S07:08: I Read Dead People: Ghosts, Morticians, and the Dead in Romance
This is a bit different than our usual Halloween adjacent episodes -- we're talking about the rise of romance centered around ghostly secondary characters (Jen) and funeral homes and mortuaries (Sarah). These two themes have become more and more prevalent in romance over the last few years, and we talk about how and why they've risen and what they might mean -- considering the way romance reflects the world we live in.
We talk about the pandemic, about grief, about community and about the way humor and love find their ways into the cracks left by death.
If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
Reborn Yesterday by Tessa Bailey was released on March 16th, 2020. Three days later, California became the first state to give a “stay at home” order. On March 25th, we had an episode celebrating health care workers. Even at that time, we wondered how romance would process the pandemic, and we weren’t the only ones. In May 0f 2020, the New York Times published the names of 100,000 people who died, with the headline An Incalculable Loss; as of October of 2024, over 7 million people have died in the Coronavirus pandemic.
Remember, remember the 5th of November is from Guy Fawkes and maybe you saw it in the movie V is for Vendetta.
Tim Walz called Elon Musk a dipshit last week, Eminem (who is hot now?) showed up at a Kamala rally, as did Beyonce.
The Day of the Dead is an important celebration meant to honor and commemorate those who have died, and Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art has a different exhibit to celebrate every year.
Jen discovered there is an entire subgenre of books with ghostly banging that you might like, such as TBR: Dead but Well Read or Gang of Ghouls, but that don’t seem to be part of the pattern at hand we’re talking about. But you know.
Mick Jagger went (and dropped out) of the London School of Economics. Who knew.
SPONSORS
Brianna Bancroft, author of the Dash of Desire novella series, The Businesswoman and the Bartender; The Librarian and the Mechanic; and The Maestro and the Roofer available in ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Robyn Peterman, author of Fashionably Dead, available in print, ebook, or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Katherine Grant, host of the Historical Romance Sampler Podcast. Listen now on your favorite podcasting app.
M. Jacqueline Murray, author of Out of Time, available in print, ebook, or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or in print, direct from the author.
S07.05: Some Light Kidnapping: Restraints are for Amateurs
An episode for the old school romance readers in the audience, we're talking about kidnapping this week! A trope that either absolutely works for readers (aka us) or absolutely doesn't, we talk about why that is, how the original romances of the 80s and 90s installed these buttons and how we still see the bones of old school kidnapping in delicious romances of today. That, and Jen reminds Sarah of books she wrote one time.
If you want more romance content, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Next week, our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.
Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.
Show Notes
Learning the Tropes has covered every Kleypas book if you’re in the mood for that.
Next week, our read along is Everything I Left Unsaid and The Truth About Him by M. O’Keefe, so get to reading.
Books Mentioned This Episode
The Sponsors
June Westwood, author of Grave Temptation, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
KL Parsons, author of Love By a Landslide, available in print and ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Jenni Bara, author of The Foul Out, available in print and ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S07.03: Wife Guys in Romance: Just look at Her!
There's a particular kind of romance hero who makes us feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy, because all he wants to do is stare in awe at his partner and tell everyone in the world to do the same. The Wife Guy is everything we love when it's done right, and we're so very excited to share a list of books that deliver this straight shot of serotonin every single time.
If you also love romance, maybe you want to join our Patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.
Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers. Jen & Sarah are joined by special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates. If phonebanking isn't your thing, we're also raising money for downticket house and senate races, because state legislatures may not be sexy, but they sure hold all the power. Learn more, and give what you can at fatedmates.net/givingcircle.
Show Notes
We are not the only ones just discovering what 6-6-6 means.
There is evidence that women in Georgia have died as a result of abortion bans, and it’s true in other states as well.
Some of our favorite wife guys: Doug Emhoff, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Tim Walz, and Hunter Woodhall.
The Jayne Ann Krentz trailblazer episode has a great discussion of core story.
