Calling all Loons! You’ve heated and reheated the rivalry, and now it’s time for us to talk about what you should read between now and Season 2. We’re joined by friend and fave of the pod, Christopher Rice, who writes m/m and sometimes m/m/m romance as C. Travis Rice. We talk about our feelings about Heated Rivalry, about the books and their impact, and about the transformational work of the show…and then we fill your to-be-read piles with books we thing deliver the same kind of emotions. We had a great time, and you will, too.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, or you want to talk more about Heated Rivalry & romance novels, 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 The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

Notes

1. Welcome back Christopher Rice who writes romance under the name C. Travis Rice. Christopher and his best friend Eric Shaw Quinn host a podcast called The Dinner Party Show. You can listen to their Heated Rivalry episode here, and Eric’s tuna melt thoughts start around the 18:30 minute mark. Their episode with Dateline producer Josh Mankiewicz aired on March 1st. You can watch the documentary Anne Rice: An All Saints’ Day Celebration for free at her website.
2. Wesley Morris’s essay in the New York Times, I’m so Used to Gay Tragedies That I Almost Missed Romance.
3. The Heated Rivalry Crave social media feed highlighted the power of the adaptation by showing the cast reading from the books, juxtaposing scenes from the show with the text, and loving Rachel Reid!
4. Good Will Hunting is 29 years old! Okay, I know that Ryan Coogler has made a couple of Marvel movies, but he’s also writing dazzling original films like Sinners!
5. Olympians in Italy ran through 10,000 condoms in 3 days and the Village needed to do some restocking. Here’s one athlete’s history of condoms at the Olympics.
6. To be fair, adding a pitch clock and changing other MLB baseball rules have shortened the running time of most games.
7. For more information about gay rodeo, follow the instagram of the International Gay Rodeo Association. Pick Up Men is the first book in the Pick Up Men series by LC Chase.

Sponsors

1. Jayne Ann Krentz, author of The Shop on Hidden Lane, available in print or ebook. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
2. The Romantasy Letters, a new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.
3. Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Dream of You, a Wait for You novella. Available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon & Barnes & Noble.

The Rest

• 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.

Things are looking very wild out here in the real world so you deserve a deep dive on a book by an author with a big backlist and we are here to give you just that! Today's episode is on Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife, a modern day marriage of convenience story from Julia Wolf's The Harder They Fall series. We talk about fake husbands down bad, family drama, and the charm of an author building a big universe for all their characters to live in forever.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, or you want to talk more about Julia's books, 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.

Read Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

1. How the great blizzard of 2026 stacked up with previous blizzards. Seems like Providence was a bad place to be. The winner of this year’s Chicago’s snowplow naming contest: Abolish ICE.
2. Everyone loves Bad Bunny.
3. Ryan Coogler gave a beautiful speech about love at the BAFTA awards. Watch Jayme Lawson from the NAACP Awards give a brilliant explanation of why BAFTA and BBC are to blame for the events at this year’s BAFTA awards.
4. We have both been reading a lot of Julia Wolf books ever since our New Year’s Milkin’ Eve episode.
5. Wyoming is a very big state with a very small population, so small in fact that there are 117 counties that have a bigger population than the entire state. You can play around with comparing populations using this map tool from Slate.
6. The other books we mentioned this episode by Julia Wolf: a rock star romance, Built to Fall. Saoirse’s brother’s book is Sweet Like Poison. Luca’s sister’s book is In the Details.

Sponsors

1. Melanie Greene, author of New Flames, available in print or ebook. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
2. The Romantasy Letters, a new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.
3. The What in the Smut? Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
4. Vedentro, premium leather accessories. Use code FATED at checkout to get an additional 10% off the best offer on the site.

The Rest

• 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.

Continuing our series on Romance Vibes, we’re talking about Romance Wardrobe this week! We’re talking corsets and chemises, falls and Hessian boots, Armani suits and underpants that rip right off. We also get to the bottom of the pronunciation of bliaut. Do we recommend books? Not really, but it’s ok, we all deserve a week of goofing off sometime. All that, and Sarah saw “Wuthering Heights.”

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

Next week, our read along is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

1. Sarah went to see Scare Quotes Wuthering Heights, but Jen hasn’t seen it yet. According to New York Magazine, you don’t have to read Wuthering Heights to see “Wuthering Heights.” But the costumes sure are beautiful.
2. Those Bronte sisters!
3. Desmond Morris’s 12 Steps to Intimacy
4. All about smelling salts.
5. A woman and her baby stroller were blown into Lake Michigan last week! The Windy City is no joke!
6. Am I to understand these are not historically accurate Kilts?
7. Beau Brummell was a real person.
8. The Armani suit was a big deal in the 80s.
9. We are not rich enough to do anything but read about stealth wealth.
10. You should watch Deadwood.

