1. You can listen to the accompanying playlist on Apple Music and Spotify
2. You, too, may want to learn about this mahjong situation brewing in the Midwest with Barbara.
3. It’s the Olympics. Defector is covering all the news stories we want to know about, including the Curling Drama between Sweden and Canada, the ice dancers are super villains, and this Norwegian skier is an idiot.
4. Happy Black History Month! Jen did something cool at The Newberry Library. It was part of the Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon, transcribing information about the Colored Conventions. You can still participate using Zooniverse, and looking for the Douglass Day Project.
5. Sarah enjoyed learning about the Asking Dumb Questions class at Yale.
6. Tom Breihan writes a column The Number Ones at Stereogum, and Jen also enjoys a similar Slate podcast called Hit Parade.
7. Here’s the spreadsheet of February hits, and a playlist of songs we talked about today! The Macarena is a song about love triangles! Bad Romance by Lady Gaga is on this list, but we only talk about books we like.
8. The DJ book Jen couldn’t remember was Rival Radio by Kathryn Nolan.
9. The Stud Budz, WNBA players Courtney Williams & Natisha Hiedeman, did a long livestream during the 2025 All...

This weekend, the world is celebrating the second most important romance holiday in February (see last week’s episode for the most important)—Valentine’s Day! To lean into the traditions of the day, we thought we’d offer you a dozen roses this week, in the form of books! We’re taking the topic broadly—from character names, to author names, to rose scented things, to roses on the page — historical, contemporary, mafia and more…there’s something in here for everyone. 🌹

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Our next read along (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Ladyhawke is a 1985 movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rutger Hauer, and Matthew Broderick.

Go see “Wuthering Heights” if you want! It has Jacob Elordi ( even though Heathcliff should be a man of color) and Margot Robbie, but mostly it’s about capturing a vibe.

Sinners was terrific, it stars Michael B Jordan playing twins, was nominated for a record-breaking 16 Oscars, and includes both an extraordinary sequence about the history of music and a hero who enjoys a meal.

Well, we actually talked about a bunch of rose adjacent stuff outside of our official dozen roses. Here they are:

1. Rose DeWitt Bukater from Titanic
2. Rose Nylund from The Golden Girls defending Minnesota
3. The first book in Lorraine Heath’s Rogues and Roses series is A Duke of Her Own
4. SJ Tilly (who we think is great) has an epistolary romance called Dear Rosie

It’s finally happened! In a perfect Derek Craven Day celebration, our Trailblazer conversations continue this week with thee Lisa Kleypas, historical romance royalty, who changed the game when she brought working class heroes to historicals. We discuss her four decades of work in romance, from historical to contemporary to magical realism and now into historical fiction, touching on the Kleypas hero, the way she builds series, and the ways that she continues to push herself as a storyteller. And yes, she was kind enough to play a round of Derek Craven Would Never.

We are so grateful to Lisa Kleypas for making time for us, for her amazing books, and for Derek Craven Day.

If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

Our next read along (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

1. Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas
2. Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
3. Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas
4. Forever My Love by Lisa Kleypas
5. The Vallerands Series by Lisa Kleypas
6. The Wallflowers Series by Lisa Kleypas
7. Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
8. The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
9. Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
10. Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas
11. Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas
12. Hello Stranger...

It’s a snowstorm, Jen’s from Chicago, and we’re feeling extra qualified to talk about Ice Planet Barbarians! It’s the book, and the series that took the world by storm back in 2015, and we’re revisiting the absolute powerhouse it was then, before it launched an entire subgenre of romance and changed the romance landscape. We’re also talking about Ruby Dixon’s clear skill, her obvious love of the genre, and all the ways she makes us both laugh and sigh.

If you have a favorite IPB book and you want to talk about it, come find us (and other romance lovers) on the Fated Mates Discord, which you can access by joining our patreon. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along (in March) is Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife by Julia Wolf. Find it in ebook or paperback, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

1. Horsepower is definitely the same as measuring the weight of ice in golden retriever pounds.
2. There’s lot of ways to support the people of Minnesota right now. A good clearinghouse site is Stand With Minnesota. You can also order directly from area bookstores: Tropes and Trifles, Black Garnet Books, or Birchbark Books, or use Bookshop.Org for any number of Minnesota stores. Monarca If you are looking to support whistle production, You can also support other Romancelandia efforts. Bree (from Kit Rocha) is part of a team of people that have printed over 150k whistles this month alone! Romancing the Vote will also be back up this summer, so look for information on that. Along with Monarca, Indivisible is also holding trainings to teach people how to document and record ICE.
3. Get ready, Derek Craven Day is nigh!

