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.

We're both staying very still in front of air conditioners this week, so that means we're very very happy to have a pile of summer reads at the ready! We're teeing up your piles of summer reads this week with our quarterly romance roundup! As a reminder, we haven't read most of these books -- but they're the ones toppling our TBR! As a reminder, preorders mean a lot more than they should these days, so if there's anything on this list that makes you go "oh, yes. that's for me," and you're able to preorder from your local bookstore (or from Pocket Books Bookshop with the code PREORDER) or reserve at your local library. The authors on this list thank you.

As a reminder, Sarah has a new book out on July 8th -- go see her 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.

June

• When Javi Dumped Mari by Mia Sosa
• Best Summer Ever by Jessica Cunsolo
• Keeping the Countess by Lille Moore
• An Ancient Witch’s Guide to Modern Dating by Ceclia Edwards
• Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino
• Party of Three by C. Travis Rice
• Eliza and the Duke by Harper St. George
• Steel Horses & Leather Roads by Cher Terais

July 

• These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
• Enemies with an Earl by Lizzie C. Koz
• The Summer You Were Mine by Jill Francis
• Give Me a Reason by Jayci Lee
• Behind Frenemy Lines by Zen Cho
• How Freaking Romantic by Emily Harding
• One More Time by Emily S. Morris
• Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman
• Love is a War Song by Danica Nava
• August Lane by Regina Black
• Only Lovers in the Building by Nadine Gonzalez
• Sweet Thing by Kate Meader
• Bad Luck Bride by Laura Lee Guhrke
• Scotch on the Rocks by Elliot Fletcher
• Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods
• Not Part of the Plan by Lucy Score
• Soulgazer by Maggie Rapier
• The Great Misfortune of Stella Sedgwick by S. Isabelle
• Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by CB Lee
• A Forbidden Alchemy by Stacey McEwan 

August 

• Heart Strings by Ivy Fairbanks
• A Promise of Forever by Sheryl Lister
• The Sea Witch by Eva Leigh
• His Forgotten Wife by Tara Pammi
• You’ve Got a Place Here, Too: An Anthology of Black Love Stories Set at HBCUs
• The Fortune Hunter’s Guide to Love by Emma-Claire Sunday
• My Big Fat Vampire Wedding  by Jessica Gadziala
• Zom Romcom by Olivia Dade
• Kiss & Collide by Amanda Weaver
• The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe
• Here For a Good Time by Pyae Moe Thet War
• The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
• Love is an Open Book by Chandra Blumberg
• Gabriela and His Grace by Liana De La Rosa
• Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
• A Waltz on the Wide Side by Erica Ridley
• My Best Friend’s Earl by Bethany Bennett

September

• Time for You by Elizabeth Davis
• By the Horns by Ruby Dixon
• It Had to be Him by Adib Khorram
• Dead Poet Sorority by Sofia Shelley
• The Haunting of William Thorn by Ben Alderson 
• The Princess and the P.I. by Nikki Payne 
• Tracing Her Stolen Identity by Katie Mettner
• To Heist and to Hold by Christina Britton
• Honey and Heat by Aurora Palit
• We Met Like This by Kasie West
• Scoundrel, Take Me Away by Louisa Darling
• Charlie Quinn Lets Go by Jamie Varon
• Mourner for Hire by Caitlin Moss
• Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola

• Pocket Books Bookshop, a feminist, antiracist, queer owned bookshop in Lancaster, PA. Preorder any upcoming book from their website and use the code PREORDER for 15% off! Get These Summer Storms signed by Sarah from them.
• Kay K. Denner, author of Again, Scoundrel, available in ebook from Amazon.
• Kara Kentley, author of Another Summer, available in print or ebook 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 your order.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/6/21/0740-hot-summer-reads
• 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 Opening the Book Hydrant

11:33 June

21:24 AD: ANOTHER SUMMER

23:38 July

42:34 AD: POCKET BOOKS

44:41 More July!

