We’re wrapping up season seven by asking ourselves a simple question. Do we like this stuff? Yes? No? Maybe so? 

We’ll be back in two weeks for the start of Season Eight of the podcast. Honestly, we remain amazed that y’all are with us on this journey. In a world full of madness, you bring us calm, joy and purpose, and we couldn’t be more grateful for you. Thank you so much for listening.

While you’re waiting for Season Eight, you’re welcome to 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. 

• The Komboucha Girl was sick of seeing her face back in 2019, and yet here we are. 
• Hozier in concert was great, even if his parents were not stars on the NBC soap, Days of Our Lives. That was John and Marlena. The visuals on Eat Your Young and Nina Cried Power were especially moving and inspiring. Someone made a playlist of the Nina Cried power songs, and now is a great time to listen to protest music. 
• The impact 50 Shades had on the sales of ties (and other things) was real. 
• An article from MEL about the wet problem, not just in romance, I guess. (that’s a NSFW link based on the headline and content, okay.) Butts tie these two clips together: Miranda on SATC on “are we doing this now?”  and Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle thinking  “some lady is going to want to do it her.” But overall, spit is important. 
• Fucking her ass, saving her life is a quote from a Shayla Black book and this amazing review from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Truly a Romancelandia classic. 
• EM Forester described flat and round characters in Aspects of the Novel (1927).
• “The second shift” is a phrase used by author Arlie Russell Hochschild to describe the housework and childrearing responsibilities faced by women after coming home from their day jobs.    
• Commuting is really bad for your wallet and bad for your health. 
• Go to a farmer’s market if you must.

• Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
• What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
• Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean
• The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe
• Hans by SJ Tilly
• The Club by Lauren Rowe
• Merrily Ever After by Jenny Holiday 
• Lothaire by Kresley Cole
• Ride Steady by Kristen Ashley
• Stuck Up Suit by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward
• The Opposite of You by Rachel Higginson

• Blue Box Press, publishers of the Hearts and Hidden Secrets: A Family Romance Collection featuring Devney Perry, Helena Hunting, Lauren Blakely and Tijan, available at Amazon.
• Rose Prendeville, author of Grace on the Rocks, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Avery Flynn, author of Head Witch in Charge, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or 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/2025/8/21/0749-season-seven-ends-with-the-kombucha-gif
• 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.

Joanna Shupe joins us this week to celebrate her new book, The Gilded Heiress, and talk about one of our favorite things—baddies with a heart of gold! We talk about the book, about our mutual love of criminals, of noble scoundrels, of con artists and basically anyone willing to do crime in the name of love. We also talk about how everything Gilded Age is back again, which…ugh. We love Joanna and her book – come see us with her in Chicago on August 28th and in Brooklyn on September 9th.

You can get The Gilded Heiress right now in print, ebook or audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. 

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. 

• Welcome Joanna Shupe, who writes mafia romance as Mila Finelli. Next week, her historical The Gilded Heiress comes out next week. Earlier this summer, she released her latest in the New York State of Mafia series, Empire of Seduction. You can see her on book tour starting the week of August 26th, including with Jen in Chicago on August 28th. 
• Pinkertons & Bow Street Runners were early cops and private investigators. 
• Check out Joanna’s TikTok, which explores how the history of the Gilded Age is very relevant again: Tariffs are pretty bad, actually; the attempt to build an all white town in Arkansas, inspired by Apartheid South Africa, you can learn about Sundown Towns, Redlining, and racist housing covenants. 
• Al Swearengen is a character on the show Deadwood based on a real person.
• The Gilded Heiress pays homage to Anastasia the Disney movie, which is itself a retelling of the story of Anastasia Romanov. The novel also explores the famous crime of the kidnapped Lindbergh Baby.

• Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe
• Empire of Seduction by Mila Finelli
• The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe
• Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
• The Player by Kresley Cole
• Scoundrel, Take Me Away by Louisa Darling
• Faking It by Jennifer Crusie
• The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne
• Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt
• Baron by Joanna Shupe 
• A Good Rogue is Hard to Find by Kelly Bowen
• The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian
• Hidden Sins by Selena Montgomery
• The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders
• Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas
• The Windflower by Laura London
• Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
• Destiny’s Captive by Beverly Jenkins
• Captured by Beverly Jenkins
• To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins

• Amy Andrews, Pippa Roscoe, Rachael Stewart and Clare Connelly, authors of The Karma Club series, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Maureen Lee Lenker, author of His Girl Hollywood, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off. 

