Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People
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Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People
The most listened to romance novel podcast, Fated Mates is co-hosted by bestselling author Sarah MacLean and romance critic Jen Prokop. Weekly episodes include romance novel read-alongs and lively discussions of the work of the genre, highlighting the romance novel as a powerful tool in fighting the...
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372 episodi
S08.05: Governesses with Louisa Darling
How is it possible we've never done a governess episode? And how is it possible Louisa Darling hasn't been a guest on the pod yet? We're rectifying bo...
S08.04 We love you Chicago, DC and LA
We're thinking about Chicago, DC, and LA this week, and standing in solidarity with the people living and resisting in those cities. While reading isn...
08.03: Fall 2025 Preview
It's October, which means we're thinking about fall, which comes with spice, heat and hanging out under the blankets! Today, our Fall 2025 romance nov...
S08.02: Feminism in Romance with Adriana Herrera
Our fave, Adriana Herrera, is with us this week to talk about feminism, romance, and how the two intersect. We talk about the history of the genre, ab...
S08.01: Cold Open: Craft, Criticism, and Summer Vacation
Season Eight! How is it possible you're all still here?! We're so incredibly thrilled to have you all with us for another season. We've got big plans...
RERUN: Daddy Romance
Welcome to week two of our hiatus! As we prepare for season eight, we're sharing an old favorite: Daddy Romance!
For all of the recs and more,...
Between Seasons Palate Cleanser: Fated Mates Live St. Louis!
This year's Fated Mates Live was a little different than those we've hosted before, as it was also launch day for Sarah's These Summer Storms! We cele...
07.49: Season Seven Ends Not With a Bang, but With a Kombucha Girl
We’re wrapping up season seven by asking ourselves a simple question. Do we like this stuff? Yes? No? Maybe so?
We’ll be back in two weeks for...
S07.48: Con Artists & Criminals With Joanna Shupe
Joanna Shupe joins us this week to celebrate her new book, The Gilded Heiress, and talk about one of our favorite things—baddies with a heart of gold!...
S07.47: Bodyguards
It’s Bodyguard Romance week, which feels impossible, honestly, considering we’ve definitely done this before, haven’t we? According to Eric and also t...
07.46: Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
We're back with a deep dive episode on one of our favorite Susan Elizabeth Phillips books, Natural Born Charmer. Jen thinks this one marks SEP's Imper...
S07.45: Reading Down Under: Australian Romance Novelists
By request (and because Sarah needed books for her upcoming trip), we're talking about romance novels by Australian authors this week, with a nod to s...
S07.44: Relentless Competence & Fixers in Romance
It's been several years since the last time we talked about the allure of competency in romance, but it's a topic we adore, so here we are again, talk...
07.43: Trailblazer Pamela Sanderson
Our Trailblazer series continues with Pamela Sanderson, the first Native American author to write contemporary romance about Native characters in Nati...
S07.42: Jen & Sarah and These Summer Storms
Last night’s Fated Mates Live was so much fun, but now we’re back in your earholes. It’s time again for our annual Sarah MacLean deep dive (with no sp...
S07.41: Audiobooks with Julia Whelan
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, Tay...
S07.40: Hot 2025 Summer Reads
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!...
S07.39: Dysfunctional Families (The Fun Kind)
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 t...
S07.38: Second Chance Romance Redux
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 wa...
S07.37: Run Posy Run by Cate C. Wells
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 wa...
S07.36: Celebrity + Normie Romance
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 celeb...
S07.35: On the Shelf with Spinsters and Wallflowers
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,...
S07.34: The Third Act Break-Up (Complimentary)
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-...
S07.33: Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
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!...
S07.32: Ruination!
We're talking about the worst possible thing that can happen to a romance heroine today (it's always the heroines) -- ruination! Whether the hero did...
S07.31: Romance on the Run
Yes, Sarah has a longtime fantasy of being on the lam, but let's be honest, she'd be caught reading a book in the nearest diner as soon as anyone got...
S07.30: Getting Things Done (to them): Romance with Lists
We're crossing off a classic romance novel structure this week -- the list! Whether life changing to-do lists, bucket lists, or lists for kinky explor...
S07.29: Spring 2025 New Releases: Teasing Your TBR
It's our quarterly discoverabilibuddy episode! Get your TBR piles structurally sound and exercise that preorder clicking finger, because here are near...
S07.28: Everything We Know About Horses Comes From Romance
This week, for some reason, we're talking about romance novels with horses in them! Do we know anything about horses? Of course not! Do we let that st...
S07.27: What I Did for a Duke: This Gentleman is Completely Composed of Revenge Molecules
It's deep dive day here at Fated Mates and we're reading an absolute banger of a historical -- Julie Anne Long's fifth Pennyroyal Green book, What I D...
S07.26: Romance Novels With a Ticking Clock
This one's for those of you who've been asking us to talk more about craft on the podcast! We're talking romances with ticking clocks and clear time f...
S07.25: Sci-Fi Romance: There's No Book Banning in Space
Maybe you're rooting for the asteroid, but you gotta have a plan! To help, this week, we're keeping track of what romance is looking like off-planet--...
S07.24: He's *NOT* a Billionaire
It's been the longest month of our lives and as self-care, we're not thinking about billionaires this week (or at least for the duration of this episo...
S07.23: Long Live Historicals!
Historicals are dead! Long live historicals! This week, we're talking about fourteen (and change) historical romances that we've never talked about be...
S07.22: Adriana Herrera on the Power of Historical Romance: When We’re Up Against a Corner, Baby, Let’s Fight.
There's a new Adriana Herrera book out this month, so that means we get to have one of our very favorites back on the pod to talk about not only her b...
New York Public Library Best New Romance List
Jen had a great time chatting with the New York Public Library's Best New Romance List Committee Co-Chairs Kate Fais and Grace Loiacono this week. The...
S07.21: Meet My Vibe Criteria: V.E. Schwab on writing, obsession, and romance outside of Romance
We're mixing it up today with a fabulous special guest! The brilliant V.E. Schwab joins us for a far-reaching chat about writing romance outside of ro...
A Taste of Craven
It's February 4th, the most important romance holiday in February: Derek Craven Day! We're celebrating this year with a little reminiscing of the past...
S07.20 Tarot, Astrology, and Psychics in Romance
We'll be honest, we don't know what the heck is going on, either. If we could find someone or something to make all this chaos make sense, we'd be ver...
S07:19 Back in Time with Harlequin Blaze
We're getting into the romance time machine and setting the course for 2001, when Harlequin decided that those Temptations could get scorching hot and...