Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People – Details, episodes & analysis

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Podcast Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

Fated Mates

Arts
Society & Culture
Arts

Frequency: 1 episode/7d. Total Eps: 407

Hosting podcast Captivate
The most listened to romance novel podcast, Fated Mates is co-hosted by bestselling author Sarah MacLean and romance critic Jen Prokop. Weekly episodes include romance novel read-alongs and lively discussions of the work of the genre, highlighting the romance novel as a powerful tool in fighting the patriarchy…with absolutely no kink shaming. RSSVERIFY
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Apple

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Apple Podcasts

  • 🇨🇦 Canada - books

    05/07/2026
    #54
  • 🇬🇧 Great Britain - books

    05/07/2026
    #88
  • 🇺🇸 USA - books

    05/07/2026
    #36
  • 🇨🇦 Canada - books

    04/07/2026
    #34
  • 🇺🇸 USA - books

    04/07/2026
    #36
  • 🇨🇦 Canada - books

    03/07/2026
    #46
  • 🇺🇸 USA - books

    03/07/2026
    #37
  • 🇺🇸 USA - books

    02/07/2026
    #35
  • 🇺🇸 USA - books

    01/07/2026
    #61
  • 🇺🇸 USA - books

    30/06/2026
    #53

Spotify

    No recent rankings available



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Score global : 68%


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S06.51: College Bound: New Adult Romance

Season 6 · Episode 51

mardi 27 août 2024Duration 01:24:28

Everything old is new again...or young again? We're talking about New Adult romance today, that is, romance novels where the love story is set at or during college! We're hopping in the time machine and headed a generation or two back in romance to talk about the first time New Adult came around changing the contemporary romance game. We're getting to the bottom of why these particular love stories work so well when it comes to feelings, and asking that eternal question -- has anyone involved in this subgenre actually met a 19 year old man? (JK, we support you!)

We're taking next week off, but we'll be back the week after for the start of our Seventh Season! If you'd like more romance chatter in the meantime, we encourage you to join our patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our first read along of Season 7 will be Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid duology, selected by Jen which despite the first book being a cliffhanger should not surprise you because she contains multitudes. The second book is The Truth About Him. Read them both and get ready for Jen to talk to you for hours. You will thank us.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

The Books
The Notes
The Sponsors

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/8/27/0651-college-bound-new-adult-romance
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S06.50: Daddy Issues (not the fun kind) with Christopher Rice

Season 6 · Episode 50

mardi 20 août 2024Duration 01:41:56

We're back with Christopher Rice celebrating one of the longest running themes in romance: Daddy Issues (not the good kind)! Christopher writes romance under the pen name C. Travis Rice, and today, we're talking about his recent banger, Sapphire Dawn. We talk about the longstanding history of characters with terrible fathers, about why romance seems to love a bad dad, about our favorite characters with terrible fathers, and about why terrible fathers make the best heroes? (we know! it's problematic!) All that, and we're talking about Nora Roberts and (gasp!) Janet Dailey!

We're coming up on the end of Season 6 (what?! how!?), and so incredibly grateful to you for listening. If you'd like more romance chatter, we encourage you to join our patreon, where you get another episode from us each month, and access to the incredible readers and listeners and brilliant people on the Fated Mates discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Also! We're back on the phonebanking train this election season! Join us on Saturdays between now and Election Day to phonebank with fellow romance lovers, Jen, Sarah, and special guests who will knock your socks off! Learn more and register at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

The Books
The Notes
The Sponsors

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/8/20/s0650-daddy-issues-with-chris-rice
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S06:41: The Devil of Downtown (Yeah, He Is) by Joanna Shupe

Season 6 · Episode 41

mercredi 19 juin 2024Duration 01:09:42

We are talking about a full on banger this week — Joanna Shupe’s The Devil of Downtown, which is Sarah’s favorite of the Uptown Girls series (Jen is a The Prince of Broadway fan, but honestly, all three are basically perfect). We love this one so much, you’re about to get an hour or so of squeeing and sighing — Jack Mulligan is everything you could possibly want in a romance hero, Justine Greene is the do goodingest do gooder who ever was, and the way they adore each other is enough to wreck you. If you haven’t read this one yet, do yourself a favor and go read the whole series right now…Joanna Shupe proves that historical romance is everything you want.

If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where 1000 other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as we do at patreon.com/fatedmates.

Show Notes
Sponsors
  • Dr. Melissa Dymond, author of Paging Dr. Hart, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited
  • Mary James Ketch, oil painter. Find her new series of paintings and prints, Book Lovers, at her online studio.
  • Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA. Check out their new $40 Swoony Subscription Box for a monthly delivery of brand new, hand-selected romance novels and access to a discussion Discord. July’s box includes TRIPLE SEC by TJ Alexander, FOR REAL by Alexis Hall, and A LIAISON WITH HER LEADING LADY by Lotte R. James.

