S05.09: Hold by Claire Kent: There is Nothing Soft in This Book
We’ve talked about this week’s read along so much it’s kind of impossible to imagine that we haven’t read it with y’all, yet! But here we are, finally cracking open Claire Kent’s brilliant novella, Hold. Set on a prison planet, this one dials forced proximity up to 11, and does the excellent job of answering just how horrifying a world can you write a romance in? The answer is very. Very horrifying. We talk about sex and consent and strength and humanity and how love blooms in even the darkest of places. Is it possible we needed this book this week? It sure is.
Content warnings for the book and headphones in for the episode, magnificent firebirds!
Get Hold at Amazon, free in Kindle Unlimited.
Thanks to the Meet Cute Bookshop in San Diego, CA and Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies, for sponsoring the episode. Visit the Meet Cute website to browse their Space Romance list, and use the code FATEDMATES for 30% your order at Microdose.com
Show Notes
If you like astrology, check out the CoStar app.
Claire Kent also writes as Noelle Adams. Hold was released in 2015 and is the first book in a series, the next books in the series are Release, Fall, and Rise.
It doesn’t take much digging to find out about the inhumanity and injustice of the American Justice System. It is absolutely unjust and racist to the core.
Alcatraz and Ellis Island are tourist destinations worth seeing, but also…who the fuck invented Alcatraz.
Emma on TikTok and abolitionism and romance. Also here. Just follow her!
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
Meet Cute Bookshop in San Diego, CA
visit their website at meetcutebookshop.com.
and
Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies
visit their website at microdose.com,
and use the code FATEDMATES for 30% off and free shipping!
S05.08: Iris Johansen: Trailblazer
Our Trailblazer episodes continue this week with Iris Johansen, who began writing category romance in the heyday of the format at Loveswept. During her varied career, she’s written categories, historicals and now writes thrillers and crime novels.
In this episode, we talk about the founding of Loveswept, about how she learned to write, and about the power of storytelling. We also talk about the way her career has grown and evolved—about transitioning to thrillers, about writing the Eve Duncan series for 28 books, and about keeping it in the family and writing with her son. We had a wonderful time hearing these stories. Thank you to Iris Johansen for making the time for us.
Thanks to Callie Chase, author of Dishonor Among Thieves and Sara Wetmore, author of The Christmas Script, for sponsoring the episode.
Our next read along is Claire Kent’s HOLD. It’s a prison planet romance, so…you know…enter at your own risk. Get it at Amazon or in Kindle Unlimited.
Show Notes
People Iris Mentioned: Loveswept editor Carolyn Nichols, Agent Andrea Cirillo, Sandra Brown, Kay Hooper, Fayrene Preston, Roy Johansen, Catherine Coulter, Linda Howard, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsey, Jayne Ann Krentz, Ann Maxwell.
The story of Roy Johansen's visit to the submarine at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
Callie Chase, author of Dishonor Among Thieves,
available at Amazon.
Visit calliechase.com for more information and signed books!
and
Sara Wetmore, author of The Christmas Script,
available at Amazon.
Visit sarawetmore.com
S05.07: Spooky Stuff! Halloween Romance
It’s spooky season and that means we’re reading spooky stuff! We recommend some of our favorite recent witches and demons and incubii and ghosts and vampires and others…and then we try to get to the bottom of why paranormal romance and monster romance doesn’t feel like halloween romance to but these books do? This episode has it all: celebrity witch talk, a welshman named Rhys who isn’t the one you’re thinking of, a peek into Sarah’s past that reveals a painting that just might have installed one of her buttons…she had a beer before we recorded, so stuff happens! This one’s all treat, no trick…but headphones in, y’all. This one isn’t for the kids.
spooky books
Notes
Spooky Shit Nitro Stout isn’t a brand, it’s a process.
Although we’ve never done a Halloween episode before, we did have a monster romance interstitial in season 4 with guest Jenny Nordbak. Also, all of season 1, basically.
We came up with a new rule for what makes something a paranormal, which is it’s about whether or not the main characters are immortals or humans. Or, you know, the patriarchy.
