• Show Notes
• Roy Kent screensaver video
• Diamond Dogs Book Club

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2021/12/30/s0417-roy-kent-redux#notes
• 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’ve been talking about the end (almost end) of this one since we started the podcast, so it seemed high time we did a deep dive on it! Judith McNaught’s Perfect is the most 90s thing we’ve ever read, so gird your loins for both the best all-is-lost scene in romance, and also Zach, Julie, prison breaks, illiteracy, the Coors corporation, Romance Cashmere, and so so many references to Kevin Costner. It’s the most 90s thing we’ve ever read, without question.

If you want to talk more about Perfect or Judith McNaught, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Sarah’s A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we’ve gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

• Books
• Perfect by Judith McNaught
• A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
• Remember When by Judith McNaught
• Double Standards by Judith McNaught
• Tender Triumph by Judith McNaught

Notes

• Jen said Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead but she meant Adventures in Babysitting, which was a 1987 movie where suburban kids go on a terrifying adventure in the terrifying big city of Chicago.
• We did a deep dive of A Kingdom of Dreams in Season 2.
• Kelly Faircloth sent Sarah an ad for the book from People Magazine. In print versions of the book, there was a letter from Judith McNaught explaining the literacy plot in the book.
• Interestingly, the Coors literacy push was covered by the New York Times in 1992, discussing the push by big companies to adopt a cause and use it to burnish their image.
• Okay, apparently fleece also had a bellwether year in 1993, but let’s be honest, it was Old Navy who made performance fleece happen for most of us and that was 1998.
• In America, our access to Abortion is much worse than it was in 1993 and America still has a devastating epidemic of suicide among queer teenagers, as The Trevor Project explains “LGBTQ+ young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”

Sponsors

• Frayed Pages by Wattpad Books, publishers of EM Wilson’s Breakup for Two, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Meghan Quinn, author of Just for the Plot, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Kylie Scott, author of Runaway Rockstar, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
• E.W. Andersen, author of the Midnights on the Square series. Available in print or ebook at at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/28/0845-judith-mcnaughts-perfect-content-warning-the-90s
• 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.

Just revisiting an old fav as we approach season four of Ted Lasso.

• Show Notes
• Diamond Dogs Book Club

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2021/7/18/s0348-is-roy-kent-a-romance-hero-the-ted-lasso-interstitial#notes
• 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.

The last few years have brought a wave of romances with magical elements—not really paranormal, not really witches, not really contemporary — books where something is just slightly ✨magic✨. Today, we’re talking about those books, how they work, what they’re saying, and how they work in terms of character, plot and POV. We’re also discussing how the books exist on the outer edges of the romance pool.

If you want to talk more about these speculative romance novels, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Books

• A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
• My Date with a Pair of Gray Sweatpants by Cassie O. Peia
• The House of Now and Then by Edward Underhill
• Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan
• Every Version of You by Natalie Messier
• The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz
• The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
• The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston
• Losing Sight by Tati Richardson
• Struck Speechless by Tati Richardson

Notes

• This year’s men’s World Cup actually broke the Own Goal record with 14 of them. Get ready for the Women’s World Cup in Brazil next year in 2027! So these English fans made up a bunch of chants for a regular player, which is very charming. Speaking of soccer, Mamdani continues to show us all that politicians can just…help make people’s lives better?
• Here’s a handout Jen uses to teach the three genres that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella, and why magical realism isn’t a catch-all or synonym for any writing with speculative elements.
• The pink dress question: how do you decide if your characters need to heal themselves in order to fall in love, or if falling in love is what heals them?
• Matthew Rhys and Matthew Macfadyen are in fact different people, but everyone’s watching Widow’s Bay.

Sponsors

• Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
• Lucy Score author of The Dead Guy Next Door, the first in the Riley Thorn series, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Harpercollins, publishers of Sleuths, by Samantha Moody, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/s0843
• 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.

Once upon a time, Sarah went to Sweden and met a thriller writer who likes talking about the rules of writing in genre as much as we do. We’re so excited that to be able to bring Anders de la Motte’s brilliant thoughts about thrillers and mysteries to Fated Mates in this far-reaching conversation on romance’s sister genres—thrillers & mysteries. We talk about Anders’s path to writing, about the rules of writing thrillers and mysteries, about the covenant mysteries and thrillers have with readers, and about Mystery Reasons™️. We had the best time with this one — you’re going to love it.

