S08.37:Road Trips and a Chat With Mary Kay Andrews
This week, we’re visiting with Mary Kay Andrews, a longtime writer and certified badass who we adore for her WTAF Wednesdays and her delightful books. We talk about her writing journey, her decision to get publicly, vocally political, and about her new book Road Trip. We had a great time chatting and talking about writing, about research, and about how we should all just take a road trip through Ireland. Of course, we recommend a few books!
Find Mary Kay Andrews (and catch WTAF Wednesdays) on Instagram, Threads, or her website.
Listen to our earlier romance road trip episode from Season 1 and head over to tell us all about your favorite road trips and find an endless list of road trip recs on the Fated Mates Discord, accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Next week, our read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Sponsors
Edward Underhill, author of The House of Now & Then, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
Kristina Forrest, author of The Summer Girlfriend, available for preorder in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
Little Brown & Co, publishers of Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory. Available in print, ebook and audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S08.36: The Rain Fell in Torrents: Weather Is Genre
We’re celebrating the paperback release of These Summer Storms this week, and that means we’re talking about rain and snow and wind and tempests and tornadoes and monsoons, and why we all like weather in books so much (hint, it’s because it’s dialed up to 11).
Tell us all about your favorite weather in romance novels and find an endless list of books that are as wild and stormy as you like over at the Fated Mates Discord, accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
We are fans of Mayor Mamdani, texting Sarah about the weather. This lady didn’t get the memo, but we hope she’s okay. After this episode was recorded, the Knicks were headed to the MNBA finals, and the Mayor repealed bedtimes for all the kids in New York. Could we love him any more?
Eric was camping, which Sarah and I imagine is like Ferngully, but it was real rainy.
Half agony and half hope is from Persuasion, which just goes to show you that you can never read Jane Austen and still get the basics!
Send Help is a movie with Rachel McAdams and it’s basically light horror, maybe? Idk, Jen covered her eyes a lot, but it was super fun.
It was a dark and stormy night is from Snoopy, and also an 1830 novel called Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who was an aristocrat! He was the first Baron Lytton! Paul Clifford is an example of a Newgate novel.
Snowed-in is a subset of forced proximity, but the snowed-in is a symbol.
You can watch People We Meet on Vacation on Netflix.
Speaking of Crash Landing on You and weather.
Sophia Benoit will be with Sarah at Book Club Bar in Brooklyn on June 23rd, and with Jen at Women & Children First in Chicago on June 24th. Sarah will be with Mary Kay Andrews on Long Island on June 12th.
Sponsors
Rachel Griffiths, author of Just for the Season, available for preorder in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, signed from the Ripped Bodice, or wherever you get your books.
Lulu Morris, author of The Dating Pact, available for preorder in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
W by Wattpad Books, publishers of Sabrina Blackburry’s Half Wylde. Available in print and ebook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
S08.35: Sad Boys Who Punch things with Veronica Roth
This week, we’re joined by one of the greatest, Veronica Roth, whose new book, Seek the Traitor’s Son, features one of her most beloved tropes: Sad Boys Who Punch Things. We were delighted when she suggested we do an episode on this very particular, very delicious romance concept, and of course, we invited her to join us! We talk about how it works, why we love soft boys who are full of rage, and how we stan a hero who is willing to stand back and let his partner be awesome. We also talk about The West Wing & Ladyhawke (makes sense). And of course, we talk about her books!
If you’d like to continue the conversation about sad boys who punch things or about Veronica’s deep backlist, please join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
Veronica Roth’s newest release is Seek the Traitor’s Son, the first in a dystopian fantasy duology with a strong romance subplot.
We love the follow sad boys: Toby Ziegler, Angel, Fox Mulder, Tobias from Animorphs, and Rutger Hauer from Ladyhawke.
Sponsors
Piper Rayne, author of The Hotshot, available in print, ebook, audiobook and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Rose Prendeville, author of A Faire Affair, available in print and ebook at Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble and with a monthly subscription to Kobo Plus.
Blue Box Press, publishers of Dylan Allen’s beautiful new print editions of The Daredevil, The Mastermind & The Wild Card. Available in print and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S08.34: Historical Romance with Ali Hazelwood and Adriana Herrera
We are thrilled to have two of our favorite people with us today to discuss one of our favorite genres! Ali Hazelwood and Adriana Herrera, the masterminds behind the AH2 Kickstarter of Historical Trailblazers are here to talk about all the ways historical romance is unmatched! We talk about the new Historical Trailblazer special edition box set that AH2 launched this week, about the power of historicals, and about some of our favorite historical romances, past and present.