55:31 AD: AGAIN SCOUNDREL

57:36 August

1:20:03 AD: LUMI GUMMIES

1:22:08 More August!

1:32:07 September

1:58:16 undefined

This week, we're talking about romance's most common family: the dysfunctional one! Sarah wrote a book about one, so we're thinking about what makes them special to romance, and what sets the romantic dysfunctional family apart from the ones that live outside of the genre. Jen has five categories. There's a game involved. You can play along at home!

If you love this one, you can listen to our Daddy Issues (not the fun kind) episode with C. Travis Rice. And if you just want to listen to an episode about Daddies (the fun kind), we've got you.

Sarah's book, These Summer Storms is out in three weeks and she is going on tour! What's more, there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour! 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.

• The Filthy Rich Americans series by Nikki Sloan 
• The Uptown Girls Series by Joanna Shupe
• The Dukes in Disguise Series by Louisa Darling
• American Royalty by Tracey Livesay
• Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria 
• One and Only by Jenny Holiday
• The Billionaire’s Bargain by Naima Simone
• Lead by Kylie Scott
• After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez
• Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole
• The Player by Kresley Cole
• Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre
• Darkest Sins and Sweet Prison by Neva Altaj
• The Dangerous Royals Series by Annika Martin
• Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Dream a Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
• Beautiful Beast by Neva Altaj
• Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
• The Scandal and Scoundrel Series by Sarah MacLean
• The Proposition by Judith Ivory
• The Blue Cedar Falls Series by Jeanne Chin
• Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
• The Takeover Effect by Nisha Sharma
• The Vega Family Love Stories Series by Natalie Cana
• Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

• If you love Derek Craven, check out  the newest entry at the Fated Mates Collections Department, Spectacular Spectacles courtesy of Sanj. 
• You can listen to our Susan Elizabeth Phillips episode as you do your “one a days.” (When we recorded all the eBooks were on sale, but they aren’t anymore. SORRY.)
• According to Psychology Today, there are 5 specific types of dysfunctional families.
• Taking the Finger, explained 
• Jen called it a Drive-Thru in Dream a Little Dream, but she meant a DRIVE-IN. Maybe go to one if you want and report back, idk! Or the new version is this Rooftop Cinema Club, where you sit together with bluetooth headphones.
• A great discussion of why it’s problematic or damaging to always redeem the family, read this powerful essay about why queer people have the right to leave their harmful family members behind by Nathan Burgoine. 

Sponsors

• Kristen Jennings, author of Lessons From a Tour Guide, available in print, ebook, audiobook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Amy James, author of Crash Test, available in print, ebook, or audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or wherever you get your books.
• JL Birchwood, author of Power Ballad, 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/2025/6/17/0739-romances-dysfunctional-families
• 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 taking a second run at second chance romance this week, and while we intended to recommend a million books, we ended up talking about all the ways this trope really works and really doesn't work for us! We're talking about rekindling love, unrequited love, resurrecting old wounds, the unforgivable stuff and of course, pining. It's a long one, and yes, Jen is talking about present tense.

If you love this one, you can listen to our first Second Chance Romance episode with Priscilla Oliveras here.

It's that time of year again--Sarah's next book, These Summer Storms is out in July and she is going on tour! What's more, there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour! 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.

• Love’s Encore by Rachel Ryan
• Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan
• Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas
• Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean
• Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean
• Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan
• If I Told You, I’d Have to Kiss You by Mae Marvel
• Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt
• Designing his Duchess by Gabrielle Carr
• A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria
• Broken by the Horde King by Zoey Draven
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time by Kylie Scott
• Make Me Hate You by Kandi Steiner
• Dreams of Dark Warrior by Kresley Cole

• Everyone watches women’s sports. You can watch basketball, women’s soccera, and the new softball league. Get out there, go do stuff in your town! 
• We had a second chance romance episode back in season 3 with Priscilla Oliveras.

• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Dark Clouds and Bright Skies: A Grumpy Sunshine Collection, with novellas by Joanna Wylde, Kristen Proby, Larissa Ione and Laura Kaye, available in ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Ava Miles, author of The Hockey Experiment, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Meghan Quinn, author of Till Summer Do Us Part, available in print, ebook, or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• 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/6/9/0738-a-second-chance-on-second-chance-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.

Another deep dive episode, and this one feels like it shouldn't have taken so long! We're reading Run Posy Run, talking about the way Cate C. Wells walks a fine line of mafia romance while keeping the book on the morality chain side of the line from dark romance. We talk about heroines against the wall, heroes who have to suffer, the way violence fits into these romances, and about sex and how it's deployed in these books to enormous effect.

We love this one (as you all know), and we were so excited to go back to it and give it the deep read it deserved. You can find all of our deep dives at the Fated Mates Book Club.

It's that time of year again--Sarah's next book, These Summer Storms (complete with sexy, silent, deeply competent hero) is out in July and she is going on tour! What's more, there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour! 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.

Run Posy Run by Cate C. Wells

• A boat, ship whatever, ran into the Brooklyn Bridge, and here’s a video of a woman who is a mariner explaining what might have happened. 
• The Chicago River is an engineering marvel. In 1887, they reversed the river and sent it out to the Mississippi rather than having it flow into Lake Michigan. They were moving rivers around in Rhode Island because of Mayor SOMEBODY and his desire to turn Providence into the Venice of the United States. Waterfire is a Providence thing, but it isn’t the same as the water fire[s] in Cleveland. The greatest of the Great Lakes is Lake Superior, to be honest, and it’s not afraid to tell everyone about it. Station Eleven is a great book set in and around the Great Lakes. No one ever talks about Lake Huron except for Jenny Holiday. Great Lakes, Great Times!
• The New Jersey mob loved The Sopranos. 
• There is a short story now available about Dario & Posy’s daughter called Made Man.
• The psychopath vs. sociopath continuum. 
• You can listen to our previous episodes for more about the difference between morality chain and dark romance. 

• Patricia Grayhall, author of A Place for Us, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Underlined: Where Books Are Life, a place for young readers to explore find their next book obsession along with quizzes, reading lists, book trailers and more. Visit getunderlined.com.
• Darci St. John, author of Racing Heart, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Avon Books, publishers of Alexis Daria's Along Came Amor, 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/2025/6/3/0737-run-posy-run-by-cate-c-wells
• 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.

Sarah is over the moon that we're talking about celebrities again, especially because we're keeping it tight this time around and limiting it to celebrity/normal person romance (mostly -- Jen is ungovernable)! Yes, Sarah is going to talk about Perfect, but also we're going to talk about celebrities who fall for stranger normies, for normies they knew before they were celebrities, for normies who work with them, and for normies who protect them. The episode is 1200 books long and honestly, we're not sorry.

In case you wondered why Sarah is breaking her rule about talking about her own books, it's that time of year again! Her next book, These Summer Storms (complete with sexy, silent, deeply competent hero) is out in July and is going on tour, and there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour! 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.

Our next read along is Cate C Wells's Run Posy Run, available right now in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited at Amazon, Apple Books, and Libro.fm.

• Perfect by Judith McNaught
• All The Feels by Olivia Dade
• The Hollywood Jinx by Sariah Wilson
• Fan Service by Rosie Danan
• Not a Bad Boy by Louisa Edwards
• LOL by Lucy Lennox & Molly Maddox
• The Mechanic by Reina Torres
• The Stand-In by Lily Chu
• The Decoy Girlfriend by Lillie Vale
• 32 Days in May by Betty Corrello
• The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev
• Ghosted by JM Darhower
• Small Town Swoon by Melanie Harlow
• Just Playing House by Farah Heron
• Just for the Holidays by Adriana Herrera
• When I Think of You by Myah Ariel
• What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James
• Into the Woods by Jenny Holiday
• Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan
• Set Piece by Lana Schwartz
• Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
• The Mixtape by Brittainy Cherry
• The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
• Keep Her Safe by QB Tyler