Jen thinks the Julie Garwood book with the wolf is actually Honor’s Splendor, which we do not recommend due to very problematic inclusion of homophobia.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Sarah Chamberlain, author of The Slowest Burn, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Avery Maxwell, author of Late Nights & Love Lines, available in print and ebook, from Amazon.
Erin Langston, author of The Finest Print, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
S06.51: College Bound: New Adult Romance
Everything old is new again...or young again? We're talking about New Adult romance today, that is, romance novels where the love story is set at or during college! We're hopping in the time machine and headed a generation or two back in romance to talk about the first time New Adult came around changing the contemporary romance game. We're getting to the bottom of why these particular love stories work so well when it comes to feelings, and asking that eternal question -- has anyone involved in this subgenre actually met a 19 year old man? (JK, we support you!)
We're taking next week off, but we'll be back the week after for the start of our Seventh Season! If you'd like more romance chatter in the meantime, we encourage you to join our patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.
Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
Notes
At the beginning of season 6, Sarah and Lo (Lauren Billings from Christina Lauren) recorded a Hot for Teacher episode. Also a popular Van Halen song from the 80s, and the video is honestly something else.
Risks of college life are well-documented, depression, substance abuse, and higher rates of violence toward women.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Roxy Sloane, author of Cross My Heart, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Blue Box Press, publishers of Rachel Van Dyken's Love Hazard, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon.
Sara Cate, author of The Heartbreaker, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Lumi Gummies--use the code FATED50 for $50 off your first order, or use the code FATEDMATES for 30% off your next order.
S06.49: Mafia Romance Reasons
This week, we're back to Mafia books, because it's been a few years since we've tackled this one and the landscape has changed drastically. We're talking about the appeal of the organized criminal, the way the genre is the direct descendant of the Medieval romance, and the fact that it underscores some of the deepest seeded patriarchy in the genre--for good and bad. Sarah shows off the Italian and the Italian American in her past, and tells a few stories about people and places she doesn't name because did she see anything? No she didn't.
If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Show Notes
Back in 2020, we recorded our first mafia romance interstitial with author Nisha Sharma, that season we also had a dark romance interstitial, and those two genres have only become more popular over time.
If you’re interested in the real life story of how Providence RI was a hotbed of organized crim activity, check out season one of the Crimetown Podcast. But every town has their famous mobsters: Al Capone in Chicago, John Gotti in New York, etc, etc. As Jen was preparing show notes for this episode, she discovered there is a Mob Museum, The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement in Las Vegas, so add that to your bucket list.
Lorenzo Lamas was a favorite 80s Hottie, and the movie The Shawshank Redemption had a very important scene with a tunnel behind a movie poster.
Watch this scene with the horse head and tell Jen she didn’t NAIL it with her impersonation of the guy’s scream. Part of the reason he sounds so horrified…that head was real and he didn’t know it?!?!?
Apparently Joseph Campbell said, “Women don't need to make the journey. In the whole mythological journey, the woman is there. All she has to do is realize that she's the place that people are trying to get to.” And well, we hate it. You might be interested in reading The Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger if you would like to learn more about other ways stories can be organized, and also The Heroine with 1001 Faces by Maria Tatar.
Books Mentioned This Episode
The Sponsors
Sophie H. Morgan, author of De-Witched, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or wherever you get your books,
1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Jennifer L. Armentrout's Born of Blood and Ash, available in print, ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books,
TL Swan, author of The Bonus, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S06.42: Witch Romances (Are Not Just for Halloween)
Who says it has to be Halloween to celebrate witches? It’s 2024 and frankly, we could do with a few more powerful, spell-casting women around here. We’re talking about our favorite witch romances, many of which (see what we did there) have nothing at all to do with spooky season! There are rumors of a new Practical Magic in the air, which (ope!) makes us extremely happy, and we’re just trying to decide which (!!!) of these fabulous books to reread this week. We’re going deep into romance history to talk about why witches are so compelling, why they’re perfect for a light, frothy romance, and why magic in the hands of men doesn’t hit the same way.
