S07.47: Bodyguards
It’s Bodyguard Romance week, which feels impossible, honestly, considering we’ve definitely done this before, haven’t we? According to Eric and also the internet, we haven’t, which means we get to talk for the first time in seven seasons about why Bodyguards work so well for so many romance readers, including us! We talk about the basics – the innate joy of having an Exasperated Man™️ willing to put himself in front of a bullet for you, the absolute delight of the books that turn the whole thing on its head and make the protector the protected, and yes, Whitney Houston. Also, Jen makes a brilliant observation on surveillance culture and how it’s impacting romance. We’re keeping you safe from the baddies 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.
Notes
In a recent interview Kevin Costner talked about his feelings about Whitney Houston. Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston’s versions of I Will Always Love You, Whitney’s isolated vocals on How Will I Know, and Whitney sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl in 1991 and the New Yorker article about it.
Caroline has created a bodyguard collection featuring books across subgenres.
The Big Easy is a movie with Dennis Quaid (he’s crazy now) and Ellen Barkin where he is a cop who uncovers corruption on the force.
Everyone, it looks like this thing about not needing a PI license in the state of Wyoming is legit, go forth and spread the news.
Books Mentioned this Episode
Sponsors:
1001 Dark Nights, publishers of the Duty and Desire: A Uniformed Heroes & Bodyguard anthology featuring Aurora Rose Reynolds, Kristen Ashley, Kylie Scott & Rebecca Zanetti available at Amazon.
Hunter Snow, author of Gone Country, available at Amazon, B&N or wherever you get your books.
Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.
07.46: Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
We're back with a deep dive episode on one of our favorite Susan Elizabeth Phillips books, Natural Born Charmer. Jen thinks this one marks SEP's Imperial Period, and Sarah looks askance at the term romcom to describe romance novels. We're back on our bullsh*t, is what we're saying. We're talking plot, character, risk-taking, and how romances can feel wildly expansive.
This is our last deep dive of Season 7 -- more in Season 8, which begins in September. If you want to talk in depth about specific books, though, maybe you'd enjoy being a member of 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
You can get Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Natural Born Charmer at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
In season 2, we did a deep dive of an earlier Chicago Stars book, Nobody’s Baby But Mine. We also did an episode with Susan in season 3. It’s the interview that made us realize we should keep interviewing romance trailblazers. Jen was on Learning the Tropes to talk about another SEP book, Kiss an Angel.
In 2003, the song Hey Ya by Outkast was number 1 for 9 weeks at the end of that year and into early 2004. In 2018, Rolling Stone ranked the song #4 in the top 100 songs of the 21st Century So Far.
This article from Spin describes what it means when an artist is in their imperial period.
Almost Famous (2000) is amazing movie about the rise and fall of a 70s rock band.
A great thing happened during the baby races halftime show last week at a Las Vegas Aces game last week. Also at the Indiana Fever game.
Sponsors
Scarlett Xavier, author of Irish Fire and Forbidden Love, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Avon Books, publishers of Mason Deaver's The Build-a-Boyfriend Project, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Claire Trella Hill, author of Black and Deep Desires, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Avon Books, publishers of Holly Michelle's Last Night Was Fun, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
S07.45: Reading Down Under: Australian Romance Novelists
By request (and because Sarah needed books for her upcoming trip), we're talking about romance novels by Australian authors this week, with a nod to some New Zealanders as well. We discuss how historical romance has much maligned Australia, recommend some absolutely terrific books, many of which we've actually done deep dives on, and we talk about why so many Australian romances hit the spot with American readers.
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 (next week!) is Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Natural Born Charmer. You can get it at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books by Australian Romance Authors (AND SOME NEW ZEALANDERS)
Notes
French Kiss is not available on streamers and it's very upsetting for those of us who know the deep magic of Kevin Kline & Meg Ryan.
Australia is not the nation of criminals historical romance novels would like you to believe, but a lot of criminals did get sent there over an 80 year period from 1788-1868.
Sarah is going to talk to the Romance Writers of Australia and the Romance Writers of New Zealand next month. Yes, she'll be going to Port Arthur in Tasmania to check out the place where all those criminals were sent.