• Pilsen is a great Chicago neighborhood that has historically been home to Mexican-Americans, including stunning murals throughout the neighborhood. But also, that Chicago dust bowl of 2025 was not so great!  
• Summer book tour is upon us. Check out Sarah’s book tour, including dates for Fated Mates Live. In Chicago, Jen will be at The Last Chapter with Mia Sosa for her book When Javie Dumped Mari on June 30th and the Books in Bloom Event hosted by the Chicago North Romance Writers in July.
• Jen went out for Kennedy Ryan’s tour for her new book, Can’t Get Enough.
• We’ve had versions of the celebrity romance in previous seasons: the celebrity romance in season 4, way back in season 1 we did an episode on rock star romance, and sports romance with Jenny Nordbak in season 1, with Farrah Rochon in season 3, and Jessica Luther in season 6. And no, we haven't done a bodyguard episode, but check out Caroline's "I Can Be Your Bodyguard" collection!
• The primordial celebrity/normie romance for Jen is the movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. For Sarah, the primordial celebrity normie book was Perfect by Judith McNaught. As it turns out, Hugh Grant and Hugh Jackman are not the same person.

• Alice Murphy, author of A Showgirl's Rules for Falling in Love, available in print and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple or wherever you get your books.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of Lexi Blake's Built to Last, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
• Bailey Seaborn, author of All Twerk, No Play, available in print, ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Avery Maxwell, author of Heart Strings and Hotlines, available in print or ebook, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org.
• Vedentro, premium leather accessories. Use code FATHER at checkout to get $25 off. If you sign-up on the website you will receive an email with an additional $45 off, for a total savings of $70. Visit vedentro.com for more info.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/5/26/0735-celebrity-normie
• 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 on hiatus this week. We planned this long ago, but forgot to tell you about it. Honest! Please visit the original season four episode page for more info.

One of the og romance tropes is on the table today -- we're talking about heroines who are on the shelf! It's not quite wallflowers, not quite ruined, not quite spinsters...it's a very particular flavor of unmarried woman, and one we basically only find in historicals (can you tell Sarah is writing?). We're talking about the subtle nuances of heroines on the shelf and honoring some of the classics...but Sarah's got a batch of books we've never talked about before!

Also! It's that time of year again! Sarah has a new book out in July and is going on tour, and there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour!

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 Cate C Wells's Run Posy Run, available right now in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited at Amazon, Apple Books, and Libro.fm.

• Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
• The Proposition by Judith Ivory
• The Viscount Who Loved Me and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
• A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare
• An Earl Like You by Caroline Linden
• Along Came a Duke by Elizabeth Boyle
• One for the Rogue by Manda Collins
• His Wicked Reputation by Madeline Hunter
• Love is a Rogue by Lenora Bell
• Taming His Viking Woman by Michelle Styles

• Check out the The Collections Department for fun groups of books, organized by real people. 
• On the shelf, wallflowers, and spinsters.
• What does being a spinster look like now?
• - Louisa Darling suggested the French Guy who made a TikTok about “dating a girl who is used to being alone.”
• - A contemporary example (other than Bridget Jones) is Gracie from Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. 
• Author Madeline Hunter died in April and was an important member of the romance community. A professor and historian, for many years, Madeline was chair of the RWA Academic Grant Committee, ensuring that researchers and academics had access to funds to research and write about romance. She wrote this piece about spinsters for USA Today in 2015. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and readers.

• Ava Rani, author of The Charmer, available in print, ebook, and audio from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and Libro.fm.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Sparks and Surrender: An Enemies-To-Lovers Collection, available in print or ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited from Amazon.
• Susan Lee, author of The Romance Rivalry, available in print, ebook, or audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and Libro.fm.
• Stephanie Rose, author of A Whole New Ball Game, available in print or ebook, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org.