We are the weirdos, Mister.
If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Notes
If you liked the post-it note situation in The Fall Guy, or the low-tech pre-post it note version from Romancing the Stone, Aqua Notes may be for you.
Today banter portion was very into “Great Lakes, Great Times.” If you would like to talk to Sarah about the Wisconsin fish boil from Top Chef, please take that up with her and leave Jen out of it. Or travel across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger ferry. (But you cannot drive across Texas in one day).
The entry point for witches tends to the fun, silly ones: Bewitched and Hocus Pocus, but also because it’s the realm of women, we love movies like Practical Magic, The Witches of Eastwick, and The Craft. Willow’s arc on Buffy the Vampire Slayer goes from rom-com witch to strong witch to evil witch. Here’s a critique of Yennefer’s transformation in The Witcher.
Emily Alexander and Heidi Rehwaldt host a Nora Roberts podcast called Romancing the Shelf, so check it out if you love La Nora!
The Winchester Mystery House in California is pretty wild and worth going on a tour!
witchy Books from this episode
Sponsors
Blue Box Press, publishers of
C. Travis Rice’s Sapphire Dawn,
available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies.
Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATED50
for free gummies with a limited time $50 off coupon.
Or use code FATEDMATES for 30% Off.
and
Grand Central Publishing, publishers of
Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen’s Flashback,
available in print, ebook, or audiobook at
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or your local bookseller
S06.40: Siblings in Romance Novels
We’re talking about brothers and sisters as secondary characters in romance today — by popular demand from listeners, it’s our sibling episode! We get to the bottom of why we all love secondary siblings—the overbearing olders, the wild child middles, the delightful youngers, the equally handsome and broad shouldered boys, the snarky, stunning girls, and everyone else who’s ever caught our eye and made us say “now where’s there book?!” We tackled complicated relationships, shared history and the perfect fantasy of family that romance delivers so well.
Next week, we’re reading Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. There are sisters! Also, it’s Jen’s favorite in the series and an absolute banger. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.
If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Show Notes
We’ve done twins, and we’ve done siblings’s best friend, but this time we’re talking about plain old siblings in romance. We’re definitely not talking about anything Tangled Lies adjacent this time.
If you want the deep dives we mentioned, they are Preferential Treatment, Gentle Rogue and Devil’s Bride.
Illinoise is playing on Broadway if you’re in New York this summer.
They’ll be a meet-up at Steamy Lit Con for us with our listeners, details coming soon!
There’s a dark romance podcast called Trigger Warning you might want to check out, and in case you want to read that romance with mummification but no cheating, it’s Dead Love by Audrey Rush
The Orphan X book with the evil killer siblings is Prodigal Son.
In case you have ever wondered about the provenance of the beloved Fated Mates phrase, “take the finger” this is an episode where Sarah talks about the book that inspired it.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Frederick Smith, author of One and Done,
available at in print or ebook from
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books
Aethon Press, publishers of SK Horton’s The Concealed,
available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with
your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
Avon Books, publishers of Alexandria Bellefleur’s Truly, Madly, Deeply,
available at in print, ebook, or audiobook from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books
S06.39: Summer 2024 Reads
School’s out for Jen’s summer and Sarah’s in the final stretch so we’re dreaming of romance beach reads and talking about our massive summer TBR piles! There’s something here for everyone — hot librarians, superheroes, heists, funeral homes, wedding planners and baseball players and F1 drivers and, of course, dukes.
Our next read along is Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. It’s Jen’s favorite in the series. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.
If you love a fire hose of romance recommendations, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Show Notes
Maybe men shouldn’t cover the WNBA, tbh.
All about The electric slide.
You can follow DodoTheBookBitch on Instagram; follow Sarah there to see the scratch-off TBR poster.
Jacque is one our romancelandia faves, and she has a Pride reading challenge for you all. RomanticallyInclined is on Threads reading books with fewer than 100 reviews all through June.
