It's our quarterly discoverabilibuddy episode! Get your TBR piles structurally sound and exercise that preorder clicking finger, because here are nearly 50 books coming out in the next three months that we're excited to read! Eric said next time we have to split it into two if we're going to keep talking about what's coming for hours... In the meantime, we're ungovernable! Tell us about the books you're waiting for...and if you're a romance novelist and have a book coming this year, please head over and fill out our handy Google form to let us know!

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 Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry, which you can get in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

MARCH

• Witch of Wall Street by MJ Etkind
• A Wager at Midnight by Vanessa Riley
• Lush by Tinia Montford

APRIL 

• Royal Bride Demand by LaQuette
• Wyoming Double Jeopardy by Juno Rushdan
• Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine
• Whisk Me Away by Georgia Beers
• Playing for Keeps by Lainey Davis
• The Nanny is Off Limits by QB Tyler
• Marriage Bargain with the Comte by Parker J. Cole 
• A Lady’s Guide to London by Faye Delecour
• The Duke and the Widow by Christina Diane
• Naked in Naknek by Lolu Sinclair
• Fly by Night by Kelly Cain
• The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed
• Anywhere You Go by Bridget Morrissey
• Once Upon You & Me by Timothy Janovsky
• Gold Coast Dilemma by Nana Malone
• The Last Guy You Kiss by Carla de Guzman

MAY

• Left of Forever by Tarah deWitt
• Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau
• The Singular Life of Aria Patel By Samira Ahmed
• Bad Publicity by Bianca Gillam
• A Showgirl’s Rules for Falling in Love by Alice Murphy
• Love in Focus by Lyla Lee
• A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher
• His Dark Vendetta by Katelyn Brehm
• Digging Dr. Jones by Olivia Jackson
• All Superheroes Need PR by Elizabeth Stephens
• The Romance Rivalry by Susan Lee
• Slipstream by Madge Maril
• Katheryn by SM LaViolette
• Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria
• Hunted through Italy by Delaney Diamond
• Marked by Moonlight by Sophie Jordan

JUNE

• Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
• Empire of Seduction by Milla Finelli 
• Never been Shipped by Alicia Thompson
• Writing Mr. Right by Alina Khawaja
• Party of Three by C. Travis Rice
• Plus Sized Player by Danielle Allen
• When Javi Dumped Mari by Mia Sosa
• Cruel Summer by Maisy Yates
• A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell
• Gloves Off by Stephanie Archer
• Savannah Royals by Lindsey Barrett
• He’s to Die For by Erin Dunn
• Sounds like Love By Ashely Poston
• Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong

• Lotte James, author of A Governess to Redeem Him, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Avon Books, publishers of Annie McQuaid's Crash Landing, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Stephanie Rose, author of Just One Favor, available in print, ebook, audio, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/3/30/0729-spring-2025-new-releases
• 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.

Our Trailblazer episodes continue this week with Jeannie Lin, one of the first authors to write historical romance featuring Asian characters set in Asia. Her debut romance, Butterfly Swords, is set in Tang Dynasty China.

In this episode, we talk about the craft of romance, about preparing for and resisting rejection while finding her own path to publication, about how she honed her storytelling, and about the way cultural archetypes find their way to the page. We also talk about the lightning fast changes in romance over the last twelve years. Thank you to Jeannie Lin for making time for Fated Mates.

Transcript available

This episode is sponsored by The Steam Box (use code FATEDMATES for 10% off) and Chirp Audiobooks.

Next week, we’re talking Sarah’s Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, which will release March 22 in a new trade paperback format. After that, our next read along is Diana Quincy’s Her Night With the Duke, which was on our Best of 2020 year-end list! Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local bookstore. You can also get it in audio from our partner, Chirp Books!

• This week, we welcome romance author Jeannie Lin, whose newest book in the Lotus Palace Mysteries series, Red Blossom in Snow, comes out next week on March 21, 2022. 
• Hear us talk about Jeannie Lin's books on our 2020 Best of the Year episode, our Road Trip Interstitial, and our So You Want to Read a Historical episode.
• The Tang Dynasty lasted from 618-907, and Empress Wu reigned from 624-705. 
• RWA's Golden Heart Award was phased out in 2019. 
• Twitter was launched in 2006 and Goodreads in 2007. Goodreads was acquired by Amazon in 2013. Borders Books closed in 2011. 
• People mentioned: author Jade Lee, who also writes as Kathy Lyons; author Barbara Ankrum; author Shawntell Madison; author Amanda Berry; author Bria Quinlan; author Eden Bradley of Romance Divas forum; author Kate Pearce; actor Tony Leung; Piatkus editor Anna Boatman; agent Gail Fortune.