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/6/18/s0641-the-devil-of-downtown-by-joanna-shupe
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S05.07: Spooky Stuff! Halloween Romance

Season 5 · Episode 8

mercredi 26 octobre 2022Duration 01:04:42

It’s spooky season and that means we’re reading spooky stuff! We recommend some of our favorite recent witches and demons and incubii and ghosts and vampires and others…and then we try to get to the bottom of why paranormal romance and monster romance doesn’t feel like halloween romance to but these books do? This episode has it all: celebrity witch talk, a welshman named Rhys who isn’t the one you’re thinking of, a peek into Sarah’s past that reveals a painting that just might have installed one of her buttons…she had a beer before we recorded, so stuff happens! This one’s all treat, no trick…but headphones in, y’all. This one isn’t for the kids.

Thanks to Terri Green, author of The Swordmaster’s Daughter and Alyxandra Harvey, author of How to Marry a Viscount, for sponsoring the episode.

Our next read along is Claire Kent’s HOLD. It’s a prison planet romance, so…you know…enter at your own risk. Get it at Amazon or in Kindle Unlimited.

Show Notes

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2022/10/24/s0507-halloween-and-other-spooky-romances-interstitial
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S05.06: Redemption Romance with Christopher Rice

Season 5 · Episode 7

mercredi 19 octobre 2022Duration 01:19:47

In the very best version of “third time’s the charm,” we are finally welcoming Christopher Rice to Fated Mates! A man of many talents, he writes fabulous contemporary romances as C. Travis Rice, and suspense, crime and supernatural thrillers as Christopher Rice. Today we’re talking Redemption Romance in honor of his most recent romance release, Sapphire Spring.

In this episode, we talk about how redemption romances and bully romances work, how tricky they are to write, and why so many of us are so drawn to redemption arcs — particularly when they involve sticking it to our childhood enemies. We had the best time with Christopher, who filled our TBRs…so get ready, because he’s definitely going to fill yours, too.

Thanks to Lumi Labs, creators of Microdose Gummies, for sponsoring the episode. Use the code FATEDMATES for 30% off and free shipping. Thanks, also, to emjoy for sponsoring the episode. Visit letsemjoy.com/mates for a 14-day free trial.

Show Notes

This week's guest is Christopher Rice, who also publishes under the name C. Travis Rice. He and his best friend Eric Shaw Quinn host a podcast called The Dinner Party Show.

The inspiration for the Sapphire Cove series came from Nora Roberts's Dream Trilogy. The first one is Daring to Dream.

Jean Valjean is the main character in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

A Molly House was a British term for a place where gay men could meet up. Like Victorian Grindr.

Stop Book Banning: A Special Episode of Fated Mates

Season 5 · Episode 6

vendredi 14 octobre 2022Duration 01:59:28

In 2022, book bans in United States schools and libraries are at their highest since the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom started collecting data. Bans are happening around the country, in every state, and disproportionately affecting books by and about LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people. What’s more, challenges are likely underreported, because librarians who are resisting them are facing unprecedented workplace retribution and in some cases physical danger.

Book Bans are on the ballot on November 8th, in every state and local election, up and down the ticket. State legislatures, local town councils, county leadership and school boards are being overrun with candidates supported by conservative activists looking to limit access to books and ideas that offer identity, empathy, awareness, and power to young people around the country.

We’re concerned, so today, we’re releasing a special episode of Fated Mates focused on book bans across the country. We interview three experts on what’s happening, who is most impacted, and how we can all help. Show notes are extensive, and we hope you’ll take a look at them.

Thank you to librarians, teachers, and kids and families who are standing up and speaking out. We are proud to stand with you.

Guests

Jarett Dapier, librarian, activist and author of Mr. Watson’s Chickens

Lily Freeman, activist and student in Central Bucks County, PA. Read Lily’s op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer and follow her instagram at ProjectUncensored.

Melissa Walker, political activist at The States Project, journalist, and Middle Grade and YA author of Violet on the Runway, Let’s Pretend We Never Met, Small Town Sinners and more.

Resources

The Youth Censorship Database at the National Coalition Against Censorship

Book Riot’s censorship coverage is excellent and updated almost daily. They have an excellent explainer for how to find and develop a local anti-censorship group

Intellectual Round Table Freedom Blog: an exhaustive list of links related to news about challenges, censorship, and banning incidents, developing issues, and controversies that is updated weekly

PEN America’s data on School Book Bans and Index of Educational Gag Orders

American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, full of resources and toolkits on challenges and how to combat them

What’s happening in Central Bucks County, PA is happening all over the country. Kids, families and educators are protesting loudly

Advocates for Inclusive Education, for more information on what’s happening on the ground in Bucks County, PA

A map from ALA Banned Books week at the University of Illinois Library, and another from Red Wine & Blue.

Teens around the country can get library cards from the Brooklyn Public Library. To apply for the card, teens can send a note to BooksUnbanned@bklynlibrary.org, or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture. The $50 fee normally associated with out-of-state cards will be waived

Learn more about the Book Ban Busters at Red Wine & Blue.

Ballotpedia is a resource for your local ballot and your local election maps

Vote.org, to check your voter registration, locate your voting place and more

How to Help

Educate yourself about the book challenge process in your school district: How it works, who sits on the book challenge committee, how those committee members are appointed.

