S08.14: Terrific 2025 Romance Debuts

It's that time of year, when we highlight some of our favorite new voices in romance! This week, we're talking about eight new writers who are making us excited about what's to come in historical, contemporary, cozy fantasy and more. Here's to reading them all for years to come! From horse girls to divorcees, hair stylists to magical tea shop owners, basketball coaches to jewel thieves, there's something in here for everyone. It's going to be great for you!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 brand new romance authors 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. You can also ask for it as a gift, or give it as one at fatedmates.net/gift.Our next read along will be Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, from your local indie, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.The BooksThe Best Worst Thing by Lauren OkieOnce Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley JordanCosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon by Annie MareHopelessly Teavoted by Audrey Goldberg RuoffSavannah Royals by Lindsay BarrettPlay You For It by Samantha SaldivarThe Trouble with Anna by Rachel GriffithsCelebrity Crush by Christy SwiftNotesCheck out our Debuts of 2024 episode here. It’s not frod (Friend + rod), it’s frotting. Here’s the wikipedia page. Sarah apologizes for not knowing the proper spelling.Jenny Hamilton wrote a terrific piece about <a...

We’re so excited for our deep dive of KJ Charles’s The Magpie Lord, first in her magical, gothic series, A Charm of Magpies. We talk about the clear chops displayed in this romance --strong plotting, complex characterization, and a beautiful understanding of what happily ever after looks like. And yes, we get to the tattoos. Obviously.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 great romance series, 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. You can also ask for it as a gift, or give it as one at fatedmates.net/gift.Our next read along will be Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians. Get it at Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, from your local indie, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.NotesThis is our second KJ Charles deep dive. The first was Band Sinister. We were lucky enough to speak to KJ Charles about her work and her pathway through romance as part of our Trailblazers series. Listen to that interview here.It’s been the snowiest start to winter in Chicago since 1978! The Great Lakes can freeze, kind of. Here’s what the Great Lakes ice prediction for this year.&nbsp;The Ice Fishing town hall meeting, as promised.&nbsp;Heated Rivalry is great and Jen (and everyone else) thinks you should watch it.&nbsp;The Magpie Lord was published in 2013 by Samhain Publishing, which <a...

It's winter, which means that it's time to get cozy, build a blanket nest on the couch, and read a million books one right after the other in the great tradition of our ancient forbears. Today, we're talking about series that deliver one banger after another and, yes, that also bang. We'll talk historicals, contemporaries, and of course, the paranormal series that started it all for us. 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 great romance series, 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. You can also ask for it as a gift, or give it as one at fatedmates.net/gift.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.NotesGo to Sarah’s site to sign up for her newsletter. Apparently, it’s going to be a snowy winter because of squirrels, the Farmer’s Almanac is over, and social media is ruining your life and your brain, or maybe it’s just your whole damn phone.&nbsp;Heated Rivalry, baby. Also this fall, the CW has unveiled a bunch of movies based on Harlequin books, including Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell, Mason Deaver’s YA romance I Wish You All the Best and in January we get Season 4 of Bridgerton, and Netflix's adaptation of Emily Henry's People We...

S07.33, originally released on April 29, 2025.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/4/28/0733-heated-rivalry-by-rachel-reid If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

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"...