S08.11: Holiday Romance 2025

The end of the year is nigh, and it's our holiday romance novel episode! We're talking about a collection of romances that are entirely new to us (except for the one moment where Sarah talks about that old McNaught short story that installed all her cold-weather romance buttons). We've got Austen retellings, Regency cats, characters playing with holiday toys, CIA agents and, of course, some sexy Santas. You deserve nice things. Don't forget--you can buy the Fated Mates Best of 2025 Book Pack from our friends at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA, and get eight of the books on the list! Scoundrel Take Me Away and Lazarus, Home from War (independently published) are not in the box. As always, you can add additional romances, or one of Sarah's books to your box. If you want other people to discuss holiday (or other) romances, 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 KJ Charles's The Magpie Lord. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.NotesThere are several accounts as to where Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas. Sarah stayed at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, which claims it inspired the song (by being the opposite of snowy), but there's also an account that he wrote it in La Quinta, CA at the La Quinta Hotel (not to be confused with just any LaQuinta). Check out our prior holiday romance episodes:2024, including Sara Raasch, Vivian Mae, Evie Rose, Timothy Janovsky &amp; more2023, including Holly June Smith, Oona Grace, Kayla Grosse, Tracey Livesay &amp; more2022: Here Comes Santa Claus2021: Short &amp; Sexy Christmas Recs2019, including Adriana Herrera, Delilah Peters, and several anthologies2018, including Therese Beharrie, a Chanukah anthology, Cecilia Grant, Tiffany Reisz &amp; moreBooks<a href="https://amzn.to/48884Ix" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

It's that time of year! We're talking about the Best Romance Novels of 2025. We've chosen ten books that we love and that cover a range of historical, contemporary and paranormal, featuring romance with werewolves and cowboys, vaudeville actresses and vikings, Dukes and the actual Devil. This year, you can buy the Fated Mates Best of 2025 Book Pack from our friends at Pocket Books Shop in Lancaster, PA, and get eight of the books on the list! Scoundrel Take Me Away and Lazarus, Home from War (independently published) are not available. As always, you can add additional romances, or one of Sarah's books to your box. We love the idea of you gifting yourself this box (you deserve it!), but maybe you’d like to slide into someone’s text messages with the link as a very excellent gift for you! Or…you can do what Sarah does, and buy the box and spread the love around—sending each of the books to someone on your list or wrapping them up and popping them in your local Little Free Library. Let us know what you end up doing with these fabulous books, and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram or Threads or Bluesky when you unbox! Check out our “Best Romance Novels” lists from previous years: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019. (We were 5 minutes old in 2018 and didn’t do a list that year), and please tell us what your favorite books of 2025 were!If you want other people to discuss this list with, 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 KJ Charles's The Magpie Lord. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.The BooksFan Service by Rosie Danan&nbsp;&nbsp;Scoundrel, Take Me Away by Louisa Darling Son Of The Morning by Akwaeke Emezi&nbsp;Tempest Of

We had a great week, and so we decided we all need nice things, which means it's time to just talk about the stuff we love in romance. We're talking about our favorite microtropes in romance novels--the things that give us pure shots of joy. There's all sorts of stuff in here: contemporaries, historicals, paranormals, mafia, hockey, tattoos, piercings, kilts, families getting their comeuppance, and much much more. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp;Our next read along will be KJ Charles's The Magpie Lord. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.NotesIt’s not too early to donate to our Fated States Giving Circle, or maybe you want to Run for Something.&nbsp;You can check out the Collections page for more great book lists (made by humans!), and we also talked about the breeding kink episode in case you want to see just how unhinged we get on New Year’s Eve.The Mandela Effect is in fact named after Nelson Mandela.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a researcher who has described universal pleasure centers.Monkey Island is a real place called Cayo off the coast of Puerto Rico&nbsp; or a video game.&nbsp;Here’s an amazing dissection of a microtrope beloved by Mary Balogh: stern men who can’t stop skinny dipping.If you are in Brooklyn this week, stop by on Thursday November 13, 2025 to see Sarah and several other authors from the Ladies in Waiting...