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/8/18/0748-criminals-and-noble-scoundrels-with-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.

It’s Bodyguard Romance week, which feels impossible, honestly, considering we’ve definitely done this before, haven’t we? According to Eric and also the internet, we haven’t, which means we get to talk for the first time in seven seasons about why Bodyguards work so well for so many romance readers, including us! We talk about the basics – the innate joy of having an Exasperated Man™️ willing to put himself in front of a bullet for you, the absolute delight of the books that turn the whole thing on its head and make the protector the protected, and yes, Whitney Houston. Also, Jen makes a brilliant observation on surveillance culture and how it’s impacting romance. We’re keeping you safe from the baddies this week.  

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

• In a recent interview Kevin Costner talked about his feelings about Whitney Houston. Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston’s versions of I Will Always Love You, Whitney’s isolated vocals on How Will I Know, and Whitney sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl in 1991 and the New Yorker article about it. 
• Caroline has created a bodyguard collection featuring books across subgenres. 
• The Big Easy is a movie with Dennis Quaid (he’s crazy now) and Ellen Barkin where he is a cop who uncovers corruption on the force. 
• Everyone, it looks like this thing about not needing a PI license in the state of Wyoming is legit, go forth and spread the news.

• Princess by Galen Foley
• Hans by SJ Tilly
• Wyoming Bodyguard by Danielle Haas
• The Wilde Ways Series by Cynthia Eden
• Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert
• The Billionaire’s Bodyguard by Emma Holly
• Sexy/Dangerous and Rare Danger by Beverly Jenkins
• Burned Dreams by Neva Altaj
• A Duke to Remember by Kelly Bowen
• Ace of Hearts by Renee Rose
• Keep Her Safe QB Tyler

• Blue Box Press, publishers of the Duty and Desire: A Uniformed Heroes & Bodyguard anthology featuring Aurora Rose Reynolds, Kristen Ashley, Kylie Scott & Rebecca Zanetti available at Amazon. 
• Hunter Snow, author of Gone Country, available at Amazon, B&N or wherever you get your books. 
• Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off. 

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/8/12/0747-bodyguards
• 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.

We're back with a deep dive episode on one of our favorite Susan Elizabeth Phillips books, Natural Born Charmer. Jen thinks this one marks SEP's Imperial Period, and Sarah looks askance at the term romcom to describe romance novels. We're back on our bullsh*t, is what we're saying. We're talking plot, character, risk-taking, and how romances can feel wildly expansive.

This is our last deep dive of Season 7 -- more in Season 8, which begins in September. If you want to talk in depth about specific books, though, maybe you'd enjoy being a member of our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

• You can get Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Natural Born Charmer at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• In season 2, we did a deep dive of an earlier Chicago Stars book, Nobody’s Baby But Mine. We also did an episode with Susan in season 3. It’s the interview that made us realize we should keep interviewing romance trailblazers. Jen was on Learning the Tropes to talk about another SEP book, Kiss an Angel. 
• In 2003, the song Hey Ya by Outkast was number 1 for 9 weeks at the end of that year and into early 2004. In 2018, Rolling Stone ranked the song #4 in the top 100 songs of the 21st Century So Far. 
• This article from Spin describes what it means when an artist is in their imperial period. 
• Sleazy Burt Reynolds guy.
• Almost Famous (2000) is amazing movie about the rise and fall of a 70s rock band.
• A great thing happened during the baby races halftime show last week at a Las Vegas Aces game last week. Also at the Indiana Fever game.

• Scarlett Xavier, author of Irish Fire and Forbidden Love, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Avon Books, publishers of Mason Deaver's The Build-a-Boyfriend Project, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Claire Trella Hill, author of Black and Deep Desires, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Avon Books, publishers of Holly Michelle's Last Night Was Fun, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/8/4/0746-natural-born-charmer-by-susan-elizabeth-phillips
• 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.