Learn more about Anders’s books at his English language publishers, Simon & Schuster and Harpercollins

If you want to talk more about Genre Carrying the Myth, Jayne Ann Krentz’s genius way of thinking about the work of genre fiction, or about mysteries and thrillers, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Thrillers and Mysteries Mentioned in This Episode

• The Mountain King by Anders De la Motte
• The Glass Man by Anders De la Motte
• The Rust Forest by Anders De la Motte
• Shutter Island by Denis Lehane
• The Usual Suspects
• Widow's Bay
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• Columbo
• Poker Face
• Murder, She Wrote
• Knives Out
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• Killing Floor by Lee Child
• Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
• Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
• The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
• James Bond
• Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
• Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• The Wire
• MemoRandom by Anders De la Motte
• End of Summer by Anders De la Motte
• Game by Anders De la Motte

Notes

Welcome Anders de la Motte, author of mysteries and thrillers. Many of his books have been translated to English, most recently The Asker series.

Many of the most famous fictional detectives we mentioned are on this list.

In fiction, unreliability is a narrative device meant to purposefully confuse or lie to the reader for the purposes of the story. We’ve argued that it’s more or less impossible to have an unreliable narrator in romance.

A good explainer on the difference between close 3rd (used in romance) and limited 3rd (used in mysteries/thrillers)

MacGuffins and other mystery and thriller tropes and vocabulary.

Sponsors

• Jill Shalvis author of Falling Into You, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local independent bookstore.
• Jess Turner, author of The Only Catch, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Hachette, publishers of In the Wake of the Ruined, by Kalie Cassidy, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
• Oliver Heber Books, publishers of The Forbidden Duke, by Darcy Burke, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books. Support the special 10th anniversary edition Kickstarter.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/anders-de-la-motte
• 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 summer, so we’re talking Country House Parties! We’re skulking around, having scandalous meetings in cupboards, getting caught in the rain near the groundskeeper’s cottage, and generally causing chaos during a summer party at an enormous country house where someone is definitely ending up married (or at least ruined). This is another one where we’re pretty shocked we haven’t done it before. Gird your loins, historical lovers!!

If you want to talk more about country house parties, about historicals, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Books

• Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean
• Duchess by Night by Eloisa James
• Band Sinister by KJ Charles
• Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
• How the Duke was Won by Lenora Bell
• A Dangerous Man by Connie Brockway
• Forever Your Duke by Erica Ridley
• Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare
• Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh
• What I did for a Duke by Julie Ann Long
• The Fifth Avenue Rebels Series by Joanna Shupe
• Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas

Notes

• It’s officially called The Obama Presidential Center, but you can also call it The Obamalisk OR the Taj Michelle. Whatever works for you! It’s a great place for a first date!
• The tall ships! It’s not the St. Charles, but the St. Lawrence waterways, it’s manmade, because you know, Niagara Falls. We know geography!
• Some people got married at Madison Square Garden and some other people got engaged at the top of the Empire State Building.
• In Tatler, author Lucy Foley wrote about the country house party.
• Noises Off is a farce.

Sponsors

• Rachel Griffiths, author of Just for the Season, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, signed from the Ripped Bodice, or wherever you get your books.
• Max Monroe authors of Where I Should Have Been, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or your local independent bookstore.
• Kristin Jennings, author of A Legacy of Magic & Monsters, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Union Square & Co., publishers of Pot Shot, by Laura Piper Lee, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/s0842-country-house-parties
• 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.

F1! WNBA! NY Nicks! World Cup! We swear we're not turning into a sports podcast, but we did feel like it's a great time to rerun our most recent Sports Romance episode with the brilliant Jessica Luther. But first, Jen talks with Cleveland Soccer Group CMO and Cleveland Astra cofounder Gina Prodan Kelly about women's soccer and the World Cup.

GOOOOOOOOOOAL!

Show Notes: S06.09: Sports Romance with Jessica Luther

We’re filling summer reading lists and making sure that you have plenty of beach reads ready for whatever your plans are! It’s hard to believe it’s July, but we’ve got another quarterly upcoming romance episode here to ease the pain of half the year already passed! Here’s a huge list of books arriving in July, August & September 2026—historical, paranormal, speculative, contemporary, a YA or two and a romantic suspense or two, we’ve got something for everyone. As a reminder, we haven’t read most of these, but we have big plans!

