Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

We’ve been talking about the end (almost end) of this one since we started the podcast, so it seemed high time we did a deep dive on it! Judith McNaught’s Perfect is the most 90s thing we’ve ever read, so gird your loins for both the best all-is-lost scene in romance, and also Zach, Julie, prison breaks, illiteracy, the Coors corporation, Romance Cashmere, and so so many references to Kevin Costner. It’s the most 90s thing we’ve ever read, without question.
If you want to talk more about Perfect or Judith McNaught, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is Sarah’s A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we’ve gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books
Perfect by Judith McNaught
A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
Remember When by Judith McNaught
Double Standards by Judith McNaught
Tender Triumph by Judith McNaught

Notes
Jen said Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead but she meant Adventures in Babysitting, which was a 1987 movie where suburban kids go on a terrifying adventure in the terrifying big city of Chicago.
We did a deep dive of A Kingdom of Dreams in Season 2.
Kelly Faircloth sent Sarah an ad for the book from People Magazine. In print versions of the book, there was a letter from Judith McNaught explaining the literacy plot in the book.
Interestingly, the Coors literacy push was covered by the New York Times in 1992, discussing the push by big companies to adopt a cause and use it to burnish their image.
Okay, apparently fleece also had a bellwether year in 1993, but let’s be honest, it was Old Navy who made performance fleece happen for most of us and that was 1998.
In America, our access to Abortion is much worse than it was in 1993 and America still has a devastating epidemic of suicide among queer teenagers, as The Trevor Project explains “LGBTQ+ young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”

Sponsors
Frayed Pages by Wattpad Books, publishers of EM Wilson’s Breakup for Two, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Meghan Quinn, author of Just for the Plot, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Kylie Scott, author of Runaway Rockstar, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
E.W. Andersen, author of the Midnights on the Square series. Available in print or ebook at at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, 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/2026/7/28/0845-judith-mcnaughts-perfect-content-warning-the-90s
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.

Just revisiting an old fav as we approach season four of Ted Lasso.
Show Notes
Diamond Dogs Book Club

The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2021/7/18/s0348-is-roy-kent-a-romance-hero-the-ted-lasso-interstitial#notes
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 last few years have brought a wave of romances with magical elements—not really paranormal, not really witches, not really contemporary — books where something is just slightly ✨magic✨. Today, we’re talking about those books, how they work, what they’re saying, and how they work in terms of character, plot and POV. We’re also discussing how the books exist on the outer edges of the romance pool.
If you want to talk more about these speculative romance novels, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
My Date with a Pair of Gray Sweatpants by Cassie O. Peia
The House of Now and Then by Edward Underhill
Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan
Every Version of You by Natalie Messier
The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston
Losing Sight by Tati Richardson
Struck Speechless by Tati Richardson

Notes
This year’s men’s World Cup actually broke the Own Goal record with 14 of them. Get ready for the Women’s World Cup in Brazil next year in 2027! So these English fans made up a bunch of chants for a regular player, which is very charming. Speaking of soccer, Mamdani continues to show us all that politicians can just…help make people’s lives better?
Here’s a handout Jen uses to teach the three genres that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella, and why magical realism isn’t a catch-all or synonym for any writing with speculative elements.
The pink dress question: how do you decide if your characters need to heal themselves in order to fall in love, or if falling in love is what heals them?
Matthew Rhys and Matthew Macfadyen are in fact different people, but everyone’s watching Widow’s Bay.

Sponsors
Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
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, publishers of Sleuths, by Samantha Moody, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.

The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/s0843
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.

Once upon a time, Sarah went to Sweden and met a thriller writer who likes talking about the rules of writing in genre as much as we do. We’re so excited that to be able to bring Anders de la Motte’s brilliant thoughts about thrillers and mysteries to Fated Mates in this far-reaching conversation on romance’s sister genres—thrillers & mysteries. We talk about Anders’s path to writing, about the rules of writing thrillers and mysteries, about the covenant mysteries and thrillers have with readers, and about Mystery Reasons™️. We had the best time with this one — you’re going to love it.
Learn more about Anders’s books at his English language publishers, Simon & Schuster and Harpercollins
If you want to talk more about Genre Carrying the Myth, Jayne Ann Krentz’s genius way of thinking about the work of genre fiction, or about mysteries and thrillers, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Thrillers and Mysteries Mentioned in This Episode
The Mountain King by Anders De la Motte
The Glass Man by Anders De la Motte
The Rust Forest by Anders De la Motte
Shutter Island by Denis Lehane
The Usual Suspects
Widow's Bay
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Columbo
Poker Face
Murder, She Wrote
Knives Out
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Killing Floor by Lee Child
Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
James Bond
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
The Wire
MemoRandom by Anders De la Motte
End of Summer by Anders De la Motte
Game by Anders De la Motte

Notes
Welcome Anders de la Motte, author of mysteries and thrillers. Many of his books have been translated to English, most recently The Asker series.
Many of the most famous fictional detectives we mentioned are on this list.
In fiction, unreliability is a narrative device meant to purposefully confuse or lie to the reader for the purposes of the story. We’ve argued that it’s more or less impossible to have an unreliable narrator in romance.
A good explainer on the difference between close 3rd (used in romance) and limited 3rd (used in mysteries/thrillers)
MacGuffins and other mystery and thriller tropes and vocabulary.
Sponsors
Jill Shalvis author of Falling Into You, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local independent bookstore.
Jess Turner, author of The Only Catch, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Hachette, publishers of In the Wake of the Ruined, by Kalie Cassidy, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.
Oliver Heber Books, publishers of The Forbidden Duke, by Darcy Burke, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books. Support the special 10th...

It’s summer, so we’re talking Country House Parties! We’re skulking around, having scandalous meetings in cupboards, getting caught in the rain near the groundskeeper’s cottage, and generally causing chaos during a summer party at an enormous country house where someone is definitely ending up married (or at least ruined). This is another one where we’re pretty shocked we haven’t done it before. Gird your loins, historical lovers!!
If you want to talk more about country house parties, about historicals, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You’ll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.
Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she’s right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
Books
Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLean
Duchess by Night by Eloisa James
Band Sinister by KJ Charles
Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
How the Duke was Won by Lenora Bell
A Dangerous Man by Connie Brockway
Forever Your Duke by Erica Ridley
Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare
Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh
What I did for a Duke by Julie Ann Long
The Fifth Avenue Rebels Series by Joanna Shupe
Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas

Notes
It’s officially called The Obama Presidential Center, but you can also call it The Obamalisk OR the Taj Michelle. Whatever works for you! It’s a great place for a first date!
The tall ships! It’s not the St. Charles, but the St. Lawrence waterways, it’s manmade, because you know, Niagara Falls. We know geography!
Some people got married at Madison Square Garden and some other people got engaged at the top of the Empire State Building.
In Tatler, author Lucy Foley wrote about the country house party.
Noises Off is a farce.

Sponsors
Rachel Griffiths, author of Just for the Season, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, signed from the Ripped Bodice, or wherever you get your books.
Max Monroe authors of Where I Should Have Been, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or your local independent bookstore.
Kristin Jennings, author of A Legacy of Magic & Monsters, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Union Square & Co., publishers of Pot Shot, by Laura Piper Lee, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.

The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/s0842-country-house-parties
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.