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
S05.33: Bingeable Romance Series
After a number of conversations and requests, we’re talking about the best long-running romance series today! We’ve got something for everyone — paranormal, historical and contemporary — and we’re getting your long, lingering summer reading TBR sorted! We talk about why series work so well for romance, what makes them rewarding, and what we’re looking for when we dive in.
Next week, we’ve got another read along! Join us to read one of our very favorite short novels, Sarah Mayberry’s Her Best Worst Mistake, which sets the bar for every other enemies to lovers romance ever. Get it at Amazon, B&N, Kobo or Apple Books.
Show Notes
There are lots of words for snow, including graupel.
We loved our conversation with Christine Feehan, and it got us thinking about series. This is also a great essay about series from Ilona Andrews, who have lots of great long-running series (some of which we mentioned today) and talk about the difference between episodic vs. progressive series.
Author Heather Burch shared her description of the novel with Sarah as: "an unforgettable character, a relentless threat, and an impossible situation." You can check out Heather's books here.
In this EW interview with Nora Roberts, she said the In Death series was supposed to be a trilogy set in the near future.
Here’s a USA Today interview with Joanna Wylde about writing the Reapers Legacy series.
You can turn off popular highlights, btw.
Our next read along, next week, is Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry.
A folder with those links, you're welcome.
Series Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Max Monroe, authors of Accidental Attachment
Available from Amazon, with a monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited,
or in audio wherever you listen to audiobooks.
and
Annmarie Boyle, author of Love Me Like a Love Song
Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Apple Books.
S02.07: That's Spelled J-E-H-N: Dark Lover
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 & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.
Show Notes
JR 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.
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.