This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:

The Steam Box, a quarterly subscription book box that includes romance novels,

goodies, and toys to help you embrace your sexuality and promote self-love..

Fated Mates listeners get 10% off with code FATEDMATES.

and

Chirp Audiobooks, amazing limited-time deals on select digital audiobooks

and great everyday pricing on everything else—no subscription needed.

Visit Chirp Books to check out all their audiobook deals.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2022/3/15/s0426-jeannie-lin-a-trailblazer-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.

This week, we’re talking about one of our favorite historical romances, Jeannie Lin’s Butterfly Swords. This is one we’ve mentioned on previous episodes, and discussed at length during Jeannie’s Trailblazer episode, as it is the first own voices Asian-set historical romance.

Aside from setting the standard for adventure romance, it’s also a near-perfect road trip romance with one of the hottest slow burns you’ll ever read. We talk about all of it, including the absolutely devastating first kiss—one that should go down in romance history. TL;DR: We love this book hard.

Thanks to Charlotte Howard, author of Secret Verses, and Mila Finelli, author of Mafia Mistress, for sponsoring the episode. Stay tuned after the episode to hear the first chapter of Mafia Mistress in audio!

• This week, we’re reading the debut novel Butterfly Swords by romance trailblazer Jeannie Lin. This is the first book in her Tang Dynasty series.
• It’s not too late to see Sarah with Christina and Lauren in Connecticut on May 18th, 2022, or Jen with Christina, Lauren, and Sonali Dev in Naperville on May 19th, 2022.
• We’re looking for an artist to draw us a magnificent firebird. Maybe it’s you?
• So, it’s classic Jen to get titles wrong. Farewell, my Concubine is a movie, and the third book in the Tang Dynasty series is called My Fair Concubine. But, that’s not Li Tao’s book, either–it’s The Dragon and the Pearl.
• We talked about Road Trip romance back in season 1.
• Time for an interlude from The Princess Bride.
• Our next read along is The Dragon and the Jewel by Virginia Henley, first published in 1991.
• This book is part of the Fated Mates Book Club and its quest at Pagebound.

This week’s episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by:

Charlotte Howard, author of Secret Verses, available in Kindle Unlimited .

and

Mila Finelli, author of the Kings of Italy Duet

Read Mafia Mistress in Kindle Unlimited or listen wherever audiobooks are sold

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2022/5/15/s0435-butterfly-swords-by-jeannie-lin
• 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.

This week, for some reason, we're talking about romance novels with horses in them! Do we know anything about horses? Of course not! Do we let that stop us? It never has before! We're talking about the ones where the horse dies, the ones where they do it on a horse, the ones where she's a horse whisperer, and the ones where she just really likes horses. Giddyup!

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.

Take the Fated Mates Season 7 listener survey at fatedmates.net/survey

• A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
• A Very Private Love by Melinda Cross
• This Fierce Splendor by Iris Johansen
• The Secret by Julie Garwood
• Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux
• Montana Sky and Irish Thoroughbred by Nora Roberts
• The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews
• The Trouble with Anna by Rachel Griffiths
• Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
• Legends Lake by JoAnn Ross
• All Night Long with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews
• The Wildest Ride by Marcella Bell 
• A Thorn in the Saddle by Rebekah Weatherspoon
• Sanctuary Island by Lily Everett