By request (and because Sarah needed books for her upcoming trip), we're talking about romance novels by Australian authors this week, with a nod to some New Zealanders as well. We discuss how historical romance has much maligned Australia, recommend some absolutely terrific books, many of which we've actually done deep dives on, and we talk about why so many Australian romances hit the spot with American readers.

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

Our next read along (next week!) is Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Natural Born Charmer. You can get it at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• French Kiss is not available on streamers and it's very upsetting for those of us who know the deep magic of Kevin Kline & Meg Ryan.
• Australia is not the nation of criminals historical romance novels would like you to believe, but a lot of criminals did get sent there over an 80 year period from 1788-1868.
• Sarah is going to talk to the Romance Writers of Australia and the  Romance Writers of New Zealand next month. Yes, she'll be going to Port Arthur in Tasmania to check out the place where all those criminals were sent.
• Victor Gadino illustrated the stepback for Dream Fever by Katherine Sutcliffe
• Mills & Boon is a British romance imprint, in North America these books are published under the name Harlequin.
• When Sarah talked about The Australians in the early years of Mills & Boon, she was wrong, and likely thinking of Diana Palmer's 1985 The Australian. The Australians series was a 12 book series in the early 2010s from Harlequin Presents.
• The book Raising the Stakes by Jess Dee is no longer available in Kindle, but maybe it is in other countries or maybe you downloaded it in the past? Check out her available titles here.

• Dream Fever by Katherine Sutcliffe
• The Sydney Smoke Series by Amy Andrews
• Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell
• Devil’s Bride and the Cynster family by Stephanie Laurens (listen to the deep dive)
• Wildflowers, Lies, and It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time by Kylie Scott (listen to the deep dive of Kylie's Stage Dive series)
• Captivated and Act Your Age by Eve Dangerfield
• Office Affair by Jess Dee
• The Milvus Files by NR Walker
• The Last Binding Series by Freya Marske
• A Baby in his In-Tray by Michelle Douglas
• The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie
• The Return of Her Billionaire Husband by Melanie Milburne
• Fugitive Bride by Miranda Lee 
• Home by Jezz De Silva
• Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh (listen to the deep dive)
• The Devil’s Submission by Nicola Davidson

• World Gone Wrong: A fictional chat show about friendship at the end of the world, available at audaciousmachinecreative.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.
• Sophie Morgan, author of Season of the Witch, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Louisa Darling, author of Scoundrel Take Me Away, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, or Apple Books.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/7/29/0745-australian-romance-authors
• 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 several years since the last time we talked about the allure of competency in romance, but it's a topic we adore, so here we are again, talking about characters with relentless competence and the characters who love them beyond measure. If you're new here, welcome! We're happy to have you!

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

Our next read along is Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Natural Born Charmer. You can get it at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• The These Summer Storms tour is a wrap, ending with Sarah in conversation with  Rebecca Baumann from the Lilly Library at the Mallow Run vineyard.
• That one movie with Keanu Reeves and a vineyard is called A Walk in the Clouds (1995).
• You can’t grow grapes anywhere, but you can grow them in a lot more places than you’d think. 
• The Nora Roberts book about fossils called Birthright, and here’s the manga Dreaming of You. Look at all these editions of Wuthering Heights.
• The Airmont career series.
• Here’s a recent update on the search for Amelia Earhart’s plane from just a few weeks ago.
• Watch the video of Delta’s flight crew uniforms over time.
• Jen was interviewed by Lauren Sarner from the New York Post for an article about love triangles in pop culture because of the return of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
• Ranger vs Morelli has been going on for far too long, or maybe it’s over?
• We last officially talked about careers back in Season 2, episode 8.
• Speaking of fixers, you might enjoy the movie Michael Clayton.
• Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. 
• Our next deep dive is Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

• Georgie All Along by Kate Clayborn
• Out with Lanterns by Hillary Bowen
• A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera  
• Single Player by Tara Tai
• Duke of My Heart by Kelly Bowen
• Pugs & Kisses by Farrah Rochon
• Wanted, A Gentleman by KJ Charles
• Cowboy, It’s Cold Outside by Maisey Yates
• Evernight by Kristen Callihan
• Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan
• The Fixer by Helenkay Dimon
• King by SJ Tilly

• Hillary Bowen, author of Out With Lanterns, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
• Wattpad Books, publisher of Z.W. Taylor's The Pack, available in print, ebook and audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
• Lumi Gummies, THC gummies available nationwide. Go to Lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/7/22/0744-jobs-careers-and-fixers-in-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.

