joining us on a very special future interstitial.Will Kresley drop Munro like Beyonce? One can only hope.If you want to join Sarah's FB Old School Romance Book Club group, click here and wait for moderator approval. We (try to remember but sometimes have to be reminded to) post a discussion post for each week's episode there.Have you listened to what we consider to be our sister podcasts: The Wicked Wallflowers, Heaving Bosoms, and Black Chick Lit? We also love Learning the Tropes and RomBkPod. Check them out for all your listening needs.Facebook is garbage and Zuckerberg is aiming for Bond Villain.The modern day dirty priest fantasy is Fleabag, the old school one is The Thornbirds.If you're not following Jen Porter on Twitter, what are you doing with your life?Sierra's Markham Hall series is an erotic retelling of Jane Eyre.Jen doesn't like first person present.What does it even mean to be star-crossed?More about reader response theory.A defintion of "framing device" and how they work in fiction.In the Catholic Church, penance is one of seven sacraments.In case you want to know more about hairshirts as a thing, but please don't wear one.In the Ice Planet Barbarians series, the khui is a mystical thing on the ice planet. That's really all you need to know.More about the history of Rhode Island as a haven for escaped Catholics. No not that kind of escaped Catholic.The 2015 movie Spotlight is about the investigative journalists who broke the story of priest sexual abuse in Boston. In one famous scene, a reporter knock on the door of a retired priest who answers her questions in a shocking way. (All the trigger warnings on that scene, by the way.)Mark Ruffalo the hulk vs Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight.Sarah recommends the audio of Priest.This summer, the Catholic Diocese of Providence released the names of 50 priests who were credibly accused of abuse.Celibacy is a core tenent of Catholic priesthood, but as less and less men enter the priesthood, that might be changing in some interesting ways. Please note that the Vatican is more likely to lift celibacy requirements before they'd allow the ordination of women.Eddie Izzard.If this is the defintiion of an inspirational romance, then Priest qualifies.The Tessa Bailey book with "baby girl" is Fix Her Up. It's hot if you don't mind that sort of thing.<a...

Today, we’re talking jobs in romance novels—why we love them, when we hate them, what’s the proper work/smooch balance, and what we mean when we say “competence porn.” This is a far reaching, many-rec episode that involves discussion of billionaires, of wealth, of power, of what Sarah means when she says heroes have to be kings, no matter what. We’ll also try to get to the bottom of what an Enterprise Holding, LTD is. Nah, that’s a lie, because who cares?! Oh, and stay tuned for Sarah’s treatise on the importance of local journalism. Don’t forget to subscribe to Fated Mates in your favorite podcasting platform — subscriptions mean so much! While you’re there, please leave us a like or a review if you feel so inclined!Next week, we’re taking you to blasphemy town! Or are we?! The read is Sarah’s pick, Sierra Simone’s Priest, which is an erotic romance in first-person hero POV, featuring a priest and an exotic dancer (NB: She is not Catholic). If sex in church is your concern, maybe skip this one, but also know that there’s a lot fo religious allegory in here that is fascinating and brilliant. Content warning for discussion of the Catholic Church and sexual abuse. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.Show NotesJen said fossils are boring. It wasn't a good look.Defining competence porn.Christian Grey at work.Despite when Jen said, most sex toys are not made out of neoprene. And please be cautious about the sex toys you buy.Imposter syndrome is the worst for everyone but these guys.Job versus career versus vocation.The Joanna Shupe book about the architect is actually called A Scandalous Deal. If you do want to read books about fossils, Amanda Quick and Tessa Dare have them. Eloisa James does not. Manda Collins does. Sarah MacLean does not.What's wrong with "Not Like Other Girls."What's a bluestocking?Doogie Howser was a doctor, not an astrophysicist.How to avoid the "What do you do" question.The recent Supreme Court case about the rights of queer people to work.Sarah mentioned an article about how Americans haven't gotten a raise in 40 years, and Jen mentioned the struggle to stay in the middle class.Lori Lightfoot won the Chicago mayor's election, but here's the story about her background and why Black Lives Matter activists are worried.The thing Jen made into a job: writing about romance for Kirkus.High School Musical 2 had the "I need a college scholarship" plot.Roseanne and class on television.Jen really hated This is 40.Are you in Chicago? Come to Jen's romance book club at 57th Street Books or at Love's Sweet Arrow.Divorce has profoundly negative impact on women's financial security.Sarah mentioned a twitter thread about mothers telling their daughter's to have separate money and why women get jewelry as wedding gifts.All women work, even if they don't have a job outside the home.An overwhelming majority of American school teachers are white women.You should read Catch and Kill if you can, but the story about how it impacted Ronan Farrow's relationship is also interesting.Subscribe to your local newspaper!This week, caller Samantha from Kuala Lumpur recommends Spellbound by Nora Roberts.Next up is Priest from Sierra Simone.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/10/29/s028-competence-amp-careers-in-romance-interstitial 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, <a href="https://fated-mates.tumblr.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Woof, you guys. Woof. This week we’re talking a whole different kind of Vampires (not a single one chained to a radiator…we love u, Conrad) — with JR Ward’s Dark Lover — the first in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series! We’re talking a LOT this week about toxic masculinity, about the world post 9/11, about what we expect from heroines, about the entire BDB series, and about what the heck is going on in these books. We also get all the titles wrong, as usual.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review!In two weeks, we’re getting more current! The read is Sarah’s Pick, Sierra Simone’s Priest, which is an erotic romance in first-person hero POV, featuring a priest and an exotic dancer (NB: She is not Catholic). If sex in church is your concern, maybe skip this one, but also know that there’s a lot fo religious allegory in here that is fascinating and brilliant. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.Show NotesJR Ward's first pen name was Jessica Bird.Despite Jen's joke about Proust, she's never actually read him.Some of the most famous vampire books in fiction were Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire and Queen of the Damned. And let's not forget Twilight.In romance, you should check out the Argeneau series by Lynsay Sands, or any number of books by Jeaniene Frost. Nalini Singh's Guild Hunters series has a vampire hunter. Sherrilyn Kenyon also has lots of books in this category. In urban fantasy, of course there was the Sookie Stackhouse series, and it's TV adaptation True Blood.In fact, the 90s were full of vampires in the movies and on TV: Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and if you've never seen it, the opening scene from Blade that Jen mentioned.Sarah would like you to consider the fact that very few people know who Mary Shelley is, but Francis Ford Coppola made a blockbuster movie with Bram Stoker's name in the actual title because patriarchy is a helluva drug.Is it romance or urban fantasy?The JR Ward interview was in Louisville Magazine.The Wicked Wallflowers interviewed JR Ward and it's just terrific.Jen read all the RITAs, and she reviewed Consumed in the romantic suspense category and Dearest Ivie in the paranormal category.All about sawed-off shotguns.Sarah said John Michael, but OF COURSE she meant John Matthew. Maybe you should read Lover John Matthew and Xhex.Mary Bly's article about the Black Dagger Brotherhood appears in New Approaches to Popular Romance Fiction.The Lessers as Incels.Caldwell is like the world of Gotham... and why it seems so nihilistic.Beth and Wrath's story continues in The King, or as we like to call it here at Fated Mates, Lover Wrath and Beth Part 2.It's Lover Phury and Cormia, and then Lover Rhevenge and Ehlena, and Lover Quinn and Blay.The Susan Faludi book Sarah mentioned is called The Terror Dream: Myth and Misogyny in an Insecure America.We don't think Beth is a Mary Sue, and JR Ward doesn't either.A guide to the waves of feminism.A ferrari doesn't weight 2000 tons. A ton is 2000 pounds.Wellsie is maybe a stand in for Smith vs. Wellesley.Jen was reading Native Son in college when her professor told her blindness is always a symbol. Oedipus blinded himself, and oracles are seers are often blind. Daredevil is blind and can still kick your ass. The other most famous Blind King Jen could find is in Assassin's Creed.Next up is Priest by Sierra Simone.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/10/20/s027-dark-lover 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...

We heard you! You wanted to talk about Cinnamon Roll Heroes, so here we are, and we’re bringing in an expert on the topic (in real life and in fiction) — Andie Christopher. We’re talking about the evolution and popularization of the beta in the 90s, why they became such a powerful force then, why they’re back now, and why they work so well for some readers! We’ll also talk about dating in 2019, recommend some books (obviously), and talk about Andie’s upcoming, Not the Girl You Marry, which is out November 12! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review!Next week, we’re going back to paranormal with the first book in JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Dark Lover. It’s a whole ride. Strap in. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie (it’s currently only $2.99 in ebook!).Show NotesWe're so excited to have Andie on the podcast -- her book, Not the Girl You Marry, is out November 12th. Preorder now!Do you know the importance of a Sky Pager?The Pegging Crew is a nickname we use with love for the folks who bought a change to decide a Fated Mates interstitial topic.If you're looking for romances with the Great British Bake Off energy, Sarah recommends Louisa Edwards.- Last summer, Jen interviewed Andie for Kirkus.Nancy Pelosi is taking care of business.Olivia Dade has a great list of cinnamon roll heroes, but this piece from The Onion originated the term.The Simone Scale is very different from the Clayborn Curve.I guess you can decide for yourself if Father Bell is a cinnamon roll (whispers: especially because this will be a season 2 book that blooded us).The only person who can ask for flowers is Barbra Streisand.Every time Jen mentions a fainting couch, she's thinking of this most excellent pinterest board by friend of the pod @bandherbooks.Some really thoughtful tweets that were in response to our alpha episode: Charlotte talking about lust and care, and Cat talking about baggage.The romance trailblazer videos from this year's RITAs are so great.The original stern brunch daddy tweet.Toxic masculinity is like acid rain, not rain rain.The "I'm baby" meme.Jess &amp; Marie are pretty great.Andie said Gen Z doesn't fuck, but it sounds like they just don't date.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/10/13/s026-cinnamon-roll-romance-heroes-interstitial-with-andie-christopher 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.

Sarah picked this week’s read without having read it recently, and she shockingly doesn’t regret it! We’re talking Johanna Lindsey’s Gentle Rogue—arguably one of the most beloved texts of the genre, complete with a reformed pirate and a heroine who is having absolutely none of his nonsense. We’ll talk about heroines who are sex positive, about obvious references to the slave trade that are problematic and somehow utterly glossed over, archetypal brothers, and about the shocking lack of plot in this book (which we don’t mind a bit).Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review!In two weeks, we’re going back to paranormal with the first book in JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Dark Lover. It’s a whole ride. Strap in. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie (it’s currently only $2.99 in ebook!).Show NotesJen's the romance correspondent for Kirkus, and she recently wrote about Fabio who appeared on the original cover of Gentle Rogue. Also, this piece by Kelly Faircloth about romance covers is amazing.When Sarah dreamed of Amy Schumer, I wonder if it was anything like this?7th grade is awful for everyone.Voldemort and his horcruxes.The Magic of You is all about Georgie's brother Warren.Here's some basic information about slavery in Jamaica and sugar plantations in particular. And the Slave Voyages site is an amazing and well-researched online archive you should also check out, which includes a searchable database of transatlantic boats and the numbers of enslaved people on board each ship.Although we didn't mention it the podcast, if you're reading romances where white people have weddings, parties, or balls on plantations...that's terrible.The Georgian, the Regency, the Victorian.In real life, billionaires are always a problem.For your consideration: a goodreads list of ugly duckling romances.A thread from EE Ottoman about why pants are not the problem... or the answer.We love Jen Porter.Lord of Scoundrels will definitely be making an appearnce in season 2.Sometimes we don't know if it's better to get bangs or just deal with our feelings.Why are there so many YA love triangles?The Bridgertons, in case you don't know.Jen thinks James Malory is a Mary Sue.Coming up in two weeks, Dark Lover by J. R. Ward.An official Romancelandia poll on the best emjoi for pegging. I don't even know what to say.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/10/7/s025-gentle-rogue If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

This week we’re talking about novellas with one of the best novella writers around—Alyssa Cole. Join us, along with Alyssa’s tree frogs, to talk about why she loves the novella format, the trick to writing a short romance, and her upcoming Audible original!Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.We’re back in two weeks with Johanna Lindsey’s Gentle Rogue, set on a ship with a heroine-in-pants and a hero who really deserves everything she delivers him. Find it at: Amazon, B&amp;N, Kobo, Apple Books, or at your local Independent Bookstore!Show NotesUltra-marathoners really do suck down energy gel out there! Soylent Green is people, and therefore not someting Ultramarathoners consume during their races.Sarah uses weird with love. In fact, she crowdsourced a great weird romance list yesterday on Twitter. Head over there to overload your TBR.Robot girlfriends are a thing, I guess. But even more exciting is that Alyssa's audio for The AI Who Loved Me has some big time narrators!Keanu Reeves in the Matrix has his own gel problem.Sarah wrote a novella for a Christmas anthology with Tessa Dare, Sophie Jordan &amp; Joanna Shupe, How the Dukes Stole Christmas, that is newly out in paperback.Alyssa mentioned a KDrama called Noble, My Love that has 15 minute episodes.Ladyhawke is an 80s movie that honestly defies description, but lives on in our memories.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/10/1/s024-novella-romance-interstitial-with-alyssa-cole 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 begin the exploration of The Books That Blooded Us with the one that probably least surprised listeners—Lisa Kleypas’s Dreaming of You! We tackle this fabulous, bonkers book (yes, we get to the bottom of the did-he-or-didn’t-he conundrum, and we spend some serious time discussing Joyce). We also talk about how we think Derek Craven changed the romance hero game, what might have been in the water in romance in the early-mid 1990s, and Sarah tells a few stories about her weekend with the queen herself, Lisa Kleypas. Don’t forget to like &amp; subscribe in your favorite podcasting app so you don’t miss a single second of us in your earholes!Show NotesAnyone know if Warby Parker is looking for a podcast to sponser?Sarah &amp; Lisa spent time together because they were signing at Nora Roberts's bookstore, Turn the Page, in real-life Boonsboro, MD. Jen had some hard-core FOMO.February 4th is Derek Craven Day, look at some of our&nbsp;tweets&nbsp;from&nbsp;that&nbsp;day.A reminder of that 1992 election and what we should have learned from Anita Hill. But Stormy Danielsis more in control of her narrative.Josh Lyman never calls it a recession, call it a bagel.We love Steve Ammidown at the BGSU pop culture library.IRL, Matilda was Pamela. But that ending, classic Lady or the Tiger or The Sopranos.The second casino is in Devil in Winter, where Ivo Jenner's daughter falls in love with Sebastian, St. Vincent, whom many think is Lisa's best hero. They are wrong.We're back on Moonstruck with that mother-in-law and "Bring me the big knife!"More about some of those Jungian archetypes.Jen meant coitus interruptus in the Urban Dictionary way, not the Merriam-Webster way.This article seems to think head hopping is more common in roamance, but I don't know if that's true.Close third person POV or Free Indirect Speech &amp; Jane Austen.Have you listened to our bodily autonomy episode?Dangerous Liasons the book has been around for a long time, but Jen is talking about the 1988 movie."She leaves the gun on the table" is a reference to a famous writing precept by Chekhov.Doing spectacles&nbsp;better than F. Scott Fitzgerald.Gentle Rogue is coming up in two weeks.Kelly has some Fated Mates swag and Romancelandia buttons for sale.Derek Craven would never.Fated Mates is produced by Eric MortensenThe RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/9/24/s021-lisa-kleypas-does-spectacles-better-than-f-scott-fitzgerald-dreaming-of-you 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.

