Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

We’re talking about romance with baking and sweet treats today! This is one of romance’s most common Romance Jobs, and we’re getting to the bottom of the appeal of the bakery in romance. Why do we love it when one character makes masterful desserts? What is so compelling about characters who know their way around the oven? We’ve got historicals, reality tv competitions, magic baking and menage — a little something for everyone this week!
Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a chat with Leah Greenberg, the co-Founder and co-Executive Director of Indivisible, our Fated States phonebanking partner! Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative continues this week! We’ll be calling Georgia to get out the vote for Jon Ossoff, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and democrats up and down the ticket! There will be games, prizes and special guests! Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
If you’d like to come over and talk about your favorite romance bakers, please join us on the Fated Mates Discord, where you’ll find a few thousand other listeners who love talking about these books we love. Join the Fated Mates patreon to get access, and You also get one extra episode a month from us!
Books
Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
How the Dukes Stole Christmas
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee
Fake It Til You Bake It by Jamie Wesley
A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley
Battle Royale by Lucy Parker
Sweethand by NG Peltier
Lips Like Sugar by Jess Hardy
Craving It All by Kati Wilde
Tart by Lauren Dane
The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish
Delectable Desire by Farrah Rochon
Delicious Destiny by Yarrah St. John

Notes
We’re discussing slang this week: a hilarious explanation of BDE at wikihow, check out urban dictionary for DTF, a fun new online site I just discovered called GenZ decoded turnt, and although the WNBA’s Washington Mystics Young Heaux nickname was covered in the New York Times, by far the funniest official usage of it was during the televised broadcast of a Mystics v. Storm game.
The Cupcake Guys is a bakery owned by former football players, and it was also a reality TV show.
We’ve mentioned them a million times, so they aren’t in the photo array, but the two books with baristas that Jen mentioned are Lick by Kylie Scott and Nero by SJ Tilly. The book with a femdomme is Candy by Torrance Sené.
Learn more about Indivisible and find a local Indivisible chapter to help at Indivisible.org. Join us for phonebanking every weekend between now and Election Day at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

Sponsors
Rachel Grant, author of False Flag, available in print, ebook and audiobook, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Tierney Page, author of Lyrics of Summer, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
LJ Andrews, author of The Stolen Crown preorder now in print, ebook or 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/2026/10/5/0905-sweet-treats-bakeries-amp-coffee-shops-in-romance
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.

00:00 Intro
02:38 Bantr (We Love You Baby Girl!)
14:24 Eric, the DRM King
17:36 AD: THE STOLEN CROWN
19:17 Sweet Treats
26:58 Fake It Till You Bake It & A Legend in the Baking
33:23 AD: FALSE FLAG
35:41 Battle Royale
42:02 Sweethand
47:20 AD: LYRICS OF SUMMER
49:04 The Luxury of Sweetness
53:49 Lips like Sugar
1:01:22 Craving It All
1:07:10 Tart
1:17:33 The Remaking of Corbin Wale
1:20:57 The Draysons: Sprinkled with Love
1:24:57 Baristas
1:28:00 Wrapping Up
1:30:38 Indivisible

Just revisiting an episode from last autumn. Enjoy!
The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2024/10/26/s0708-i-see-dead-people-grief-amp-the-pandemic-in-romance#books
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 discoverabilibuddy time! We're dropping our Fall 2026 reads, in which we talk about an outrageous number of romance novels coming out in October, November and December. As a reminder, we have not necessarily read all these books, but they are on our TBRs — time to pour yourself a cup of something warm, get into a cozy sweater, and start adding to yours!
If you’d like to come over and talk about your most anticipated fall romances, please join us on the Fated Mates Discord, where you’ll find a few thousand other listeners who love talking about these books we love. You also get one extra episode a month from us!
Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative continues this week! We’ll be calling Ohio (Jen’s hometown) to get out the vote for Sherrod Brown and democrats up and down the ticket! There will be games, prizes and special guests! Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
Books
September Releases
Jenny Will Eat You Now by Gillian Daniels
The Invisible Roommate by Timothy Janovsky

October Releases
To Vivian With Love Anthology
False Flag by Rachel Grant
The Lost Guardian by Natalia Hernandez
Vengefully Matched by Audrey Goldberg Ruoff
The Encore Effect by Cara Dion
Gilded Rose by Joanna Shupe
Engineering a Love Story by Kathleen Reidy
Succubus by Kate Fox
The Fall Fix Up by Karmen Lee
Brown-Eyed Earl by Jenny Holiday
Hexes Go Well with Tequila by LeAnna Ehrsam
Bad Words by Ríoghnach Robinson
Written in Starlight by Sloan Brooks
Once in a Timeline by Iman Hariri-Kia
The Ruby Ghost by June Calvin
What Happens at Nightfall by Lauren Willig