And now time for a celebrity gossip interlude: Are Gisele Bündchen & Olivia Wilde witches? It's possible. It has something to do with altars & healing stones, [the Don’t Worry Darling controversy], Jason Sudeikis under a car, and Nora Ephron’s salad dressing.
We have two more Fated States phonebanks! Register here for Oct 29 at 3 eastern to Kentucky for Charles Booker, and Nov 5 at 3 eastern to Pennsylvania for John Fetterman.
Did someone mention a Welshman named Rhys?
Gather round and look at the painting The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli. Here’s a cool explainer about the significance of the painting.
As of Oct 25, 2022, the United States has 1,090, 632 dead from Covid. Worldwide, at least 7.5M people have died. Get boosted. Wear a mask.
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
Alyxandra Harvey, author of How to Marry a Viscount,
available at Amazon.
Visit alyxandraharvey.com
and
Terri Green, author of The Swordmaster’s Daughter,
available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or Apple Books
Visit terrigreenauthor.com
S05.06: Redemption Romance with Christopher Rice
In the very best version of “third time’s the charm,” we are finally welcoming Christopher Rice to Fated Mates! A man of many talents, he writes fabulous contemporary romances as C. Travis Rice, and suspense, crime and supernatural thrillers as Christopher Rice. Today we’re talking Redemption Romance in honor of his most recent romance release, Sapphire Spring.
In this episode, we talk about how redemption romances and bully romances work, how tricky they are to write, and why so many of us are so drawn to redemption arcs — particularly when they involve sticking it to our childhood enemies. We had the best time with Christopher, who filled our TBRs…so get ready, because he’s definitely going to fill yours, too.
Thanks to Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies, for sponsoring the episode. Use the code FATEDMATES for 30% off and free shipping. Thanks, also, to emjoy for sponsoring the episode. Visit letsemjoy.com/mates for a 14-day free trial.
Show Notes
This week's guest is Christopher Rice, who also publishes under the name C. Travis Rice. He and his best friend Eric Shaw Quinn host a podcast called The Dinner Party Show.
The inspiration for the Sapphire Cove series came from Nora Roberts's Dream Trilogy. The first one is Daring to Dream.
Jean Valjean is the main character in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
A Molly House was a British term for a place where gay men could meet up. Like Victorian Grindr.
The Sapphire Cove Series by C. Travis Rice
Books with Redemption Arcs
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies
Visit microdose.com and use the code FATEDMATES
for 30% off and free shipping on your order
and
Emjoy, your audio journey to female pleasure.
Visit letsemjoy.com/mates for your 14 day free trial.
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
ReyLo is the ship name for Kylo Ren and Rey from the Star Wars movies. And the actor who plays Kylo Ren is Adam Driver.
All about Pansexuality.
Censorship on TikTok is so widespread is has its own wikipedia page, which makes it rife for misinformation about sex and sex education.
Small point of order, Jen was at the LPI (Lunar and Planetary Institute), which is close to the Johnson NASA Space Center in Houston. Obviously, she wasn’t at the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), because that’s in California.
Ali Hazelwood’s Books
Pining Main Characters
The Professors
STEM Heroines
Great Banter
Microtropes
Reylo Fic recommended by Ali Hazelwood & Adriana Herrera
$15 New, $15 Used, Yours_Truly_Commander_Shepard
Abash the Little Bird, SecretReyloTrash
All Our Days, voicedimplosives
Can’t Turn Off What Turns Me On, audreyii_fic
Coarse and Rough and Irritating, frak-all
Composure, Skyelo_Ren
Count the Rings, lachesisgrimm
Cupcake Wars, crossingwinter
Embers, Sciosophia
The Girl in Terminal B, nightsofreylo
Juniper and Bergamot, SaintHeretical
Lascivious Weapons, CoraRiley
Let Go (Never Let Me Go), crossingwinter
Light Carries on Endlessly, lachesisgrimm
Misprint, JenfysNest
A Night for Firsts, TheAlchemistsDaughter
Shade on a Sunny Street, tigbit
Sharp Dressed Man, audreyii_fic
She Uses Tangerines, Yours_Truly_Commander_Shepard
So Long, My Adversary, Like_A_Dove
Something Beautiful but Annihilating, SecretReyloTrash
Why Don’t You and I Combine, Crossingwinter
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.
