S08.48: Long Live Historicals, Volume II (2026)
We are once again celebrating a wide swath of historical romances that are recently published and by authors we’ve not talked much about on the podcast! Saddle up, because we’re talking the Titanic, submissive heroes, heroines against the wall, bodily autonomy and even centaurs! If you’re a historical lover, you’re going to have a great time finding your next read in here, and if you’re not a historical lover, what are you waiting for? We're so excited to be your discoverabilibuddies on this one!
Come talk about your favorite recent historical romances over on our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along, next week, is Sarah’s A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we’ve gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
books discussed in this episode
Show Notes
Listen to our Long Live Historicals, Volume I here.
Fill out more about the Romance Novel Collective and fill out their survey.
The centaur in The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe is not a centaur or a satyr, but a faun, and his name is Mr. Tumnus. Here’s a primer on the difference between satyrs and fauns. Apologies to the Greeks, Romans, and CS Lewis fans in the crowd. The OG Centaur books Sarah mentioned are also not centaurs, they are satyrs, but they are Holy Cannoli, Batman and by Elizabeth Amber. Proceed with caution.
Some SFW and NSFW images about centaurs.
Don’t miss the cover for the final book in Sarah’s Hell’s Belles series!
Sponsors
Julie Cook, author of Off Course, available in print, ebook or audio, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
E. Kennedy, author of Thornbird, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Siera London, author of A Hard Habit to Break, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
S08.47: Romance Tattoo
We’re talking tattoos and body art this week! You might not have a tattoo, but odds are you’ve read a few thousand of them, as romance novels love a main character with a message…right on their skin. We talk about some of our favorite tattoo romances, about what tattoos represent, why they’re so sexy, and why romance loves a tattoo artist. Every one of these books is a banger…enjoy filling your end of summer TBR with them.
Come talk about your favorite romances with tattoos or about romance in general over on our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along, in two weeks, is Sarah’s A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we’ve gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books discussed in This Episode
Notes
Tattoos have a long history tangled up with colonization, which is why for a long time they were thought to be stigmatizing. They are definitely more mainstream now, which means tattoo culture is changing which has caused its own clashes, but they also aren’t thought of as class markers anymore.
Merry Inkmas is actually Talia’s second book, her first was Bad for the Boss, which is no longer in print. Jen reviewed both of those for The Book Queen when they were released.
Check out the secret tattoos collection on our website.
Sponsors
Ellie Devine, author of The Survival Guide to Alexander McBryde, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
E. Kennedy, author of Thornbird, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Harpercollins, publishers of Spellfire by Agatha WIllow, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
S08.46: Photographers in Romance
Why is photography so hot? We’re tackling this question this week, talking about why romance novels featuring photographers work so well and push so many sexy buttons. We’re talking about characters who notice, about characters who are patient, and about characters who carry sexy bags around the world. We’ve got storm chasers, nature photographers, CSI photographers, about darkrooms on boats and even historical nudes! You’re going to have a great time.
If you want to talk more about your favorite romances that feature photographers, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Sarah’s A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we’ve gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
The WNBA all star game was pretty fun, and Sky player Sydney Taylor is both very beautiful and very good at basketball.
Wicker the movie trailer, and our Sentient Object episode.
Jen had a throwaway line about how “AI has ruined everything” in photography, but just like with everything else, that’s a real concern.
Up Close and Personal (1996) is a movie with Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer about television journalists.
According to this timeline from Harvard about the history of photography, the first surviving permanent photograph dates back to the 1820s, but most people probably think of the daguerreotype, invented by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre in 1839.
Um, in case you need to know what a darkroom is.
There is a chain of 7 barrier islands in Texas on the Gulf of Mexico, Padre is probably the most well-known.
Sponsors
Sophie Jordan, author of Spellcast, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
E. Kennedy, author of Thornbird, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
HarperCollins, publishers of Sophie Irwin’s How to Lose a Lord in 10 Days, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books. You can also get it with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
S08.45: Judith McNaught’s perfect: content warning, the 90s
We’ve been talking about the end (almost end) of this one since we started the podcast, so it seemed high time we did a deep dive on it! Judith McNaught’s Perfect is the most 90s thing we’ve ever read, so gird your loins for both the best all-is-lost scene in romance, and also Zach, Julie, prison breaks, illiteracy, the Coors corporation, Romance Cashmere, and so so many references to Kevin Costner. It’s the most 90s thing we’ve ever read, without question.
If you want to talk more about Perfect or Judith McNaught, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Sarah’s A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we’ve gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
Jen said Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead but she meant Adventures in Babysitting, which was a 1987 movie where suburban kids go on a terrifying adventure in the terrifying big city of Chicago.
We did a deep dive of A Kingdom of Dreams in Season 2.
Kelly Faircloth sent Sarah an ad for the book from People Magazine. In print versions of the book, there was a letter from Judith McNaught explaining the literacy plot in the book.