• Who Did it Better… on a Horse? In an elevator? In the library? At Thanksgiving? And on a pool table? 
• “It’s a fun book, there’s no sex in it,” is something Sarah said about Pride and Prejudice, which is just funny. In honor of the 20th Anniversary of the MacFayden/Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice, they are releasing it again in theaters the weekend of April 20th. 
• Horses get stressed out on  movie sets, and that’s why there are so many regulations about how to care for them. There was an HBO show that got cancelled because so many horses died! Why horses have to be put down when they break a leg.
• Based on some research, it was clear that Jen’s friend Bridget said that Lou Diamond Phillips DID know how to ride a horse in Young Guns. But, here’s an interview of him talking about a horse accident on the set of Young Guns 2! LDP, still hot, by the way! 
• We did an episode on A Kingdom of Dreams if you want to listen. 
• In A Very Private Love, the horse is like Secretariat or some shit like that.
• The Budweiser Clydesdales are real horses, and I’m just gonna say, you come across some weird information about the world when you write show notes. Here's an article about them being at the bar near Sarah's house.
• Fetlock are this, not this.
• The entire first season of Unbound Pod with Adriana Herrera and Nikki Payne is about Western romance.

The Sponsors

• Avery Maxwell, author of Cross My Heart, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Crowns and Courtships: A Royal Romance Collection, with novellas by Claire Contreras, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Lexi Blake and Skye Warren, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Piper Rayne, authors of Mr. Swoony, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. Stay tuned after the podcast for a sneak peek of the audiobook!

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/3/24/0728-horses
• 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.

It's deep dive day here at Fated Mates and we're reading an absolute banger of a historical -- Julie Anne Long's fifth Pennyroyal Green book, What I Did for a Duke. We talk about great romance kisses, about age gaps and how they operate in books, about house parties and art and sacrifice and how sexy it is when someone actually sees you for who you are. If you haven't read this one yet, do yourself a favor and do it right now. It's so great.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

• What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long
• The Pennyroyal Green Series

• The main building you think of when you think of the New York Public Library with the lions is officially called the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. From what I can tell, it didn’t actually have anything to do with Andrew Carnegie, but he did donate $5 million to ensure that the New York Public Library had branch libraries in communities around the city. He also donated a lot of money to other things, that’s a fun thing billionaires used to do. Read more about doing the forbidden kind of “romance stuff” in the library. Jen talked to the New York Public Library's Best New Romance List Committee Co-Chairs Kate Fais and Grace Loiacon back in February.
• In 2022, we recorded our “Break in case of emergency” episode, and it was in fact two sisters, Cait and Kara who requested the episode. PS: We are in emergency. Feel free to break those out  now.
• Julie Anne Long’s The Beast Takes a Bride was on our Best of 2024 episode. What I Did for a Duke is the 5th book in her Pennyroyal Green series. 
• “It must have been a lie,” is what Jen’s grandma Betty used to say if you lost your train of thought and couldn’t remember what you were saying. 
• This is a good speech from Crash Davis, the pitcher played by Kevin Costner in the 1988 movie Bull Durham (also, Nuke says “what’s all that molecule stuff?” which is pretty funny considering the title of this episode).
• The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston had a Titian exhibition back in 2022 called Women, Myth and Power, and it seems like a thing Genevive would have liked it a lot. Titian’s Venus of Urbino is currently on display at The Uffizi Galleries in Italy. 
• If you’re in New York on March 31st, head over to the Astoria Bookshop to see Historical Romance authors TJ Alexander and Joanna Lowell in conversation, moderated by Sarah, in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility.

• Avery Flynn, author of Airhead: A Hartigans Totally '80s Hot RomCom, available in ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Gummies,. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/3/18/0727-what-i-did-for-a-duke-this-gentleman-is-completely-composed-of-revenge-molecules
• 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.

This one's for those of you who've been asking us to talk more about craft on the podcast! We're talking romances with ticking clocks and clear time frames, about how this impacts conflict and makes books more breathless, and of course about the books that deploy this strategy perfectly. Inside, you'll find road trips and adventures, vacation romances and romantic suspense, house parties and that classic romance chestnut: "I have 30 days to get pregnant." It's going to be fun.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Next week, we're reading Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• It Had to Be You and Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Hot Touch by Deborah Smith
• Whiteout by Adriana Anders
• Waking up with the Duke by Lorraine Heath
• Perfect by Judith McNaught
• Fiasco by Constance Fay
• One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean
• Her Night with the Duke by Diana Quincy
• Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria
• Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen
• Sexy in Stilettos by Nana Malone
• Fan Service by Rosie Danan
• Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
• One Last Night by Lauren Ford
• Tycoon by Joanna Shupe
• Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday
• One Stormy Night by Jules Bennett
• Sins of a Wicked Duke by Sophie Jordan
• To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins
• Pleasure of a Dark Prince and Lothaire by Kresley Cole
• Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
• Luck of the Draw and The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn
• Dionysus in Wisconsin by E.H. Lupton

