Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

Pistols at dawn, y’all! We’re talking about duels today — what they are, why they exist, who fights them, their rules and why they’re so darn sexy when they are really just silly. We’re taking our twenty paces alongside Chels_ebooks, one of our favorite BookTokkers, who has a longstanding love of old school romances and their covers, and a substack that you should subscribe to immediately. Of cour...

We’re talking Masquerades! Is it the Phantom of the Opera? Is it Amadeus? Is it Jude Deveraux’s The Raider? We don’t know but man we love a masquerade in a romance novel. We talk about the 3 to 5 different types of masks in romances, about why they’re catnip, about what they mean, and recommend a full grip of romances (mostly historical) for you to read. Enjoy! You can still get tickets to Fated M...

It feels like you can’t turn around these days without stumbling into a story that’s a little unsettling about technology and how we’re all living our lives in this post (sort of) pandemic world. Between Twitter dramz, TikTok explosions and the rise of AI, it’s a lot. So, it’s probably to be expected that we are talking about how technology is impacting romance novels. We’re talking about texting,...

Every once in a while, we decide we’re going to do an episode about books we just really really really like. Books we want you to really really really like. Is that episode usually in February? Does it coincide with Sarah’s book deadline? Don’t worry about it. This one is for the bantr girlies. We’re talking about books we loved so much on the first read that we wish we could reread them again for...

Today, we’re welcoming KJ Charles to Fated Mates for our next Trailblazer episode! Known for her work helping to bring queer historical romance to the modern genre, KJ joins us to discuss historical romance, how it remains relevant in the modern world, her work centering queer characters and communities in romance, and the start of her romance career as an editor of Mills & Boon medical romanc...

It’s happening LIVE, in New York City! Join Jen, Sarah, and an absolutely fire lineup of special guests for a Fated Mates LIVE recording, in person, in Brooklyn. Time to book tickets, flights, and make plans to spend the weekend in NYC with your romance loving friends! The recording will take place Friday, March 24th from 7-9pm at the William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn! A live episode ex...

It’s Derek Craven Day 2023 —empirically the best romance holiday of February—and we’re celebrating in traditional fashion by talking about why there are two types of Lisa Kleypas readers: The ones who think Derek Craven is the best hero, and the ones who are wrong. If you’ve been with us for any length of time at all, you know we are mildly obsessed with Lisa Kleypas’s heroes, her writing, the way...

You’ve been asking for a shifter interstitial, and we like to give you what you want. Today, we’re talking manimals! We go back to the beginning and touch on all the shifter/Lycae business that we dealt with in Season 1, and then we talk about all the ways werewolves have evolved into were-other things and then into DNA-splicing experiments. The recs get wild, the plots get weird, and there’s a lo...

Seven-timer Kate Clayborn returns to the Fated Mates studio (lol, jk there is no studio) to talk about about going home again in romance and to celebrate the launch of her new book,  Georgie All Along , which you can get this week wherever books are sold! We talk about all the ins and outs of homecoming romances, what sends characters back to the beginning, what readers expect from these book...

We don’t talk enough about category romances, and that is a big mistake. This week, we’re changing that — discussing the power of the category romance, the skill it takes to write one well, and the love we have for the authors who are committed to this perfect morsel of the format. There are nuns and vikings, Italian billionaires, lady assassins and more! Next week, we have a special guest, but ou...

We’re thrilled to share our next Trailblazer episode this week—we had a great time talking with Catherine Coulter about her place in romance history as one of the earliest authors of the Signet Regency line—and the author who many believe revolutionized the Regency…by making them sexy. She tells a million great stories here, and we talk about writing historical romance, about sex in romance, about...

Happy New Year, Magnificent Firebirds! Our first episode of 2023 leans into winter — we’re talking snowed-in romances! What makes snowed-in different than forced-proximity? Why is snow different from other situational nature stuff? Why are so many of these stories novellas? How do authors use snow as a plot device, a ticking clock, or a starting gun? All that, and a plea for more snowed-in romance...

As is customary, we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve here on Fated Mates with some of our favorite people in a fully headphones-in episode! Pour yourself a drink and pull up a chair, because Omegaversity is in session with professors Ali Hazelwood and Adriana Herrera! Jen and Sarah get a crash course in this wild end of the romance/fan fic pool. We’re talking about mating heat (!), knotting (!!), but...