In honor of tonight's WNBA all-star game, we're releasing our delightful Sports Romance episode from 2023:

It’s another sports interstitial! We’re talking sports, balls & sports balls with the brilliant Jessica Luther, sports romance lover, podcaster, and author of Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape and Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan. Everyone came to this one with their own strategy, so we’re talking everything from beach volleyball to hockey, surfing to F1. Of course, we talk about Beckham, but surprisingly, we don’t even say Jurgen Klopp one time.

For the full list of books we discussed, visit fatdmates.net.

• Welcome Jessica Luther. You can read her books, Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape and Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan, or listen to her (on hiatus) sports podcast Burn it All Down. Her dissertation is about Retha Swindell and the first integrated women’s basketball team at UT, and she recently wrote about the 50th anniversary of "The Battle of the Sexes."
• WNBA stuff we talked about: Teresa Weatherspoon is the new head coach for the Chicago Sky, Allie Quigley and Courtney VanderSloot, Dawn Staley supporting her players, and the WNBA pandemic bubble, and that dumb man who thinks a high school boys basketball team could beat a WNBA team, which by the way dumb men have been saying this about the WNBA for a long time.
• Football stuff we talked about: Taylor Swift has caused a spike of interest in the NFL, the SNL skit with the football players, women on TikTok getting their husbands to say that Taylor Swift is putting Travis Kelce on the map, the real life football cupcake shop in Austin, and why it’s a dumb idea to use betting apps on your phone.
• MNBA stuff we talked about: That tall man who plays for the Spurs is Victor Wembanyama and he’s 7’4” and it’s honestly quite startling! Bobby Knight was a terrible man. Jen’s too cheap to pay $300 a seat for a Bulls game.
• Hockey Stuff we talked about: the openly homophobic NHL banned pride tape this year, and even though they rescinded the ban, it’s still pretty awful for queer players and fans, the Blackhawks abuse scandal.
• Racing stuff we talked about: The Racy Books Podcast, F1 racing, Lewis Hamilton, Drive to Survive on Netflix, and NASCAR in Chicago. An important addition: a reader contacted us and let us know about Robbie Wickens, a race car driver who suffered a spinal cord injury in an Indy Car race and has returned to racing.
• Soccer stuff we talked about: Ted Lasso and the Beckham documentary on Netflix.
• a folder of PDFs for ya.
• Jen recommends some basketball romances.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/11/6/s0609-sports-romance-with-jessica-luther
• 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 series continues with Pamela Sanderson, the first Native American author to write contemporary romance about Native characters in Native community. Pamela joins us to talk about her writing journey, about her decision to write and independently publish romance, about the need for more Native American romance in the world. We so enjoyed this conversation, and we’re grateful to Pamela for joining us to tell her story.

Listen to all the Trailblazer episodes.

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

• Pamela Sanderson is an enrolled citizen of the Karuk Tribe, located in northwest California on the Klamath River. Pamela also publishes in other genres as Pamela Rentz. 
• People Mentioned this Episode: Louise Erdrich, N. Scott Momaday, Johanna Lindsay, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Stephen King, Anne Rice, On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves, Courntey Milan, Sarina Bowen, Love is a War Song by Danica Nava, Ali Hazelwood, Tessa Dare, Alexis Hall, Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman, the TV show North of North, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, and Rebecca Roanhorse.
• Writing Workshops: Clarion West and Romancing the Craft
• The Dear Author blog was an early, vocal fan of Pamela’s work. If you are interested in KidLit or have children, you should be familiar with Debbie Reese and her blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature.

