Jennifer Prokop 12/12/22 Jennifer Prokop 12/12/22

S05.13: Here Comes Santa Claus

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 you to buy the Fated Mates Best of 2022 book collection from Old Town Books in Alexandria Virginia, and get the eight traditionally published books on the list along with a Fated Mates sticker!

The holidays are hard, but this box is great. And you deserve it. FYI, you can also throw in other books (or a signed Sarah MacLean book!) if you’d like! Let us know what you end up doing with these fabulous books, and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram or Twitter when you unbox (#FMBestof22)!

Our next read along will be KJ Charles’s Band Sinister. We did not fight over which KJ Charles book to read because Sarah is all that is good and gracious in the world and she let Jen win. It is Scorpio season, after all. Get Band Sinister at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.

Thank you, as always, for listening. If you are up for leaving a rating or review for the podcast on your favorite podcasting app, we would be very grateful.

Show Notes

According to Snopes, Coca-Cola didn’t invent our modern image of Santa, but they definitely capitalized on it.

Book Riot also noticed that santa erotica is on the rise, including a link to last year’s Caressed by Ice episode where we briefly discussed the phenomenon.

All about the krampus, Lapland, and why Elf on the Shelf is a cop.

Jen can't take credit for calling Romance "the final boss" because it was Mikki Kendall who said it first: "Romancelandia is the final form of the final boss in the game no one can beat." Am I trying to actually write out the tweets now isntead of just linking in case twitter dies and everything gets deleted? yes.

Eric wants to remind you about the Fated Xmas playlists on both Spotify and Apple Music.

Books Mentioned This Episode

Her Night with Santa

The Toy King

The Naughty List

Sleigh Bells Ring

Frosted Hearts

In Love with Alien Santa

Santa Claus is Going to Town On Me

Plowed

A Christmas Wish

The Heart of Winter

Santa's Baby

A Wife for Christmas

Secret Santa

Santa's Helper

Bridget Jones's Diary

Four Christmases

S04.24: The London Hale Oeuvre

Welp, we’re back in a doom scrolling spiral this week, so why not take a visit to a small town full of hot single dads and firemen? We’re reading London Hale this week, and talking about the appeal of the quick and dirty romance! We’ll also talk about the value of a genuinely hot read and where all the stops are on the romance-to-erotica spectrum. We’re also talking about kinks and why daddies are installed in so many of us. Basically, we’re telling y’all to read these London Hale books so they’ll write more of them for us. Thanks for listening!

This episode is sponsored by Kennedy Ryan, author of Reel, and BetterHelp Online Therapy.

Our next read along is Diana Quincy’s Her Night With the Duke, which was on our Best of 2020 year-end list! Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local bookstore. You can also get it in audio from our partner, Chirp Books!

Show Notes

Authors Ellis Leigh and Brighton Walsh are the two authors who write as London Hale. Sarah talked about their books back on the Quick and Dirty interstitial in Season 2.

You should read Circe. And Jack Reacher.

If you've run out of Jessa Kane books, try Chloe Maine.

There is not a Harlequin Presents called The Pregnant Billionaire’s Italian Mistress, but you can find The Italian’s Pregnant Mistress, The Italian Billionaire's Pregnant Bride, The Italian’s Pregnant Cinderella, The Italian’s Pregnant Virgin, The Italian’s Pregnancy Proposal, and The Italian’s Pregnant Prisoner.

Robert Redford was a snack. So was Richard Gere both in Pretty Woman and in “the one where he’s an Air Force pilot.” (An Officer and a Gentleman, and it was the Navy. Fine.) We also admire the silver fox good looks of Benecio del Toro, Idris Elba, and George Clooney.

Andie J. Christopher coined the phrase “stern brunch daddy” and we’re all better off for it. Unfortunately, she’s the kind of person who deletes old tweets so you can't see that picture of Oscar Isaac with an eating utensil that inspired it, but luckily they talked about it on Reddit and Andie talked about it on the Wicked Wallflowers Podcast.

We’re constantly trying to explain the difference between Romance vs erotic romance vs erotica.

The Great Stepbrother Explosion was mostly 2015-2016, but I’m willing to talk some more about it or cite sources if you have them.

The 2020 Netflix movie 365 Days was originally released in Poland under the name 365 dni and was based on a book by Blanka Lipinska. Apparently, there will be a sequel. It doesn’t have a release date, but we’ll keep you updated, baby girl.

Jo Brenner and her friends have a gray scale for dark romance, and I hope she’ll explain it all on twitter so I can link to it.

Does calling a stranger for phone sex still exist–I bet you’re shocked to find out that there was an uptick in demand during the pandemic.

In editing, TK means “to come” as in I’ll fill it in later. In Fumbled by Alexa Martin, it stands for Trevor Kyle.

Eucalyptus is native to Australia and was introduced to England in 1774.

You should follow the Male scent catalog on twitter, and if you want to read more about it, check out the book Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells.