S07.27: What I Did for a Duke: This Gentleman Is Completely Composed of Revenge Molecules
It's deep dive day here at Fated Mates and we're reading an absolute banger of a historical -- Julie Anne Long's fifth Pennyroyal Green book, What I Did for a Duke. We talk about great romance kisses, about age gaps and how they operate in books, about house parties and art and sacrifice and how sexy it is when someone actually sees you for who you are. If you haven't read this one yet, do yourself a favor and do it right now. It's so great.
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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
The main building you think of when you think of the New York Public Library with the lions is officially called the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. From what I can tell, it didn’t actually have anything to do with Andrew Carnegie, but he did donate $5 million to ensure that the New York Public Library had branch libraries in communities around the city. He also donated a lot of money to other things, that’s a fun thing billionaires used to do. Read more about doing the forbidden kind of “romance stuff” in the library. Jen talked to the New York Public Library's Best New Romance List Committee Co-Chairs Kate Fais and Grace Loiacon back in February.
In 2022, we recorded our “Break in case of emergency” episode, and it was in fact two sisters, Cait and Kara who requested the episode. PS: We are in emergency. Feel free to break those out now.
Julie Anne Long’s The Beast Takes a Bride was on our Best of 2024 episode. What I Did for a Duke is the 5th book in her Pennyroyal Green series.
“It must have been a lie,” is what Jen’s grandma Betty used to say if you lost your train of thought and couldn’t remember what you were saying.
This is a good speech from Crash Davis, the pitcher played by Kevin Costner in the 1988 movie Bull Durham (also, Nuke says, “what’s all that molecule stuff?” which is pretty funny considering the title of this episode).
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston had a Titian exhibition back in 2022 called Women, Myth and Power, and it seems like a thing Genevive would have liked it a lot. Titian’s Venus of Urbino is currently on display at The Uffizi Galleries in Italy.
If you’re in New York on March 31st, head over to the Astoria Bookshop to see Historical Romance authors TJ Alexander and Joanna Lowell in conversation, moderated by Sarah, in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility.
Books mentioned this episode
The Sponsors
Avery Flynn, author of Airhead: A Hartigans Totally '80s Hot RomCom, available in ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S07.26: Romance Novels With a Ticking Clock
This one's for those of you who've been asking us to talk more about craft on the podcast! We're talking romances with ticking clocks and clear time frames, about how this impacts conflict and makes books more breathless, and of course about the books that deploy this strategy perfectly. Inside, you'll find road trips and adventures, vacation romances and romantic suspense, house parties and that classic romance chestnut: "I have 30 days to get pregnant." It's going to be fun.
But first, we're talking to Amanda Litman, founder of Run For Something, an organization filling the back bench of the Democratic party, helping people run for local office and make sure that we're holding the line at all levels of government. Tell us if you are running for school board, and we'll proudly donate to your campaign!
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Next week, we're reading Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Show Notes
Join TJ Alexander and Joanna Lowell in a conversation at Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY on March 31st, 2025 for a conversation about trans rep in romance, moderated by Sarah.
Learn more about Run for Something and What You Can Run For in 2026 (don't forget to tell us you're running!), and preorder Amanda Litman's book, When We're in Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership wherever you get your books.
Four Minutes is a very shallow cut, actually.
This is the good stuff: Casey Kasem’s Top 40 and Friday Night Videos, boom boxes, and cable TV. Also, The Sound of Music on has an actual running time of 2 hours and 52 minutes and an “on-TV- with-commercials" running time of 200 hours and 52 minutes. The best scene is the curtains one, the dancing one, or the tearing down the flag one.
That leg lamp is a reference to the movie A Christmas Story.
Conflict defined. Or, next time Sarah gives it in October 2025, attend her conflict workshop. Speaking of tension, how about that moment in Toy Story 3 when they are headed to the incinerator.
We’ve talked about Ted Lasso season 1 and season 2. Sarah wasn’t the only one disappointed with season 3, Jen felt the ship going down and bailed right out of it.
In the book Techniques of a Selling Writer, Dwight Swain described his scene and sequel theory.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Office Sparks: A Workplace Romance Collection, with novellas by C.D. Reiss, K. Bromberg, Laurelin Paige, and Heather Graham, available in ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
Lucy Score, author of Story of My Life, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
TJ Alexander, author of A Gentleman's Gentleman, available in print, ebook or audiobook, at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon, or wherever you get your books.