As we lead into Season Two, and consider the fact that some of our faves are definitely going to be problematic, we’re talking about the alpha hero this week — we’re also tackling the beta hero and the cinnamon roll, and why these archetypes largely don’t work for us. We’re talking romance heroes who changed the game for us and the genre, about how hard it is to turn the alphahole around, and how satisfying it is to watch it happen. We’re also talking the female gaze (of course) and the patriarchy (like always). Next week, we’re digging into one of our original alphas, Derek Craven! You can find Lisa Kleypas’s Dreaming of You at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local indie. It's currently $2.99 in digital everywhere, so snatch it up!Show NotesThe alpha,&nbsp;the beta, and the&nbsp;cinnamon roll.You should all follow&nbsp;Cora Harrington&nbsp;(lingerie addict) on twitter. It's all so beautiful.Jen screams about first person a lot, but MOSTLY about&nbsp;first person present.It was Demon Rumm by Sandra Brown that was all in the male POV, and&nbsp;this review&nbsp;is so great. Jen's going to follow&nbsp;Alaina, the author, on twitter. UPDATE: The Browne Pop Culture Library was able to find the descriptions of Demon Rumm,&nbsp;and as Jen predicted, they were in the back matter of the previous month's books! Thanks,&nbsp;Steve!Alec Kinkaid,&nbsp;The Montgomerys,&nbsp;James Mallory, and the&nbsp;Westmoreland heroes.Did you somehow miss us talking about&nbsp;The Professional?It the Movie may or may not be your cup of tea, but&nbsp;this discussion of Jane Doe with Victoria Helen Stone&nbsp;has some really interesting points about horror and romance.Bourne from&nbsp;A Rogue by Any Other Name&nbsp;is "Sarah's worst hero" by which she means it was just reall satisfying to break him.You have to listen to our&nbsp;antiheroes episode&nbsp;if you want to know what it means to "take the finger."P in V&nbsp;is great, but&nbsp;2Ps in V is even better.Hillary Clinton was wrong about romance novels, and&nbsp;Lisa Kleypas explains why.Adriana Herrera's&nbsp;American&nbsp;Dreamers&nbsp;series&nbsp;is one of our faves.What it means to be a&nbsp;Kinsey 2.Romance for Raices&nbsp;has a few more days.&nbsp;Spend enough money and you can pick an upcoming interstitial topic!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/9/17/s022-the-alpha-in-romance-novels-interstitial If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We're Back!We promised you we'd be back with Season Two in September, and here we are in September, back with Season Two!We've said farewell to&nbsp;Season One, but we'll never fully be able to quit IAD, so Season Two will be&nbsp;The Books That Blooded Us&nbsp;-- that is, the books that made us the romance readers we are...books that taught us what the genre could be, books that scratched our itch, books that made us lifelong romance readers, books that set us on the path directly to your earholes!Over the season, we'll tackle 10 (or so) books that blooded each of us -- we'll deep dive, discuss, and delight in each other's picks -- and we've got some fun ideas for how you all can share the books that blooded you!So...where do we begin? We begin in two weeks with the primordial text for both of us...the one...the only...Dreaming of You. We'll talk Derek Craven's cockney accent, Sara Fielding's legendary novel, Lisa Kleypas's immense skill with talismans, and we'll get to the very bottom of some of the most controversial bits of this glorious book that the two of us love a whole lot.Get reading, y'all, we've got a lot to say. You can find Dreaming of You at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local indie. It's currently $2.99 in digital everywhere, so snatch it up!We'll be announcing the schedule for the first few reads later this week -- so you'll have time to read ahead, but in the meantime, sit back, relax, and let us give you a preview of what's to come!Don't forget to like and subscribe in your favorite podcasting platform!Show NotesJen tweeted about Altogether by Brill Harper&nbsp;and then all of Romancedlandia read it. It's deliciously filthy.Read Sarah's drunk texts to Jen and Kate&nbsp;on the Vika group chat. Take a look at these covers for&nbsp;Rebecca Zanetti's Deadly Silence.Sarah was on Wicked and the Wallflowers podcast&nbsp;to talk aboutBrazen and the Beast. You had no idea&nbsp;flag design&nbsp;was so fascinating.Looking back at twitter, it might have been&nbsp;a shared love of Derek Craven that made Sarah and Jen friends. We can't wait to discuss&nbsp;Dreaming of You&nbsp;in two weeks.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/9/9/s021-welcome-to-season-two-1 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.

In July, at the Romance Writers of America annual conference, we had the extraordinarily good luck to record a crossover episode with Jenny Nordbak &amp; Sarah Hawley of The Wicked Wallflowers podcast! We talked about our favorite books with a roomful of librarians &amp; bloggers, and we had the best time. Now, you can, too! Be sure to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting app so you know the moment we return!Subscribe to these other amazing romance podcasts! The Wicked Wallflowers (with Jenny &amp; Sarah)Heaving Bosoms (with Melody &amp; Erin)Learning the Tropes (with Erin &amp; Clayton) The Big Gay Fiction Podcast (with Jeff &amp; Will)Listen to the longer version of the conversation with Sarah (MacLean) that Jenny (Nordbak) talks about in her discussion of Brazen &amp; the Beast. Sarah's hometown library (complete with dark corridors for romance novels) is the Lincoln Public Library in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Yes, yes, we're on hiatus. But we can't stop, won't stop!In this mini episode, Jen talks to her friend Elizabeth about what we can do when someone judges our romance reading.Be sure to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting app so you know the moment we return!

We're on hiatus until September, when we'll start Season 2, but here is a quick hi from Sarah, with a story from her trip to the UK that only Fated Mates listeners will appreciate.Be sure to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting app so you know the moment we return! Show NotesGeorge &amp; Dragon Inn, Clifton, Penrith, UKLowther CastleHugh Lowther, proper reprobate and 5th Earl of Lonsdale

Fated Mates returns with Season Two in September — don’t forget to like &amp; subscribe in your favorite podcasting app so you don’t miss a single second of us in your earholes!And more than all this — thank you for listening to us talk at you about vampires, valkyries, wolf holograms, horns &amp; Rune for 39 weeks — there honestly aren’t words for how much we love you for listening!Team Vertas 4eva! — xoxo Sarah &amp; JenShow NotesThis is&nbsp;The End&nbsp;is by The Doors, and&nbsp;Closing Time&nbsp;is by Semisonic.The&nbsp;RITAs were amazing, and one of the best things about it was this&nbsp;romance trailblazers&nbsp;video.Lila is a&nbsp;face character&nbsp;at Disney.Inside the Mouse&nbsp;is a book you should read, or just this&nbsp;New York Times article&nbsp;where John Jerimiah Sullivan (omg. his essays are so good! Read&nbsp;Pulphead!) trying to figure out the best place to smoke weed there. That&nbsp;Banksey&nbsp;video.Because Disney is&nbsp;too expensive, #TeamReadsRomance suggests&nbsp;Cedar Point if you like roller coasters.Hela's crown in Thor Ragnarok&nbsp;is PRETTY GREAT.It's interesting to think about a&nbsp;framing device&nbsp;and what it does for a story.Sarah's WaPo piece about the&nbsp;Alpha Feminist.All about&nbsp;archetypes&nbsp;and the&nbsp;princess trope.The Room of Requirement&nbsp;is part of Hogwards.When we talked about time, Sarah recommended Kylie Scott's&nbsp;Repeat.Tim Curry as&nbsp;The Darkness in Legend&nbsp;or&nbsp;The Devil in Fantasia.We talked about&nbsp;curvy heroines&nbsp;way back at the beginning of this podcast.Everything Sian owns is&nbsp;in a box to the left.The Beauty and the Beast Library.We're all on&nbsp;Munro Watch.Thanks to everyone for listening to season one of Fated Mates!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/7/20/19-wicked-abyss 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.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform so that you know the moment we start Season Two (in early September)!Next week, it’s the end! WHAT HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! We’re talking Sian (HORNS HORNS HORNS HORNS HORNS HORNS HORNS) &amp; Lila with Wicked Abyss, featuring the literal King of Hell, and the Queen who takes fully no shit from him. Get Wicked Abyss at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local indie!Show NotesWhat is&nbsp;the appeal of the antihero?Fangirl Jeanne wrote a really interesting thread about why she ships villains and&nbsp;what it means to believe in an HEA for everyone.The&nbsp;Sierra Simone Scale&nbsp;seems relevant here.We here at Fated Mates love a&nbsp;grovel.Morality Chain&nbsp;is a very specific trope.Jen's goodreads search for books with&nbsp;criminal heroes&nbsp;versus&nbsp;criminal heroines.Take a minute to&nbsp;donate to RAICES&nbsp;because we do have&nbsp;concentration camps on our border, and it's so hard to know what to do about it.Jen and Sarah talked about female antiheroes in pop culture:&nbsp;Catherine Zeta Jones in Traffic&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mary Louise Parker in Weeds.Jen's Rita thread about how&nbsp;white guys get to be anitheores.Movie time references: Sarah is Italian, so since there are no Italian mafia guys anymore, watching&nbsp;The Godfather&nbsp;is the only choice. The "one armed man" reference is to&nbsp;The Fugitive.What are we talking about when we talk about&nbsp;billionaire money.A "diamond of the first water"Molly Fader,&nbsp;Molly O'Keefe, and M. O'Keefe&nbsp;are three pen names for one author who really knows her branding. #BlessedWicked Abyss&nbsp;in next and then...we're done with season one.&nbsp;Commence mourning.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/7/29/185-antiheroes-interstitial 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.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.We’re getting down to the wire with Season One of Fated Mates — in two weeks, join us for Wicked Abyss, featuring the literal King of Hell, and the Queen who takes fully no shit from him. Get Wicked Abyss at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local indie!Show NotesYou know Kresley is self-publishing when you see it's Valkerie Press.In IAD, a sorceri queen has the most power in that area. Love triangles are very common in YA.- Eloisa James' first novel was Potent Pleasures, the the line Sarah quoted is: "Charlotte was one week short of 17 when her life was changed, falling into two halves like a shiny child's ball: before and after."The best thing that ever happened at Coachella.Uh. While researching for this podcast, Jen realized that Deadmou5 is real.Sarah's hero/heroine/heroine's best friend on the line book is A Rogue By Any Other Name, which you can get in ebook for $1.99 right now!There apparently was a crossover between IAD and Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. Tell us what you know.Gay romance author and all around good guy Nathan Burgoine explains why "Gay for You" is a problem.No one like a milksop.All about the Kinsey Scale, and Jen thinks of this very funny tweet from her friend Zach every time she hears the phrase "Kinsey scale."Happy Days didn't spin off from something, it was the spinner. Frasier was a Cheers spin-off. The Dacians is not an IAD spin-off. It is IAD. This is canon now.The Arcana Chronicles is Kresley's YA series.Jen recommends The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker if you're interested in a novel about women artists at work.In two weeks, we're finishing Season One (sniff!) with Wicked Abyss!Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (8)1. Conrad cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)2. Cadeon has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)3. Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)4. Lucia peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)5. In order to retrieve the ring from La Dorada , Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)6. Lanthe and Carrow cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)7. After receiving Lothaire's heart in a box, Ellie cuts off her middle finger and sends it to him. (Lothaire)8. Chloe's shoulder is dislocated in the escape from her auction (MacRieve).Chest and Torso (7)1. Omort severs Rydstrom's spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)2. Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)3. On Torture Island, Regin,4. MacRieve,5. and Brandr are vivisected. It's pretty terrible. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)6. Declan's skin is peeled off by the Neoptera as a child. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)7. Lothaire rips out his own heart and sends it to Ellie in a box. (Lothaire)Head, Face, and Eyes (6)1. Bowen loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)2. Cadeon loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)3. During a rugby match, Garreth has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)4. Lothaire kicks out La Dorada's remaining eye and throws her over a cliff. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)5. In the Bloodroot Forest, the tree grows over Lothaire's lips and tongue. (Lothaire)6. After she gains her immortality, Chloe's hair grows, but she cuts it off every morning. (MacRieve)7. Lanthe agrees to have her tongue cut out to save herself and Thronos, knowing she can still use the power of persuasion telepathically. (Dark Skye)Horns (2)8. Cadeon cuts off his own horns to prove to Holly that he is worthy of being her mate. She tells him to let them grow back (Dark Desires After Dusk)9. Malkolm is captured by his enemies in Oblivion and taken to the city of Ash. The publicly cut off his horns and then intend to kill him, but Carrow saves him. (Demon from the Dark)Legs and Feet (3)1. Lachlain tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerates. (A Hunger Like No Other)2. Mariketa's skull is fractured and her leg is torn from her body. She heals herself after Bowen lays on the ground. Ivy grows over her and heals her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)3. Thronos is chasing Melananthe and loses a foot when a portal closes on it. (Kiss of a Demon King)4. While in Pandamonia, Thronos is trapped in a

Next week, we’re tackling the Dacians in two weeks with a two-for-one episode featuring both of these Lothaire spinoff stories, Shadow's Claim (featuring demon-sorceress Bettina and Dacian assassin Trehan) &amp; Shadow's Seduction (featuring Caspion the demon and Mirceo the vampire prince)!Show NotesJen loves hype video, and there are some&nbsp;for the USWNT&nbsp;are amazing.All about&nbsp;advanced reading copies&nbsp;(ARCs) and what it looks like when you get&nbsp;typeset pages.Jen has a new title at Kirkus: romance correspondent. She's been&nbsp;interviewing&nbsp;a lot&nbsp;of authors.Kate Clayborn perfectly described&nbsp;why we love a grunting hero.Only&nbsp;33 Fortune 500 CEOs are women, which is nonsense.Listen to our&nbsp;Curvy Heroines interstitial.Covent Garden&nbsp;and the&nbsp;rookeries.What's a&nbsp;life peerage?Derek&nbsp;Craven&nbsp;forever.What it means to be&nbsp;"on the shelf."Audiobook narrator&nbsp;Justine Eyre&nbsp;is the narrator for Sarah's books. Can you even imagine what would happen if she and Petkoff ever got together and narrated a romance?Preorder Brazen &amp; the Beast at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Kobo,&nbsp;Apple, or&nbsp;Indiebound&nbsp;-- or from Sarah's local indie, WORD, and&nbsp;get it signed and with fun goodies!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/7/20/175-this-isnt-a-podcast-this-is-a-brazen-and-the-beast-hype-episode 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.