• Heartbeat Braves
• Lovesick Braves
• Sweetheart Braves
• Crooked Rock Braves

• Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer Probst's The Reluctant Flirt, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
• Kylie Scott, author of Wildflowers: An End of the World romance, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
• World Gone Wrong: A fictional chat show about friendship at the end of the world, available at audaciousmachinecreative.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.
• Renée Ahdieh, author of Park Avenue, available in print, ebook, and audio at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/7/15/0743-trailblazer-pamela-sanderson
• 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.

Last night’s Fated Mates Live was so much fun, but now we’re back in your earholes. It’s time again for our annual Sarah MacLean deep dive (with no spoilers!). As per tradition, Jen asks Sarah a bunch of fun questions and forces Sarah to talk about her book. And it all ends with Julia Whalen reading two chapters of These Summer Storms!

It was a delight to see so many of you in St. Louis yesterday, and to everyone else, we’re just as glad you’re here with us today.

• It’s finally time for These Summer Storms! And it might not be too late to see Sarah on book tour! Mary Kay Andrews is very fierce on Instagram, and we love her for it. You can also see her with Renee Adiah, author of the forthcoming Park Avenue, which she mentions at the end of the show.
• When the New York Times published their Best Books of the 21st Century so far, Sarah shared her ballot. 
• Rhode Island has a long history of being associated with big money.
• On Inside the Actors Studio, the host James Lipton always ended with the same list of questions, known as the Pivot questions after their originator Bernard Pivot. Similarly, the New York Times column By the Book (Jen called it Get Booked, sorry for any confusion!) has a rotating list of questions, but some are very common. If you are interested in reading some of these columns, check out By The Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life, published in 2015. The books on Sarah’s nightstand were: The Second Coming by Carter Sherman, It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan, Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan, and Full Bloom by Francesca Serritella. 

• Kylie Scott, author of Wildflowers: An End of the World romance, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publisher of Midnight Myths and Magic, available in print and ebook from Amazon.
• Mina Brower, author of A God of Moonlight and Stardust, available in print, ebook, and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Avon Books, publisher of Scotch on the Rocks, available in print, ebook, and audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Bookshop.org.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net
• 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.

We're thrilled to have audiobook queen and Voice of the Summer (USA Today), Julia Whelan with us today! Aside from being the voice of Emily Henry, Taylor Jenkins Reid, VE Schwab and Kristen Hannah, she's also an author of her own delicious books and the founder of Audiobrary, an audio book company that pays narrators on a royalty structure. She's here to talk about her journey to writing and to narrating, about the way she thinks about her work, her advocacy, and the world of audiobooks. We are so incredibly thrilled to have her!

Julia is also the narrator for Sarah's book, These Summer Storms, available next week wherever books are sold. The audiobook is perfection, and you can read it on Audible, LibroFM or Apple Music...or wherever you get your audiobooks.

There are still tickets to see Sarah on tour in NYC, Chicago, Winston-Salem, NC, Newport, RI, Cambridge, MA, Decatur, GA, or Franklin, IN. There are a handful of tickets still available for Fated Mates Live in St. Louis, MO on July 8th! Join us!

If you can't make the tour, you can preorder These Summer Storms signed with a special romance dust jacket from The Ripped Bodice.

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

• Welcome Julia Whelan, USA Today's voice of the summer, audiobook narrator extraordinaire and the founder of Audiobrary.  A Netflix movie of her book My Oxford Year is coming soon.
• Sarah wants you to know that she realized later that she was remembering the plot of The Girl on the Train when she was talking about the audiobook Gone Girl, but that they're both bangers.
• Like everything, AI is creeping into the audiobook world.
• An audiobook Julia recommends is Jess Walters’s Beautiful Ruins, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini.

• These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
• Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
• My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan
• Casanova LLC by Julia Whelan
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Animal Bodies by Suzanne Roberts
• Heroine by Mary Jane Wells
• American Queen by Sierra Simone

• Avon Books, publishers of Alexandra Paige's An Irish Summer, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Chelsea Fagan, author of The High Dive, available in print, ebook or audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
• Alyxandra Harvey, author of A Deal with the Devil, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• MA Wardell, author of Stirring Spurs, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/7/1/0741-a-conversation-with-audiobook-narrator-julia-whelan
• 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.