S07.25: Sci-fi Romance: There’s No Book Banning in Space
Maybe you're rooting for the asteroid, but you gotta have a plan! To help, this week, we're keeping track of what romance is looking like off-planet--it's Romance! In! Space! (Part 2, but the first episode we did was six years ago, so we figured it's time.) Headphones in, loves, this one covers space scavengers, aliens, anatomy, crash landings, abductions, talking lions and people in Space Army (what happens in Space Army stays there, unless it's here).
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Show Notes
Bad news: the asteroid can’t save us, so we’ll just have to save ourselves.
You can read Jen’s newsletter here, she’ll be writing about the grand gesture in Fiasco next.
We did space romance back in season 1, Claire Kent’s Hold back in season 5. And speaking of Claire Kent, she’s been writing dystopian books lately that you might want to check out.
Insane colonialist fantasies are running rampant in the USA right now, so we don’t really need them in our romance, now do we….
You’re a virgin who can’t drive.
All about the legendary imprint Ellora’s Cave.
Our next read along is What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long.
Eric’s old friend Elaine Walker has a lot of songs about space.
Divinyls has a great one, too. 👇
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Chandra Wicke, creator of The Happily Ever After Sociey: A Book About Romance Novels. Back the Kickstarter.
Yvette de Oro, author of Mine to Match, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Enter to win the Mine to Match giveaway on Yvette’s Instagram by making a donation to your local foodbank — winners will win a copy of her book and a matching gift to the foodbank of their choice!
Amy Spalding, author of On Her Terms, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Elle Kennedy, author of The Charlie Method, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S07.24: He’s *Not* a Billionaire
It's been the longest month of our lives and as self-care, we're not thinking about billionaires this week (or at least for the duration of this episode). Instead, we're talking about those men who are rich in other ways, in throwing a punch, chasing a tornado, camping, playing an instrument, you get it. We've got a bunch of books we love and not a ten-figure bank account to be seen!
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Notes
There have always been rich people in romance, but we think it could be argued that Christian Grey and 50 Shades invented the billionaire romance trope/subgenre.
Jen started writing a newsletter, leaning back into the romance reader “and critic” part of the job. You can check it out here. It’s free and who knows how long it will last.
Bobby Tom is the hero of Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
If Jen refers to something being “a basic” please know she is referring to a line from Strictly Ballroom.
Maybe you want to learn about a rookery.
Anti-miscegnation laws in the United States prevented people from marrying someone of a different race.
Storm chasing seems honestly like a very dangerous activity. There is no evidence that I could find that a tornado can rip your clothes right off your body, but Kayla Grosse probably read this webpage for research. (lol)
Dyscalculia is a learning disability rooted in math and number.
books mentioned this episode
Sponsors
Piper Rayne, authors of Mr. Heartbreaker, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Megan Frampton, author of The Devil's Charm, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Riches and Romance: A Billionaire Romance Anthology from Dylan Allen, Kendall Ryan, Lexi Blake and Melissa Foster, available with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Charlotte Stein, author of My Big Fat Fake Marriage, read by Imogen Wilde, available from Audible, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm, or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of the audiobook.
Lucy Score, author of Story of My Life, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
S07.23: Long Live Historicals, Volume I - 2025
Historicals are dead! Long live historicals! This week, we're talking about fourteen (and change) historical romances that we've never talked about before -- all published recently, some already this year. Every book we talk about is available right now for download and reading pleasure--and we have a stack of them ready to talk about in future episodes! We're so excited to be your discoverabilibuddies on this one!!
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepsteakes to win one of five free copies of the audiobook of Stephanie Burgis's Wooing the Witch Queen.
Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Notes
Check out Bookshop’s Black Romance List and you might want to use their new digital books app to read The Co-Op by Tarah DeWitt or any other eBook on a Boox Palma 2.
Budleigh-Salterton seems like a nice place to visit if you’re ever in England.
Bicycle jousting sounds like that whole scene in Footloose.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear is a stage direction from a Winter’s Tale.
A bike with a big front wheel is called a penny-farthing.
the new historicals
Sponsors
Rien Gray, author of Double Exposure, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Stephanie Rose, author of Just One Favor, available in print, ebook, audio, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Stephanie Burgis, author of Wooing the Witch Queen, read by Amanda Leigh Cobb, available form Audible, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm, or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepsteakes to win one of five free copies of the audibook.
Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.
S07.22: Adriana Herrera on the Power of Historical Romance: When We’re Up Against a Corner, Baby, Let’s Fight.
There's a new Adriana Herrera book out this month, so that means we get to have one of our very favorites back on the pod to talk about not only her banger of a book, A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, but also about historical in general! This week, we talk about historicals, in general, about why everyone seems to think they're dying (spoiler: they're not!), and do some myth busting on perceptions of the historical romance. We're extremely grateful to friend of the pod Alexandria Bellefleur for offering up her collected data on historical romance and readers -- check out her books (below), as well, and come back next week for more historical recs!