Our favorite person, Kate Clayborn, is back with us to wrap up the Game Makers series with THE PLAYER! Join us as Sarah explains all the ways that the damaged hero works for her (Spoiler: It’s Every Single Way), Kate digs deep on Kresley’s liberal use of punctuation, and Jen admits that Sarah was right all along. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.We’re getting down to the wire with IAD, but because we’re completists, we’re tackling the Dacians in two weeks with a two-for-one episode featuring both of these Lothaire spinoff stories, Shadow's Claim (featuring demon-sorceress Bettina and Dacian assassin Trehan) &amp; Shadow's Seduction (featuring Caspion the demon and Mirceo the vampire prince)!Show NotesWecome back,&nbsp;Kate!The Grassy Knoll&nbsp;isn't much of a knoll, anymore. But if you're ever in Dallas, check out the&nbsp;Sixth Floor Museum.This kind of&nbsp;teabagging&nbsp;does not appear on the Clayborn Scale.YA Author&nbsp;Carrie Ryan&nbsp;has smart things to say about first person and&nbsp;scary things to say about zombies.Famous for having a big reveal:&nbsp;The Usual Suspects,&nbsp;The Sixth Sense, and&nbsp;The DaVinci Code. Not famous for a big reveal:&nbsp;Meet Joe Black.We should have asked Adriana Herrera&nbsp;about Dimitri's trauma.Rocky&nbsp;was also a self-made man, and you cannot even convince Jen that the person who invented CrossFit didn't&nbsp;rapturously watch this a million times.Dryer's English&nbsp;is a book that all the writing nerds had a pre-order, and he has&nbsp;strong&nbsp;opinions&nbsp;about exclamation points, but absolutley nothing to say about sexclamation points.Everyone loves&nbsp;foreshadowing.But in romance, no one loves an&nbsp;unreliable narrator.Jen recommends the YA novel&nbsp;One of Us is Lying, or you could kick it old-school and watch&nbsp;Roshomon.Pre-order&nbsp;Brazen and the Beast! and&nbsp;Love Lettering! And read Jen's interviews with&nbsp;Reese Ryan&nbsp;and&nbsp;Marie Tremayne&nbsp;and&nbsp;Robin Lovett&nbsp;on Kirkus.In two weeks, we're back to IAD with the Dacian two-fer:&nbsp;Shadow's Claim&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Shadow's Seduction!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/6/27/17-the-player If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

This week we’re talking all things royal! Join us with the fabulously fun Nana Malone to talk about kings, queens, princes and princesses, royal weddings, royal gossip, why Nick Jonas married SO FAR ABOVE HIMSELF, and how we wish poor Kate Middleton could just have a cheeseburger with her friends. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.Next week, we’re finishing up the Game Makers series with arguably Kresley’s most damaged hero, Dmitri Sevastyan! Basically, July is “Sarah’s favorite books” month, so settle in for that…we’ll be joined by one of our favorites, Kate Clayborn, who will reveal the name of our group text thread! Read The Player at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.Show NotesWelcome,&nbsp;Nana Malone!We were all about talking about songs and music videos today:&nbsp;Royals by Lorde,&nbsp;S&amp;M by Rhianna, and&nbsp;Senorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. Bonus&nbsp;hilarious conversation between Jen and her son&nbsp;about that last one.The e is silent.Shawn Mendes in Calvin Klein.All about&nbsp;boy bands,&nbsp;why girls love them,&nbsp;the powerhouse that is BTS, and&nbsp;the many hairstyles of Justin Beiber.Nick Jonas married up...&nbsp;Chasing that happiness, I guess.&nbsp;Priyanka Chopra is unbelievably gorgeous. We stan.Meghan and Harry's wedding&nbsp;was our favorite movie of 2018, but&nbsp;Charles and Diana's&nbsp;makes us sad. Jen's favorite moment is the singing of&nbsp;Stand by Me, but Sarah's daughter likes&nbsp;this yellow lady.Kate Middleton&nbsp;has a new fashion plan.This list on Goodreads has&nbsp;FOUR HUNDRED AND FOUR&nbsp;romances where the hero is a duke.Prince Albert of Monaco married Grace Kelly and&nbsp;her wedding dress&nbsp;is still gorgeous sixty years later.All about&nbsp;the Romanceclass authors&nbsp;and&nbsp;their books.Jen loves John Wick. But then again,&nbsp;who doesn't?The Sierra Simone taboo scale.That Sex in the City episode with&nbsp;the "bum licker,"&nbsp;as Nana said.Sarah wants 16th century Assassin's Creed, so this series by Robin LeFevers about&nbsp;a bunch of teenage assassin nuns&nbsp;is the obvious answer.Have you pre-ordered Brazen &amp; the Beast?We can't keep track of what we're reading, when. Next week,&nbsp;The Player! In three weeks, back to IAD with the Dacian two-fer:&nbsp;Shadow's Claim&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Shadow's Seduction!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/6/27/165-royals-interstitial 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 HAPPENNNINNNGGGGG! Sweet Ruin, Sarah’s favorite book in the IAD series, is finally here and she is BEYOND EXCITED to talk about her favorite Kresley hero and the magnificent, perfect heroine who refuses to back down from their fated matehood. Listen as Jen and Sarah discuss Nix as Warrior Queen, make important demands of fan fiction writers in the IAD universe, and generally discuss why this book is one of the best of the series, without question. Block off some time and be sure to use the bathroom before you start, because this one clocks in at two hours (and we’ve already realized we forgot to talk about a few things — so prepare for updates in future episodes!) Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.In two weeks, we’re finishing up the Game Makers series with arguably Kresley’s most broken hero (don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this ranking on the episode), Dmitri Sevastyan! Basically, July is “Sarah’s favorite books” month, so settle in for that…we’ll be joined by one of our favorites, Kate Clayborn, who will reveal the name of our group text thread! Read The Player at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.Show NotesShort chapters&nbsp;make for quick pacing.The Morior are like the&nbsp;Super Friends...but&nbsp;evil.All about&nbsp;The Starship Enterprise.More about&nbsp;a witch's familiar.Runes&nbsp;are actually from Norse Mythology. You'd think Rune would&nbsp;use the internet&nbsp;to learn more about them.Rune is&nbsp;poison&nbsp;to everyone but her. Jen's never read&nbsp;The Poisoner's Handbook, but everyone says it's amazing.Thinking about&nbsp;theme as a literary device&nbsp;isn't just for English class.Our twitter friend&nbsp;Aunt Angelique has changed her username, so follow her for&nbsp;interesting tidbits like this.That cock tweet.All about&nbsp;edging.The Mariana Trench&nbsp;is real deep, y'all, but we've still discovered&nbsp;plastic&nbsp;there.Uluru&nbsp;is a&nbsp;sacred place for Aborigines, and&nbsp;Australia reverted to officially&nbsp;using this name in 2002.Revenge is stupid.Jen loves that scene where&nbsp;Captain America beats the shit out of everyone in the elevator.In case you need help finding&nbsp;Shipper Names.The&nbsp;What Would Allixta Do&nbsp;Button.The story of&nbsp;Supergirl.Speaking of our Heaving Bosoms friends, It wasn't Melody,&nbsp;it was Erin&nbsp;who said she doesn't read epilogues!Speed is a romance. Don't at Jen or&nbsp;Bandherbooks.The Player&nbsp;is coming up after our next interstitial!Pre-order Brazen and the Beast, and if you say "Fated Mates" in the notes, Sarah will include a Fated Mates sticker!Click here&nbsp;for the transcript of this episode.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/6/27/16-sweet-ruin 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.

Love letters are the best because they’re personal and honest and raw and beautiful, and this week—by request—we’re talking about all the different ways romance tells epistolary love stories! Leave us your own version of a love note in comments! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;Next week, IT IS HAPPENNNINNNGGGGG! We’ll be talking about Sweet Ruin, Sarah’s favorite book in the IAD series, and she is BEYOND EXCITED to talk about her favorite Kresley hero and the magnificent, perfect heroine who refuses to back down from their fated matehood. Block off some time, as we can’t guarantee this will be anything near a normal length episode! Read Sweet Ruin at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie. Also, we promise you won’t be disappointed by the audio of this one!Show NotesIt was @jenalice1 who&nbsp;requested an epistolary interstitial."That INXS song" that played in the universe when Sarah met her husband was&nbsp;Never Tear Us Apart.Sarah didn't like the movie&nbsp;Mystery Men. (Jen did.)Text messaging has come a long way since ICQ, but it looks like there are&nbsp;ICQ nostalgia apps&nbsp;in case you miss it.We muddled through our Kristen Callihan favorites for a while: The one where&nbsp;they fuck in the library, the one&nbsp;with the virgin NFL player with the piercing, and the one&nbsp;with Scottie.When Sarah said "Mr and Mrs Smith&nbsp;but make it gay," Jen was thinking of&nbsp;The Spies Who Loved Her&nbsp;series by&nbsp;Katrina Jackson&nbsp;but couldn't remember them.Salt&nbsp;with Angelina Jolie.Archie was a non-cool name that is&nbsp;experiencing&nbsp;a&nbsp;resurgence.when Jen said Not if I Save You First was "An RWA book," she meant it was a&nbsp;RITA finalist.Atonement, fuck that book.The&nbsp;Crimea?&nbsp;The Napoleonic Wars.A still funny&nbsp;New Yorker cartoon about Power Point.The&nbsp;Vixen and the Vet&nbsp;(not that kind of Vet) has extensive heroine-groveling.The problem of how we should&nbsp;archive our personal electronic communication&nbsp;is soemthing people think about.Multimedia apps for&nbsp;The Waste Land&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ulysses.The&nbsp;Cyrano&nbsp;story is well-entrenched that it has become a trope.A perfect tweet&nbsp;from Kate Clayborn.Pre-order Brazen and the Beast from Word in Brooklyn,&nbsp;mention Fated Mates at checkout, and you'll get a bunch of cool swag.Kelly's business is&nbsp;Resistance Buttons, so check that out.Buy fun stamps, including&nbsp;these&nbsp;that Jen pre-ordered.Write some&nbsp;postcards to voters.Sweet Ruin&nbsp;is coming.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/6/24/155-epistolary-romances If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

We’re back with The Game Makers Series this week — talking with the wonderful Sophie Jordan about her favorite book in the series, The Master! Starring Maxim Sevastyan and the first-time escort who lays him flat (in all ways), This one has all the insane sex stuff of the last Game Makers book, now with birth control insanity, and a sweet nod to holiday traditions…and a trip into the Internet to look at chastity belts.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;In two weeks, IT IS HAPPENNNINNNGGGGG! We have reached Sweet Ruin, Sarah’s favorite book in the IAD series, and she is BEYOND EXCITED to talk about her favorite Kresley hero and the magnificent, perfect heroine who refuses to back down from their fated matehood. Block off some time, as we can’t guarantee this will be anything near a normal length episode! Read Sweet Ruin at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie. Also, we promise you won’t be disappointed by the audio of this one!Show NotesWelcome&nbsp;Sophie Jordan!You should listen to the&nbsp;Wicked Wallflowers podcast&nbsp;where Sophie talks about her Game Makers Series theory.The politics of&nbsp;lane-sharing at the pool&nbsp;are more complicated then you'd think!In case you don't know what&nbsp;pendejo&nbsp;means.ICYMI: one of our first interstitials was about&nbsp;the escort trope.I guess we did learn&nbsp;more about what Christian was thinking&nbsp;when she fell over the threshold in that 50 shades sequel, Grey.Is there really&nbsp;a morning after shot?The Smart Bitches gave The Master a D!&nbsp;/clutches pearlsIf you haven't read&nbsp;Lord of Scoundrels, you should.I decide who is a&nbsp;Pretty Woman&nbsp;quote. Of course.The&nbsp;Robin Hood Men in Tights chastity belt, or iron underwear as it's more commonly known.Sophie's upcoming book is&nbsp;The Duke's Stolen Bride.You can preorder signed copies of Brazen and the Beast from&nbsp;Word in Brooklyn. You can download&nbsp;Wicked and the Wallflower&nbsp;for $2 all of June."That great Kerrigan Byrne Newgate one" is called&nbsp;The Highwayman.Bitch Planet&nbsp;is an&nbsp;amazing comic.Sweet Ruin&nbsp;is coming!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/6/17/15-the-master 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.

Well, it was destined to happen sometime—we’re taking the show intergalactic! This week we’re talking about space romance and why it’s totally. fricken. bananas. Discover the series that brought Jen and Sarah together, hear us talk about prison planets, sex planets, the Muppet Show and more. Series by Grace Goodwin, Emmy Chandler, Robin Lovett &amp; Jessie Mihalik.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;Also — if you have a romance loving friend, please let them know that we don’t just talk about vampires &amp; valkyries, and maybe they’d like us, too? We’re back to the Game Makers in two weeks with Jen’s favorite of the three books, The Master, and one of our favorites, Sophie Jordan! Get ready for chastity belts and string bikinis! Read The Master at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesWho knew there was so much to say about The Muppets? We both loved&nbsp;Pigs in Space, and Sarah mentioned that&nbsp;General Hospital-style&nbsp;skit.&nbsp;The Muppet Show&nbsp;is streaming on YouTube. And they're still making&nbsp;new ones!How many dudes were in Dead Poet's Society? Well, there was&nbsp;Robert Sean Leonard.&nbsp;Ethan Hawke. And&nbsp;Josh Fucking Charles, of course. And then&nbsp;these other guys.Josh Charles and his amazing man hands on The Good Wife,&nbsp;kissing Alica in an elevator.Oh, and Sarah also likes&nbsp;Sports Night&nbsp;even though&nbsp;Aaron Sorkin is definitely a problem.Muppets from Space. Omg.A few early space romances were&nbsp;Sweet Starfire&nbsp;and&nbsp;Warrior's Woman.Formative 80's space and sci-fi movies:&nbsp;Conan the Barbarian.&nbsp;Back to the Future.&nbsp;Star Wars.We deserved more than&nbsp;one kiss&nbsp;and&nbsp;real snotty offspring."Make is So," says Jean-Luc Picard.Warden Egara is giving Grace Goodwin the silent treatment.Australia&nbsp;was the original prison island.You should read&nbsp;The Most Dangerous Game. It's an amazing story.Robin Lovett is&nbsp;reading Dark Skye.Aurora Blazing&nbsp;doesn't come out until October, but you can&nbsp;read the first chapter here.Princess.&nbsp;General.Jen recommends The Chernobyl&nbsp;miniseries&nbsp;and the&nbsp;podcast. Sarah thought she was joking when she said&nbsp;I should go to twitter and ask for nuclear romances, like I hadn't thought of that already.Sarah recommends&nbsp;Booksmart.The Master&nbsp;is next, and we'll be joined by&nbsp;Sophie Jordan.The&nbsp;Moon is not a fucking part of Mars. My God.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/6/10/145-romance-in-space-interstitial 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 back from vacation and Torture Island is back — surprising no one more than us! It’s Dark Skye week, Lanthe &amp; Thronos are doing some weird stuff with holey-sheets, y’all. We talk about religion and romance, the work this book does in the larger series, and—as always—patriarchy. Friend of the pod, SS Jaxon joins us, too! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;We’ve got an interstitial lined up for next week, then we’re back to the Game Makers in two weeks with Jen’s favorite of the three books, The Master, and one of our favorites, Sophie Jordan! Get ready for chastity belts and string bikinis! Read The Master at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesThronos, not Thanos.Childhood best friends to lovers to enemies to lovers is one of Sarah's favorite tropes. She wrote one once, and it's only $1.99 in Kindle!We mention a lot of adventure movies in this episode, including Groundhog Day, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Time Bandits, Labrynth, and The Matrix.We also mention some of classic literature that we think Kresley might be alluding to in Dark Skye, including: Paradise Lost, The Inferno, The Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, and many Bibilical stories including Jonah and the Whale.At one point Jen calls it "classic sci-fi" when she really meant to say fantasy. Ooops!In case you're planning to read Ulysses, make sure you have a copy of Ulysses Annotated. But I guess now there's an app for that.All about hairshirts. Ouch.If you want more about what it would be like on Feverus, maybe check out Robin Lovett's sexplanetseries.Welcome S.S. Jaxon! Here's her vagina thread and her one about the IAD cult.Are there any people having sex with a sheet with a hole in it?The tale of Icarus. If you haven't read it yet, Daedalus makes an appearance in the novel Circe by Madeline Miller, which Jen highly recommends.More about Bandherbooks love for fainting couches and the space chaise.Munro is in the wind. Someone write us some fanfic.Our next episode will be The Master, the second book in The Game Maker series.Keanu Reeves is very swoonworthy. Have you seen Always Be My Maybe yet? We have very different opinions about it, but agree that Keanu is the best.Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (8)Conrad&nbsp;cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)Cadeon&nbsp;has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)Sebastian&nbsp;pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Lucia&nbsp;peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)In order to retrieve the ring from&nbsp;La Dorada&nbsp;, Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Lanthe&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carrow&nbsp;cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)After receiving Lothaire's heart in a box,&nbsp;Ellie&nbsp;cuts off her middle finger and sends it to him. (Lothaire)Chloe's shoulder is dislocated in the escape from her auction (MacRieve).Chest and Torso (7)Omort severs&nbsp;Rydstrom's&nbsp;spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)On Torture Island,&nbsp;Regin,MacRieve,and&nbsp;Brandr&nbsp;are vivisected. It's pretty terrible. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)Declan's skin is peeled off by the Neoptera as a child. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)Lothaire rips out his own heart and sends it to Ellie in a box. (Lothaire)Head, Face, and Eyes (6)Bowen&nbsp;loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Cadeon&nbsp;loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)During a rugby match,&nbsp;Garreth&nbsp;has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Lothaire&nbsp;kicks out La Dorada's remaining eye and throws her over a cliff. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)In the Bloodroot Forest, the tree grows over&nbsp;Lothaire's lips and tongue. (Lothaire)After she gains her immortality,&nbsp;Chloe's hair grows, but she cuts it off every morning. (MacRieve)Lanthe&nbsp;agrees to have her tongue cut out to save herself and Thronos, knowing she can still use the power of persuasion telepathically. (Dark Skye)Horns (2)Cadeon&nbsp;cuts off his own horns to prove to Holly that he is worthy of being her mate. She tells him to let them grow back (Dark Desires After Dusk)Malkolm&nbsp;is captured by his enemies in Ob