Interestingly, the Coors literacy push was covered by the New York Times in 1992, discussing the push by big companies to adopt a cause and use it to burnish their image.
Okay, apparently fleece also had a bellwether year in 1993, but let’s be honest, it was Old Navy who made performance fleece happen for most of us and that was 1998.
In America, our access to Abortion is much worse than it was in 1993 and America still has a devastating epidemic of suicide among queer teenagers, as The Trevor Project explains “LGBTQ+ young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”
Sponsors
Frayed Pages by Wattpad Books, publishers of EM Wilson’s Breakup for Two, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Meghan Quinn, author of Just for the Plot, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Kylie Scott, author of Runaway Rockstar, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
E.W. Andersen, author of the Midnights on the Square series. Available in print or ebook at at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
S08:43: Romance with Magical Elements
The last few years have brought a wave of romances with magical elements—not really paranormal, not really witches, not really contemporary — books where something is just slightly ✨magic✨. Today, we’re talking about those books, how they work, what they’re saying, and how they work in terms of character, plot and POV. We’re also discussing how the books exist on the outer edges of the romance pool.
If you want to talk more about these speculative romance novels, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
This year’s men’s World Cup actually broke the Own Goal record with 14 of them. Get ready for the Women’s World Cup in Brazil next year in 2027! So these English fans made up a bunch of chants for a regular player, which is very charming. Speaking of soccer, Mamdani continues to show us all that politicians can just…help make people’s lives better?
Here’s a handout Jen uses to teach the three genres that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella, and why magical realism isn’t a catch-all or synonym for any writing with speculative elements.
The pink dress question: how do you decide if your characters need to heal themselves in order to fall in love, or if falling in love is what heals them?
Matthew Rhys and Matthew Macfadyen are in fact different people, but everyone’s watching Widow’s Bay.
Sponsors
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
Lucy Score author of The Dead Guy Next Door, the first in the Riley Thorn series, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Harpercollins, publishers of Sleuths, by Samantha Moody, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
S08.42: Romance Reasons meet Thriller Reasons with Anders de la Motte
Once upon a time, Sarah went to Sweden and met a thriller writer who likes talking about the rules of writing in genre as much as we do. We’re so excited that to be able to bring Anders de la Motte’s brilliant thoughts about thrillers and mysteries to Fated Mates in this far-reaching conversation on romance’s sister genres—thrillers & mysteries. We talk about Anders’s path to writing, about the rules of writing thrillers and mysteries, about the covenant mysteries and thrillers have with readers, and about Mystery Reasons™️. We had the best time with this one — you’re going to love it.
Learn more about Anders’s books at his English language publishers, Simon & Schuster and Harpercollins
If you want to talk more about Genre Carrying the Myth, Jayne Ann Krentz’s genius way of thinking about the work of genre fiction, or about mysteries and thrillers, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Thrillers and Mysteries Mentioned this Episode
Notes
Welcome Anders de la Motte, author of mysteries and thrillers. Many of his books have been translated to English, most recently The Asker series.
Many of the most famous fictional detectives we mentioned are on this list. And Jen wrote all about the Reacher books in her newsletter.
In fiction, unreliability is a narrative device meant to purposefully confuse or lie to the reader for the purposes of the story. We’ve argued that it’s more or less impossible to have an unreliable narrator in romance.
A good explainer on the difference between close 3rd (used in romance) and limited 3rd (used in mysteries/thrillers)
MacGuffins and other mystery and thriller tropes and vocabulary.
Sponsors
Jill Shalvis author of Falling Into You, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local independent bookstore.
Jess Turner, author of The Only Catch, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Little, Brown & Company, publishers of In the Wake of the Ruined, by Kalie Cassidy, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
Oliver Heber Books, publishers of The Forbidden Duke, by Darcy Burke, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books. Support the special 10th anniversary edition Kickstarter.
S08.41: Country House Parties
It’s summer, so we’re talking Country House Parties! We’re skulking around, having scandalous meetings in cupboards, getting caught in the rain near the groundskeeper’s cottage, and generally causing chaos during a summer party at an enormous country house where someone is definitely ending up married (or at least ruined). This is another one where we’re pretty shocked we haven’t done it before. Gird your loins, historical lovers!!
If you want to talk more about country house parties, about historicals, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books Mentioned This Episode
Notes
It’s officially called The Obama Presidential Center, but you can also call it The Obamalisk OR the Taj Michelle. Whatever works for you! It’s a great place for a first date!
The tall ships! It’s not the St. Charles, but the St. Lawrence waterways, it’s manmade, because you know, Niagara Falls. We know geography!
Some people got married at Madison Square Garden and some other people got engaged at the top of the Empire State Building.
In Tatler, author Lucy Foley wrote about the country house party.