It’s February, so lots of upcoming romance events to check out!

1. Feb 12, 2026: Jen will be at Babe’s Sports Bar to discuss a WNBA romance, Rooting Interest.
2. Feb 14, 2026: the Free Library of Philadelphia will be holding

The brilliant Jayne Ann Krentz, romance trailblazer and royalty, joins us this week to talk about one of her favorite tropes--the shotgun wedding! We're talking all things forced marriage...how it differs from marriage of convenience, how it underscores the inherent conflict in romance, and how it often ends up being more like romantic suspense than one would expect! We also talk a bit about how secret babies (and babies in general) play into this trope. Did Jayne also say something that Sarah had to stop the interview to write down? Of course she did!

If you have favorite forced marriage/shotgun weddings, maybe you want to join the Fated Mates patreon? There, you get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the FM Discord! Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along will be Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local indie, libro.fm, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

1. The Shop on Hidden Lane by Jayne Ann Krentz
2. Into the Storm by Rachel Grant
3. A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
4. Broken Whispers by Neva Altaj
5. The Duke’s Shotgun Wedding by Stacy Reid
6. Because the Baron Broods
7. Stolen Touches by Neva Altaj
8. Mafia Virgin by Mila Finelli
9. The King’s Spinster Bride by Ruby Dixon
10. Ravished by Amanda Quick

1. Welcome Jayne Ann Krentz, who also writes as Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick. Her new book is The Shop...

As it's the beginning of 2026, we're talking about how we think about our reading years. What kind of strategies does Jen use? How is Sarah attempting to control the chaos? Which books do we already have on our TBR piles for 2026, and how do we structure our reading year to make ourselves happy and prepare for the podcast? We're also talking about some books by romance novelists who are publishing outside the romance genre this year.

If you want to talk to more people about reading strategies this year, 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 Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local indie, libro.fm, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited

1. Vaccinations are good, actually. In between recording this episode and when it aired, Caroline Kennedy’s daughter Tatiana Schlossberg, who wrote about her cancer diagnosis in the New Yorker, has sadly died.
2. It will shock no one to learn that Jen learned about immunizations from books. In her childhood, the books The Great Brain by John Dennis Fitzgerald. We also recommend Everything is Tuberculosis by John Greene and On Immunity by Eula Biss.
3. Amazon is forcing AI tools into the kindle books themselves, and it’s all awful. Use your own brain, we don’t know what else to say.

1. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
2. On Immunity by Eula Biss
3. The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn
4. The Romance Revival by Christina Lauren
5. She Fell...

Sarah's still catching up, but Jen, Adriana Herrera, and Joanna Shupe have seen it and they have a lot to say.

Your discoverabilibuddies are back! It's a new year which means we're dropping our Winter 2026 reads episode, in which we talk about the million trillion 2026 romance books coming out in January, February and March (ok, not a million trillion, but enough that Eric came out of his studio this morning with a thousand-yard stare!). As a reminder, we have not necessarily read all these books, but they are on our TBRs and should be on yours!

If you want more recommendations and more people with whom you can discuss 2026 romance novels, 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 Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians (you’re welcome). Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, from your local indie or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

1. Champagne Taste on a Bad Boy Budget by Zuri Day
2. Drive me Crazy by Lizzy Dent
3. Silver & Blood by Jessie Mihalik
4. A Scandal Changes Everything by Josie Johns
5. Dom-Com by Adriana Anders
6. Only on Gameday by Kristen Callihan
7. Janae Sanders’ Second Time Around by LaQuette
8. The Lust Crusade by Jo Segura
9. The Ex Dilemma by Elle Wright
10. Wish I May by Hannah Murray
11. Almost One Night Stand by AJ Pine
12. The Re-Do List by Denise Williams