Jennifer Prokop 6/5/24 Jennifer Prokop 6/5/24

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

Going Rogue

Her Dark Salvation

We Could be Heroes

One and Done

Till Heist Do Us Part

Jewel Me Twice

Sounds Like a Plan

Errands and Espionage

One Star Romance

The Truth According to Ember

Cross the Line

The Near Miss

Morbidly Yours

Rules for Ghosting

Love of My Afterlife

Love and Other Conspiracies

I'll Have What He's Having

The Pairing

The Next Best Fling

A Love Like the Sun

Business Casual

Do Me a Favor

Hers For the Weekend

A Little Kissing Between Friends

Not In Love

Road Trip Rivalry

Take Me Home

Romancing Ms. Stone

Sapphire Dawn

Isabel and the Rogue

You Should be So Lucky

Hot Earl Summer

A Shore Thing

Lady Scandal

How to Fall for a Scoundrel

The Prince's Bride

Good Duke Gone Wild

Stranded with her Forbidden Knight

A Marriage to Shock Society

Witty in Pink

S04.40: Royalty Romance #2

We were going to do a deep dive this week, but then we read the book and decided that was a hard pass! So, we do a very shallow dive and then get to the good stuff this week…talking about Royal romances! We talk about the strange fascination the world has with royalty, about the way fake countries hit the spot, and about why it’s so rare to see a gender-swapped Cinderella story. Sarah also offers a peek at her newest research project, preliminarily titled—Alexbastian: Is Name, In Fact, Destiny? It’s better than a deep dive, we promise.

Fated Mates Live, in person is happening — if you have tickets to the live show in Alexandria, VA on July 30th — let us know on our Twitter thread (and find friends!). If you didn’t get a ticket, but want to join the wait list, you can do that at Old Town Books!

Thanks to Adriana Herrera, author of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris, for sponsoring the episode. Thanks, also, to Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies. Visit microdose.com and use code FATEDMATES to get free shipping & 30% off your first order.

Show Notes

Turns out we are not reading The Dragon and the Jewel…because yikes. Eleanor Plantangenet and Simon de Montfort were real people, but this 1991 romance is too problematic for a full discussion.

Yes, we talked about royalty in romance with Nana Malone back in season 1, but there’s always fresh content!

The Oprah interview with Prince Harry & Meghan Markle is worth a watch, if you can stand all the commercials.

The launch event for American Royalty will be in Richmond on June 28, 2022. Go check it out— Tracey will be joined by Kate Clayborn.

There is a real His Royal Highness Prince Sebastian in Luxembourg, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Order an avatar button from The Romancelandia Shop! This is a great way to announce your presence at in-person events and help people find you. It really works!