Noises Off is a farce.
Don’t miss our deep dive episodes for What I Did For A Duke and Band Sinister.
Sponsors
Rachel Griffiths, author of Just for the Season, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, signed from the Ripped Bodice, or wherever you get your books.
Max Monroe authors of Where I Should Have Been, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or your local independent bookstore.
Kristin Jennings, author of A Legacy of Magic & Monsters, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Union Square & Co., publishers of Pot Shot, by Laura Piper Lee, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
S08.40: Summer 2026 Preview
We’re filling summer reading lists and making sure that you have plenty of beach reads ready for whatever your plans are! It’s hard to believe it’s July, but we’ve got another quarterly upcoming romance episode here to ease the pain of half the year already passed! Here’s a huge list of books arriving in July, August & September 2026—historical, paranormal, speculative, contemporary, a YA or two and a romantic suspense or two, we’ve got something for everyone. 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 an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. 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:
June & other 2026 New Releases (BETTER LATE THAN NEVER)
July New Releases
August New Releases
September New REleases
Sponsors
Felicia Grossman, author of Dearest Beast, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Juniper Butterworth, author of The King in the Forest, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.
E. Kennedy, author of Thornbird, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Union Square, publishers of This Blade of Ours, by Shalini Abeysekara, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
S08.39: Romance Birthday (Do Men Have Them?)
Is it our birthday? It is not! But who says you need to celebrate a birthday in real life to celebrate birthdays in romance novels? Not us! Today we’re talking about books that focus on birthdays — something that you would think would be more common in romance. We talk about birthdays that are cursed, about mistakes made on birthdays, about why heroes don’t seem to have birthdays, and about old reliable — I’m turning thirty, better get rid of this pesky virginity!
Tell us about your favorite birthday romances over on the Fated Mates Discord, where it’s probably someone’s birthday—or at least close to someone’s birthday. The Discord 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.
birthday books
Notes
You can visit The Book Nook bookstore and go on the Blue Bell Ice Cream Tour if you’re ever in Brenham, Texas.
This reflecting pool situation, honestly, if someone wrote it into a book would be too heavy-handed a metaphor.
What is clipping, you might be wondering. Well, something that’s bad, actually.
We had a whole episode about Ruination in season 7.
The “turning 3O book” Jen couldn’t think of is Charlie Quinn Lets Go by Jamie Varon. The nonfiction book she mentioned about “being frozen” is Girls Play Dead by Jen Percy.
Chicago, don’t miss Jen and Sophia Benoit tonight (June 24), to celebrate the release of her first historical romance, The Very Definition of Love.
Sponsors
Lotte James, author of From Rogue to Viscount, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Macmillan, publishers of Julie Murphy’s The Undergrads: Student Union, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
Blue Box Press, publishers of To Catch a Sinner, by Dylan Allen, writing as Lucy Wilson-Tagoe available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
S08.38: Seven Days In June by Tia Williams
We’re back with a deep dive on one of our favorite recent romances, Seven Days in June by Tia Williams! We talk about yearning in contemporaries, about books that have a powerful sense of place, about dual timelines, about secondary characters, about lines that stick with us years later, and about how fated mates works as a trope in a contemporary romance.
Tia also has a new book out this month, The Missed Connection. Get it wherever you get your books.
Listen to our Season 3 episode with Tia Williams about writers in romance and head over to talk about Seven Days in June or any of her other books 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.
Read Seven Days in June at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
books we discussed
NOTES
Sorry, we’re a Knicks podcast now, everyone. Sarah because of New York and Jen because of Villanova. Sarah did look up that Knickerbocker thing, but we never got back to it. Learn more about how those trousers became a symbol of NYC here.
Sports curses are bad, just ask Red Sox fans! Spike Lee has really been through it, Jalen Brunson’s interview after the game just shows you a man trying to deal with his feelings.
The World Cup, we just don’t know anything about that yet, but we’re gonna get up to speed on that, just like all the people of the world getting up to speed on America. Also, feels important to romance that we bring you the news that the Tartan Army cleared Boston out of beer.
We had Tia Williams on the podcast back in season 3 when Seven Days in June was released. Although there is not a sequel to Seven Days, Shane and Eva are secondary characters in the YA romance with Audre that came out in 2025. Find out more about Tia, and see all her books at her website.
Come see Sophia Benoit in conversation with us in NYC (June 23) and Chicago (June 24) to celebrate the release of her first historical romance, The Very Definition of Love.
Sponsors
Frederick Smith, author of Love is a Contact Sport, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
Little Brown & Company, publishers of Lu Chekowsky’sDon’t Buy What I’m Selling: On Breaking Up with Advertising and Finally Learning to Love My Whole, Fat Self, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
The What in the Smut? Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
W by Wattpad Books, publishers of Nicole Alfrine’s Brain Games. Available in print and ebook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