The Historical Trailblazer Box Set of books, including Indigo by Beverly Jenkins, Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin, The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles, Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, and (of course) Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. The box set includes stunning hardcover editions, gold foil, sprayed edges, original artwork and letters from the authors. Learn more at the AH2 Kickstarter page.
If you’d like to continue the conversation about historical romance, please come join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
The historical Trailblazers
more Historicals We Love
Sponsors
Blue Box Press, publishers of Larissa Ione’s Legacy of Desire, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Juniper Butterworth, author of The King in the Forest, coming soon in print, ebook and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Elle Kennedy, author of The Off Campus series, beginning with The Deal, now a television show on Amazon, available in print, ebook and audiobook, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Dawn Banks, author of The Spreadsheet Situation, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, free with Kobo Plus, or wherever you get your books.
S08.33: Ian Mackenzie is DTF: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie
We’re deep diving into one of our favorite historicals from the 00s today — Jennifer Ashley’s The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. It’s a great follow up to our Paris episode last week, but we also talk about how Ashley really wrote the heck out of this book. We talk about widows, about sex in historicals, about Ian’s place as an overtly neurodivergent hero in a historical, about romance families, and about the way this series electrified us as readers. This book is a straight up banger, and not just because Ian enjoys a meal.
If you’re interested in learning more about the AH2 Historical Trailblazer Kickstarter, featuring beautiful, hardcover special editions of Lord of Scoundrels, Indigo, The Magpie Lord, Butterfly Swords and Dreaming of You, head over to the Kickstarter page and sign up for updates!
If you’d like to continue the conversation about The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie or any of Jennifer Ashley’s other books, please come join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Notes
Check out the AH2 kickstarter, partnering with Fated Mates and Julia Whelan’s Audiobrary. It goes live next week!
Dua Lipa met her fiance Callum Turner because they both were reading the same book, Trust by Hernan Diaz. Dua Lipa’s book club is called Service 95.
You, too, might enjoy reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. Or Reacher. Or Murderbot. Jen is thinking of going to bedazzle a copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl, but is that too silly?
Dorchester Publishing was a house that published mostly mass market paperbacks, and it shuttered shortly after the publishing of The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie. The editor of the book, Leah Hultenschmidt, is now at Forever.
There’s a new-ish translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson that you might like. Xenia is the ancient Greek word for hospitality, and Wilson talks a about how the word comes from the root xenos, meaning both stranger and friend. Maybe if we were all a little more open to those we don’t know, things would be different.
Sponsors
HarperCollins, publishers of Laurie Gilmore’s The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Michelle Ruoff, author of A Summer to Stay, available in print, ebook and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Jennilynn Wyer, author of All Our Next Times, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S08.32: Paris Romance with Kate Clayborn
We Love Paris in the Springtime and we love Paris in The Paris Match by our very favorite, Kate Clayborn. Today, we’re talking about the City of Love itself, with Kate! We talk about the magic of the City of Lights, about the weight it has in romance, and about the mythology it carries with it whenever it’s included in a book. Yes, of course, we talk about Jessica and Dain, but we also celebrate Kate’s new release, The Paris Match! We’re also covering sex workers, chocolatiers, cigarette smokers and heroes who gnaw off their own legs, the Champs de Elysee be damned. Thanks, as always, to Kate for joining us and putting up with our shenanigans.
If you’d like to continue the conversation about Paris, please come join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned this Episode
Notes
Welcome Kate Clayborn. Her first episodes way back in Season 1 were about Siblings’ Best Friends and then Sexclamation Points!, and since then, she’s been on about a million other times.
Cormac McCarthy has some strong feelings about punctuation and Random House doesn’t like the interrobang, but Sarah’s a rebel.
Green screen technology has come a long way. In this interview, Heated Rivalry cinematographer Jackson Parrell describes how he used the technology in the show, including the scene on the beach in Tampa. Cinematographer Valentina Vee did a really interesting set of videos talking about the use of green screen technology in the show.
The Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet about place that Sarah quoted is Time Does Not Bring Relief.
Kate wrote a round up for People magazine about great books set in and about Paris.
Jen heard about Puppets by Jenna Ryan after being tagged in an Instagram post by WendieReads. But in digging around, Jen discovered the Passages podcast did a deep dive of the book in 2025.
You can read more about the puppet theaters of Paris in this New York Times article from 2019.
Sponsors
Elle Kennedy, author of Love Song, available in print, ebook, audiobook and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Claire Wilder, author of Nailed, available in print, ebook and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Blue Box Press, publishers of Donna Grant’s The Dragon Chronicles, beautiful new print editions of seven books in the series, including Dragon King, Dragon Fever, Dragon Burn, Dragon Night, Dragon Claimed, and Dragon Lost. Available in print and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S08.31: Trailblazer Ruby Dixon
This season, we’re expanding our traditional Trailblazer series to include the romance writers who are trailblazing today. Our first guest on this branch of the legend tree is Ruby Dixon, author of the Ice Planet Barbarians series. Ruby joins us to talk about how she became Ruby Dixon, what inspired the Ice Planet Barbarians series, how she thinks about writing this ever expanding world, the business of the Barbarians, and what’s next. We’re very grateful to her for making time with us.
