Jennifer Prokop 9/19/23 Jennifer Prokop 9/19/23

S06.02: The Full Banana

We’re so excited you’re with us for this season! The first interstitial episode of Season 6 drops today and it’s the full banana, meaning—here’s where we talk about the absolutely bonkers romance novels we’ve encountered over our decades of romance reading. Sentient doors, 24-ounces of liquid, gorilla attacks, kinky bank robbers, and Tarzan retellings are here…and so much more!

Our first read along of the season will be Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm, available 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

We had a great time at the Popular Romance Fiction conference at Yale. We met Carole Bell, one of our favorite reviewers. We were also joined on our panel by Julie Moody-Freeman of the Black Romance Podcast and Kinohi Nishikawa from Princeton. Our moderator was Jeania Ree Moore, a PhD student at Yale and one of the lead organizers of the conference. It was spectacular, as were all the panels and classes at the event.

Jen has decided, a group of Magnificent Firebirds is a phalanx, it just rolls off the tongue: a phalanx of firebirds!

Check out the great selection of romances and book boxes at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA.

The drilldo book is called Laying Pipe by Kate Allure, and here’s a little illustration from our fave, Jennifer Porter. Don’t worry future Fated Mates listener, I took a screenshot for posterity once twitter is gone for good.

You can listen to Sarah do a deep dive on Gorilla Twins over at Learning the Tropes.

You should really watch the movie Lone Star starring Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, and a young Matthew McConaughey, but we are less sure if you should read The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Books Mentioned this Episode

Inheritance

Morning Glory Milking Farm

The Earl Takes All

Sweet Temptation

Mister Moneybags

Unhinged

Hot Touch

Hedging His Bets

Taken Hostage by Kinky Bank Robbers

Uncivilized

S05.19: Homecoming Romance with Kate Clayborn

Seven-timer Kate Clayborn returns to the Fated Mates studio (lol, jk there is no studio) to talk about about going home again in romance and to celebrate the launch of her new book, Georgie All Along, which you can get this week wherever books are sold! We talk about all the ins and outs of homecoming romances, what sends characters back to the beginning, what readers expect from these books, why they hit so hard and in so many ways, and how this trope intersects with small town romance. All that, and Sarah’s brought an X,Y chart to class.

Next week, we have an interstitial, and then it’s Derek Craven Day 2023! Our first read along of 2023 (in February) is Tracy MacNish’s Stealing Midnight—we’ve heard the calls from our gothic romance readers and we’re delivering with this truly bananas story, in which the hero is dug out of a grave and delivered, barely alive, to the heroine. Get ready. You can find Stealing Midnight (for $1.99!) at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or Apple Books.

Show Notes

Welcome Kate Clayborn. Her newest release, Georgie, All Along came out yesterday. She’s been on Fated Mates so many times because we love to talk to her about romance. You can listen to them all here, but considering the time of year, might we recommend the 2021 Derek Craven Day episode?

In case you forgot what your English teacher told you about theme.

Here's Sarah's chart, as promised. Also, you can learn about all about the X and Y axis. And the Z axis. And coefficients. So mathy this week!