All About:

1. Chemise
2. Reticule
3. A beaver hat is this, not that.
4. Bliaut
5. Kirtle
6. Buttons
7. Waistcoat
8. Greatcoat
9. Pelisse
10. Union suit

Sponsors

1. Blue Box Press, publishers of Larissa Ione’s Demonica Legacy series rereleased paperbacks, available in print, ebook or audiobook. Get the redesigned paperbacks at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.
2. The Romantasy Letters, A new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.
3. Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
4. Amy Spalding, author of In Her Spotlight, 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
• 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 old pal Billy Shakes told us that music is the food of love, and we’re taking that to heart this week! By request from Eric (who’s never requested anything before), we’re looking at songs that charted in February over the years and matching them with romance novels that suit! We’ve got a little bit of something for everyone here, from historicals to paranormals, motorcycles to mafia to magical realism. Eric’s put together a playlist, and you can find links to that and articles about a bunch of these songs in show notes, or you can just head straight to reading the books. We don’t judge!

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, or more romance lovers who love music, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community (complete with a music channel)! 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 (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

1. You can listen to the accompanying playlist on Apple Music and Spotify
2. You, too, may want to learn about this mahjong situation brewing in the Midwest with Barbara.
3. It’s the Olympics. Defector is covering all the news stories we want to know about, including the Curling Drama between Sweden and Canada, the ice dancers are super villains, and this Norwegian skier is an idiot.
4. Happy Black History Month! Jen did something cool at The Newberry Library. It was part of the Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon, transcribing information about the Colored Conventions. You can still participate using Zooniverse, and looking for the Douglass Day Project.
5. Sarah enjoyed learning about the Asking Dumb Questions class at Yale.
6. Tom Breihan writes a column The Number Ones at Stereogum, and Jen also enjoys a similar Slate podcast called Hit Parade.
7. Here’s the spreadsheet of February hits, and a playlist of songs we talked about today! The Macarena is a song about love triangles! Bad Romance by Lady Gaga is on this list, but we only talk about books we like.
8. The DJ book Jen couldn’t remember was Rival Radio by Kathryn Nolan.
9. The Stud Budz, WNBA players Courtney Williams & Natisha Hiedeman, did a long livestream during the 2025 All Star Weekend, and they sang and danced to Pink Pony Club. Check out Babes Sports Bar if you’re ever in Chicago. Jen did an event there, cohosted by 831 Stories & Off the Dribble Chicago, an organization for basketball-playing women and girls in the city.
10. Prince renamed himself as a symbol when fighting with his record label.

Sponsors

1. Blue Box Press, publishers of Dylan Allen’s Rivers Wilde rereleased paperbacks, available in print, ebook or audiobook. Get the redesigned paperbacks at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.
2. The Romantasy Letters, A new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.
3. MA Wardell, author of Peaches & Pucks, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Barnes & Noble, bookshop.org or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
4. Jennifer Iacopelli, author of Game, Set, Match, 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
• 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 weekend, the world is celebrating the second most important romance holiday in February (see last week’s episode for the most important)—Valentine’s Day! To lean into the traditions of the day, we thought we’d offer you a dozen roses this week, in the form of books! We’re taking the topic broadly—from character names, to author names, to rose scented things, to roses on the page — historical, contemporary, mafia and more…there’s something in here for everyone. 🌹

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 (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

Ladyhawke is a 1985 movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rutger Hauer, and Matthew Broderick.

Go see “Wuthering Heights” if you want! It has Jacob Elordi ( even though Heathcliff should be a man of color) and Margot Robbie, but mostly it’s about capturing a vibe.

Sinners was terrific, it stars Michael B Jordan playing twins, was nominated for a record-breaking 16 Oscars, and includes both an extraordinary sequence about the history of music and a hero who enjoys a meal.

Well, we actually talked about a bunch of rose adjacent stuff outside of our official dozen roses. Here they are:

1. Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic
2. Rose Nylund from The Golden Girls defending Minnesota
3. The first book in Lorraine Heath’s Rogues and Roses series is A Duke of Her Own
4. SJ Tilly (who we think is great) has an epistolary romance called Dear Rosie
5. Orca is the official name of the killer whale
6. We wouldn’t wish Hyperemesis gravidarum on anyone
7. Please don’t fuck around with measles—get your kids vaccinated and your titers checked
8. You should probably read The Red before you read The Rose
9. The covers and/or stepbacks of Sarah’s Rules of Scoundrels series feature roses, and in One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, Pippa is breeding roses
10. Lilah Rose is the name of the heroine in A Duke Worth Falling For
11. We love author Stephanie Rose
12. Here’s a list of romances with rose in the title, and another list of books with characters named Rose.