We definitely have a hope became reality hangover this morning, but we also have a very fun episode for you today! We're talking romance shorts -- not novellas, not short novels, but actual short stories under 15,000 words (or about 50 pages). We talk about why this is such a difficult goal to hit, about why romance lends itself to longer formats, and about why short fiction is a really great way to keep reading when things feel chaotic.We also chat about Sarah's new short story, a part of the Ladies in Waiting anthology, out this week and providing minor characters from Jane Austen their own happily ever afters. Sarah is joined by romance greats Diana Quincy, Nikki Payne and Eloisa James, among others. Get the collection at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. Also, we want to take a moment to send enormous thanks to everyone who donated to the Fated States Giving Circle at The States Project this year — those donations were gamechangers — last night we expanded our majority in the VA House, and secured a Democratic Trifecta in Virginia! As ever, we’re so proud to stand and fight with you!If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp;Our next read along will be KJ Charles's The Magpie Lord. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.NotesThe Ladies in Waiting anthology was released this week, and in the anthology, authors wrote HEAs for minor Austen characters. Sarah wrote about Miss Bates from Emma. Sarah has a few short stories: The Bladesmith Queen, a Medieval short available with her newsletter signup; "Fire That Lasts," and a YA short in the Generation Wonder anthology. The duke who has a sheep is in a novella called A Duke Worth Falling For.&nbsp;Sarah asked Threads for recs of romance short stories and that’s where many of these...

Happy Halloween! Please enjoy this episode from October 26, 2022. For more info, including all the books we mentioned, visit fatedmates.net.

It's Halloween which means we're talking about monsters (complimentary)! We've done devils and witches and an entire season on monsters of all ilk, but we haven't done demons yet, and so here we are! Come one come all as Sarah confesses one of her weirdest (charming) kinks and we discuss the age-old adage: "If a demon's horns aren't sexual organs, why are they even there?" We're heading back to the early 00s on this one, so headphones in because who knows what we're going to talk about?! Definitely not us! This week also marks our 7th anniversary, so we're feeling just a little emotional (grateful). Thank you for being with us, whether this is your first episode or your almost four hundredth. We love you. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp;NotesWe’ve done some serious Halloween episodes and also some silly ones. And all of season one was the Immortals After Dark series.&nbsp;The devil is just the most powerful demon in Christian mythology, and apparently so are incubi and succubi.&nbsp;Tim Curry in Legend is actually nothing at all like David Bowie in Labyrinth. BooksSweet Ruin by Kresley ColeHot as Hades by Alisha RaiSuccubus Blues by Richelle MeadeDealing with a Desperate Demon by Charlotte SteinPleasure Unbound by Larissa IoneI Accidentally Summoned a Demon Boyfriend by Jessica CageKiss of a Demon King by Kresley ColeMacRieve by Kresley ColeDemon from the Dark by Kresley ColeA Rogue’s Proposal by Stephanie Laurens<a href="https://amzn.to/3J87oJr" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

It's Gorilla Twins Week! We couldn't be happier to be talking about The Earl Takes All, a book we love so much we gave it a nickname that all of Romancelandia uses now. Whether you're reading it for the first time or the fiftieth, we're so happy to have you. We talk about Jane Goodall, Romance Gorillas, Lorraine Heath's brilliant mind, how she's easily a top-five romance novelist and possibly the best of them when it comes to writing conflict, and just how much we love a bonkers historical. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp; NotesIt’s not too late to join the The Fated States Giving Circle, 25 people who give in October will receive a copy of Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen's Unsung Characters, featuring Sarah's novella about Emma's Miss Bates.This is our second Lorraine Heath deep dive episode, because she writes a banger. Listen to our deep dive of Waking Up With the Duke. According to search, we’ve mentioned Gorilla Twins (aka The Earl Takes All) at least 34 times on the podcast. Sorry not sorry.The hallmark movie Adventures in Love &amp; Birding is based on Birding with Benefits by Sarah Dubb. Apparently the birding community has some feedback on the bird situation of the movie.&nbsp;It’s Romance Bird! It’s Romance dormouse! It’s Romance Pig!&nbsp;Rest in Peace Jane Goodall. Famous Last Words is a show where you get to leave your burn book, and Jane Goodall’s was the first episode. Our episodes will be 100 hours each, so plan accordingly.&nbsp;The history of influenza. Vaccines work. Go get a flu shot.&nbsp;Some more information about mountain gorillas. JK.&nbsp;It’s Rune Week! SponsorsCharis...