If there are book bans and protests in your school district, attend local school board meetings and support students, teachers & librarians who are speaking up.

Tell your local public and school librarians they have your support. Write letters. Visit the library. Thank them for standing for intellectual freedom.

Research school board candidates in your district. Vote accordingly.

Consider running for something! Your school board and your state legislature need you! Consider this us telling you seven times! (We’ll phonebank for you!)

Vote to flip your state legislature blue. Rally your friends to join you in a Giving Circle at the States Project.

Donate to organizations (listed below) that support intellectual freedom and combat book bans.

Organizations to Support (and Volunteer with)

You can join PenAmerica, and your membership helps defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture.

Donate to the Freedom To Read Foundation and become a member. The Freedom To Read Foundation effectively conducts important first amendment legal work regarding book bans and censorship.

GLSEN, Creating a Better World for LGBTQ Students

Intellectual Freedom Endowment Fund at the American Library Association

The National Coalition Against Censorship, providing direct intervention for people and groups facing censorship

The States Project, helping to flip (or keep) state legislatures blue

The Trevor Project, supporting LGBTQ young people 24/7, all year round

We Believe in Education, a movement of parents and families fighting for students’ freedom to learn

The Most Banned Books of 2021

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez

Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Reasons: Banned and challenged for...

S05.05: Moonstruck: A Wolf Without a Foot Redux!

Season 5 · Episode 5

mercredi 12 octobre 2022Duration 01:34:49

It’s our 200th Episode and we’re finally doing the thing we’ve been talking about doing for 200 episodes! A full deep dive into one of our favorite — or possibly our favorite! — romcoms…Moonstruck! Moonstruck was released December 18th, 1987, one day after Sarah turned nine…auspicious Sagittarius energy! It’s set in Brooklyn, is a perfect romance novel on film, and features more than one wolf, bewitched by the full moon. It is everything.

Go watch it (you won’t be sorry), then come back here and listen to us wax poetic about it.

Thank you for being with us for 200 episodes…you’re the moonlight in our martini.

Notes

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2022/10/11/s0505-were-moonstruck-on-our-200th-episode
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S05.04: What to Read If You Liked The Love Hypothesis...

Season 5 · Episode 4

mercredi 5 octobre 2022Duration 01:05:10

Today we start one of our new features for Season Five: If You Liked…Read This! We begin with Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, a book that took romance and BookTok by storm last year when it burst onto the NYT best seller list and hung out there for nearly a year, bringing so many new readers (and Reylos!) to romance.

This one is full of tropes romance loves, and we take them topic by topic, recommending read alikes for everything from grumpy/sunshine, to academic romance, to STEM heroines, to that spicy sex scene that was a delightfully unexpected surprise! That, and we’ve got a bunch of Reylo fic recommended from Ali herself (check the end of show notes)!

Show Notes

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2022/10/4/what-to-read-if-you-liked-the-love-hypothesis
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S05.03: Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas: A Professional Driver on a Closed Course

Season 5 · Episode 4

mercredi 28 septembre 2022Duration 01:31:27

It’s official! Sarah has broken the glass and taken Marrying Winterborne out of the vault and she has exactly as much to say about it as you expect! We’re talking perfect heroes, heroines who deserve to be revered, brilliant writers and plots that require the kind of skill you only get with Lisa Kleypas. Rhys Winterborne is nearly crushed by a building and still shows up at traditional calling hours (with 30 minutes to spare) to propose. An absolute king.

Thanks to Lucy Leroux, author of Making Her His, and Emjoy for sponsoring the episode. Visit letsemjoy.com/mates to access your 14-day free trial.

Show Notes

The Rest
  • For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2022/9/24/s0503-marrying-winterborne-by-lisa-kleypas
  • If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
  • Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
  • If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

S05.02: Romance Novel Beginnings: Starting With a Bang!

Season 5 · Episode 3

mercredi 21 septembre 2022Duration 01:15:40

Not that kind of bang! We’re talking about beginnings today, on the first interstitial of Season 5! This one edges into a bit more writing shop talk than usual, but we’re still name checking lots of favorite books, many of which we’ve done deep dives on already! So consider this your nudge to go back and read some great books we’ve talked about! Also, Sarah has Covid, Jen’s on the mend, Fated States is back, and next week, we’re reading Marrying Winterborne.

Thanks to Lucy Leroux, Eva Moore and Torie Jean for sponsoring the episode. Read Making Her His, Caught a Vibe and Finding Gene Kelly now.

Next week, our first read along of the season is Lisa Kleypas’s Marrying Winterborne. Get it at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or at your local indie.

Show Notes

  • Get boosted!
  • When a book starts in the middle of the action, it’s called in medias res
  • If you’re in MA, check out the Rom-Con, a full day celebration of “rom”ance at the “Con”cord free public library this Satruday, Sept 24, from 10-3. Tickets are free!
  • Fated States has returned, and it looks like we’ll be phonebanking every Saturday starting Oct 1 through the election.


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