Jen will be at Babe’s Sports Bar on Thursday, Feb 12, 2026 to talk about Rooting Interest by Cat Disabato and at the White Oak Library in Romeoville at 10:30am on Saturday February 21, 2026.

On Saturday, March 7th, Sarah will be at the Ballrooms and Beyond Conference in Bristol, RI. The event is free, but registration is required. Also, there’s a (not free) cocktail party!

Sponsors

1. Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Primal of Blood and Bone limited edition paperback, available in print, ebook or audiobook, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever you get your books.
2. Harpercollins, publishers of AT Qureshi’s The Baby Dragon Bookshop, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
3. Lyx Books, publishers of Brittany Cherry’s Eleanor & Grey, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
4. Tarina Deaton, author of Day in the Knight, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, your local indie, or wherever you get your audiobooks.

The Rest

• 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.

It’s finally happened! In a perfect Derek Craven Day celebration, our Trailblazer conversations continue this week with thee Lisa Kleypas, historical romance royalty, who changed the game when she brought working class heroes to historicals. We discuss her four decades of work in romance, from historical to contemporary to magical realism and now into historical fiction, touching on the Kleypas hero, the way she builds series, and the ways that she continues to push herself as a storyteller. And yes, she was kind enough to play a round of Derek Craven Would Never.

We are so grateful to Lisa Kleypas for making time for us, for her amazing books, and for Derek Craven Day.

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 (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Lisa Kleypas Books Mentioned This Episode

1. Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas
2. Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
3. Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas
4. Forever My Love by Lisa Kleypas
5. The Vallerands Series by Lisa Kleypas
6. The Wallflowers Series by Lisa Kleypas
7. Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
8. The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
9. Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
10. Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas
11. Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas
12. Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
13. Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas
14. The Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas

Notes

1. Welcome Lisa Kleypas. This fall, she’s releasing her first historical fiction novel, The Queen of Lombard Street.
2. People mentioned: editor Carolyn Nichols, editor Ellen Edwards, author Laura Kinsale, author Rebecca Brandewyne, author Stephanie Laurens, author Julia Quinn, editor Jen Enderlin, editor Carrie Feron, author Eloisa James, author Jennifer Crusie.
3. Other notable mentions: Louisa May Alcott’s House in Concord MA, William Crockford the inspiration for Derek Craven, the observation about industry vs crime was (of course) made by Sanj, and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson the inspiration for Dr. Garrett Gibson.
4. Keep up with everything Derek Craven!

Sponsors

1. Blue Box Press, publishers of Audrey Carlan’s Marriage Auction Series novellas Madam Alana and A Christmas Auction. Available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Learn more at TheBlueBoxPress.com.
2. The Romantasy Letters, A new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.
3. Jennifer Iacopelli, author of Game, Set, Match, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
4. Lumi Labs, creators of 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/2026/2/2/0820-trailblazer-lisa-kleypas
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

It’s a snowstorm, Jen’s from Chicago, and we’re feeling extra qualified to talk about Ice Planet Barbarians! It’s the book, and the series that took the world by storm back in 2015, and we’re revisiting the absolute powerhouse it was then, before it launched an entire subgenre of romance and changed the romance landscape. We’re also talking about Ruby Dixon’s clear skill, her obvious love of the genre, and all the ways she makes us both laugh and sigh.

If you have a favorite IPB book and you want to talk about it, come find us (and other romance lovers) on the Fated Mates Discord, which you can access by joining our patreon. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

1. Horsepower is definitely the same as measuring the weight of ice in golden retriever pounds.
2. There’s lot of ways to support the people of Minnesota right now. A good clearinghouse site is Stand With Minnesota. You can also order directly from area bookstores: Tropes and Trifles, Black Garnet Books, or Birchbark Books, or use Bookshop.Org for any number of Minnesota stores. Monarca If you are looking to support whistle production, You can also support other Romancelandia efforts. Bree (from Kit Rocha) is part of a team of people that have printed over 150k whistles this month alone! Romancing the Vote will also be back up this summer, so look for information on that. Along with Monarca, Indivisible is also holding trainings to teach people how to document and record ICE.
3. Get ready, Derek Craven Day is nigh!

It’s February, so lots of upcoming romance events to check out!