Y’all asked for more rants, and boy do we have some for you this week! Alabama passed a terrible law, Georgia and Ohio are right there with them, and other states are following suit. Jen and Sarah are talking bodily autonomy — contraception, pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, hysterectomy and abortion and how they exist in romance novels. Get your pens ready — we’ve got a library full of books to talk about. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.We’re taking a break next week (Happy Memorial Day! Eat a cheeseburger for us!)…but will be back to regular IAD programming in two weeks with Dark Skye. Get ready to have your heart ripped out by these childhood lovers turned enemies turned lovers again! Poor Lanthe has been running from her Vrekener, Thronos since Kiss of the Demon King, and finally she gets her story! Read Dark Skye at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.Show NotesThat Victoria Dahl tweet about hysteria.More about the forced birth laws sweeping through several states, and where you can donate your money if you're so inclined.How transgender and gender nonconforming people might be especially endangered from this recent spate of laws.Sarah's twitter thread asking about romances with abortion.Fanny Hill and some of the illustrations.Tinctures, tonics, and teas.The portrayal of abortion in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.The perils of abstinence-only education.Romance is a powerful tool for sex-education, but not all authors view it as a responsibility.Romance euphamisms FTW.Screenshots from the scene Sarah referenced in Jane Feather's Vixen.All about the efficacy of birth control.French Letters had to soak for two hours (at least)...oh! And we forgot the best (ACTUAL WORST) part: They were reusable. --scream emoji--Sarah says we should all watch the TV show Harlots, and not just because it shows French letters."220/221 whatever it takes," is a quote from Mr. Mom. Actually, we talked about a lot of 80s movies on today's episode, including The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally. But we didn't mention Dirty Dancing which has a botched back alley abortion. We meant to...but this is what happens when you don't take good notes before you rant.This 2011 paper about condoms and birth control in romance is VERY INTERESTING.A link to the Twitter conversation about PrEP.Pulling out is weirdly more effective than you'd think for preventing pregnancy, but not at all effective for preventing STIs.All about Plan B.The Pop Culture Library at Bowling Green University is a place both Jen and Sarah would like to visit. Librarian Steve Ammidown is the 2019 RWA Librarian of the Year.Kelly Faircloth writes great articles about romance for Jezebel.Endometriosis deserves more attention than it gets.What it means to be "childless by choice."Jen's post about miscarriage in romance, and some statistics about how often miscarriages happen.25% of American women have had an abortion.Sweet Liar is the only romance that Sarah can think of that references a vasectomy--please tell us if you've got other examples?The Jezebel article wondering how many more abortion stories we have to share.If you're on FB, check out Sarah's OSRBC (Old School Romance Book club).

The Game Makers Series! Kresley’s first foray into contemporary begins with The Professional, which is some kind of book, y’all. Originally released in three parts over six weeks, The Professional stars Natalie, an American Ph.D. who happens to be the long lost daughter of a Russian mobster, and said mobster’s bodyguard, who can’t get enough of watching her in the tub. Or on his cellphone. Or tied up in a sex club. You’ll see! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;In two weeks, we’re back to IAD, just like the original Kresley fans were! Get ready to have your heart ripped out by these childhood lovers turned enemies turned lovers again! Poor Lanthe has been running from her Vrekener, Thronos since Kiss of the Demon King, and finally she gets her story! Read Dark Skye at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesWhen we asked about the serialization of The Professional, listener&nbsp;Sarah Asnaashari&nbsp;came to the rescue!Serialization of novels&nbsp;used to be very common, and although we've all heard&nbsp;the myth that Dickens was paid by the word, in fact he was paid by the installment.Roxie Rivera is the author of the&nbsp;Her Russian Protector series, relevant to everyone's interests, she also wrote a "prison planet romance" series under the name&nbsp;Lolita Lopez.Eastern Promises&nbsp;is a great movie.Scroll down this list for the description of Edward's creepiness in&nbsp;Twilight.Sookie Stackhouse is a telepath&nbsp;in the books&nbsp;and&nbsp;TV show. This is an interesting essay on why Hollywood&nbsp;should stop talking about telepathy as a disability.That Wayne's World flashback noise.Jen will never get tired of the&nbsp;greatest real estate listing ever.Real hurricanes form over the Atlantic&nbsp;very similarly to the way Jen describes a hurricane of an alphahole forming.We want characters to have&nbsp;agency.The story of&nbsp;Anastasia Romanov&nbsp;is pretty amazing. Jen recommends this YA book called&nbsp;The Family Romanov&nbsp;for both adults and middle school readers.George Michael's&nbsp;Listen Without Prejudice&nbsp;is an awesome album, and Jen still thinks&nbsp;Freedom&nbsp;is one the greatest music videos of all time. Sarah's theme song is&nbsp;Too Funky.Jen recommends (in that "this book is terrifying way")&nbsp;The Man without a Face: the Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. But if you just want the quick and dirty version, read this story about how&nbsp;Putin stole a superbowl ring from Robert Kraft.The Pirate's Code.Romance author Jayne Ann Krentz often talks about how author's have a "core story."Dark Skye&nbsp;is our next IAD book.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/4/22/13-the-professional 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.

Small towns! Jen (Chicago) and Sarah (NYC) do not understand them IRL, but we are talking about them in fiction this week! Listen to us talk about their genesis, what they represent, and why Romancelandia can’t get enough of them. Books by Sierra Simone, Vanessa North &amp; Alisha Rai!Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;Also — if you have a romance loving friend, please let them know that we don’t just talk about vampires &amp; valkyries, and maybe they’d like us, too? In fact — In two weeks, we’re not talking about vampires at all! (Except we kind of are) The Game Makers series read-along begins with Kresley’s first contemporary, The Professional. Get ready for Wroth Brother fanfic that Kresley herself refers to as “way sexier” then IAD. Get The Professional at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesIn case you missed the&nbsp;Signet Regency&nbsp;era of romance.More about the&nbsp;Regency period, and Sarah would like you to know that she knows “a bunch of people” didn’t come between George IV &amp; Victoria. One person did: William IV.Everyone's favorite&nbsp;Darcy&nbsp;and&nbsp;Darcy-esque&nbsp;figure.Jane Austen&nbsp;and her world,&nbsp;Georgette Heyer&nbsp;and hers.Cleveland&nbsp;DOES rock, and yes the&nbsp;Cuyahoga River caught on fire, but that&nbsp;whole story is kind of a myth.Y'all know who Jen means when she talks about&nbsp;Kelly, right?The word Jen was searching for when talking about small town romances was "revisionist."Maybe it wasn't "some Russian" who talked about the two stories.Colson Whitehead&nbsp;is amazing and Jen definitely recommends seeing him in person if you ever have the chance. You can&nbsp;read his post 9/11 essay&nbsp;at the New York Times.The Whiting AwardAll about how Americans live:&nbsp;urban, suburban, or rural.Nora Roberts was profiled in the New Yorker&nbsp;and talks about her favorite small town:&nbsp;Boonsboro.Farrah Rochon&nbsp;also writes a great series of small town romances.How WalMart changes small towns.As it turns out,&nbsp;there is not a Menage County, KS.Did you say&nbsp;RITA books?Jen's favorite cupcake place in Chicago is&nbsp;Sweet MandyB's.A&nbsp;Roller Derby glossary&nbsp;and some&nbsp;video tutorials&nbsp;for all your favorite moves. Stay safe, kids!Montagues &amp; Capulets.&nbsp;Hatfields &amp; McCoys.&nbsp;Chandlers &amp; Kanes.The saddest discovery Jen made while working on this week's show notes is that&nbsp;Hot as Hades&nbsp;is no longer available as an eBook! Oh no!On Twitter, Bree Bridges of Kit Rocha asked people to&nbsp;reply with the size of a "small town."In Brooklyn, go to&nbsp;Butter and Scotch&nbsp;for cake, and based on this website, they have some very Romancelandia-friendly swag.Have you pre-ordered&nbsp;Brazen and the Beast&nbsp;yet?

MacRieve is here and so is friend of the pod, Sierra Simone! We’re so excited to talk about The Full Kresley, what makes erotic romance, The Simone Scale™ of taboo romance, why MacRieve is so tough to read, why Sarah thinks it might be Kresley’s best book, and why Chloe is such a badass. There’s a lot of hysterical laughter, and Sarah is preparing for legal action.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.&nbsp;In two weeks, we’re starting Kresley’s contemporary series The Game Makers (we’re reading the books in original publication order) with The Professional. Get ready for Wroth Brother fanfic that Kresley herself refers to as “way sexier” then IAD. Get The Professional at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesThe&nbsp;NECRWA conference&nbsp;always sounds so great!I don't even know&nbsp;where to start&nbsp;with Andie Christopher and her Chris Evans obssession.Avengers Endgame, that ol' chesnut.We stan&nbsp;Sierra Simone, and we love The Sierra Simone Scale™. Check out her two latest,&nbsp;Misadventures of a Curvy Girl&nbsp;and&nbsp;A Lesson in Thorns.Debbie Macomber&nbsp;is a queen of small town contemporary romance.You can't stop me, you can only hope to contain me is a play on a very catchy&nbsp;ESPN phrase from back in the day.Adriana Herrera wrote about how to&nbsp;ethically write about sexual trauma&nbsp;for Smart Bitches. She also&nbsp;joined us to talk about Food Romances&nbsp;&amp; her most recent release.Adriana Anders'&nbsp;Under Her Skin&nbsp;explores a story of a woman's traumatic past, as does&nbsp;Long Shot&nbsp;by Kennedy Ryan.Suzanne from Love In Panels wrote a great&nbsp;explainer about content warnings&nbsp;and why we use them.This is a&nbsp;powerful critique of sexual violence in Game of Thrones.Just last year, two books about women and anger were published:&nbsp;Rage Becomes Her&nbsp;by Soraya Chemaly and&nbsp;Good and Mad&nbsp;by Rebecca Traister.More about&nbsp;emotional dysregulation.The&nbsp;Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux&nbsp;is an old school classic.Dick flu is definitely some&nbsp;BDE.You'd be surprised about how much writer's advice you can find about the evils of&nbsp;the info dump.The history of the Wingding.There's an entire subreddit dedicated to&nbsp;ranting about Comcast.Yankee Candle&nbsp;will eff a werewolf up.You can&nbsp;listen to Kresley&nbsp;on the Wicked Wallflowers podcast.Snakes on a plane!The story of&nbsp;Sir Walter Raleigh throwing down his cape&nbsp;for Queen Elizabeth to walk over is not historically accurate, but it still makes for a&nbsp;great scene in Shakespeare in Love.The Fifth Element&nbsp;is a completely rewatchable movie.All about&nbsp;the Mothman, who, it bears pointing out, Lothaire says exists.Here's the beginning of Sarah's stalking&nbsp;of Sierra after reading (and loving)&nbsp;Priest.Next time, we're going off road and have decided we'll be reading the first book in The Game Makers series,&nbsp;The Professional. Here's&nbsp;the reading order&nbsp;for the rest of Fated Mates Season One.Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (8)Conrad&nbsp;cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)Cadeon&nbsp;has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)Sebastian&nbsp;pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Lucia&nbsp;peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)In order to retrieve the ring from&nbsp;La Dorada&nbsp;, Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Lanthe&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carrow&nbsp;cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)After receiving Lothaire's heart in a box,&nbsp;Ellie&nbsp;cuts off her middle finger and sends it to him. (Lothaire)Chloe's shoulder is dislocated in the escape from her auction (MacRieve).Chest and Torso (7)Omort severs&nbsp;Rydstrom's&nbsp;spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)On Torture Island,&nbsp;Regin,MacRieve,and&nbsp;Brandr&nbsp;are vivisected. It's pretty terrible. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)Declan's skin is peeled off by the Neoptera as a child. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)Lothaire rips out his own heart and sends it to Ellie in a box. (Lothaire)Head, Face, and Eyes (6)Bowen&nbsp;loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Cadeon&nbsp;loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighti

Are you a sports ball fan?! Do we have romances for you! We’ve got the brilliant Jenny Nordbak from The Wicked Wallflowers podcast back for a sports romance interstitial! Listen to us chat about why we love sports books, the alpha, competence porn and books by Kennedy Ryan, Tamsen Parker, and Naima Simone!Next week, it’s (FOR REAL THIS TIME) MacRieve week with Sierra Simone! We’re so excited, and Sierra is the perfect guest for this sex-driven book! Get MacRieve at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesWelcome back to our guest&nbsp;Jenny Nordbak&nbsp;from the Wicked Wallflowers podcast!Everyone loves&nbsp;a trip to the hairdresser.Here's a list of&nbsp;the RITA finalists, and a link to&nbsp;Jen's new twitter account&nbsp;which tracks her reviews of the finalists.Author&nbsp;Bronwen Fleetwood&nbsp;crunched a bunch of&nbsp;RITA data from the past 20 years, which is how we know there are more winners named Susan (and Elizabeth, Barbara, Karen, Jennifer, Ann, Jill, Linda...) than WoC finalists.Famously, the&nbsp;Hugo Awards also struggled&nbsp;with recognizing the best books in their field.Here's what we are talking about when we talk about&nbsp;how PoC are underrepresented in publishing.Um, actully Sarah,&nbsp;Ulysses is a twitter thread.This week, Sarah told&nbsp;a pretty solid competence porn story&nbsp;about her neurosurgeon on Twitter.Kennedy Ryan has been on the Wicked Wallflowers podcast.&nbsp;Twice.Content warnings&nbsp;for Long Shot.Adriana Herrera, author and friend of the Pod, recently wrote a very important piece for the Smart Bitches about&nbsp;how to portray sexual assualt in romance.Why the Ray Rice elevator video&nbsp;is important.Jen's written about&nbsp;the whiteness of hockey romances&nbsp;for The Book Queen. Don't believe Jen? Back in 2012, commenter #11 left a plea for more hockey romances on&nbsp;this Smart Bitches post. I bet they are happy now.Susan Elizabeth Phillip's&nbsp;Chicago Stars series&nbsp;is a romance classic.There's no crying in baseball.Jen reviewed&nbsp;all&nbsp;of Tamsen Parker's&nbsp;Snow and&nbsp;Ice Games&nbsp;series.Olympics atheletes&nbsp;are busy,&nbsp;y'all.6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon&nbsp;was an&nbsp;amusing 90s pop culture game.Tennyson is a romance heroine and&nbsp;a famous poet.Listen to&nbsp;Naima's interview&nbsp;on the Wicked Wallflowers.Fumbled&nbsp;is a new football romance by Alexa Martin, and it deals with&nbsp;CTE.Get ready for&nbsp;MacRieve.