• Join TJ Alexander and Joanna Lowell in a conversation at Astoria Bookshop in Queens, NY on March 31st for a conversation about trans rep in romance, moderated by Sarah.
• Learn more about Run for Something and What You Can Run For in 2026 (don't forget to tell us you're running!), and preorder Amanda Litman's book, When We're in Charge: The Next Generation’s Guide to Leadership wherever you get your books.
• Four Minutes is a very shallow cut, actually.
• This is the good stuff: Casey Kasem’s Top 40 and Friday Night Videos, boom boxes, and cable TV. Also, The Sound of Music on has an actual running time of 2 hours and 52 minutes and an “on-TV- with-commercials" running time of 200 hours and 52 minutes. The best scene is the curtains one, the dancing one, or the tearing down the flag one.
• That leg lamp is a reference to the movie A Christmas Story. 
• Conflict defined. Or, next time Sarah gives it in October 2025, attend her conflict workshop. Speaking of tension, how about that moment in Toy Story 3 when they are headed to the incinerator. 
• We’ve talked about Ted Lasso season 1 and season 2. Sarah wasn’t the only one disappointed with season 3, Jen felt the ship going down and bailed right out of it. 
• In the book Techniques of a Selling Writer, Dwight Swain described his scene and sequel theory.

• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Office Sparks: A Workplace Romance Collection, with novellas by C.D. Reiss, K. Bromberg, Laurelin Paige, and Heather Graham, available in ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
• Lucy Score, author of Story of My Life, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• TJ Alexander, author of A Gentleman's Gentleman, available in print, ebook or audiobook, at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon, or wherever you get your books.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/3/10/0726-romance-novels-with-a-ticking-clock
• 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.

Maybe you're rooting for the asteroid, but you gotta have a plan! To help, this week, we're keeping track of what romance is looking like off-planet--it's Romance! In! Space! (Part 2, but the first episode we did was six years ago, so we figured it's time.) Headphones in, loves, this one covers space scavengers, aliens, anatomy, crash landings, abductions, talking lions and people in Space Army (what happens in Space Army stays there, unless it's here).

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• Fiasco and Chaos by Constance Fay
• Full Speed to a Crash Landing and How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis 
• Space Deputy by Jenny Schwartz
• I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming
• Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
• Heart Song by Heather Guerre
• Ruling Sikthand  by Victoria Aveline
• Stranded by Heather Fox 
• Raw Desires by Cynthia Sax
• Cathian by Laurann Dohner
• Space Army Recruits by Kinley Grey
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

• Bad news: the asteroid can’t save us, so we’ll just have to save ourselves. 
• You can read Jen’s newsletter here, she’ll be writing about the grand gesture in Fiasco next.
• We did space romance back in season 1, Claire Kent’s Hold back in season 5. And speaking of Claire Kent, she’s been writing dystopian books lately that you might want to check out. 
• Insane colonialist fantasies are running rampant in the USA right now, so we don’t really need them in our romance, now do we. 
• You’re a virgin who can’t drive.
• All about the legendary imprint Ellora’s Cave. 
• Our next read along is What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long.

• Chandra Wicke, creator of The Happily Ever After Sociey: A Book About Romance Novels. Back the Kickstarter.
• Yvette de Oro, author of Mine to Match, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Enter to win the Mine to Match giveaway on Yvette’s Instagram by making a donation to your local foodbank — winners will win a copy of her book and a matching gift to the foodbank of their choice!
• Amy Spalding, author of On Her Terms, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Elle Kennedy, author of The Charlie Method, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/3/1/0725-sci-fi-romance-theres-no-book-banning-in-space
• 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.

It's been the longest month of our lives and as self-care, we're not thinking about billionaires this week (or at least for the duration of this episode). Instead, we're talking about those men who are rich in other ways, in throwing a punch, chasing a tornado, camping, playing an instrument, you get it. We've got a bunch of books we love and not a ten-figure bank account to be seen!