If you want more recommendations and more people with whom you can discuss 2026 romance novels, maybe you want to join our Patreon? You get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

AUTHORS: Do you have a book coming out in 2026 that you’d like to make sure we know about? Or, are you a debut romance author who’d like to make sure we know about your debut? Fill out the forms here:

• 2026/2027 Upcoming Romance Novels
• 2026 Debut Romance Novels

June Releases (Better Late Than Never)

• Love is a Contact Sport by Frederick Smith
• A Deal at Dawn by Vanessa Riley

July Releases

• Seduced by the Werewolf Highwaymen by Eva Leigh
• FIRE on Fire by Lukas Gaines
• Princess Bride with Benefits by Bella Mason
• As Long as it Takes by Jill Francis
• Die For Me by Shirlene Obuobi
• Kiss, Marry, Kill by Cara Tanamachi
• The Paddock Club by Madge Maril
• Affairs of State by Calvin James
• Formula Zero by Meredith Lanzen
• A Date with Death by Kelly Creagh
• Dearest Beast by Felicia Grossman
• Falling For You by Natasha Madison
• The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren
• Eclipse of the Crown by AK Caggiano
• Their Summer Rescue by Sera Taíno
• Maggie and Arthur’s Magic Moment by Leslie Rene
• Foxx by Paisley Hope
• Ravenous by Kresley Cole
• An Education in Longing by Charlotte Stein
• One Shattered Crown by Rebecca Zanetti

August Releases

• I Punched an Alien and Now We’re in Couples Therapy by Kimberly Lemming
• Steelborn by Taylor LaRue
• Embrace by Bal Khabra
• The Cozy Nook Bookshop by Jeannie Chin
• In What World by Bridget Morrissey
• It’s a Business Doing Pleasure With You by Lindsay Lewis
• Roped by Saffron Kent
• Don’t Say Mafia by CR Jane
• See you at the Sunset by Susan Lee
• Old Flames by Nadine Gonzalez
• Sex Positive by Brooklyn Rose
• International Relations by Zac Hammett
• Her Undercover Protector by Kayla Parrin
• The Marriage Rebound by Meka James
• Full Throttle by JK Maclaren
• Vow of Eternal Night by Lily Crozier

September Releases

• Love Me like a Rock Song by Shelley Jay Shore
• Hexy Beast by Avery Flynn
• You’re the One that I Haunt by Katie Jung
• A Spell of Heart and Havoc by Kristen Vale
• The Alibi Club by Carrie Talick
• The Invisible Roommate by Timothy Janovsky
• From Beijing With Love by Bei Lin
• Demons and Diplomacy by Megan Frampton
• With all my Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling
• Isn’t He Romantic by Adib Khorram
• How to Ruin a Rake by Kate Pearce
• Ghost Me, Maybe by Manda Collins
• See you Next Tuesday by Kate Stayman-London
• Game Over by Bella North
• Formula He’s the One by Andie J Christopher
• Doomsdate by Laura Piper Lee

Sponsors

• Felicia Grossman, author of Dearest Beast, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Juniper Butterworth, author of The King in the Forest, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, or with your subscription to Kobo Unlimited.
• E. Kennedy, author of Thornbird, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Union Square, publishers of This Blade of Ours, by Shalini Abeysekara, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/6/30/0840-2026-summer-preview
• 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.

Is it our birthday? It is not! But who says you need to celebrate a birthday in real life to celebrate birthdays in romance novels? Not us! Today we’re talking about books that focus on birthdays — something that you would think would be more common in romance. We talk about birthdays that are cursed, about mistakes made on birthdays, about why heroes don’t seem to have birthdays, and about old reliable — I’m turning thirty, better get rid of this pesky virginity!