Jen and Sarah were together in the same city in the same room and just couldn’t pass up the chance to do a real-deal AMA while looking at each other’s faces! You asked, we answered…but get ready. There are some weird things in here (mainly said by Jen). Next week, it’s MacRieve week with Sierra Simone! If you think things got weird this week, just you wait! Get MacRieve at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesAt KissCon, Sarah and Sophie Jordan hosted a session called "Bananas Books" and friend of the pod&nbsp;Beth&nbsp;took notes and listed all the titles.Jen's&nbsp;Best Friend Kelly&nbsp;runs&nbsp;The Resistance Button Club, makes&nbsp;avatar buttons, and also designs stickers and swag for Romancelandia.You can see the signed copy of Wicked Abyss&nbsp;on our insta.Jen&nbsp;wrote about making new TBR collections for her Kindle&nbsp;on Twitter.Soren is one of the characters in Tiffany Reisz's&nbsp;Original Sinners series.Check out the&nbsp;IAD fan Facebook group.Check below in the photo array for the Kleypas books with&nbsp;talismans.Fridging&nbsp;is a comics term, and&nbsp;this explainer uses Deadpool 2&nbsp;to explain the history of this problematic trope.Close 3rd person point of view&nbsp;is very common in romance.Unreliable narrators&nbsp;are very uncommon in romance.Here's how to make a&nbsp;Chicago-style hot dog.A quick primer on&nbsp;archetypes.Next week, we're talking about&nbsp;MacRieve&nbsp;with the magnificent&nbsp;Sierra Simone.Sarah's newest book,&nbsp;Brazen and the Beast, comes out in July and you should pre-order it now!The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/4/15/115-ama-with-jen-amp-sarah 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.

Lothaire is here! We’re so excited, we don’t know what to do with ourselves, but FYI, this is a longer episode than usual -- so get ready! We're talking morality chain romance, how Lothaire is a pure ass but incredibly funny, and how Ellie is pretty much the only mate he could ever have. Also, we love Nix &amp; Lothaire a lot.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.In two weeks, one of our favorite people, Sierra Simone, is joining us to talk about The Full Kresley, and MacRieve! It's going to be a great time, we promise. Get MacRieve at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books,&nbsp;Kobo, or&nbsp;from your local Indie.Show NotesLearn about&nbsp;tone-policing&nbsp;so you won't make Jen mad.Maybe we haven't recommended audiobook narrator&nbsp;Robert Petkoff&nbsp;to you enough.Justine Eyre is the audiobook narrator who was nominated for an Audie for Sarah's book&nbsp;Never Judge a Lady by her Cover.Love Between the Covers&nbsp;is an amazing documentary about romance, and you might be able to find it on Netflix.Everyone knows the difference between hardback and paperback books, but learn&nbsp;the difference between mass-market and trade paperbacks.During the Lothaire bus tour,&nbsp;Kresley wrote her fans this Facebook letter&nbsp;about the experience.Paul Marron&nbsp;is a very handsome man.The&nbsp;morality chain&nbsp;trope.Other famous series with villains-turned-heroes include Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers (Devil in Winter), Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane ([Duke of Sin])10, and Sarah's Scandal &amp; Scoundrel (Day of the Duchess).Italy discovers what happens when&nbsp;everyone is raising a mammone.Lothaire breaks his life up into tasks, sort of like&nbsp;Hugh Grant in About a Boy.When Robert Downey Jr. starred at Sherlock Holmes,&nbsp;he can forecast the moves his opponents will make in a fight.On Twitter, Melanie did a very thorough count of all the times&nbsp;Lothaire punched a wall.Lothaire is very funny. Andie Christopher, friend of the pod, is very pro his cock slapping gnomes joke.Old Friends&nbsp;is a very sweet song by Simon &amp; Garfunkle, even if you aren't learning to play the ukulele.Check out the Romance Sparks Joy read-along on&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;and&nbsp;Facebook. Get&nbsp;M. Malone's Bad Blood&nbsp;for the April 15th Read!MacRieve&nbsp;will be next, and&nbsp;Sierra Simone&nbsp;will be joining us!Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (7)Conrad&nbsp;cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)Cadeon&nbsp;has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)Sebastian&nbsp;pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Lucia&nbsp;peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)In order to retrieve the ring from&nbsp;La Dorada&nbsp;, Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Lanthe&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carrow&nbsp;cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)After receiving Lothaire's heart in a box,&nbsp;Ellie&nbsp;cuts off her middle finger and sends it to him. (Lothaire)Chest and Torso (7)Omort severs&nbsp;Rydstrom's&nbsp;spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)On Torture Island,&nbsp;Regin,MacRieve,and&nbsp;Brandr&nbsp;are vivisected. It's pretty terrible. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)Declan's skin is peeled off by the Neoptera as a child. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)Lothaire rips out his own heart and sends it to Ellie in a box. (Lothaire)Head, Face, and Eyes (5)Bowen&nbsp;loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Cadeon&nbsp;loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)During a rugby match,&nbsp;Garreth&nbsp;has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Lothaire&nbsp;kicks out La Dorada's remaining eye and throws her over a cliff. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)In the Bloodroot Forest, the tree grows over&nbsp;Lothaire's lips and tongue. (Lothaire)Horns (2)Cadeon&nbsp;cuts off his own horns to prove to Holly that he is worthy of being her mate. She tells him to let them grow back (Dark Desires After Dusk)Malkolm&nbsp;is captured by his enemies in Oblivion and taken to the city of Ash. The publicly cut off his horns and then intend to kill him, but Carrow saves him. (Demon from the Dark)Legs and Feet (3)Lachlain&nbsp;tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerate

This one has to be a top-ten universal trope…were talking fake engagements! Listen to us chat about why ladies love a fantasy, the royal wedding, marriages of convenience, and books by Elle Kennedy, Talia Hibbert, Chelsea M. Cameron and Kate Clayborn!GIRD THY LOINS, LOTHAIRE IS NEXT!A jumbo episode with this jumbo jerk face dreamboat! Get Lothaire at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie…and if you’re an audio lover, you are not going to want to miss Robert Petkoff on this one — Jen hearts it baaad.Show NotesAna Coqui&nbsp;is&nbsp;the force&nbsp;behind&nbsp;#RomBkLove.The twitter thread&nbsp;where Mary Lynn Nielsen perfectly described the fake engagement trope.In historicals, the trope is usually called&nbsp;marriage of convenience.Chelsea M. Cameron&nbsp;vs.&nbsp;Chelsea Cameron.Garrets are&nbsp;empirically great&nbsp;romance heroes.Kate Clayborn joined us for our&nbsp;Best Friend's Sibling&nbsp;episode.The royal wedding of&nbsp;Harry &amp; Meghan&nbsp;was&nbsp;so delightful. We wish them many years of happiness.New adult is a&nbsp;genre descriptor&nbsp;that not everyone loves, but there are&nbsp;lots of wonderful NA romances.She's All That&nbsp;is a 90s teen romance starring Freddie Prinz Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook."That Six Pence None the Richer" song is called&nbsp;Kiss Me.2 historicals that Sarah mentioned this week are&nbsp;His at Night&nbsp;by Sherry Thomas and&nbsp;Pleasure for Pleasure&nbsp;by Eloisa James.Lothaire&nbsp;is next. We can't even.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/4/1/105-fake-engagement-interstitial 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.

Mr. Vivisection is here, and it’s a whole lot! Regin the Radiant is on Torture Island, and just her luck, the guy running the whole show is a berserker reincarnate who she’s loved in five earlier lifetimes. Declan Chase is a highly controversial Kresley hero, and Dreams of a Dark Warrior is a book Sarah and Jen always skip on the reread…but this week, we’re talking about it and *gasp!* we’re kind of on #TeamDeclan by the end?! UP IS DOWN! This episode, we’re digging into the way Kresley builds characters and lays the brickwork for the rest of the IAD series. We’re talking about torture, about childhood, about packing for the end of days, and about Lothaire’s Guide to Wooing Women. We’re joined by the wonderful Sarah Hawley, co-host of the Wicked Wallflowers podcast, and Declan-stan.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. In two weeks, strap in because Lothaire. Is. Here!!! We’re so excited we don’t know what to do with ourselves, but FYI, this is gonna be a double episode for SURE. Gird your loins. Get Lothaire at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.Show NotesIn Salman Rushdie's novel&nbsp;Haroun and the Sea of Stories, juggling is often used as a symbol for storytelling.There's not much better than a&nbsp;snowed-in romance. Or maybe&nbsp;marriage in trouble&nbsp;is more your speed."That just happened" is a quote from a very funny scene of a movie with Alec Baldwin called State and Main.Mr. and Mrs. Smith and&nbsp;the single sexiest hate fuck&nbsp;ever filmed. /fans selfThe&nbsp;heist movie slow walk&nbsp;is iconic.Villains as heroes: hard to write, delicious to read.Sarah Silverman&nbsp;interviewed a woman who escaped from the cult of The Westboro Church.Revenge is a good plot.Talia Hibbert&nbsp;had to quit this one.The Lord of the Rings&nbsp;Ring&nbsp;is super fancy. And&nbsp;super creepy.Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame&nbsp;has a TED talk. Of course he does.Welcome to&nbsp;Sarah Hawley&nbsp;from&nbsp;The Wicked Wallflowers PodcastKylo Ren&nbsp;is Han &amp; Leia's jerk son. Presumably he'll get a redemption arc, but the jury is out on whether he deserves it.The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo&nbsp;is&nbsp;a good book&nbsp;and&nbsp;a great movie. Don't at Sarah (MacLean).The&nbsp;Morality Chain trope, and&nbsp;some romance examples.White Satin by Iris Johansen. "I think it's time for beer," is what FDR said after while the country was deep in the Great Depression before he sent word to Congress that&nbsp;he wanted to end Prohibition.Lothaire&nbsp;is coming, and just clear your whole day for what will likely be a three hour podcast. Also, maybe you want to brush up on&nbsp;The Odyssey&nbsp;(free for Kindle).A huge shout out to Heather Pagan, who helped us with medieval French and edits the Anglo Norman Dictionary. Here’s the official translation of the Medieval French, along with some fascinating notes on historical swearing, which you all know is our favorite! Go copulate with a pig - Va foutre un porcel! (literally, go fuck a pig). Unless the joke is that they are being formal (ie. copulate and not fuck) in which case: Va couvrir un porcel!You defend that rampart female? - Femme / Dame, defendis tu le terrail?To the death, prick*! - Jusqu'a / A la mort, ribaud! OR Jusqu'a / A la mort, paillard! OR Jusqu'a /A la mort, pautener!* There are lots of words for penis/prick in Old French, but I don't have any evidence that they were used as insults (and that's a whole 'nother book about when we began to use genitalia as offensive words...) I've chosen to translate it with a bunch of words that mean 'jerk'. The words I used are all ones that end up being borrowed into English (ribald, pailliard, pautener) for someone who is base / rascally / a scoundrel / someone of low status etc.Thoughts (or why you never ask an academic for a translation...) We actually don't know overly much about medieval swearing. What we know about language use during the period is based on what was written down, and what was written down (gross generalization ahead) tended not to be 1) direct / indirect speech or 2) of a less formal register. Nevertheless, we do have some record of what people said, and in some cases, how they would curse each other. A lot of these curses were be religious in nature - damning them, accusing them of bad faith etc. We have one amazing set of texts, referred to as the Manieres de Language, which were an early type of phrase book for Englishmen wanting to learn French in the late fourteen century. These include my favourite section - insults! So this is mainly what the translation is based on - though insults of the time were a bit different. Here are some from the phrase book (translated): You're lying, you evil bastard; Go hang yourself, you bastard; Go away you bloody son of a whore; You will pay!; Kiss my ass (I am very pleased that this has been the eternal insult!); Kiss the devil's ass;

This week, Adriana Herrera joins us again to talk food romances and Sarah is very excited. Adriana’s debut food romance, American Dreamer, is on shelves now. We talk about the book, the pull of the food romance novel, and why nourishment is sexy. Also, Sarah basically name checks her whole favorites shelf.Next week, it’s full Torture Island with what is probably the most controversial of the IAD books—Dreams of a Dark Warrior. Declan Chase—torturer extraordinaire is our hero, Regin the Radiant is the woman he’s been trying to love for a millennium, and we’re full bananas in the lead up to Lothaire! Get ready! Get DoaDW at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie. Don’t forget that the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY!&nbsp;Listen on Audio!Show NotesWelcome back&nbsp;Adriana, and if you didn't hear her on our&nbsp;Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night&nbsp;episode, you should check it out.The concept of love languages comes from 1995 self-help book&nbsp;The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman. It's a little soft for us. We prefer&nbsp;this additional list of love languages, from McSweeney's.Adriana talked about her grandmother bringing a pot of Sancocho from the DR to family in New York, and here's&nbsp;a twitter thread where Adriana makes a pot with a friend.American Dreamer&nbsp;came out at the beginning of the month, and the sequel&nbsp;American Fairytale&nbsp;comes out in April. Find American Dreamer at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;B&amp;N,&nbsp;Apple Books&nbsp;or&nbsp;Kobo.The dull thuds you're hearing in this episode are Sarah's phone falling off her desk. She is convinced her phone is defective because it falls off flat surfaces every day. She has fantasies of finding&nbsp;Jony Ive's phone number and texting him lists of everything it falls off every day.Next time you're in Brooklyn, you should visit the&nbsp;Smorgasburg.Find a&nbsp;Michelin star restaurant&nbsp;to try if you're so inclined.Just kidding about the&nbsp;Soylent Green&nbsp;thing. Really.Jen interviewed Mia Hopkins&nbsp;last year when Thirsty came out.The song Jude was singing was&nbsp;Latinoamerica by Calle 13. You, too, can find&nbsp;great music on NPR.A romance has to have an HEA or HFN, but a love story doesn't. Don't at us.An interesting think piece from The Common Reader about&nbsp;how we view competence in men and women.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/3/18/95-foodie-romance-interstitial 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.

Torture Island is here and we could not be more excited! Demon from the Dark is Jen’s favorite book in the series, because she loves poor, broken Malkom, the vemon with a heart of gold, and his fated mate, Carrow, our second witch, whose powers come from other people’s joy. This episode, we’re digging into the worldbuilding of the second movement of IAD — Torture Island. We’re talking about innocence and how it is a great motivator, what saves a heroine from being unlikeable, why bathing is sexy, and how we really would like it if more men offered up the heads of our enemies as tribute. As always, there’s a lost-limb count and Lothaire-Watch!Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. In two weeks, get ready for the most (we think?) controversial of the IAD books — Dreams of a Dark Warrior, when Declan Chase, unknowing berserker and magister of Torture Island, gets paired with Regin the Radiant. Get DoaDW at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.Show NotesIn the 1976 movie Rocky, one of the things he consumes during training in a&nbsp;glassful of raw eggs.Jen loves books&nbsp;about nuclear weapons and nuclear disasters, and the mindset of the Order is very much that of&nbsp;mutually assured destruction&nbsp;during the Cold War.In&nbsp;Buffy, it was called&nbsp;the Initiative.&nbsp;Angel,&nbsp;Riley, and&nbsp;Spike&nbsp;were her boyfriends on the show, but in the comic&nbsp;there are other lovers.Your brain isn't fully cooked&nbsp;until you're 25!Duolingo&nbsp;helps you learn languages, but if you're in a hurry just drink down somebody's blood.Sarah's friend Natalie Parker's book is called&nbsp;Seafire&nbsp;and it has&nbsp;the most gorgeous cover.Book Riot makes the case for&nbsp;a Romantic Horror subgenre, and Victoria Helen Stone wrote about&nbsp;the relationship between romance and suspense.Some information from Pew about&nbsp;rural vs urban living in America.Adventures in Babysitting&nbsp;is an 80s movie all about the horrors of some kids and their babysitter getting into trouble in the big, bad city of Chicago (or, as Jenny Holiday &amp;&nbsp;Jen call it:&nbsp;Dirty Toronto).You can tell a lot about&nbsp;a culture by its parenting.Pygmalion&nbsp;and&nbsp;Encino Man.Some directions for any&nbsp;tailsman-making endeavors.Lore parenting tips aside, Jen wrote once about&nbsp;how human parents can talk to their kids about sex.Maybe&nbsp;28 Days Later&nbsp;isn't the best metaphor for IAD, but it's a scary movie.Jen loves it&nbsp;when heroes grovel.A vemon is a vampire/demon hybrid;&nbsp;Venom&nbsp;is a Tom Hardy movie.If Jen knew photoshop, she'd be putting Malkolm inside a&nbsp;Sweet Valley High&nbsp;circle...&nbsp;Demon Love!Yao Ming is very tall compared to Kevin Hart, but&nbsp;Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet&nbsp;are much better fancasting for Malkolm and Carrow.Friend of the Pod&nbsp;Adriana Herrera was on our sister podcast Wicked Wallflowers&nbsp;last week.Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (6)Conrad&nbsp;cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)Cadeon&nbsp;has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)Sebastian&nbsp;pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Lucia&nbsp;peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)In order to retrieve the ring from&nbsp;La Dorada&nbsp;, Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Lanthe&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carrow&nbsp;cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)Chest and Torso (2)Omort severs&nbsp;Rydstrom's&nbsp;spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Face and Eyes (3)Bowen&nbsp;loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Cadeon&nbsp;loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)During a rugby match,&nbsp;Garreth&nbsp;has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Horns (2)Cadeon&nbsp;cuts off his own horns to prove to Holly that he is worthy of being her mate. She tells him to let them grow back (Dark Desires After Dusk)Malkolm&nbsp;is captured by...