1. Feb 12, 2026: Jen will be at Babe’s Sports Bar to discuss a WNBA romance, Rooting Interest.
2. Feb 14, 2026: the Free Library of Philadelphia will be holding a Heated Rivalry Event with Xio Axelrod, Rosie Danan & Joanna Shupe.
3. Feb 21, 2026: Jen will be in Romeoville to discuss Romance.
4. Feb 21, 2026: An online Heated Rivalry Trivia event.
5. March 7, 2026: Sarah will join a group of historical romance authors for Ballrooms & Beyond, a daylong celebration of historical romance at Linden Place in Bristol, RI.

Oh, finally, some notes about Ice Planet Barbarians.

1. Our friend Dani Lacey was the host of Ice Planet Pod if you’re looking for read-alongs.
2. The final girl is a horror trope!
3. Our next read along is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Sponsors

1. Blue Box Press, publishers of new special editions of:
2. Donna Grant’s Dragon Kings novellas
3. Jennifer L. Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash, featuring sprayed edges and embossed and glossy cover design elements; and
4. Heather Graham's Krewe of Hunter and Cafferty and Quinn novellas.
5. Learn more at TheBlueBoxPress.com.
6. RomantasyLetters, A new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.
7. Denise Williams, author of The Re-Do List, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
8. Jennifer Vido, author of Simplicity by the Sea, available in print or ebook from 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/2026/1/27/s0819-ice-planet-barbarians
• 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 brilliant Jayne Ann Krentz, romance trailblazer and royalty, joins us this week to talk about one of her favorite tropes--the shotgun wedding! We're talking all things forced marriage...how it differs from marriage of convenience, how it underscores the inherent conflict in romance, and how it often ends up being more like romantic suspense than one would expect! We also talk a bit about how secret babies (and babies in general) play into this trope. Did Jayne also say something that Sarah had to stop the interview to write down? Of course she did!

If you have favorite forced marriage/shotgun weddings, maybe you want to join the Fated Mates patreon? There, you get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the FM Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along will be Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local indie, libro.fm, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Books

1. The Shop on Hidden Lane by Jayne Ann Krentz
2. Into the Storm by Rachel Grant
3. A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
4. Broken Whispers by Neva Altaj
5. The Duke’s Shotgun Wedding by Stacy Reid
6. Because the Baron Broods
7. Stolen Touches by Neva Altaj
8. Mafia Virgin by Mila Finelli
9. The King’s Spinster Bride by Ruby Dixon
10. Ravished by Amanda Quick

Notes

1. Welcome Jayne Ann Krentz, who also writes as Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick. Her new book is The Shop on Hidden Lane. Listen to Jayne Ann Krentz's trailblazer interview.
2. “Shotgun wedding” is an American phrase dating back to 1929, but forcing people to get married because of pregnancy, politics and patriarchy has been around for a long time.
3. Get your own bank account, women.
4. You can listen to our trailblazer interview with Elda Minger to hear more about the first condom in romance.
5. A romantasy that Jen liked a lot (with no pregnancy plot, that’s why it’s in show notes instead of the photo array) is Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik.
6. When talking about The King’s Spinster Bride, Jen kept saying “epilogue” when she meant “prologue.” I have no excuse for this.

Sponsors

1. Lexi Davis, author of Pretty Vicious, available in print and ebook at Amazon or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
2. The Romantasy Letters, A new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at romantasyletters.com.
3. Sotto Voce Scents, candles for the romance lovers in your life. Go to sottovocescents.com and use code FATEDMATES for 10% off your order.
4. Lee Taylor, author of A Satchel of Richards, available in print or ebook from Amazon or B&N.

As it's the beginning of 2026, we're talking about how we think about our reading years. What kind of strategies does Jen use? How is Sarah attempting to control the chaos? Which books do we already have on our TBR piles for 2026, and how do we structure our reading year to make ourselves happy and prepare for the podcast? We're also talking about some books by romance novelists who are publishing outside the romance genre this year.

If you want to talk to more people about reading strategies this year, 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 will be Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local indie, libro.fm, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited

Notes

1. Vaccinations are good, actually. In between recording this episode and when it aired, Caroline Kennedy’s daughter Tatiana Schlossberg, who wrote about her cancer diagnosis in the New Yorker, has sadly died.
2. It will shock no one to learn that Jen learned about immunizations from books. In her childhood, the books The Great Brain by John Dennis Fitzgerald. We also recommend Everything is Tuberculosis by John Greene and On Immunity by Eula Biss.
3. Amazon is forcing AI tools into the kindle books themselves, and it’s all awful. Use your own brain, we don’t know what else to say.