Victor Gadino illustrated the stepback for Dream Fever by Katherine Sutcliffe
Mills & Boon is a British romance imprint, in North America these books are published under the name Harlequin.
When Sarah talked about The Australians in the early years of Mills & Boon, she was wrong, and likely thinking of Diana Palmer's 1985 The Australian. The Australians series was a 12 book series in the early 2010s from Harlequin Presents.
The book Raising the Stakes by Jess Dee is no longer available in Kindle, but maybe it is in other countries or maybe you downloaded it in the past? Check out her available titles here.
Listen to the Deep Dive episodes on:
Devil’s Bride and the Cynster family by Stephanie Laurens
The Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott
Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh
Sponsors
World Gone Wrong: A fictional chat show about friendship at the end of the world, available at audaciousmachinecreative.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.
Sophie Morgan, author of Season of the Witch, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Louisa Darling, author of Scoundrel Take Me Away, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or Apple Books.
S07.44: Relentless Competence & Fixers in Romance
It's been several years since the last time we talked about the allure of competency in romance, but it's a topic we adore, so here we are again, talking about characters with relentless competence and the characters who love them beyond measure. If you're new here, welcome! We're happy to have you!
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 Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Natural Born Charmer. You can get it at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
the Books
Notes
The These Summer Storms tour is a wrap, ending with Sarah in conversation with Rebecca Baumann from the Lilly Library at the Mallow Run vineyard.
That one movie with Keanu Reeves and a vineyard is called A Walk in the Clouds (1995).
You can’t grow grapes anywhere, but you can grow them in a lot more places than you’d think.
The Nora Roberts book about fossils called Birthright, and here’s the manga Dreaming of You. Look at all these editions of Wuthering Heights.
There’s a recent update on the search for Amelia Earhart’s plane from just a few weeks ago.
Watch the video of Delta’s flight crew uniforms over time.
Jen was interviewed by Lauren Sarner from the New York Post for an article about love triangles in pop culture because of the return of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Ranger vs Morelli has been going on for far too long, or maybe it’s over?
We last officially talked about careers back in Season 2, episode 8.
Speaking of fixers, you might enjoy the movie Michael Clayton.
Our next deep dive is Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Sponsors
Hillary Bowen, author of Out With Lanterns, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
Wattpad Books, publisher of Z.W. Taylor's The Pack, available in print, ebook and audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.
S07.43: Trailblazer Pamela Sanderson
Our Trailblazer series continues with Pamela Sanderson, the first Native American author to write contemporary romance about Native characters in Native community. Pamela joins us to talk about her writing journey, about her decision to write and independently publish romance, about the need for more Native American romance in the world. We so enjoyed this conversation, and we’re grateful to Pamela for joining us to tell her story.
Listen to all the Trailblazer episodes.
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
Pamela Sanderson is an enrolled citizen of the Karuk Tribe, located in northwest California on the Klamath River. Pamela also publishes in other genres as Pamela Rentz.
People Mentioned this Episode: Louise Erdrich, N. Scott Momaday, Johanna Lindsay, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Stephen King, Anne Rice, On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves, Courntey Milan, Sarina Bowen, Love is a War Song by Danica Nava, Ali Hazelwood, Tessa Dare, Alexis Hall, Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman, the TV show North of North, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, and Rebecca Roanhorse.
Writing Workshops: Clarion West and Romancing the Craft
The Dear Author blog was an early, vocal fan of Pamela’s work.
If you are interested in KidLit or have children, you should be familiar with Debbie Reese and her blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature.
The Crooked Rock Series
Sponsors
Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer Probst's The Reluctant Flirt, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
Kylie Scott, author of Wildflowers: An End of the World romance, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
World Gone Wrong: A fictional chat show about friendship at the end of the world, available at audaciousmachinecreative.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.