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of the audiobook of Charlotte Stein's My Big Fat Fake Marriage.

Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
• Thirsty by Mia Hopkins 
• Stealing the Rogue’s Heart by Erica Monroe
• A Substitute Wife for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath
• In the Morning Sun by Lena Hart
• An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles
• Whirlwind by Kayla Gross
• Gone Too Deep by Katie Ruggle
• Take Me Home Tonight by Erika Kelly
• Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday
• Drilled by Brill Harper
• Sinner (was Sinful Temptation) by London Hale 
• Pardon my Frenchie by Farrah Rochon
• Sleeping With the Frenemy by Natalie Caña
• Common Ground by Melanie Greene
• Demon from the Dark by Kresley Cole
• Morning Glory Milking Farm by CM Nascosta
• Rock and Soul by Lauren Sattersby
• Losing Sight by Tati Richardson
• Unloved by Payton Corinne

• There have always been rich people in romance, but we think it could be argued that Christian Grey and 50 Shades invented the billionaire romance genre. 
• Jen started writing a newsletter, leaning back into the romance reader “and critic” part of the job.  You can check it out here. It’s free and who knows how long it will last. 
• Bobby Tom is the hero of Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. 
• If Jen refers to something being “a basic” please know she is referring to a line from Strictly Ballroom. 
• Maybe you want to learn about a rookery.  
• Anti-miscegnation laws in the United States prevented people from marrying someone of a different race.
• Storm chasing seems honestly like a very dangerous activity. There is no evidence that I could find that a tornado can rip your clothes right off your body, but Kayla Grosse probably read this webpage for research. (lol)
• Dyscalculia is a learning disability rooted in math and number.

• Piper Rayne, authors of Mr. Heartbreaker, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Megan Frampton, author of The Devil's Charm, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Riches and Romance: A Billionaire Romance Anthology from Dylan Allen, Kendall Ryan, Lexi Blake and Melissa Foster, available with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Charlotte Stein, author of My Big Fat Fake Marriage, read by Imogen Wilde, available from Audible, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm, or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of the audiobook.
• Lucy Score, author of Story of My Life, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/2/24/0724-hes-not-a-billionaire
• 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.

Historicals are dead! Long live historicals! This week, we're talking about fourteen (and change) historical romances that we've never talked about before -- all published recently, some already this year. Every book we talk about is available right now for download and reading pleasure--and we have a stack of them ready to talk about in future episodes! We're so excited to be your discoverabilibuddies on this one!

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepsteakes to win one of five free copies of the audiobook of Stephanie Burgis's Wooing the Witch Queen.

Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• Lyon’s Lover Maggie Sims
• The Sapphire Heiress by Ella Leon
• A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell
• The Duke’s Bartered Mistress by Caroline Lee
• The Villain by Victoria Vale
• Exit, Pursued by a Baron by Aydra Richards
• Seduced in a Storm By Royaline Sing
• A Bloomy Head by J. Winifred Butterworth
• Never Woo the Wrong Lady by Charlie Lane
• Dionysus in Wisconsin by EH Lupton
• All About That Duke by Merry Farmer
• The Wayward Duke by Katrina Kendrick
• Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone by Louisa Darling
• Winnie West has an Agenda by Kat Sterling

• Check out Bookshop’s Black Romance List and you might want to use their new digital books app to read The Co-Op by Tarah DeWitt or any other eBook on a Boox Palma 2. 
• Budleigh Salterton seems nice next time you’re going to England.
• A bike with a big front wheel is called a penny-farthing.
• Bicycle jousting sounds like that whole scene in Footloose. 
• Endymion is a myth, a poem, and also a burly, grouchy Scot.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear is a stage direction from a Winter’s Tale. 

• Rien Gray, author of Double Exposure, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Stephanie Rose, author of Just One Favor, available in print, ebook, audio, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Stephanie Burgis, author of Wooing the Witch Queen, read by Amanda Leigh Cobb, available form Audible, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm, or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepsteakes to win one of five free copies of the audiobook.
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/2/13/0723-the-new-historicals
• 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.