November Releases
The Love Operation by Melissa Collins
Cut to the Ending by Maria Millage
How to Hate a Prince by Jozette Allah-Mensah
Sunflower Season by Danica Nava
The Monster Hunter’s Librarian by Lauren Connelly
You, Me, and the Conspiracy by Emma Barry
Thunderstuck by Lissa Layland
How to Court a Countess by Emma-Claire Sunday
The Drakon King by Terry J Benton-Walker
Engaged to the Enemy by Lucy Smoke
Two Can Play that Game by Zakiya Jamal
For the Love of K-Dramas by Lyla Lee
Match of Fate by Annabelle Stehl
Crash Into You by Simone Soltani
The Best Revenge by Amy Carol Reeves
My Neighbor, The Assassin by Michelle Heard

December Releases
A Shy Heiress to Redeem Him by Parker J Cole
Lovestruck by Andi Epimoni
Falling for Evil by Celia Aaron
Just In Time by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka
Cold Redemption by Nalini Singh
Triple Threat by Katie Chandler
Til Quest Do Us Part by Ivelisee Houseman
Greek’s Dirty Little Secret by Dani Collins
Off Season by Frankie Caracciolo
Villain Edit by Rosie Danan
Zahra, Unapologetic by Mina Zafri
Lightning and Thunder by Sara Raach
Almost Perfect by Nicole Snow
The Lost Ones by Mia Sheridan
One Step Closer by Laura Pavlov
Vows and Vendettas by Trilini Pucci

Sponsors
Little, Brown & Company, publishers of Elin Hilderbrand & Shelby Cunningham’s The Thoroughbreds, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Madison Score, author of Wild About You, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon.
Emily W. Andersen, author of The Midnight Book Club series. Available in print or ebook at at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your...

Today we're celebrating the season with some help from season six. Enjoy!
The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/10/3/s0604-sweater-weather-romance-novels-with-pumpkin-spice-vibes
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.

As they say on the Discord, this year’s theme is…Themes! This week, we’re talking about hammers, nails, drills, pipes and more — literal characters who are wielding literal (and metaphorical) tools! We’re hopping in the wayback machine to talk about books from the 00s and early 10s, on a continuum of content from “oh this has a whole plot” to “here’s a great one-handed read.” We’ve got plumbers, blacksmiths, contractors and a sentient screwdriver…there is literally something here for everyone.
If you’d like to come over and talk about romances, with or without tools (jk, they all have tools), please join us on the Fated Mates Discord, where you’ll find a few thousand other listeners who love talking about these books we love. You also get one extra episode a month from us!
Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative begins this week! We’ll be calling Texas to get out the vote for James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa! There will be games, prizes and special guests! Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
Books
Roller Girl by Vanessa North
The Scoundrel Falls Hard by Sophie Jordan
Under Construction by Kate Cole
Laying Pipe by Kiki Clark
The Carpenter by Ramona Gray
Entwined by Kristen Callihan
Caulky by KM Neuhold
Hard Time by Cara McKenna
Kate’s Crew by Jane Rylon
Laid by Brill Harper
Screwed by CD Reiss

Notes
This Saturday, we’re calling Texas to get out the vote for James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at 1pm eastern time! Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
Some books about unions and unionizing: Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao, and the 1984 Harlequin American Romance was The Third Time by Rebecca Flanders. Our listener Sylvia suggested two others: Don’t Forget to Smile by Katherine Gillis Seidel and Here Be Dragons by Jenny Redford. These titles are also in the photo array above!
We did have an episode about renovation romance with Nikki Payne back in season 6 and one on quick and dirty reads back in season 2.
Unfortunately, it seems Entwined by Kristen Callihan is no longer available for sale. Sorry, everyone!
Samhain and Elora’s Cave were two early erotic romance publishers that closed and we’ve lost a lot of information about these publishers and their backlist of titles and authors.

Sponsors
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, publisher of A.T. Qureshi’s Rider of Dragons, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
MJ Hastings’s Firstborn, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
LJ Andrews, author of The Stolen Crown preorder now in print, ebook or 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/2026/9/21/s0903-carpenters-plumbers-and-other-metaphorical-romance-jobs
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.

00:00 Bantr
07:25 People with Tools
15:47 AD: THE STOLEN CROWN
17:30 Organizing Principles
20:44 Roller Girl
27:38 The Scoundrel Falls Hard
32:05 AD: FIRST BORN
33:58 Under Construction
48:14 AD: RIDER OF DRAGONS
49:49 The Carpenter
55:43 Entwined
1:01:51 AD: THE DEAD GUY NEXT DOOR
1:03:58 Caulky
1:12:12 Hard Time
1:19:47 Kate’s Crew
1:27:17 Blue Collar Bad Boys
1:34:23 Screwed
1:42:11 Wrapping Up