Renée Ahdieh, author of Park Avenue, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
S07.42: Jen & Sarah and These Summer Storms
Last night’s Fated Mates Live was so much fun, but now we’re back in your earholes. It’s time again for our annual Sarah MacLean deep dive (with no spoilers!). As per tradition, Jen asks Sarah a bunch of fun questions and forces Sarah to talk about her book. And it all ends with Julia Whalen reading two chapters of These Summer Storms!
It was a delight to see so many of you in St. Louis yesterday, and to everyone else, we’re just as glad you’re here with us today.
Notes
It’s finally time for These Summer Storms! And it might not be too late to see Sarah on book tour! Mary Kay Andrews is very fierce on Instagram, and we love her for it. You can also see her with Renee Adiah, author of the forthcoming Park Avenue, which she mentions at the end of the show.
When the New York Times published their Best Books of the 21st Century so far, Sarah shared her ballot.
Rhode Island has a long history of being associated with big money.
Sarah wrote a good chunk of Storms at the Brownell Library in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Its outdoor space is a great place to read a book.
On Inside the Actors Studio, the host James Lipton always ended with the same list of questions, known as the Pivot questions after their originator Bernard Pivot. Similarly, the New York Times column By the Book (Jen called it Get Booked, sorry for any confusion!) has a rotating list of questions, but some are very common. If you are interested in reading some of these columns, check out By The Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life, published in 2015. The books on Sarah’s nightstand were: The Second Coming by Carter Sherman, It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan, Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan, and Full Bloom by Francesca Serritella.
Fated Mates Live in St. Louis!
Storm Inside
Sponsors
Kylie Scott, author of Wildflowers: An End of the World romance, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
1001 Dark Nights, publisher of Midnight Myths and Magic, available in print and ebook from Amazon.
Mina Brower, author of A God of Moonlight and Stardust, available in print, ebook, and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Avon Books, publisher of Scotch on the Rocks, available in print, ebook, and audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
S07.41: Audiobooks with Julia Whelan
We're excited to have audiobook queen and Voice of the Summer, Julia Whelan with us today! Aside from being the voice of Emily Henry, Taylor Jenkins Reid, VE Schwab and Kristen Hannah, she's also an author of her own delicious books and the founder of Audiobrary, an audio book company that pays narrators on a royalty structure. She's here to talk about her journey to writing and to narrating, about the way she thinks about her work, her advocacy, and the world of audiobooks. We are so incredibly thrilled to have her!
Julia is also the narrator for Sarah's book, These Summer Storms, available next week wherever books are sold. The audiobook is perfection, and you can read it on Audible, LibroFM or Apple Music...or wherever you get your audiobooks.
There are still tickets to see Sarah on tour in NYC, Chicago, Winston-Salem, NC, Newport, RI, Cambridge, MA, Decatur, GA, or Franklin, IN. There are a handful of tickets still available for Fated Mates Live in St. Louis, MO on July 8th! Join us!
If you can't make the tour, you can preorder These Summer Storms signed with a special romance dust jacket from The Ripped Bodice.
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
Welcome Julia Whelan, audiobook narrator extraordinaire and the founder of Audiobrary. A Netflix movie of her book My Oxford Year is coming soon.
Sarah wants you to know that she realized later that she was remembering the plot of The Girl on the Train when she was talking about the audiobook Gone Girl, but that they're both bangers.
Like everything, AI is creeping into the audiobook world.
An audiobook Julia recommends is Jess Walters’s Beautiful Ruins, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Avon Books, publishers of Alexandra Paige's An Irish Summer, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Chelsea Fagan, author of The High Dive, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
Alyxandra Harvey, author of A Deal with the Devil, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
MA Wardell, author of Stirring Spurs, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S07.40: Hot 2025 Summer Reads
We're both staying very still in front of air conditioners this week, so that means we're very happy to have a bunch of books at the ready! We're teeing up your piles of summer reads with our quarterly romance roundup! As a reminder, we haven't read most of these books -- but they're the ones toppling our TBR! Preorders mean a lot more than they should these days, so if there's anything on this list that makes you go "oh, yes. that's for me," and you're able to preorder from your local bookstore (or from Pocket Books Bookshop with the code PREORDER) or reserve at your local library. The authors on this list thank you.