Tell us about your favorite birthday romances over on the Fated Mates Discord, where it’s probably someone’s birthday—or at least close to someone’s birthday. The Discord is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Books

• Three Little Mistakes by Nikki Sloan
• Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean
• Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas
• Nero by SJ Tilly
• Wicked in Your Arms by Sophie Jordan
• All of Me by Tiya Rayne
• Witness to Passion by Naima Simone
• Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time by Kylie Scott
• Birthday Shot by Rilzy Adams
• The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

Notes

• You can visit The Book Nook bookstore and go on the Blue Bell Ice Cream Tour if you’re ever in Brenham, Texas.
• This reflecting pool situation, honestly, if someone wrote it into a book would be too heavy-handed a metaphor.
• What is clipping, you might be wondering. Well, something that’s bad, actually.
• Charlie Chaplin had babies when he was 73!
• We had a whole episode about Ruination in season 7.
• The “turning 3O book” Jen couldn’t think of is Charlie Quinn Lets Go by Jamie Varon. The nonfiction book she mentioned about “being frozen” is Girls Play Dead by Jen Percy.
• Chicago, don’t miss Jen and Sophia Benoit tonight (June 24), to celebrate the release of her first historical romance, The Very Definition of Love.

Sponsors

• Lotte James, author of From Rogue to Viscount, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Macmillan, publishers of Julie Murphy’s The Undergrads: Student Union, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
• Blue Box Press, publishers of To Catch a Sinner, by Dylan Allen, writing as Lucy Wilson-Tagoe available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/6/23/s0839-birthday-romances
• 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 on one of our favorite recent romances, Seven Days in June by Tia Williams! We talk about yearning in contemporaries, about books that have a powerful sense of place, about dual timelines, about secondary characters, about lines that stick with us years later, and about how fated mates works as a trope in a contemporary romance.

Tia also has a new book out this month, The Missed Connection. Get it wherever you get your books.

Listen to our Season 3 episode with Tia Williams about writers in romance and head over to talk about Seven Days in June or any of her other books on the Fated Mates Discord, accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Read Seven Days in June at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

• Sorry, we’re a Knicks podcast now, everyone. Sarah because of New York and Jen because of Villanova. Sarah did look up that Knickerbocker thing, but we never got back to it. Learn more about how those trousers became a symbol of NYC here.
• Sports curses are bad, just ask Red Sox fans! Spike Lee has really been through it, Jalen Brunson’s interview after the game just shows you a man trying to deal with his feelings.
• The World Cup, we just don’t know anything about that yet, but we’re gonna get up to speed on that, just like all the people of the world getting up to speed on America. Also, feels important to romance that we bring you the news that the Tartan Army cleared Boston out of beer.
• We had Tia Williams on the podcast back in season 3 when Seven Days in June was released. Although there is not a sequel to Seven Days, Shane and Eva are secondary characters in the YA romance with Audre that came out in 2025. Find out more about Tia, and see all her books at her website.
• Come see Sophia Benoit in conversation with us in NYC (June 23) and Chicago (June 24) to celebrate the release of her first historical romance, The Very Definition of Love.

Sponsors

• Frederick Smith, author of Love is a Contact Sport, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
• Little Brown & Company, publishers of Lu Chekowsky’s Don’t Buy What I’m Selling: On Breaking Up with Advertising and Finally Learning to Love My Whole, Fat Self, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
• The What in the Smut? Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
• W by Wattpad Books, publishers of Nicole Alfrine’s Brain Games. Available in print and ebook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/2026/6/16/s0838-seven-days-in-june-by-tia-williams
• 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 visiting with Mary Kay Andrews, a longtime writer and certified badass who we adore for her WTAF Wednesdays and her delightful books. We talk about her writing journey, her decision to get publicly, vocally political, and about her new book Road Trip. We had a great time chatting and talking about writing, about research, and about how we should all just take a road trip through Ireland. Of course, we recommend a few books!

Find Mary Kay Andrews (and catch WTAF Wednesdays) on Instagram, Threads, or her website.

Listen to our earlier romance road trip episode from Season 1 and head over to tell us all about your favorite road trips and find an endless list of road trip recs on the Fated Mates Discord, accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Next week, our read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Books Discussed

• Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews
• Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
• This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews
• Nevermind the Mistletoe by Louisa Darling
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Odyssey, Emily Wilson's Translation
• The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
• The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

Sponsors

• Edward Underhill, author of The House of Now & Then, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.
• Kristina Forrest, author of The Summer Girlfriend, available for preorder in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or wherever you get your books.
• Little Brown & Co, publishers of Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory. Available in print, ebook and audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/6/9/s0837-road-trips-with-mary-kay-andrews
• 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.