If you’d like to continue the conversation about Ruby Dixon, her work and the Ice Planet Barbarians, head over to join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
Welcome Ruby Dixon, bestselling author of the Ice Planet Barbarians series.
Authors, Publishing Professionals, and Influencers Mentioned: author Anne McCafferty; author Edgar Rice Burroughs; author Andre Norton; author Bertrice Small; author Julie Garwood; editor Cindy Hwang; Ellora’s Cave authors Evangeline Anderson, Laurann Donner, and Jaid Black; author R. Lee Smith; Dani Lacey’s Ice Planet Pod; TikTokker and now author Charlotte Swan; agent Holly Root; Ruby’s writing group, Alexa Riley, Kati Wilde, & Ella Goode.
Books and Movies Mentioned: Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel, Last of Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, Amarna Sunset by Aiden Dodson, Beneath the Sands of Egypt by Donald Ryan, Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, Villain Origin Story by Ruby Dixon, Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.
For more Ruby Dixon, check out our Ice Planet Barbarians deep dive.
Sponsors
Little Brown & Company, publishers of Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham’s The Academy, available in print, ebook and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
Lucy Score, author of Mistakes Were Made, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Get it wherever you get your books.
Lumi Gummies, Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S08.30: Irredeemable Characters: Morality Chain Redux
By request, we’re talking about the characters who have been exiled from family, from community, and from themselves—the irredeemable characters in romance. This is Morality Chain all over again. We’re talking about characters that have done terrible things on and off the page, to the detriment of their reputations in the text and outside, with readers, and somehow, by the end of their own book, are made whole and worthy of love. Here lies St. Vincent, Mr. Vivisection, and more.
Tell us about your favorite irredeemable characters in romance on our social media or head over to join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
NOTES
We have been so inspired by all the moon joy in the world. Here is the Artemis II path from the Astronomy Picture of the Day; splashdown was awesome; the dark side of the moon isn’t like a real thing, exactly; and here’s a bunch of other stuff from NASA. Check out our episode from season 1 with astronomer Summer Ash (her interview is at the end of the episode), and learn all about that golden record they sent out to space on Voyager.
Michael Corleone was irredeemable! Tommy Shelby? Well, apparently that’s open to interpretation!
Sponsors
Neyha Liu, author of Midnight at Soulfield, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Avery Maxwell, author of The Forgotten Billionaire, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Little Brown & Company, publishers of Ruth McKell’s Honey in Her Veins, available in print, ebook and audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
Claire Contreras, author of Isle of Wrath, available in print, ebook, audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S08:29: Jen & Sarah Answer Your Burning Questions
As always when we’re together, today we’re answering listener questions! In here, we’re recommending sex lessons books, motorcycle romance, books set in Toronto, Ohio and more — we’re also talking about the evolution of the trade paperback, how Jen edits, when Duchess is coming, and if we have favorite dinosaurs. It’s a full service episode for you, our faves.
If you have more burning questions for us, you can find us in the Ask Jen & Sarah channel on the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
Sponsors
Kay Lynn, author of Lights, Camera, Knot, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
MA Wardell, author of Meetings with the Minotaur, available in print, ebook, audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer Lynn Armentrout’s The Summer King, a beautiful new print collection of the Summer King novellas The Prince, The King and The Queen. Available in print from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
S08.28: Spring 2026 Preview
It’s time to fill those TBR piles again! April means the start of Spring and also another quarterly upcoming romance episode! We’re talking about romances hitting shelves and ereaders during April, May & June 2026! Whether historical, paranormal, contemporary or Romantasy, we’ve got something for everyone in fifty or so recs across every single genre. As a reminder, we haven’t read most of these, but we have big plans!
If you want more recommendations and more people with whom you can discuss 2026 romance novels, maybe you want to join our Patreon? You get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
AUTHORS: Do you have a book coming out in 2026 that you’d like to make sure we know about? Or, are you a debut romance author who’d like to make sure we know about your debut? Fill out the forms here:
April New Releases
May New Releases
June New Releases
SPONSORS
Lavinia K. Darcy, author of Return to Kingscote, available in print or ebook. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Metaltail Press, publishers of SE McPherson’s A Villain’s Hope, available in print or ebook. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Neyha Liu, author of Midnight at Soulfield, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