For reviews in advance of publication, your best bet is Kirkus (Jen reviews for them), but you can also try Booklist or Publisher’s Weekly. We also talked about NetGalley and Edelweiss to discover upcoming books.
If you’re in NYC, don’t miss the launch event for Liana de la Rosa’s Isabel and the Rogue next week! She’ll be at The Ripped Bodice with Sarah and Adriana Herrera…and Sophie Jordan will be there, too! Tickets and info here.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Blue Box Press, publishers of Lexi Blake’s My Royal Showmance
available in print, ebook or audiobook from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books
Lotte R James, author of A Liaison with Her Leading Lady,
available at in print, ebook, or audiobook from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books
Ava Miles, author of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance,
available at in print or ebook with
your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
S06.38: Curvy Heroines #3: Curvy Girls Get Railed in Carriages, Too
One of our most popular interstitial topics, we had to come back for a third run at Curvy Heroines this month in celebration of Bridgerton-mania online and our absolute delight that we finally get to see Penelope get that handsome man who is just back from his long trip to glow-up-land (we deserve nice things, and so do curvy heroines)! Sarah’s talking exclusively about historicals today, and Jen is bringing new-to-the-pod authors to the table…all that, and we’re naming the six historicals Sarah’s written with curvy heroines (There’s also a contemporary! Check the photo array, below). This one is a lot of fun.
Our next read along is Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. It’s Jen’s favorite in the series. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.
Happy anniversary to our founding Patreon members — May marks one year of our Patreon and our Discord! We love you a whole lot. Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Show Notes
You can visit the Sleeping Beauties Exhibit at the Met, which sounds pretty fascinating, is there all summer through September 2nd.
All about smelling salts, Kardashian levels of rib removal which is called tight lacing, Each and Every brand deodorant, and retinol. If you’re interested historical fashion and lingerie, follow Cora Harrington on twitter, she wrote about corsets on her blog back in 2012. If you’re interested it watching a guy talking about cologne, here is link to Joshua Godfrey, the guy with the labyrinth tattoo and his journey.
If you loved Fury Road, you should read Blood, Sweat, and Chrome, which is the story of how the movie was made. Here’s a supercut of Tom Hardy grunting.
If you missed the first two Curvy Heroines episodes, you can catch up here and here.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Felicia Grossman, author of Wake Me Most Wickedly
available in print or ebook from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble & Kobo
Lucy Score, author of The Dead Guy Next Door,
the first book in the Riley Thorn series,
available at in print, ebook, or audiobook with
your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
Amita Murray, author of Unladylike Rules of Attraction,
available in print, ebook, or audiobook from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble & Kobo
S06.36: The Romance Matriarchy: Moms, Grandmothers, and Aunties
We don’t often talk about secondary characters in romance, but this week, we’re talking about the women who provide wisdom, council and laughs in romance—moms, grandmothers and aunties! We talk about the shocking epidemic of orphaned main characters in romance, about how extended family provides nuance in the books, and about our very favorite mothers, grandmothers, aunties and adopted older ladies in books.
Thanks to all the women who provide care and sage advice out in the world. We appreciate you.
Our next read along is Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, from her Uptown Girls trilogy. It’s Jen’s favorite in the series. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or your local indie.
Happy anniversary to our founding Patreon members — May marks one year of our Patreon and our Discord! We love you a whole lot. Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Notes
Crush, the new apple ad is honestly so bleak, and the backlash was so extreme that they pulled the ad. Look how easily they could have made it cool, though.
The Matriarchy isn’t just a dream, as it turns out.
The Gaza Evacuation Fund Auction raised $160,000 and it’s not too late to donate to one of the funds of people trying to get to safety.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Elle Kennedy, author of The Dixon Rule,
available in print, ebook or audio from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo & your local indie
Sophie Sullivan, author of Love Naturally,
available in print or ebook from
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo & your local indie
Aethon Books, publisher of A.N. Skye’s Keeper of Scarlet Petals,
available in print or ebook, or with
your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
