Jennifer Prokop 1/31/24 Jennifer Prokop 1/31/24

S06.20: It's Romance Science!

This one is probably as goofy as we get — we’ve spent six years talking about Romance Science, and now class is in session! We’re talking biology, human physiology, astronomy, neurology, urology, gynecology, obstetrics and dermatology. Basically, we’ve studied this enough to hold multiple MDs & PhDs. If we’re ever on a plane and someone needs a doctor, we’re volunteering. Love doctors count, right? We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording.

Our first read along of 2024 is Natalie Caña’s A Dish Best Served Hot. Find it at Amazon, B&N, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

If you just can’t get enough of us, consider joining our Patreon! You get an extra episode of banter every month and access to the Fated Mates discord, full of people who love romance as much as we do. It’s pretty great, we have to say. Learn more at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Notes

Two brothers who are both in the NFL, that’s romance science. Kylie Kelce seems pretty cool. Too bad we missed her book.
On twitter, you can check out the Male Scent Catalog, and Jen has talked about this flower thing, too.
Conveniently, Jen wrote a review of the book where that guy had Periwinkle eyes, it was called A Very Private Love by Melinda Cross.
What are Palazzo pants, you might be wondering.
When it comes to superheroes, everyone is beautiful and no one is horny. Believe it or not, that’s not even how we ended up on Christopher Reeve as Superman.
You should definitely pee after sex if you have a vagina.
There is a huge difference between a million and a billion, or here’s [another way] to see it11, or another way.
Jen is obsessed with lens wipes, and you will be, too, if you try them.

Books Mentioned This Episode

Brazen and the Beast by Sarah Maclean

Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin

Warrior by Elizabeth Lowell

The Club by Lauren Rowe

Carnal Urges by J.T. Geissinger

Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished by Sarah Maclean

A Very Private Love by Melinda Cross

Surrendering to Hunt by Jennifer Ryan

Lead by Kylie Scott

Taking the Heat by Victoria Dahl

Wild Pitch by Cat Giraldo

All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre

Bombshell by Sarah Maclean

Mafia Target by Mila Finelli

S05.36: The Best Kisses in Romance

We’re talking kissing today! So simple and so powerful, there’s no doubt that that first kiss in romance is always an important one. This episode was inspired by our recent readalong of Her Best Worst Mistake, but we talk about some other great books (most of which we’ve talked about before) with truly excellent kisses. Enjoy…and tell us about your favorite kisses in books, movies, tv shows…wherever you get your superior smooching.

Notes

Kissing is the best, and we are obsessed with the first kisses from the following movies and TV shows: Maddie and David from Moonlighting, lots of Angel and Buffy kissing, jump in the wayback machine for Sam and Diane from Cheers, and more recently Jim and Pam from The Office.
The first gay kiss on network TV was on LA Law back in 1991.
In the 80s and 90s, we imprinted hard on movies with great kissing scenes: The primordial kiss that was Han Solo and Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back, the “No Kissing on the Mouth” from Pretty Woman and Jen forgot to mention another 90s classic, Poetic Justice with Tupac and Janet Jackson. Hello to that last scene from Never Been Kissed with Drew Barrymore. People have made entire YouTube videos of great movie kisses.
Why did people use a metaphor about “Rounding the bases” to discuss sex back in the day? Who knows!
Most of today's links are YouTube videos, but here are PDFs of the things that are text-based links.