S05.03: Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas: A Professional Driver on a Closed Course
It’s official! Sarah has broken the glass and taken Marrying Winterborne out of the vault and she has exactly as much to say about it as you expect! We’re talking perfect heroes, heroines who deserve to be revered, brilliant writers and plots that require the kind of skill you only get with Lisa Kleypas. Rhys Winterborne is nearly crushed by a building and still shows up at traditional calling hours (with 30 minutes to spare) to propose. An absolute king.
Thanks to Lucy Leroux, author of Making Her His, and Emjoy for sponsoring the episode. Visit letsemjoy.com/mates to access your 14-day free trial.
Show Notes
Maybe you’d like a very fast-talking man to describe the organization and countries of the United Kingdom to you, so watch this video Jen shows her students.
Rhys Winterborne isn’t the only one who thinks Wales is better than England.
Along with being a guy you definitely wouldn’t want to be your dad, the word Albion means England.
They say Helen of Troy started a whole war, but probably a bunch of dudes were just looking for something to fight about.
The state of Sex Education in America is bad and getting worse.
The oathing stone in weddings, and Rhys’s description of the word hiraeth, along with the TikTok Sarah mentioned.
We partnered with The Bawdy Bookworms, and selected A Caribbean Heiress in Paris as the book! Check it out!
Join us this weekend and every Saturday between now and the midterms as we phonebank for Democratic candidates.
The Ravenels
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
Emjoy, your audio journey to female pleasure.
Visit letsemjoy.com/mates for your 14 day free trial.
S05.01: Season Five! Romance World Domination!
Season Five starts today, you Magnificent Firebirds!
Season One gave us a full lAD deep dive (if you’ve never read Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark, general existential malaise is a really good reason to start), and Season Two gave us The Books That Blooded Us -- the books that made us the romance readers we are. Season Three was during a pandemic, so just let us live (but also, there was a Roy Kent episode). Season Four introduced the Trailblazer episodes, where we featured interviews with the people who have built the romance house over the last fifty years.
Season Five will build on all this — Deep diving on books that are new and fabulous, old and transformative, and generally reveal how vast and magnificent the romance pool can get. We’ve got great interstitials planned, trailblazer episodes already recorded and waiting for you, and a few new episodes that will focus on the books that are putting romance on the map these days…and where readers should go from there.
We’re excited! Aren’t you? Head over to your favorite podcasting app and subscribe so you don’t miss a moment of it!
In the meantime, today’s episode covers some of the romance new that happened while we were away the publishing DOJ trial, the absolute explosion of great books on August 23rd, and what on earth is happening with TikTok? There's a new theme song! And Jen broke her arm!
The August 23rd Book Bonanza
Other Books Mentioned
Notes
If you’re in MA, check out the Rom-Con, a full day celebration of “rom”ance at the “Con”cord free public library on Sept 24.
That skeleton in your high school might have been real bones. All about the radius and the ulna.
Gross Anatomy was a 1989 movie starring Matthew Modine.
The blood hand job from A Heart of Blood and Ashes continues to amaze new readers, and we are here for it.
Parking at Chicago’s hospitals is so prohibitively expensive that a grieving family created The Jackson Chance Foundation to honor the memory of their beloved son who spent all but 48 hours of his life in the NICU. The Jackson Chance Foundation provides parking assistance and transportation at three downtown hospitals where parking can often run almost $100 per day.
A few useful explainers we found about the PRH vs DOJ trial, a breakdown of why the statistics about books sales are so confusing, and why Stephen King was the government’s star witness.
That NPR article about TikTok, Gen Z, and romance.
Sponsors
This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:
Blair Babylon, author of A Billionaire in Disguise, available at in print,
in ebook via Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and Nook.
Visit blairbabylon.com
and
Mary Rudder, author of the Kindle Vella series
Love on the Ropes
and
Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies
Visit microdose.com and use the code FATEDMATES
for 30% off and free shipping on your order