You’re new to romance, where should you begin?! This week, Jen and Sarah are talking about good gateway romances, and we’ve got four that we think work for readers who’ve never dipped a toe, but are open to things from dukes to magic, the America West to kinky London and everything in between.Next week, it’s Jen’s favorite IAD book, Demon from the Dark! Malkom Slaine is a demon living alone on another plane…until witch Carrow Graie comes to fetch him. Get DFTD at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie. Don’t forget that the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY!&nbsp;Listen on Audio!Show NotesNext week, it's&nbsp;Demon from the Dark&nbsp;since we already talked about&nbsp;Pleasure of a Dark Prince!Derek Craven&nbsp;is our favorite and since it's our podcast, we don't have to listen to anyone talk about&nbsp;St. Vincent.A librarian who excels at&nbsp;reader's advisory&nbsp;is a wonderful thing to have in your life.Check out&nbsp;Jen's website&nbsp;for targeted romance recommendations.John Warner&nbsp;is the&nbsp;biblioracle, and he's an amazing&nbsp;advocate for educators&nbsp;and the&nbsp;teaching of writing. He's also one of the key players in&nbsp;The Morning News Tournament of Books, which is literary blood sport par excellence.An explainer about American-style&nbsp;universtiy course numbering.Jaime Green&nbsp;is the&nbsp;New York Times romance reviewer&nbsp;and we love her.One of the most hilarious twitter accounts is all about the&nbsp;smells of romance.The&nbsp;Georgette Heyer&nbsp;chronotope and its limits&nbsp;explained.If you are interested in knowing the "beat for beat" way a romance is built, you should check out&nbsp;this book by Gwen Hayes.The&nbsp;ton, the&nbsp;modiste, and&nbsp;Bond Street.Everyone loves a&nbsp;read-alike, but the problem is finding them.The&nbsp;Governess&nbsp;and&nbsp;rake&nbsp;tropes are beloved by romance readers, and&nbsp;Tessa Dare's The Governess Game&nbsp;is an excellent example of the trope in action.Lol, you can't fool Jen. She is absolutely not googling "sex swing."Hillary Clinton said some things about romance novels, and&nbsp;Romancelandia wasn't having it.NPR's Codeswitch wrote about&nbsp;Passing in America.Sarah isn't the only one who&nbsp;learned about history from romance novels.Jen described her&nbsp;angst vs. stakes theory&nbsp;in this post.Alexander Chee&nbsp;is a delight, but Jen hated A Little Life more than any other book she's ever read, so just enjoy&nbsp;this Nicole Cliffe thread where a million people dunk on it.The Sex House&nbsp;for sale in PA was the best 2019 story. Don't believe us?&nbsp;Read this interview&nbsp;with the realtor.Epistolary novels&nbsp;are interesting; but Jen, Melinda, and Kat talked in this review about&nbsp;Thrall by Roan Parrish &amp; Avon Gale&nbsp;and whether or not epistolary novels work in the age of the internet. (Edited by Sarah to add: Epistolary novels are the tits and anyone who says otherwise is F- wrong.)The&nbsp;bass line&nbsp;in question.Jen and Sarah really&nbsp;hate&nbsp;cliffhangers.Andrew and Illona Gordon&nbsp;are a&nbsp;husband and wife writing team&nbsp;and Jen would probably read anything they wrote (as long as there were no cliffhangers.)Tom Hardy as&nbsp;Mad Max&nbsp;and fancast as&nbsp;Derek Craven,&nbsp;Mad Rogan,&nbsp;Rune,&nbsp;etc.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/3/1/85-gateways-to-romance-interstitial If you...

We’re back with the werewolves this week, with one of our very favorite books in the series, Pleasures of a Dark Prince, featuring Garreth MacRieve and Lucia the Huntress, a Valkyrie who is burning it all down. This episode, we’re discussing the way this book wraps up the first movement of IAD and preps readers for what’s to come (SPOILER: IT’S TORTURE ISLAND), we get into how the books are becoming more political, we update the lost-limb count, begin Lothaire-Watch, and dig into why it’s just plain futile to try to stay away from a werewolf mate on the night of a full moon. More than all that, we’re interviewing moon expert Summer Ash about moon business, and Jen is beyond excited.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. In two weeks, get ready for vivisection, because it’s happening on Torture Island, and we’re doing a reread of Jen’s favorite book in the series, Demon From The Dark! Malkom Slaine is a demon living alone on another plane…until witch Carrow Graie comes to fetch him. Get DFTD at Amazon, B&amp;N, Apple Books, Kobo, or from your local Indie.Show NotesThis article explains "the heir and a spare" and also has a lot of Prince Harry. Fine.It's an astronomy heavy show, so learn all about The Big Bang.Ah, the double entendre.All about how goals are scored in rugby.Turns out there are lots of myths about gods and cannibalism.Chastity is one of the seven virtues, but the seven deadly sins sound a lot more fun.Is it really necessary to link to Fifty Shades of Grey?The "he-cession" recession.Women and the second shift.The Cooler stars WILLIAM H. Macy, obviously. Robert H. Macy isn't even a thing.The Amazon rainforest is truly amazing, but Brazil's new president Jair Bolsonaro is removing legal protections from the rainforest.A man who tried to contact a legally protected island tribe died in the South Pacific last year.Indiana Jones and lots and lots of snakes.Lara Croft Tomb Raider is a 2001 movie with Angelina Jolie, but here's a great explainer to the entire Lara Croft franchise.El Dorado myths and details.Jen's idly curious if Charlie/Isabel character is a nod to the Brazilian Travesti culture, but she doesn't know enough about it to be sure.The Wonder Woman "Godkiller" is a sword, not an arrow.In two weeks, we'll be discussing Malkom &amp; Carrow in Demon From the Dark.Welcome Summer Ash! Please check out her blog Startorialist, which brings science and fashion together.More about moon phases and the baby moon/dying moon way of remembering if the moon is waxing or waning.The Dreamwakers Program helps classrooms all over the country skype with scientists and STEM people. So cool!No, you can't blow up the moon.What If! is a great collection of XKCD columns, including Jen's favorite about whether or not you can swim in a pool with spent nuclear rods.Jen really loves books about nuclear disasters.Light pollution is the worst.Check out the Sky Guide app.More about Haley's Comet and the Bayeux Tapestry.Astronomy on Tap is worth checking out.The moon is amazing. Look up!Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (5)Conrad cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)Cadeon has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Lucia peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)In order to retrieve the ring from La Dorada , Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Chest and Torso (2)Omort severs Rydstrom's spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)Face and Eyes (3)Bowen loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Cadeon loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires...

It’s Scotland week, Lads and Lassies! We’re talking about the great green jewel to the north of England, where the ladies are bold and the lairds are brawn, and we're all just wishing we could get wrapped in a plaid and cuddled through a cold Highland night. Next week, we’re back with the Lykae with Pleasure of a Dark Prince—starring the FULLY DREAMY Garreth MacRieve and Lucia the Huntress, who just might be our favorite heroine yet. We’ll be talking wolf holograms, how Kresley is blowing the doors off the IAD world, and we’ll be starting Lothaire Watch! Get ready for the PoaDP read along at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;Barnes &amp; Noble,&nbsp;Apple Books&nbsp;or&nbsp;your local indie. Also, the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY!&nbsp;Listen on Audio! Show NotesHere's the twitter thread where&nbsp;Lillie talked about imprinting&nbsp;on Julie Garwood.The Heaving Bosoms podcast is pretty great, and although&nbsp;this episode about Mastered by Her Mates&nbsp;by Grace Goodwin is not set during Highlander Times, it's profoundly hilarious.Some&nbsp;brief&nbsp;explainers&nbsp;about why old paperbacks have dyed edges, but according to Sarah's research, the more popular an author, the more likely it was the pages would be dyed.All about kilts. Also, it's never too late for a&nbsp;calendar of men it kilts.Dirks&nbsp;and&nbsp;broadswords, oh my!Goodreads has a few&nbsp;lists of Broken marriage romances, but Jen recommends&nbsp;Cherish Me by Farrah Rochan.Here's a google folder with screenshots of the entries for&nbsp;cunt, cunny, pussy, quim, shit, and fuck&nbsp;from the Oxford English Dictionary. Jen mentioned a book called&nbsp;Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, but it's kind of&nbsp;Terf-y, so she does not recommend it.Sarah does talk about&nbsp;the etymology&nbsp;of swear words&nbsp;a lot on Twitter, becuase&nbsp;fuck just isn't a new word. Don't @ us.If you want to learn more about the etymology of swear words, Melissa Mohr's&nbsp;Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing&nbsp;is the book for you.A&nbsp;thread about vaginas&nbsp;by friend of the pod S.S. Jaxon.You definitely want to see&nbsp;the flying fuck image&nbsp;and read Jen's column called&nbsp;Who Did it Better on a Horse.Lyrics&nbsp;to a song from 1657 that uses some very choice dirty words. Maybe you prefer to&nbsp;listen?The Hangover&nbsp;is a 2009 comedy, so who knows if it's held up over time.Sarah, Sophie Jordan, and a bunch of other amazing authors will be at&nbsp;Avon's KissCon&nbsp;in early April. Jen will be there as an attendee, and we'll definitely have some sort of Fated Mates meet-up!Jen said she texted Sophie, but that's not true.&nbsp;She tweeted at her.Katy Budget Books&nbsp;has a super-amazing romance section and if you want to order signed copies of Sophie Jordan's upcoming book, you should contact them.Next week, we return to IAD with Garreth and Lucia in&nbsp;Pleasure of a Dark Prince.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/1/7/65-scotland-interstitial 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 tackling the novellas this week, and finishing up the Wroth Brother Quartet with The Warlord Wants Forever (Nikolai) &amp; Untouchable (Murdoch), as well as their incredible Valkyrie mates. This episode, we’re talking about Myst’s weird chain, Danii’s loneliness, the responsibility of authors to readers, to themselves, to the text, and to literary history, and the way Untouchable hints at the enormous world that IAD is about to become. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. In two weeks, we’re back to the Lykae, with one of our favorite books — Pleasures of a Dark Prince, the last book in the first arc of the IAD series (this begins at the same time as A Hunger Like No Other). Garreth MacRieve, prince of the Lykae clan and Lucia the Huntress — the greatest archer of all time. Show NotesThe Wroth Brothers are dreamy, and here are the books the feature&nbsp;Nikolai,&nbsp;Sebastian,&nbsp;Conrad, and&nbsp;Murdoch.Take a look at the&nbsp;IAD Ranking Spreasheet of Wonder&nbsp;from the Wicked Wallflowers Podcast.Sarah refers to our novella episode, but she means the&nbsp;Holiday Romances episode&nbsp;where we had a long discussion of the novellas as a form.Jen collected some comparison screenshots from the original (A) and revised (B) versions of The Warlord Wants Forever. The&nbsp;two&nbsp;versions&nbsp;of the scene after the chain is broken; The&nbsp;two&nbsp;versions&nbsp;of the first time they have sex; and the&nbsp;two&nbsp;versions&nbsp;of Nix naming herself.Dubcon romances&nbsp;have main characters who agree to sex play featuring "dubious consent."A little more about&nbsp;the versions of Whitney, My Love. You can still find original versions on eBay or Amazon, but you'll pay more for them.Jen mentions&nbsp;Eric Selinger at DePaul. He teaches classes on Romance at DePaul, which is local for her. SADLY, they don't have PhD programs. But you can read more academic romance talk at a blog called&nbsp;Teach Me Tonight.The&nbsp;Hello Stranger review at Smart Bitches&nbsp;calls out the&nbsp;Orientalism&nbsp;in the novel, and features Lisa Kleypas' response.The Memory Hole&nbsp;is a reference to 1984 by George Orwell.A little more about why&nbsp;sheikh&nbsp;and&nbsp;Native American romances&nbsp;are problematic.A&nbsp;definitive list of the qualities, skills, and powers of vampires&nbsp;in literature and pop culture. At some point, Jen's going to add IAD.Retcon stands for "retroactive continiuity" and&nbsp;here's a great primer&nbsp;about it from the best dictionary, Merriam-Webster.In two weeks, we'll be discussing Garreth &amp; Lucia in&nbsp;Pleasure of a Dark Prince.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/1/13/7-warlord-wants-forever-amp-untouchable If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

This week, we’re having a fun, far-reaching conversation with the wonderful Joanna Shupe—who loves Kiss of a Demon King a whole lot, immediately saw the echoes of one of the most famous old school romances inside it, and came to talk to us about enemies to lovers romances, but ended up telling us all about that time she spent a lot of time researching penetrative sex in carriages. We had a great time, and hope you do, too!Our next read-along episode will tackle the final two Wroth brothers with the two IAD novellas, The Warlord Wants Forever (Nikolai) &amp; Untouchable (Murdoch), available in the Deep Kiss of Winter anthology! This will be the last time we tackle vampires until Lothaire, so get your fill! A Note: There are two version of The Warlord Wants Forever — you want the most recent version. Show NotesJoanna Shupe&nbsp;writes delightful Gilded Age romances. Check out this twitter thread where Jen&nbsp;raved about A Daring Arrangement.Sarah was hunting for that Lora Leigh book&nbsp;on Twitter.Goodreads reviewers have feelings about&nbsp;Prisoner of My Desire.Of course there's a YouTube channel of&nbsp;classic clips from Candid Camera.Eleanor of Aquitaine&nbsp;is an amazing woman. The 1968 film&nbsp;The Lion in Winter&nbsp;stars Katherine Hepburn and&nbsp;Peter O'Toole.Hot Island Nights&nbsp;is the prequel to Her Best Worst Mistake.Jen also talked about&nbsp;A Matter of Disagreement&nbsp;on Twitter.Consider this a placeholder in case Joanna shares links from her sex in a carraige research. Jen's a little afraid to google search that one.A&nbsp;barouche&nbsp;is a real thing, and you can learn more about all of it at the&nbsp;Carriage Museum&nbsp;in Long Island.We return to IAD next time with two Wroth brother novellas, the first is&nbsp;The Warlord Wants Forever&nbsp;(an earlier version of this was available in an anthology called&nbsp;Playing Easy to Get. It is not HUGELY different, so it's okay if you just have that one--we'll talk about the differences during the episode.) The second is called Untouchable and available in the&nbsp;Deep Kiss of Winter anthology.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/2/5/65-freewheeling-with-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.