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/5/12/s0735-on-the-shelf-with-spinsters-amp-wallflowers
• 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 gonna get people excited with this one (it's us. we're the ones who are getting excited). Back by popular demand, we're talking craft this week--digging deep into the third-act breakup, what it really means, why it's misunderstood, and why it really is essential to romance. Sarah suggests that every romance has one whether people like to admit it or not, Jen is, as always, ready to fight. Strap in!

Also! It's that time of year again! Sarah has a new book out in July and is going on tour, and there is a real deal Fated Mates LIVE planned for July 8th in St. Louis, MO! Get tickets to any of these events (Jen will be at a bunch of them, and other pod friends will be popping up along the way) at sarahmaclean.net/tour!

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.

• Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
• Something Wilder and Beautiful Stranger by Christina Lauren
• Hidden Truths by Neva Altaj
• Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
• Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
• The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan
• Lead by Kylie Scott
• Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kang
• Painted Scars by Neva Altaj
• MacRieve by Kresley Cole

• We love Sephora and Ulta, and Sarah has some faves from Dermatology Instagram, like dermangelo and drdrayzday.
• Sarah’s on tour for These Summer Storms in July, and Fated Mates Live will be in St. Louis!! 
• Sarah recommends the audio of The Hero’s 2 Journeys by Michael Hauge
• In our discussion, we identified several types of third act break-ups: Going Home Again, Self-Sacrifice, Who am I?, and You Fucked All the Way Up. 
• An SD card, for you youths.

• Dani Francis, author of Silver Elite, available in print or ebook, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Cara Dion, author of Claim to Fame, available in print or ebook from Amazon.
• Rachel Griffiths, author of The Trouble with Anna, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Anna Todd, author of The Last Sunrise, available in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, 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/2025/5/5/0734-the-third-act-break-up-complimentary
• 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.

Today we're headed back in the time machine to before the pandemic when everyone but us read this one m/m hockey book and lost their collective minds! Heated Rivalry is one of those books that romance lovers place high up on their keeper shelf, and we're talking about why, about how it really knocks sports romance out of the park (yes, we're aware that there is no knocking out of parks in hockey), and how it might be one of the books that launched a thousand hockey ships.

We're talking about erotica vs. erotic romance vs. romance, about sexy secrets, about first names and about why it's always sexy when people say "I love you" in a foreign language.

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.

• Heated Rivalry
• The Long Game

• Visit the Fated Mates Collections Department for great romance recommendations organized by micro tropes, characteristics, subgenres, or things like Virgin Heroes. Check out Jen’s collection Hoop! (There It Is) and listen to the 1993 hit song, Whoomp! (There It Is) by Tag Team.
• Barnes & Noble and Amazon holding sales during Independent Bookstore day felt super icky. If you missed it this year, maybe you can find a great indie to visit next year. It’s always the last Saturday in April.
• Alan Ritchson is Jack Reacher, Alan Rickman is not.
• On the road to the NHL, the World Juniors is pretty important. 
• Professional sports are notably homophobic, especially the NHL despite its history of hosting pride nights. Luke Prokop is the only openly gay professional hockey player, but he does not play in the NHL at this time.  The professional sports league with the most openly queer players is the WNBA, which also has a past history of enforcing certain gender norms and gender presentation for its players.
• Leagues create rivalries between players and teams in order to promote their brand and ratings. A WNBA case study is Angel Reese & Caitlin Clark.

• Measured & Slow, purveyors of unique crafted products for people who love books and whimsy. Visit the shop at measuredandslow.studio.
• Jillian David, author of Paging Dr. Breakup, available in print or ebook, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• LaQuette, author of Royal Bride Demand, available in print or ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, 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/2025/4/28/0733-heated-rivalry-by-rachel-reid
• 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.