As a reminder, Sarah has a new book out on July 8th -- go see her on tour in NYC, Chicago, Winston-Salem, NC, Newport, RI, Cambridge, MA, Decatur, GA, or Franklin, IN. There are a handful of tickets still available for Fated Mates Live in St. Louis, MO on July 8th! Join us!
If you can't make the tour, you can preorder These Summer Storms signed with a special romance dust jacket from The Ripped Bodice.
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.
JUNE RELEASES
july releases
August Releases
September Releases
Sponsors
Pocket Books Bookshop, a feminist, antiracist, queer owned bookshop in Lancaster, PA. Preorder any upcoming book from their website and use the code PREORDER for 15% off! Get These Summer Storms signed by Sarah from them.
Kay K. Denner, author of Again, Scoundrel, available in ebook from Amazon.
Kara Kentley, author of Another Summer, available in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S07.39: Dysfunctional Families (The FUn Kind)
This week, we're talking about romance's most common family: the dysfunctional one! Sarah wrote a book about one, so we're thinking about what makes them special to romance, and what sets the romantic dysfunctional family apart from the ones that live outside of the genre. Jen has five categories. There's a game involved. You can play along at home!
If you love this one, you can listen to our Daddy Issues (not the fun kind) episode with C. Travis Rice. And if you just want to listen to an episode about Daddies (the fun kind), we've got you.
Sarah's book, These Summer Storms is out in three weeks and she is going on tour! What's more, there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour! If you can't make the tour, you can preorder These Summer Storms signed with a special romance dust jacket from The Ripped Bodice.
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.
dysfunctional family recs
Notes
If you love Derek Craven, check out the newest entry at the Fated Mates Collections Department, Spectacular Spectacles courtesy of Sanj.
You can listen to our Susan Elizabeth Phillips episode as you do your “one a days.” (When we recorded all the eBooks were on sale, but they aren’t anymore. SORRY.)
According to Psychology Today, there are 5 specific types of dysfunctional families.
Jen called it a Drive-Thru in Dream a Little Dream, but she meant a DRIVE-IN. Maybe go to one if you want and report back, idk! Or the new version is this Rooftop Cinema Club, where you sit together with bluetooth headphones.
A great discussion of why it’s problematic or damaging to always redeem the family, read this powerful essay about why queer people have the right to leave their harmful family members behind by Nathan Burgoine.
You, too, are heroically well-adjusted.
Sponsors
Kristen Jennings, author of Lessons From a Tour Guide, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Underlined: Where Books Are Life, a place for young readers to explore and find their next book obsession along with quizzes, reading lists, book trailers and more. Visit getunderlined.com.
Amy James, author of Crash Test, available in print, ebook, or audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or wherever you get your books.
S07.38: Second Chance Romance Redux
We're taking a second run at second chance romance this week, and while we intended to recommend a million books, we ended up talking about all the ways this trope really works and really doesn't work for us! We're talking about rekindling love, unrequited love, resurrecting old wounds, the unforgivable stuff and of course, pining. It's a long one, and yes, Jen is talking about present tense.
If you love this one, you can listen to our first Second Chance Romance episode with Priscilla Oliveras here.
It's that time of year again--Sarah's next book, These Summer Storms is out in July and she is going on tour! What's more, there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour! If you can't make the tour, you can preorder These Summer Storms signed with a special romance dust jacket from The Ripped Bodice.
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.
second chance romance recs
Show Notes
Everyone watches women’s sports. You can watch basketball, women’s soccer, and the new softball league. Get out there, go do stuff in your town!
We had a second chance romance episode back in season 3 with Priscilla Oliveras.
Sponsors
1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Dark Clouds and Bright Skies: A Grumpy Sunshine Collection, with novellas by Joanna Wylde, Kristen Proby, Larissa Ione and Laura Kaye, available in ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Ava Miles, author of The Hockey Experiment, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Meghan Quinn, author of Till Summer Do Us Part, available in print, ebook, or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Avon Books, publishers of Holly Michelle's Last Night Was Fun, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