One of the best loved books in the IAD universe, this week we’re talking about Kiss of A Demon King, the completion of the Demonarchy Duology, starring Rydstrom, the deposed King of Rothkalina, and his fated mate, Sabine, the Queen of Illusions, which is an incredibly handy power. We’ve got a fabulous guest host this week, Jenny Nordbak from our sister romance podcast, The Wicked Wallflowers Club. Jenny is ride-or-die for Sabine, and she’s got a fabulous personal story about her relationship with the book that we’re thrilled to share with you.This episode, we’re talking traumatic pasts, Latin references, horns (I mean, obviously), villains, the unlikeable heroine (a whole lot), and we’ll come back around to Cade &amp; Holly and tackle the unfinished business from their book!Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. Novellas are up next! We told you we’d get to the rest of the Wroth Brothers eventually, and eventually is here! Our next read-along episode will tackle both novellas, The Warlord Wants Forever (Nikolai) &amp; Untouchable (Murdoch), available in the Deep Kiss of Winter anthology! This will be the last time we tackle vampires until Lothaire, so get your fill! A Note: There are two version of The Warlord Wants Forever — you want the most recent version. Show NotesOur special guest this week is Jenny Nordbak, author of the memoir, The Scarlett Letters: My Secret Year of Men in an LA Dungeon and co-host of the Wicked Wallflowers Club Podcast.All about the freudian slip.Here is Wendy's blog post about the righted world, along with a twitter thread that Jennifer Porter wrote that eloquently talks about the importance of this idea. Teach Me Tonight jumped in with a look at how this same phenomenon plays out in academia.Jen's friend Liz, the Latin teacher!, loved this book for the sheer number of classical allusions. Here's a report of some of her mort specific findings:"mors, mortis" means death in Latin, so O-mort means "without death" or "in the way of death."The Ourbouros is an ancient symbol that shows up in Egyptian traditions.Finally, the invaders that Omort led into Tornin--the Invidia, Libitinae, and Undines--are also Latin allusions, and they're really evil in the classical world. (Invidia--this Latin word means jealousy and personified envy. Undines-- Latin word for female spirits that inhabit the water. Libitinae--has several meanings: the goddess of corpses (in her temple were kept the funeral apparatus and registries of death), the apparatus of funerals, or death itself.)Jen's interview with Adriana about Domestic Violence in romance.The name Sabine might be a reference to Rome's neighbors, the Sabines. The story of the abduction of the Sabine women&nbsp;has been told in art over and over again. It's intersting to consider why this name was used: perhaps to reclaim a story where sex was a weapon used against women?Melanthe means "dark flower" in Latin, and she was a minor character in the Odyssey.Gone with the Wind has a very problematic portrayal of the happy slave and the good master. House elves aren't much better.The Wicked Wallflower's IAD Spreadsheet of Wonder.All the horn photos are on Instagram.Saga is an amazing comic.The Babysitter's Club Summer Special, and all the other amazing goodness of the Scholastic Book Club. And in case you didn't know, the Scholastic Book Club &amp; its Book Fairs&nbsp;are still a thing.Jenny's book is called The Scarlett Letters: My Secret Year of Men in an LA Dungeon.That Mr. Too Big (not to be confused with Mr. Big) Sex in the City episode.The Arcana Chronicles is a YA series by Kresley.Why yes, both Sarah and Jen&nbsp;have been on the Wicked Wallflowers podcast. When you're done listening to this episode of Fated Mates, head over to listen, and don't forget their interview with Kresley Cole &amp; Gena Showalter!The Warlord Wants Forever &amp; Untouchable (in the Deep Kiss of Winter anthology) are coming up next.Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (3)Conrad&nbsp;cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)Cadeon&nbsp;has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)Sebastian&nbsp;pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Chest and Torso (1)Omort severs&nbsp;Rydstrom's&nbsp;spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)Face and Eyes (2)Bowen&nbsp;loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Cadeon&nbsp;loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After

We’ve got Doritos, a stack of Cosmo sex quizzes and an epic mixtape ready to go — Sarah and Jen are talking about road trips and the inevitable smooching that comes with them in romance! Next week, we’re back to the Rage Demonarchy Duology with Kiss of A Demon King&nbsp;— where we get the full wrap up of the plot of the second in the duology, and the wrap up of the plot of Dark Desires After Dusk. We’ve seen Rydstrom total his McLaren and get abducted by Sabine, who is not only Queen of Illusions but also his Fated Mate and he’s not feeling great about this at all (Spoiler: We feel very great about this.) We’ll be joined by the fabulous Jenny Nordbak from The Wicked Wallflowers podcast for part of the conversation, and it will be a longer episode than usual because of that! Get ready for the KoaDK read along at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;Barnes &amp; Noble,&nbsp;Apple Books&nbsp;or&nbsp;your local indie. Also, the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY!&nbsp;Listen on Audio! Show NotesTexas is very big, everyone.&nbsp;Here's some&nbsp;interesting facts about Starbucks.&nbsp;Jen had no idea how posting horses worked until&nbsp;Elisabeth Lane&nbsp;asked on Twitter. (Sarah knew.)Looking for books with carriage sex?&nbsp;Twitter has recs&nbsp;for you.&nbsp;Learn more about&nbsp;the Gilded Age&nbsp;in America.&nbsp;New York's&nbsp;Grand Central Station&nbsp;is absolutely magical.&nbsp;Hildene, a museum of Lincoln's family home, has a&nbsp;full-scale reproduction of an amazing private rail car...It's amazing how&nbsp;someone on Twitter will always know the good things.&nbsp;All about&nbsp;bustles.Trading Places&nbsp;is a 1983 comedy with Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd, and the blog&nbsp;Obscure Train Movies&nbsp;has an extensive break down of the train scenes from the movie.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Ani Difranco&nbsp;poem Sarah mentioned is called&nbsp;Self-Evident.&nbsp;Buy yourself a&nbsp;set of butterfly swords&nbsp;for $500. JK. That's probably a really bad idea.Here's an overview of the&nbsp;Tang Dynasty, and its capital&nbsp;Chang'an.&nbsp;If you haven't seen&nbsp;Mad Max Fury Road&nbsp;you should probably drop everything and take care of it.&nbsp;In case you were wondering&nbsp;what the world looked like in 750,&nbsp;Time Maps&nbsp;has you covered.&nbsp;Here's a list of rich heroines/poor heroes&nbsp;from goodreads.A quick summary of&nbsp;Pygmalion, and if you happen to be in New York City, you can go see&nbsp;My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center.&nbsp;Sarah talks about Tom Hardy a lot on Twitter. Not that there's anything wrong with that.&nbsp;Apparently, it is Low and High Fantasy, and&nbsp;Reddit talked about the differences between them.There's a&nbsp;Slurpee twitter account, which shouldn't really surprise anyone if you think about it.&nbsp;Whoops, it's my Mom.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/1/18/55-road-trip-interstitial 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.

DEMONS ARE HERE! We’re talking&nbsp;Dark Desires After Dusk, starring Cadeon Woede (Prince of the Rage Demonarchy) and Holly, his human fated mate (SPOILER SHE ISN’T HUMAN, WHAT!). This one is the first in what we will end up calling the Demonarchy Duology — and we encourage you to read the next book in the series, Kiss of A Demon King as soon as you can after reading Dark Desires. Each book makes the other better. We’ll cover female rage, sex shaming, fast cars, food, feminism and…maybe a pot joke? Also, Sarah waxes on about horns. A lot. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. Our next read (in two weeks) will be Kiss of A Demon King&nbsp;— the second in the duology, and the wrap up of the plot of this book. We’ve seen Rydstrom total his McLaren and get abducted by Sabine, who is not only Queen of Illusions but also his Fated Mate. DOUBLE TROUBLE. Cade and Holly are a HUGE part of our episode on Sabine &amp; Rydstrom’s — because we just can’t talk about one of these books alone. Get ready for the KoaDK read along at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;Barnes &amp; Noble,&nbsp;Apple Books&nbsp;or&nbsp;your local indie. Also, the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY!&nbsp;Listen on Audio!Show NotesA quick primer to the verbs&nbsp;deposed,&nbsp;dethroned,&nbsp;defrocked, and&nbsp;usurped.Groot the Metallurgist is&nbsp;not a cute dancing tree, but rather the half-brother of Omort the Deathless. This Groot has forged a sword that can kill Omort.Jen went back to&nbsp;Dark Needs at Night's Edge&nbsp;and here is a&nbsp;screenshot&nbsp;of the scene where both Rydstrom and Cadeon choose their kingdom over their fated mates. Nix was not amused.Romancing the Stone&nbsp;is a rather amazing 80s adventure movie that stars Kathleen Turner as a romance author who travels to Colombia, where she has to trade a treasure map to free her sister. The sequel is&nbsp;The Jewel of the Nile, but it's not as good.Freya and Woden&nbsp;are two of the three parents to every valkyrie that is created.Jen says Holly is "some bullshitty one thing away" from being done with her PhD, but the phrase she was looking for was&nbsp;ABD (All But Dissertation).A&nbsp;MacGuffin&nbsp;is an object that drives the plot.Serial killers are creepy AF.Women should not be treated like&nbsp;incubators.Genetic (or biological) determinism&nbsp;is a problem.For some reason, even with all the talk of eating and not eating, Jen and Sarah failed to bring up the&nbsp;myth of Persephone. #Fail.Obsessive Compulsive Disorder&nbsp;isn't always portrayed well in the media.&nbsp;UPDATE: One of our listeners wrote this&nbsp;thoughtful thread on Holly's OCD&nbsp;and you should read it.The phrase "Heavy is the head that wears the crown" is from&nbsp;Shakespeare.Lobsters are always about love.Instagram&nbsp;and Twitter&nbsp;horn talk.One of our listeners&nbsp;painted an amazing portrait of Nix.Along with that 50% more blood thing,&nbsp;pregnant bodies are kind of amazing.Jen did some&nbsp;emergency research&nbsp;to find out about the etymology of&nbsp;sword, gladius (this video! lol),&nbsp;scabbard, and&nbsp;vagina.A&nbsp;Bugatti Veyron&nbsp;is very sexy,&nbsp;very speedy, and&nbsp;very spendy. One of our listeners noticed that there is no mile marker 775 in Mississippi, but&nbsp;there is something special&nbsp;about Mississippi River mile marker 775.The Stig&nbsp;read Sarah's book on Top Gear!Groot and Omort are only one letter away, which maybe means nothing; but&nbsp;playing games with words&nbsp;is fun.The&nbsp;Venn Diagram&nbsp;of what the author means vs. what English teachers think it means.Jen loves&nbsp;groveling&nbsp;a lot.420. I mean, that&nbsp;can't be an accident, right? Updated: On Instagram, follower&nbsp;Ellenino22&nbsp;pointed out that 420 is "the smallest number divisible by 1-7." Whoa.Literary Disco&nbsp;is a podcast with lots of great games.Avon's KissCon&nbsp;will be in Chicago the first weekend of April 2019.Everyone but Sarah should watch these&nbsp;videos of planes&nbsp;<a...

Happy New Year, Fated Matesers (This isn’t a great name for us. We need a better name—someone name us)! We’re back, it’s 2019, new year, new us, and we’re starting as we mean to go on with Curvy Heroines, because, in the words of Julie Murphy, Every Body is a Swimsuit Body. Jen and I love a curvy heroine, and the men who love them, and so curvy romances are OUR FAVES.Next week, we’re getting into Demons! We’ve met Cade, the prince of Rothkalina (the Rage Demonarchy) and his brother Rydstrom, its deposed King, before — they were in the Talisman’s Hie, and in Néomi &amp; Conrad’s book. Next week, we tackle Cade &amp; Holly’s story, Dark Desires After Dusk, with Rydstrom &amp; Sabine’s book Kiss of a Demon King two weeks later. We highly recommend reading these two close together!Show Notes- In the summer of 2018, Jen and a bunch of people on Twitter discussed Nine Rules to Break While Romancing a Rake using the hashtag #9RulesRake.- Sarah also has a curvy heroine romance that is coming in July! Brazen &amp; the Beast has a gorgeous curvy heroine on the cover.- Just a reminder that Jenny Crusie is completely awesome, and Bet Me is an amazing book.- Courtney Milan has lots to say about romance. All of her books are amazing, but we talked about The Heiress Effect.- Never Sweeter by Charlotte Stein was awareded the platinum medal in Jen's "Who Did It Better in the Library" post.- Romancelandia often recommends books with curvy and fat heroines, and there are quite a few thoughtful pieces about how we think aobut these characters our ourselves.- Naima Simone writes very excellent books and Jen &amp; Sarah want this one right now.- Olivia Dade is an advocate for fat women in romance, and Jen and Sarah both loved this thread and want to read books about all these heroines.- Check out the full transcript for this episode.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/28/45-curvy-heroines-interstitial 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.