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 both of these injustices this week. We talk about Jane Eyre, The Sound of Music and other primordial governesses, and discuss exactly what kind of buttons these books installed--almost entirely thanks to old school historicals. We also talk about how governess books are some of the only books in which we will suffer a child, and yes, we shout out the nannies, too!Louisa Darling is the pen name of Louisa Edwards and Lily Everett, and the author of Don’t Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be Scoundrels, Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone, and Scoundrel, Take Me Away.Our next read along is Gorilla Twins, AKA Lorraine Heath's The Earl Takes All. Find it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp;(Apologies for the subpar audio quality.)NotesLearn more about The States Project and donate to the Fated States Giving Circle to keep Virginia blue this November.Welcome historical author Louisa Darling. She’s written contemporary romance as Louisa Edwards and women’s fiction as Lily Everett. She imprinted on Jayne Eyre and worked as an editorial assistant for Leslie Gelbman at Berkley, who edited Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz.Maybe all those early governess books were really about The Sound of Music.&nbsp;We talked about the Molly O’Keefe series that included Wait For It in season 7, and about Vanessa Riley and wet nurses when we had Kennedy Ryan on in season 2.&nbsp;Finally, our next deep dive will be Gorilla Twins. The actual title, of course, is The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath.The BooksDon’t Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be...

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't action, it can supplement it, and keep us joyful as we do the hard work of standing up. To that end, this week, we're recommending books that feature Chicago, Washington, DC &amp; Los Angeles as settings. We're also sharing resources and ways you can stay informed, help communities of immigrants, and get involved in whatever way possible. Note: We recorded this episode just as the National Guard was sent to Portland, Oregon, which is why Portland-set romances are not included in this episode. Please feel free to share your favorite romances set there in comments or on social media. Tag us so we can share!Our next read along is Gorilla Twins, AKA Lorraine Heath's The Earl Takes All. Find it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp;The NotesLearn more about Ramón Ayala, the King of the Accordion.There goes your social life.&nbsp;It's too late to go to The Gothenburg Book Festival this year, but there’s always next year. One of the first internationally known Swedish romance writers is Simona Ahrnstedt. Crime fiction is a big deal in Sweden, and Sarah met Camilla Läckberg and Anders de la Motte.Terrible awful things happening in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and <a...

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 novel preview, guaranteed to fill your TBR pile. There’s something here for everyone — historicals, contemporaries, a splash of magic, princesses, superheroes, time-travel, widows, F1 drivers...a real ideal dinner party roster.If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.&nbsp;BooksSeptember ReleasesFaster by Andie J. ChristopherThe Earl That Got Away by Diana QuincyResisting the Forbidden Widow by Maggie WestonThe Scot's Seduction Megan FramptonThe Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior by TK TuckerOctober ReleasesHell's Heresies by Kat D. CoffinFemale Fantasy by Iman Hariri-KiaWrecking Caine by Amelia SheaA Scar in the Bone by Sophie JordanCowboy, It's Cold Outside by Maisey YatesStrings Attached by Noel BaileyA Pack for Winter by Eliana LeeIsn’t It Obvious by Rachel Runya KatzLondon Calling by Rita GordonBackslide by Nora DahliaPlay You For It by Samantha SaldivarThe Devil She Knows by Alexandria BellefleurAll of us Murderers by KJ CharlesOnly Rakes Need Apply by Kate PearceJulia Song Is Undateable by Susan LeeSome Kind of Famous by Ava WilderA Star Is Scorned by Maureen Lee LenkerBlue Collar Billionaire by Amy AndrewsOnce Upon a Courtesan by Jess MichaelsClaiming the Princess by Charis...