S05.02: Romance Novel Beginnings: Starting With a Bang!
Not that kind of bang! We’re talking about beginnings today, on the first interstitial of Season 5! This one edges into a bit more writing shop talk than usual, but we’re still name checking lots of favorite books, many of which we’ve done deep dives on already! So consider this your nudge to go back and read some great books we’ve talked about! Also, Sarah has Covid, Jen’s on the mend, Fated States is back, and next week, we’re reading Marrying Winterborne.
Thanks to Lucy Leroux, Eva Moore and Torie Jean for sponsoring the episode. Read Making Her His, Caught a Vibe and Finding Gene Kelly now.
Next week, our first read along of the season is Lisa Kleypas’s Marrying Winterborne. Get it at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or at your local indie.
Show Notes
When a book starts in the middle of the action, it’s called in medias res
If you’re in MA, check out the Rom-Con, a full day celebration of “rom”ance at the “Con”cord free public library this Satruday, Sept 24, from 10-3. Tickets are free!
Fated States has returned, and it looks like we’ll be phonebanking every Saturday starting Oct 1 through the election.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
Lucy Leroux, author of Making Her His, available in print,
in ebook and via Kindle Unlimited.
Visit authorlucyleroux.com
and
Eva Moore, author of Caught a Vibe, available in print and ebook
at Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble
Visit 4evamoore.com
and
Torie Jean, author of Finding Gene Kelly, available in print,
in ebook, and via Kindle Unlimited.
Visit toriejean.com
S04.23: Fake Dating Romance
You can’t throw a stone in romance in 2022 without hitting a fake dating story, so we figure it’s time to do an interstitial on it! We’re talking about when it works, why it works, how it works, and by whom it works, so get your library cards ready because this one will topple your TBR! While this one is, as always, for the readers, there’s lots of goal/motivation/conflict here for the writers, too. Thanks for listening!
This episode is sponsored by Isla Moore, author of The Jennifer Files, and BetterHelp Online Therapy.
Our next read along will feature some of Sarah’s favorite quick & dirty books by London Hale, the pen name of authors Ellis Leigh and Brighton Walsh. Their Temperance Falls series is full of kinks and tropes and HEAs and while we won’t be talking about all ten books, we’ll definitely be talking about a few of them, including Nanny With Benefits, Reunion, Daddy’s Best Friend and Sarah’s favorite, Talk Dirty to Me. The whole series is free in KU.
Show Notes
Hey, dating during the pandemic was, and still is, hard!
Sarah suggest that there are 3 questions an author must address for each character in order to make the fake dating plot work:
- Why is this happening/why a fake relationship the only option?
- Why this person and not some other person?
- What happens if it all goes south?
In other words, what is the the stake, the thing the reader has to care about? In other words: goal, motivation, conflict.
One of our very earliest interstitials was on Escort romances, and another was on fake engagement/marriage of convenience, tropes that has a lot in common with fake dating.
#RomanceClass is the name for a group of authors from the Phillipines writing in English. You can learn more about the romance class authors and their story, which is strongly influenced by the fact that divorce is illegal in the Phillipines.
Fuck Me Gently with a Chainsaw is something from a very dark 80s teen movie called Heathers.
There is a Canadian equivalent to the Navy SEALs, it's called Joint Task Force 2. The Mounties (which stands for Royal Canadian Mounted Police) definitely do not have that same vibe, but here is a nice video of a gentleman talking about his the training of the RCMP dogs.
Fake Dating Romance Novels
*The Fix Her Up audiobook is currently on sale for $5 at Chirp. Visit our Audiobook Deals page for more.
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
BetterHelp online therapy.
Fated Mates listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/fatedmates.
and
Isla Moore, author of The Jennifer Files, available free in KU.
Visit Isla at islamoore.com, or follow her on
Instagram at @islamoorebooks or Twitter at @islabooks.
2.5: Brother's Best Friend Romances
Next week we’re going to get into Werewolves and Witches with Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night, but this week, we’re so excited to talk best friend’s sibling/sibling’s best friend romances with one of our favorite people: Kate Clayborn!
Show Notes
Kate Clayborn writes awesome books, but her romance think pieces at Frolic aren't too be missed.
There's nothing more hilarious than reviving old twitter threads, and in this one Kate and Talia Hibbert talk IAD.
The Game Maker series will get its own episodes, don't worry. Jen was thinking about saving this chastity belt article for then, but really, why wait?
Best of Luck was just named one of Amazon's Best Romance of December, which is as it should be. The second book in the series, Luck of the Draw, was on Sarah's Best of 2018 list for the Washington Post.
Sarah's twitter thread where people described what they'd do if they won a billion dollars is pretty fun to read. But really, there's a reason we all love that daydream.
This month, the Ripped Bodice is spearheading The Great Big Romance Read and maybe you can find a bookstore, library, or blog where you can talk about Pride by Ibi Zoboi.
The American Dream is complicated, college is expensive, and all of it freaks Jen out if she thinks about it too much.
Sarah wrote a YA historical! It's called The Season.
This is a good take on why the best friend's sibling trope is so powerful.
Sinner by Sierra Simone. She talks about her writing here. Jen doesn't really think it counts as blasphemy, but she looked it up just to be sure.
Some more about insprirational romance, and although we didn't mention her name on the podcast, Jen thinks Piper Huguley writes the best inspirational romance out there. She wrote about Piper's book The Mayor's Mission and Sarah's book Day of the Duchess in this piece on miscarriage in romance.
Clean Breaks by Ruby Lang. But when this podcast went live, it was an even better deal to buy all three books in the Practice Perfect series bundled together.