Book 4 is here and so are ghosts! We’re talking&nbsp;Dark Needs at Night's Edge, starring Conrad (the most tortured of the Wroth vampire brothers) and Néomi (the ghost trapped in the house where he’s held hostage while he dries out). We’ll cover heroines with agency, menstrual cycles, virgin heroes and the importance of family. Also, Jen is on about the moon again. &nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.Our next read (in two weeks) will be Dark Desires After Dusk — the beginning of the Rage-Demonarchy duology, featuring Cadeon Woede, who is forced to choose between familial loyalty and his human (or is she?!) fated mate, brilliant mathematician, Holly.Get ready for the read along at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books or your local indie. Also, the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY! Listen on Audio!Show Notes- Ghosts are a human problem and preoccupation.- According to the Washington Post, "nearly half of the women who were murdered during the past decade were killed by a current or former intimate partner." Huge content warnings for everything in this article.- The Flame and the Flower, Shanna, and some of Sarah's thoughts about rape in romance.- We talk about Id a lot on Fated Mates, and we use it as a shorthand for our most primal, deep-rooted desires.- "All happy families resemble one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" is the famous first line of Anna Karenina. This New York Times article about the many Tolstoy translations is fascinating.- Kresley Cole isn't the only one to use the menstrual cycle as a symbol; but others wonder why menstruation is almost always absent from fiction.- A crescent moon (or "sliver moon" as Neomi calls it) is never up at midnight. Literally never.- Jen rants a lot about first person narration a lot on Twitter, but it's super OTT, so just read this thread about first person narration that was started by Rebekah Weatherspoon.- Shortly after they recoreded this episode, Jonathan Franzen stanned for third person narration and Jen realized she's just a handmaiden to the patriarchy.- Jen strongly recommends Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon. She saw Kiese Laymon being interviewed by Lolly Bowean at the Chicago Humanities Festival, and it was amazing.- All people deserve birth control that's right for them.- Some romance readers love breaking in the ponies with a virgin hero.- Arguably, agency is the most important character trait.- There are 45 cemetaries in New Orleans, 31 are historic, and 5 are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.- If you're planning to write a sitcom, know the formula.- In IAD, it's Thrane's Key; it Harry Potter, it's a time turner.- Get yourself some IAD ringtones.- Holly Ashwin and Cadeon Woede are up next in Dark Desires After Dusk.Lost Limb CountLegs (2)- Lachlain tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerates. (A Hunger Like No Other) -Mariketa's skull is fractured and her leg is torn from her body. She heals herself after Bowen lays on the ground. Ivy grows over her and heals her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Arms (1) -Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)Eyes (1)- Bowen loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)Hands (1)- Conrad cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/28/4-something-we-said-dark-needs-at-nights-edge 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 the holidays, and whether you’re the type to hole up on the couch and read, or go for a long walk to escape, we’ve got you covered. Get ready; we’re talking about horns. Show Notes- Update: Jen got THREE books for Christmas this year! These two from her brother, and her best friend gives perfect, #onbrand books. Sarah got Thomas Madden's Venice and the Great British Bake Off coloring book. Does that count as a book? - Sarah loves The Great British Baking Show, so you should watch. Or maybe you would just like to admire silver-fox, Paul Hollywood. -Here's a 1979 New York Times article about this new craze sweeping the nation: hand-raised pies. Everthing old is new again in Sarah's house!- Jen no longer has the decorative wooden book item, but she does like to window shop for glass jars full of...things.- "You can put your weed in there" is an old SNL joke.- Gatsby's books are a symbol, but maybe more than you wanted to know about how books are put together and how pages are cut.- Read some more AMAs if you're in the mood, and you know Jen can't wait to read that first one. - Strawberry Rhubarb pie is Sarah's favorite, and although Jen didn't mention it, a favorite pie she makes every summer is Strawberry Margarita pie.- Our favorite pie shops in Houston, Northern Michigan, Chicago, and Brooklyn.- Charlotte Stein and Sophie Jordan are auto-buys, and A Kingdom of Dreams and Dreaming of Youare comfort reads. Sarah's most re-read IAD book is Sweet Ruin, and Jen's is Demon from the Dark.- Kresley announced in her newsletter a few months ago that the next IAD book is Munro (he's Uilleam's twin brother).- It's not only romance where we talk about unlikable heroines, but it's also that we only ask women authors if their female characters are likable.- A quick overview of Gender essentalism.- A very long twitter thread where all of Romancelandia picked their IAD dream cast.- Olivia Dade made a list of cinnamon roll heroes.- The ultimate romance rule is HEA or GTFO (Happily Ever After or Get the Fuck Out). There's also HFN, or Happy For Now. Here's the rest of Jen's Romance Rules.- More about the the problematic fave- Your Kink is Not my Kink, a very useful way to be respectful when something just isn't your jam. Also, Sarah would like to remind you that decent people don't yuck other people's yum.- Jen could write odes to the arms of Linda Hamilton and Angela Basset forever.- Aidan Quinn, then and now.- We'll be ringing in 2019 with Neomi and Conrad.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/12/24/ama-with-sarah-amp-jen 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 the Holiday Season™️, which means it’s time to talk about Holiday romances! Get ready because there are A WHOLE LOT of books in this show. Also, get ready, because next week, on December 26th, instead of releasing our Dark Needs at Night’s Edge episode, we’re releasing a bonus Ask-us-Anything episode as a special holiday present to you! Our official IAD reread will resume January 2nd, with Néomi (ghost) &amp; Conrad (vampire) and we have so. many. feelings. SO MANY.Show Notes- In case you're curious, here's where Jen learned to properly pronounce Therese Beharrie's name. Therese wrote 2 Christmas books this year: A Wedding One Christmas and Her Festive Flirtation, and Jen liked them both.- Before Sunrise came out in 1995, a sequel Before Sunset in 2004, and a third Before Midnight in 2013. This New Yorker review is a perfect example of everything Jen hates when people review anything romantic, so hate-read it if you're in the mood.- Jen completely got the name of that chapter book wrong, it's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.- Novellas are really common in romance, maybe more than other genres, and Jen anxioulsy awaits the think-piece explaining why.- Speaking of novellas: The anthology of Chanukah stories that Sarah mentioned is called Burning Bright; Reindeer Games is an anthology of stories with the snowed-in trope; and in Silver Belles, all the characters are over 40.- Sarah described the cover of A Holiday of Love as an example of a certain type of old-school book package. But just last year, A Christmas to Remember with Lisa Kleypas, Lorraine Heath, Megan Frampton, and Vivienne Lorret followed the same exact cover protocol.- Epistolary novels are super fun to read (Jen's favorite is Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Sarah is--unsurprisingly--very pro epistolary romance; her favorite is Kleypas's Love in the Afternoon), but Jen's pretty interested in how they are changing in the age of the internet.- All three of the books in the Men at Work series by Tiffany Reisz are delightful, but the Thanksgiving one is an absolute classic.- Last year, Jen ranked Thanksgiving romances for The Book Queen.- How the Dukes Stole Christmas is pretty great, and here's where Jen talked about Joanna Shupe's novella on twitter.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/28/35-holiday-romances-interstitial 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 three books into IAD this week, and&nbsp;it is happening! We're joined by the brilliant&nbsp;Adriana Herrera&nbsp;to talk&nbsp;Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night, starring Bowen (the werewolf trapped in a tunnel of fire) and Mariketa the Awaited (the witch who is going to run him ragged)!Adriana, Jen &amp; Sarah cover everything from Snow White to trauma survivors, jungle warfare to May-December romances, sexism and Cardi B. And we still find time to fangirl over Kresley's heroines.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.Our next read (in two weeks) will be&nbsp;Dark Needs at Night's Edge&nbsp;— complete with a broken hero tied to a bed (vampire, obvi) and a haunting heroine who just wants to be seen (literally). This one makes for a LOT of opinions among IAD fans...you won’t want to miss it.Get ready for the read along at&nbsp;Amazon,&nbsp;Barnes &amp; Noble,&nbsp;Apple Books&nbsp;or&nbsp;your local indie. Also, the Audible versions of IAD are on sale right now -- and WORTH EVERY PENNY!&nbsp;Listen on Audio!Show Notes- Our special guest this week is romance author Adriana Herrera. American Dreamer, her debut novel with Carina Press, comes out in March of 2019. -Jen interviewed Adriana about domestic violence in romance for the Smart Bitches.- Jen and Sarah both loved The Opposite of You, a food truck romance by Rachel Higginson, and Sil at Book Riot made a list of food truck romances.- Kresley's historical trilogy is called The MacCarrick Brothers, and you can get all 3 bundled together, of course. - There's nothing more amazing than warring think-pieces. So here's Huffington Post and Slateteaching us about fuckboy, and Jezebel telling us how they're doing it wrong.- The five witches' castes are warrior, healer, enchantress, conjurer, and sorceress. Jen's going to make a Buzzfeed Quiz that tells you which witch strength you'd have. (This is a lie. Jen does not know how to make Buzzfeed quizzes. But it's a good idea, right?) -Speaking of vibrators, the best Romancelandia blog is the Bawdy Bookworms, which features review of both books and sex toys!- Here's a serious video explainer of the Hero's Journey, and also a slightly more silly one.- This blog is dedicated to looking at feminism and Snow White in American culture.- Deconstruct Disney for yourself or for your kids.- There's an IAD wiki, and it's pretty useful for when you're listing Hekate, Haxa, and can't remember the third one is Hela.- As symbols, apples do a lot of heavy lifting.- Mirrors and feminism have a long complicted history. And since we're talking action movies, check out this think piece by Carolyn Petit about feminism, movie criticism, and John Wick's house of mirrors. And then I found this article about Sylvia Plath's senior thesis at Smith and it's very far afield from the current topic, but this is a super interesting read.- Jack Ryan on Amazon.- There isn't a video for Cardi B's Money yet, but here are the lyrics.- How young women have internatlized the Girl Power vs. Feminism dichotomy. - There's a famous image that illustrates the difference between equality and equity. It's most often used in the context of race, but can be used as a way to envision any kind of oppression.- Romance has been thinking about consent for a long time. Jen wrote a review of a graphic novel for teenagers called What Does Consent Really Mean?- Our next Dark Needs at Night's Edge is next.Lost Limb Count(Leg - 2, Arm - 1, Eye - 1)- Lachlain tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerates. (A Hunger Like No Other)- Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)- Bowen loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)- Mariketa's skull is fractured and her leg is torn from her body. She heals herself after Bowen lays on the ground. Ivy grows over her and heals her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/28/3-something-we-said-wicked-deeds-on-a-winters-night 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.

Next week we’re going to get into Werewolves and Witches with Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night, but this week, we’re so excited to talk best friend’s sibling/sibling’s best friend romances with one of our favorite people: Kate Clayborn!Show NotesKate Clayborn&nbsp;writes awesome books, but her romance&nbsp;think&nbsp;pieces&nbsp;at&nbsp;Frolic&nbsp;aren't too be missed.There's nothing more hilarious than reviving old twitter threads, and in this one&nbsp;Kate and Talia Hibbert talk IAD.The Game Maker series&nbsp;will get its own episodes, don't worry. Jen was thinking about saving this&nbsp;chastity belt&nbsp;article for then, but really, why wait?Best of Luck&nbsp;was just named one of&nbsp;Amazon's Best Romance of December, which is as it should be. The second book in the series,&nbsp;Luck of the Draw, was on&nbsp;Sarah's Best of 2018 list for the Washington Post.Sarah's twitter thread&nbsp;where people described what they'd do if they won a billion dollars is pretty fun to read. But really, there's a reason we all&nbsp;love that daydream.This month, the Ripped Bodice is spearheading&nbsp;The Great Big Romance Read&nbsp;and maybe you can find a bookstore, library, or blog where you can talk about&nbsp;Pride&nbsp;by Ibi Zoboi.The American Dream is complicated,&nbsp;college is expensive, and all of it freaks Jen out if she thinks about it too much.Sarah wrote a YA historical! It's called&nbsp;The Season.This is a good take on why the&nbsp;best friend's sibling trope is so powerful.Sinner&nbsp;by Sierra Simone. She&nbsp;talks about her writing here. Jen doesn't really think it counts as&nbsp;blasphemy, but she looked it up just to be sure.Some more about&nbsp;insprirational romance, and although we didn't mention her name on the podcast, Jen thinks&nbsp;Piper Huguley&nbsp;writes&nbsp;the best inspirational romance&nbsp;out there. She wrote about Piper's book&nbsp;The Mayor's Mission&nbsp;and Sarah's book&nbsp;Day of the Duchess&nbsp;in this piece on&nbsp;miscarriage in romance.Goddess of the Hunt&nbsp;by&nbsp;Tessa Dare.Clean Breaks&nbsp;by&nbsp;Ruby Lang. But when this podcast went live, it was an even better deal to&nbsp;buy all three books in the Practice Perfect&nbsp;series bundled together.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/28/25-best-friends-sibling-romances-interstitial 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 two books in this week, reading No Rest for the Wicked, starring Kaderin the Cold-hearted and Sebastian Wroth, participating in the Talisman Hie…Kresley’s version of The Amazing Race.Sarah &amp; Jen cover everything from pop-culture in romance novels to the lengths we’ll go for the people we love, and the immense trust required when we fall in love…all while marveling at the way Kresley sets the stage for a series that will subvert tropes and genres again and again.Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review. Our next read (in two weeks) will be Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night — and the witches are coming! WDOAWN is the story of Bowen MacRieve (werewolf) and Mariketa the Awaited (witch)…and the book that really breaks open the wide world of IAD. We’ll be joined by the brilliant Adriana Herrera, and you won’t want to miss it. Get ready for the read along at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Apple Books or your local indie. Show NotesSome fun facts about&nbsp;The Amazing Race.The&nbsp;Valkyeries in mythology, and maybe you didn't notice that "Val Hall" is a play on&nbsp;Valhalla.Vampires&nbsp;in pop culture &amp; literature.Remember your high school English teacher talking about characters who are&nbsp;foils&nbsp;of each other? This is not to be confused with your algebra teacher talking about how to&nbsp;solve quadratic equations.On&nbsp;Urban Dictionary, I want to kiss the person who defined Frigid&nbsp;it as "An outdated, Victorian term used to describe women who aren't interested in sex. Only used today by drunk men in bars to explain why the woman they attempted to pick up wasn't interested."A wacky look at some potential&nbsp;real life examples of time travel.Just out of curiosity, this is what you'll find if you google "Bad Ass Estonian General." IMPRESSIVE.Sarah's wet noodle joke is part of a long literary tradition where&nbsp;vampires just need a good dose of viagra.All about&nbsp;beta heros,&nbsp;cinnamon roll&nbsp;heroes, and a link to a lot of talk about the latter from&nbsp;Ana Coqui's&nbsp;November 2018's #RomBkLove.Sarah mentions "the vampire chained to a bed" and she's talking about Conrad Wroth, the hero of&nbsp;Dark Needs at Night's Edge&nbsp;(book 4).Just a&nbsp;brief review of birth control, how we use it, and why it is so important to women's rights.In case you were wondering why Jen talked about "no one ever has to go to the bathroom."&nbsp;It's a thing.&nbsp;Sarah accused Jen of RUINING ROMANCE, but clearly that's not the case because here we are.More about&nbsp;lightning and planes.Chicago's&nbsp;Bubbly Creek. That's real. If you ever want to nerd out on this history, Jen recommends a book called&nbsp;Nature's Metropolis. Honestly, you really have no idea how fascinating grain elevators are.The short and incomplete list of magical items introduced in this book: Kaderin gives the Furies armor that can't be pierced and a battle axe that can kill Lore beings without having to behead them. The New Zealand coven of Valkyeries has a choker that allows the person wearing it to sing a siren's song. No one knows what happend to the armband that makes the wearer feel overwhelming sexual desire. Amphitrite's tear is a bead that will heal any wound. The Blade of Honorius never misses its target. Thrane's Key was the time-traveling prize in this Hie, and at the end of the book, Riora gives Sebastian one to use at his discretion.Deus Ex Machina&nbsp;is fun to say, but kind of a bummer when that's how an author gets her characters out of a jam.All the cool vampires from the mid-2000s carry&nbsp;RAZR phones.Diamonds are a construct, just like virginity.Sarah is&nbsp;pro-Kardashian.Bowen &amp; Mariketa&nbsp;are coming up next, but the thing she was excited about at the end of that book actually happened at the end of&nbsp;Dark Needs at Night's Edge.Swineherds vs. shepherds, and the only time&nbsp;Jen ever felt truly understood on Reddit.The Battle of Evermore&nbsp;by Led Zeppelin, and if you think Jen wasn't dying to update Genius with this Kresley Cole reference, you don't know her at all. But maybe the&nbsp;video&nbsp;is more your speed.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/27/2-the-best-led-zeppelin-song-is-by-pink-floyd-no-rest-for-the-wicked 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, <a...

We know you’re getting excited for No Rest for the Wicked, but before we talk about vampires and Valkyries, let’s talk about escort romances!Show NotesSarah and Jen have both loved&nbsp;The Kiss Quotient. Sarah reviewed at for&nbsp;The Washington Post. Jen's been turning her friend Ernie into an occasional romance reader, and&nbsp;live-tweeted his read of TQK.Escorted&nbsp;by Claire Kent, which is a pen name of&nbsp;Noelle AdamsVirginity is a constructRomancing the Stone is an&nbsp;80s movie classic. Kathleen Turner plays a romance writer on an adventure to retreive a missing emerald.Curio and the Curio Vignettes&nbsp;by&nbsp;Cara McKennaThe Smart Bitches made a list of&nbsp;competence porn romances, where all the characters are just really good at their jobs.Suddenly You&nbsp;by&nbsp;Lisa Kleypas. Here's the&nbsp;Twitter thread&nbsp;where Jenny Nordbak alerts everyone to the sexiness factor.The Companion Contract&nbsp;by&nbsp;Solace AmesBurn Down the Night&nbsp;by Molly O'KeefeThe Duke&nbsp;by Gaelen FoleyClaiming the Courtesan&nbsp;by Anna CampbellJournalist&nbsp;Melissa Gira Grant&nbsp;writes about&nbsp;sex workers&nbsp;and the&nbsp;politics of sex work. You should follow her on Twitter.The Master&nbsp;by Kresley ColeGet ready for&nbsp;No Rest for the WickedThe RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2018/11/20/escort-romances-interstitial-2 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.