00:00.000 Heavy is the DiscoverabilityBuddy Crown

11:09.500 Upstairs Downstairs Reading

14:37.500 The New Historicals

18:56.000 AD: DOUBLE EXPOSURE

21:03.000 Lyon's Lover

27:38.000 The Sapphire Heiress

33:15.000 AD: WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN

35:50.000 A Shore Thing

43:48.500 The Duke's Bartered Mistress

49:36.500 AD: JUST ONE FAVOR

51:31.500 The Villain

59:14.000 Exit, Pursued by a Baron

01:04:12.000 AD: LUMI GUMMIES

01:06:30.500 Seduced in a Storm

01:11:56.000 A Bloomy Head

01:19:19.000 Never Woo the Wrong Lady

01:27:07.500 Dionysus in Wisconsin

01:32:52.000 All About that Duke

01:40:48.000 The Wayward Duke

01:45:59.500 Where Have all the Scoundrels Gone

01:52:13.000 Winnie West Has an Agenda

02:03:22.000 AD: WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN

There's a new Adriana Herrera book out this month, so that means we get to have one of our very favorites back on the pod to talk about not only her banger of a book, A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, but also about historical in general! This week, we talk about historicals, in general, about why everyone seems to think they're dying (spoiler: they're not!), and do some myth busting on perceptions of the historical romance. We're extremely grateful to friend of the pod Alexandria Bellefleur for offering up her collected data on historical romance and readers -- check out her books (listed below), as well, and come back next week for more historical recs!

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Our next read along is Julie Anne Long's What I Did For a Duke, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free audiobook copies of Chloe C. Peñaranda's The Night is Defying.

• A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera
• Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley 
• Proper English by KJ Charles
• My Lady’s Lover by Nicola Davidson 
• The Duchess Hunt by Lorraine Heath
• The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe
• The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy
• Love, Death, and Lanterns by Jeanne Lin
• A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley 
• The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe
• The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
• Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean
• The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas
• The Prince of Broadway by Joanna Shupe
• The Bride by Julie Garwood
• Let Us Dream by Alyssa Cole
• An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
• Night Hawk by Beverly Jenkins
• Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
• To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins
• The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath
• Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
• The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt

• Welcome Adriana Herrera, author of A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, the third in the Las Leonas series set during the Exposition Universelle in 1889 Paris. 
• In this book, Aurora is running a women’s health clinic and the text is a fierce call for reproductive justice, and we’re back there. If you’re interested in checking out some of the books she used to do her research, try Sex, Herbs, and Birth Control: Women and Fertility Regulation Through the Ages by Ann Hibner Koblitz and The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan. The Comstock Act of 1873 was a problem then, and sooner or later, they’ll be a problem again.
• Thanks to Alexandria Bellefleur for sharing the results of her poll about historical romance. You can check out her latest contemporary romance, Truly, Madly, Deeply.

• Jenn Bouchard, author of Considering Us, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of From Friends to Forever: A Love Grows Collection , available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Chloe C. Peñaranda, author of The Night is Defying audiobook, read by Corvin King and Jacci Prior, available from Audible, Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm or wherever you get your audiobooks. Enter the Macmillan Audio sweepstakes to win one of five free copies of this audiobook.
• Sophie Lark, author of Kingmakers: Year One, available in print or ebook from Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Annabelle Slator, author of The Launch Date, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

00:00 Welcome Adrianna Herrera

01:34 A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke

07:41 The Political Realities

11:24 What Historical Can Do

14:54 AD: FROM FRIENDS TO FOREVER

16:41 Romance and Feminism

29:26 AD: CONSIDERING US

31:17 More of What Historicals Can Do

43:29 AD: KINGMAKERS: YEAR ONE

45:39 The Future (and Present) of Historical Romance

57:38 Myth: There Aren't Sapphic Historicals

59:54 ADL THE NIGHT IS DEFYING

1:07:07 Myth: The Writing isn't for Me

1:09:56 Myth: I Can't Relate

1:15:10 AD: THE LAUNCH DATE

1:16:56 Myth: History is a Problem

1:25:52 Foolproof Recs

1:43:22 Beverly Jenkins Recommendations

1:47:24 The "Wettest" Historical Romance

1:59:19 Outro

2:01:01 ADL THE NIGHT IS DEFYING