Books

1. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
2. On Immunity by Eula Biss
3. The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn
4. The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren
5. She Fell Away by Lenore Nash
6. As Far as She Knew by Diana Awad
7. The Duke by Anna Cowan
8. Lady X by Molly Fader
9. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 12 Edition
10. Alphabet in Motion by Kelli Anderson

Sponsors

1. Avon Books, publishers of Emma Alban's Like in Love with You, available in print, ebook and audio at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
2. Lumi Gummies, microdose gummies available nationwide. Use the code FATEDMATES to get 30% off your first order. Learn more at LumiGummies.com.
3. Caroline Linden, author of How to Get Away with Scandal, available in print, ebook and audio at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
4. Allison Bettes, author of Red Flag Warning, available in print, ebook and audio at Amazon or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/1/12/0817-setting-new-years-reading-resolutions
• 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's still catching up, but Jen, Adriana Herrera, and Joanna Shupe have seen it and they have a lot to say.

Your discoverabilibuddies are back! It's a new year which means we're dropping our Winter 2026 reads episode, in which we talk about the million trillion 2026 romance books coming out in January, February and March (ok, not a million trillion, but enough that Eric came out of his studio this morning with a thousand-yard stare!). As a reminder, we have not necessarily read all these books, but they are on our TBRs and should be on yours!

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 will be Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, from your local indie or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

January 2026 New Releases

1. Champagne Taste on a Bad Boy Budget by Zuri Day
2. Drive me Crazy by Lizzy Dent
3. Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik
4. A Scandal Changes Everything by Josie Johns
5. Dom-Com by Adriana Anders
6. Only on Gameday by Kristen Callihan
7. Janae Sanders’ Second Time Around by LaQuette
8. The Lust Crusade by Jo Segura
9. The Ex Dilemma by Elle Wright
10. Wish I May by Hannah Murray
11. Almost One Night Stand by AJ Pine
12. The Re-Do List by Denise Williams
13. Definitely Maybe Not a Detective by Sarah Fox
14. Chasing the Ring by Lauren Rowe
15. Last First Kiss by Julian Winters
16. Playing for Keeps by Alexandria Bellefleur
17. Falling for the Fake Lumberjack by Sara Ney
18. Into the Midnight Wood by Alexandra McCollum
19. We Who Have No Gods by Liza Anderson
20. Wild Russian Storm by Odette Stone

February 2026 New Releases

1. Falling for the Rabbi by Jennifer Wilck
2. Skate it Till You Make It by Rufaro Faith Mazarura
3. Subatomic Love by Shannon Kirk
4. Over and Over by Becky Hunter
5. Whispers and Wildfire by Claire Kingsley
6. The Lovers by Kristen Cast
7. One and Only by Maurene Goo
8. Only Friends by Lydia San Andres
9. The Regency Switch by Helen Gaskell
10. It’s All in Your Head by Sabina Nordqvist
11. Books & Bewitchment by Isla Jewell
12. A Little Buzzed by Alys Murray
13. In Her Spotlight by Amy Spalding
14. Get over it, April Evans by Ashley Herring Blake
15. Personal Bodyguard by Danielle Haas
16. Free Falling by Jill Shalvis

March 2026 New Releases

1. Rears & Vices by EM Caro
2. Stolen by Her Viking Enemy by Roxy Harper
3. Hold Me Like a Grudge by Celine Ong
4. Sparring Partners by Erin Rose
5. Fallen Hero by Riley Edwards
6. The Starter Ex by Mia Sosa
7. A Change of Pace by JA Stevens
8. A Lady for All Seasons by TJ Alexander
9. Casually Yours by Vivian Jia Lac
10. In My Tudor Era by Kate Bromley
11. Second Chance Duet by Ana Holguin
12. It Seemed Like a Good Idea by Lauren Blakely
13. Thirty Love by Tom Vellner
14. Convenient Wife Conditions by Rebecca Hunter
15. Anderson in Bloom by Jennifer Dugan
16. Things That Break Us by Michelle Heard

Sponsors

1. The Steamy Bookworms Box, a book box, featuring dark and monster romances with special edition covers, original art, stickers and more. Learn more at SteamyBookworms.com.
2. Lucy Morris, author of Reclaiming His Viking Queen, available in print, ebook and audio at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
3. LYX Books, publishers of Selina Mae's Lessons in Faking, available in print, ebook and audio at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
4. Eve Silver, author of Darkest at Dusk, available in print, ebook and audio at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/1/5/0816-2026-winter-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.