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Show Notes
Welcome Adriana Herrera, author of A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, the third in the Las Leonas series set during the Exposition Universelle in 1889 Paris.
In this book, Aurora is running a women’s health clinic and the text is a fierce call for reproductive justice, and we’re back there. If you’re interested in checking out some of the books she used to do her research, try Sex, Herbs, and Birth Control: Women and Fertility Regulation Through the Ages by Ann Hibner Koblitz and The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan. The Comstock Act of 1873 was a problem then, and sooner or later, they’ll be a problem again.
Thanks to Alexandria Bellefleur for sharing the results of her poll about historical romance. You can check out her latest contemporary romance, Truly, Madly, Deeply.
Books Mentioned This Episode
The Sponsors
Jenn Bouchard, author of Considering Us, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
1001 Dark Nights, publishers of From Friends to Forever: A Love Grows Collection , available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Chloe C. Peñaranda, author of The Night is Defying audiobook, read by Corvin King and Jacci Prior, available from Audible, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of this audiobook.
Sophie Lark, author of Kingmakers: Year One, available in print or ebook from Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Annabelle Slator, author of The Launch Date, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
New York Public Library Best New Romance List
Jen had a great time chatting with the New York Public Library's Best New Romance List Committee Co-Chairs Kate Fais and Grace Loiacono this week. They talk about the list and how they built it, about the power of libraries, and, as always, about joy.
See the full list
Visit the New York Public Library
S07.21: Meet My Vibe Criteria: V.E. Schwab on writing, obsession, and romance outside of Romance
We're mixing it up today with a fabulous special guest! The brilliant V.E. Schwab joins us for a far-reaching chat about writing romance outside of romance novels™️, about the difference between obsession and love, about the way we can't help but ship characters who will never get together, and about writing in general... and how we tackle character, conflict, and power in storytelling. We had a great time, and you will, too.
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free audiobook copies of Emma Lord's The Rival.
Show Notes
Welcome V.E. Schwab to the podcast! You can check out her podcast about writing called No Write Way, and you can click her to sign up for her newsletter.
Sarah has a new birdfeeder for her office, and maybe you want one, too.
You, too, can watch Lee Child playing chess.
Philip Larkin wrote a great poem about parents, This Be the Verse.
books mentioned this episode
The Sponsors
Max Monroe, author of Playing Games, available in print or ebook from Amazon.
Adriana Herrera, author of A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, available in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Macmilllan Audio, publishers of The Rival by Emma Lord, read by Jesse Vilinsky, available from Audible, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of this audiobook.
Allison A. Andrews, author of The Winning Ticket, available in print or ebook from Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
A Taste of Craven (Happy Derek Craven Day!)
It's February 4th, the most important romance holiday in February: Derek Craven Day! We're celebrating this year with a little reminiscing of the past years' episodes, and a close reading of the first chapter of that classic, Lisa Kleypas's Dreaming of You.
Read Dreaming of You at: Bookshop, Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Learn more about the holiday, and the man who inspired it, and listen to past Derek Craven Day episodes at our Derek Craven Day museum .
If you want more discussion of Derek Craven in your life, please join 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.
S07.20: Tarot, Astrology, and Psychics in Romance
We'll be honest, we don't know what the heck is going on, either. If we could find someone or something to make all this chaos make sense, we'd be very, very happy. And so, we're reading books this week about people and things that make sense of chaos--that realign the universe. It's tarot, astrology and psychics this week!
If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join 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.
Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free audiobook copies of Jenny Elder Moke's She Doesn't Have a Clue.
Show Notes
Eric listens to the ATP (Accidental Tech Podcast) and this week, they gave a little pep talk. It helped us to remember we aren’t alone. It’s not going to be easy and lots of people are going to be hurt. But we are a community and we love you.
BTW, that's Marco Arment doing most of the talking at the beginning of the ATP episode. He's the creator of our favorite podcast app, Overcast.
We did a witchy episode this past summer.
Maybe you want to learn about tarot. The Cards of Love series has a very nice website that is still functioning.
Books Mentioned This Episode
The Sponsors
Jillian David, author of Dr. Alaska, available in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Macmilllan Audio, publishers of She Doesn't Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke, read by Sarah Mollo-Christensen, available from Audible, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of this audiobook.
Avery Maxwell, author of The Renegade Billionaire, available in print or ebook from Amazon.
