S05.47: Fairy Tale Retellings with Zoraida Córdova
We’re talking fairytale retellings today with Zoraida Córdova, the author of Kiss the Girl, a new retelling of The Little Mermaid. We talk about the responsibility of authors when they tackle retellings, about the relevance of fairytales in the world, about the history of fairytales, and about why they resonate so powerfully with us as authors and readers.
After Sarah’s Knockout (preorder it signed, with exclusive FM swag, from her local bookstore), our next read along will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or from your local indie.
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, you are welcome at our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.
Show Notes
Welcome back, Zoraida Córdova. She was on the podcast back in Season 3 talking about fantasy romance. Kiss the Girl is a Little Mermaid retelling, and the third book in the Meant to Be series. You can check out her other mermaid books, a YA series that starts with The Viscous Deep, or the forthcoming anthology Mermaids Never Drown.
Are we billionaires from winning the MegaMillions? Probably not. But if we did, Jen is planning to renovate the Jackson Park Beach House. The great thing about helping refugees and immigrants is you can do something about that even if you haven’t won the lottery.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Chloe Angyal, author of Pas de Don’t
available now at Amazon, B&N, Kobo & Apple Books.
Use the code FATED25 at chicagoreviewpress.com for 25% off your order.
Jess Bryant, author of Unbreakable Bond,
available at Amazon, or with a monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Melanie Harlow, author of Hideaway Heart,
available at Amazon, or with a monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Preorder Sarah’s Knockout at
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books,
at your local independent bookstore, or signed with goodies and
special edition Fated Mates stickers from her
local independent bookstore, WORD in Brooklyn.
S02.36: Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie: I wanna mash their faces together.
It’s a Jen week this week! We’re reading Bet Me this week, the book many people put right on the top of Best Contemporary Romance lists — one of Jen’s favorite books and a book Sarah liked to tell people she loved but has now discovered she’d never actually read. Minerva and Cal are absolutely terrific, as is this book, and we’re having a rollicking conversation about fat rep, about friendships in romance, about food (Sarah’s love language), about shoes, and about why grown people at little league games are a weird thing.
We love having you with us! — subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and like/review the podcast, please!
In two weeks, it’s erotica week! We’re reading a book that Sarah loves, Nikki Sloane’s Three Little Mistakes, which we’ve talked about before on the podcast, but we want to deep dive on. Get Three Little Mistakes from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, or Kobo … and don’t forget your favorite indie, which is probably shipping books right now and definitely needs your patronage!
Also, if you love the music in this or any of our episodes, check out our Spotify playlist, which includes it all!
Show Notes
We're big fans of Carly Lane-Perry from SyFy Fangirls. We especially like her newsletter, Kissing Books--Jen wrote about grandmothers in romance.
Is it criticism if it's all positive?
Baby Foot is sold out, but there are lots of other terrifying alternatives you can try.
Janet Dailey is famous for plagiarizing Nora Roberts. Before that happened, she wrote the Americana series, with one book set in every state. The one set in Ohio was called The Widow and the Wastrel, and Jen's twitter thread about the book unearthed several early covers for the book.
Sarah asked if Jenny Crusie is from Ohio? She is.
This was Sarah's first time reading Bet Me, just like it was Jen's first time reading Gentle Rogue.
Minerva and Diana probably wish they weren't named after Roman goddesses.
So: you want to be an actuary. You want to learn about chaos theory. You're wondering about the gender essentialsim of a book with a title like Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus. You want to learn more about the band Cake.
Penn and Teller explain the Cup and Ball trick. Oh, and did you hear Sarah mention it's going to appear in Daring and the Duke? Pre-order from WORD in Brooklyn, and you'll recieve a free limited edition yellow Fated Mates sticker.
With these many characters, it might as well be a Robert Atlman movie.
Learn about dyslexia, our understanind of which has dramatically changed over time. Erin McCarthy's Hard and Fast (2009) also has a dyslexic hero.
Another utterly fantastic family dinner gone wrong scene is in Her Naughty Holiday by Tiffany Reisz.
Jeanne Lin knows how to write some really sexy kissing.
The fairy godmother is a hallmark of Cinderella, and Sarah's own magical modiste is Madame Hebert.
There are so many homages to great rom-coms of the 90s. Diana loves the music from Julia Roberts movies. Elvis Costello's She appeared in Notting Hill, the lead up to the big wedding was like Four Weddings and a Funeral, and of course Diana turns into a Runaway Bride. Min's visit to the magical modiste is like one of the greatest makeover sequences in movies, Pretty Woman. The "I love your shoes" was like The American President. All the wolf references, of course reminded us of Moonstruck. Cynthie's sexy clothes at the little league game were reminiscent of this great scene in Bull Durham.
Order buttons from Kelly in Jen's shop, and t-shirts from Jordan Dene.
Next up, we'll be reading Three Little Mistakes from Nikki Sloan.
19: I don’t know; she’s a witch: Wicked Abyss
The final book of IAD (so far) is here! We’re talking Sian, Lila, why horns are the BEST, and why the king of hell is the very best hell-monarch…except for his queen. Also, we talk Disney properties, complicated thoughts on how it is possible that Kresley is still getting better with each book, and the fact that we’re probably going to start a new IAD reread right away because obviously we are.
Fated Mates returns with Season Two in September — don’t forget to like & subscribe in your favorite podcasting app so you don’t miss a single second of us in your earholes!
And more than all this — thank you for listening to us talk at you about vampires, valkyries, wolf holograms, horns & Rune for 39 weeks — there honestly aren’t words for how much we love you for listening!
Team Vertas 4eva! — xoxo Sarah & Jen
Show Notes
This is The End is by The Doors, and Closing Time is by Semisonic.
The RITAs were amazing, and one of the best things about it was this romance trailblazers video.
Lila is a face character at Disney.
Inside the Mouse is a book you should read, or just this New York Times article where John Jerimiah Sullivan (omg. his essays are so good! Read Pulphead!) trying to figure out the best place to smoke weed there. That Banksey video.
Because Disney is too expensive, #TeamReadsRomance suggests Cedar Point if you like roller coasters.
Hela's crown in Thor Ragnarok is PRETTY GREAT.
It's interesting to think about a framing device and what it does for a story.
Sarah's WaPo piece about the Alpha Feminist.
All about archetypes and the princess trope.
The Room of Requirement is part of Hogwards.
When we talked about time, Sarah recommended Kylie Scott's Repeat.
Tim Curry as The Darkness in Legend or The Devil in Fantasia.
We talked about curvy heroines way back at the beginning of this podcast.
Everything Sian owns is in a box to the left.
We're all on Munro Watch.
Thanks to everyone for listening to season one of Fated Mates!