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S05.38: Prologues & Epilogues in Romance

It’s hard to believe it’s taken us this long to do a prologue and epilogue episode! We talk about beginnings and endings and why they exist and why writers should ignore every piece of broad strokes nonsense advice people want to throw at them. Jen says “Prologues are plot and epilogues are character,” and blows Sarah’s mind with her genius (jk, Sarah already knew she was a genius). And yes, we talk about babies. Fair warning!

This interstitial idea came from the Fated Mates Discord, which all of our patrons have access to. 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

You know, Animal Farm is a good book and King Lear is a good play.

There is a very cute family of foxes living in Chicago’s Millennium Park

Apparently this dogs and rosetone thing is a known issue.

Here is an example of the hardline “Prologues are Bad” stance. || ed note: I’m not mad about it, since I have some known hardline stances myself. Ahem. ||

Our list of things good romance prologues do: provide needed backstory, historical information, an inciting incident in the past, an unusual set-up, and showcasing the relationship between the primary characters.

Our list of things romance epilogues do: fan service, bringing the whole gang back together in a series,providing a glimpse into the other character’s POV, The HEA fulfilled, the babylogue, and surprise motherfuckers!

A link to a folder with PDFs of links in show notes.

Books Mentioned this Episode

Sponsors

Adriana Herrera, author of An Island Princess Starts a Scandal,
available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo
and your local independent bookseller.

and

Juniper Butterworth, author of Bewitched,
available now from Amazon, or with a monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

and

The Noveltea Shelf Assured Book Box,
available at novelteabooks.co

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S05.04: What to Read If You Liked The Love Hypothesis...

Today we start one of our new features for Season Five: If You Liked…Read This! We begin with Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, a book that took romance and BookTok by storm last year when it burst onto the NYT best seller list and hung out there for nearly a year, bringing so many new readers (and Reylos!) to romance.

This one is full of tropes romance loves, and we take them topic by topic, recommending read alikes for everything from grumpy/sunshine, to academic romance, to STEM heroines, to that spicy sex scene that was a delightfully unexpected surprise! That, and we’ve got a bunch of Reylo fic recommended from Ali herself (check the end of show notes)!

Notes

Ali Hazelwood’s Books

 

Pining Main Characters

 

The Professors

 

STEM Heroines

 

Great Banter

 

Microtropes

Reylo Fic recommended by Ali Hazelwood & Adriana Herrera

Sponsors

This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:

Blair Babylon, author of Twisted and Tangled,
available in print and ebook, wherever you get your romance,

and

Emjoy, your audio journey to female pleasure.
Visit letsemjoy.com/mates for your 14 day free trial.

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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

Get boosted!

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

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S04.46: Two Girls, One Microphone, Headphones In: Sarah and Jen at Apollycon

You’re getting the full banana this week, y’all, because we were together! Like, actually face to face, across a table in a hotel room! We’re talking Apollycon and Fated Mates Live, answering your questions, recommending fun books, and generally being delightful in your earholes (listen, if we’re not delightful, don’t tell us, we had a great time)!

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing, publishers of Farrah Rochon’s The Hookup Plan, Blair Babylon, author of Rogue, and Amazon’s Kindle Vella, publisher of Audrey Carlan’s The Marriage Auction series, for sponsoring the episode.

We’ve got interstitials and trailblazers coming your way this month, and we will finish out Season 4 as is traditional — with a deep dive episode on Sarah’s summer release, Heartbreaker! Get it at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, at your local indie, or signed and with special swag (and a Fated Mates sticker!) from her local indie, WORD in Brooklyn!

Show Notes

You can check out The Steam Box, which is a great romance + toy subscription box.

A very funny twitter thread about what Mary Shelley might have to say to Joyce Carol Oates.

Speaking of Joe Manganiello, he was in the news this week after finding out about his racial ancestry on the TV show Finding Your Roots.

Sarah says the best feminist double feature is Magic Mike XXL and Mad Max Fury Road and you should try it and report back. You can not only watch Mad Max Fury Road, you can read about it, too.

Don’t forget to order signed copies of Heartbreaker from Word in Brooklyn.

Books Mentioned This Episode

Sponsors

This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:


Forever, publishers of Farrah Rochon’s The Hookup Plan, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, and your local indie.

Visit farrahrochon.com

and

Blair Babylon’s Rogue, free digitally this week at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo.

Visit blairbabylon.com

and

Amazon’s Kindle Vella, publisher of Audrey Carlan’s The Marriage Auction series,
available at amazon.com/kindlevella.

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