Sarah recently joined Red Scott and Maggie Tokuda-Hall on their excellent Failure To Adapt podcast to discuss the Jane Austen’s Emma and Amy Heckerling’s Clueless. We thought you'd enjoy listening to it here, and they were gracious enough to let us share it with you. The show’s current season is dedicated solely to Austen adaptations. Follow Failure To Adapt in your favorite podcast app to get in...

Happy happy holidays — our gift to you this weekend is a little bantr, a lot of book recs, and a wish that you get everything you want this holiday season, and throughout 2023. We’re so grateful for all of you…and we wish you the merriest, happiest, brightest, most joyful season. We hope you’re staying warm…see you on New Year’s Eve! xx Sarah, Jen & Eric Check out our holiday music playlist on...

It’s our final read along of 2022, and we’re so excited to be talking about KJ Charles’s Band Sinister — one of Jen’s favorite books (she won the coin toss when we picked which of KJ’s books we were going to read). This one has all the things we love: found family, sexy rakes, gentlemen’s societies, meddling sisters, anonymous gothic novelists, hot doctors, and more. We talk about how KJ writes a...

It’s the Holiday Season™️ and for some reason 2022 Holiday Season has brought romance a sleigh full of Santa romance, which may or may not be a thing you’re into…but either way, here we are! Santa is doing all sorts of naughty business in these romances, and this one is definitely not for the kids. So headphones in, MFers! While you might not get it in time for the holidays, there’s still time for...

TWINS! For two romance readers steeped in 80s romance mythology, it’s hard to believe that it took us five seasons to have an interstitial on twins (a Twinterstitial?)! Jen has a theory about a romance twin continuum and Sarah jumps right back out of a boiling twin pot. It’s an exciting episode full of romance history, with plenty of recent titles to try. Just think: if you had a twin during the h...

The Best Romance Novels of 2022! It’s the best and worst task of the year for us, because we read so many fabulous books over the course of the year, and choosing ten is hard for us, ok? But here they are — ten gorgeous books that we adored—books that delivered all the things we love in romance: sharp edges, sparkling dialogue, strong heroines and smoking hot chemistry. Buy the Fated Mates Best of...

Two seasons ago we promised an episode where we recommend romance novels for each of the characters in Ted Lasso. Sarah’s brother is holding us to it! This week, we’re filling the TBRs of every single member of the Richmond Team…and Trent Crimm, of the Independent. It is a very chaotic journey…but one we hope you’ll enjoy. F*ck Cancer. Next week, we’re taking a break while Sarah makes Thanksgiving...

We’ve talked about this week’s read along so much it’s kind of impossible to imagine that we haven’t read it with y’all, yet! But here we are, finally cracking open Claire Kent’s brilliant novella, Hold . Set on a prison planet, this one dials forced proximity up to 11, and does the excellent job of answering just how horrifying a world can you write a romance in? The answer is very. Very horrifyi...

Our Trailblazer episodes continue this week with Iris Johansen, who began writing category romance in the heyday of the format at Loveswept. During her varied career, she’s written categories, historicals and now writes thrillers and crime novels. In this episode, we talk about the founding of Loveswept, about how she learned to write, and about the power of storytelling. We also talk about the wa...

It’s spooky season and that means we’re reading spooky stuff! We recommend some of our favorite recent witches and demons and incubii and ghosts and vampires and others…and then we try to get to the bottom of why paranormal romance and monster romance doesn’t feel like halloween romance to but these books do? This episode has it all: celebrity witch talk, a welshman named Rhys who isn’t the one yo...

In the very best version of “third time’s the charm,” we are finally welcoming Christopher Rice to Fated Mates! A man of many talents, he writes fabulous contemporary romances as C. Travis Rice, and suspense, crime and supernatural thrillers as Christopher Rice. Today we’re talking Redemption Romance in honor of his most recent romance release, Sapphire Spring . In this episode, we talk about how...

In 2022, book bans in United States schools and libraries are at their highest since the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom started collecting data. Bans are happening around the country, in every state, and disproportionately affecting books by and about LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people. What’s more, challenges are likely underreported, because librarians who are resisting them are facing unprecedented...