S08.28: Spring 2026 Preview

It's that time again. No time for banter, everybody. Only books. Discover a bill of bodies. I know, we need like a special, an intro. A special intro and maybe no offense to it's not gonna be me singing, you have a nice time. It should be a jingle. It should be like, Sarah and Jen, here again. We're your discover a bill of bodies. Yeah, and then there'd be like, if it was a real jingle, it'd be like followed up by like a number, right? Like eight, six, seven, five, three. Oh no, that's a real song. Okay, fine. It's a different song. Yeah, different song entirely, right? It is funny when you move to a new place and you have to like get used to all of their weirdo jingles about like buying carpet or windows or whatever. Yeah, furniture, couches. Young people don't know the joy of this, I'm sure. No, they don't have any local television ads. They barely know about actual real ads. Anyway, point is that we should have a jingle for our quarterlies. I don't know, Eric, get together. This is our note for you, Eric. Somebody sings beautifully in the discord shortly and we happily record a jingle for us. It is not me. Anyway, everybody, it's happening. We're back, we're talking about the spring, which is exciting. It is. April, May, June. No, May, June, July. No, April, May, June. April, May, June, you gotta write the first time. April, May, June. And we're talking about all the books that we are excited about. I always love this because I just like sure hang around on my couch and like search for fun books. I know, it's the best time. And then today I had a couple where I like fully cackled and hoped that you didn't pick them too, so that didn't see them first. So that I can like shock you with the descriptions of them. Well, I will also tell everybody like years ago, I had this really funny idea and I like put it on for like this day, cause it is actually April 1st. Oh, it is April 1st. Where I was like, Sarah, we should have an episode where we just make up fake books. And then like sort of like people will be like, wait, where can I buy these books? And we'd be like, no, that's all April Fool's Day. And then Eric reminded us that that would actually take a lot of time and energy and work. Yeah, and so, sorry. We're not as creative as we like to think. And then I was like, maybe I could just slip one fake book in here. And then I was like, you know what? People have real discoverability problems. They do not need me. They don't need you. They don't need you to make things worse. No, exactly. Anyway, well, let's get it together then. Well, maybe introduce us. Oh yeah, welcome to Fated Meets, everyone. I'm Sarah McLean, I read romance novels and I write them. And I'm Jennifer Prokop, a romance reader and editor. And yes, we are going to do this if you're new into one of our discoverability episodes. The only thing you really need to know is none of these books are available and we have not read any of these books. These are purely like, we think these look cool and fun. We're interested in them. We think you will be too. And so these are all pre, this is a pre-order situation for everyone. So you can either pre-order them, add them to your Amazon cart as physical books so that you remember them. And then on our website, all the books that we talk about will be in order and they'll be like sort of, organized by month. So we're gonna start off by talking about April books and then those will all be together and then May and then June because what is the point of discoverability if you can't actually then remember? Keep things organized. Yeah, so the way you get to that list is you go to our website, fatedemates.net and then you click on episodes and it'll be right there at the top of the page. And you can see all of the April May, June books that we've chosen. Also, I had something else I was gonna say. It's just gone for a minute. Anyway, maybe I'll remember it later. Maybe it was a lie. Okay, so here we go. Gosh, just right into it. You know, let me say a little bit more about my one thing. It's like, I do try and think of like, you're not gonna hear about like the new, layers like a book by Abby Jimenez coming out or Lucy Scorer, like they do not need our discoverability, super power, so we are always really trying to like, these are authors, maybe I've never read before or I've only read one book. So, you know, we're really trying to really like dig deep and like let you know about stuff that isn't gonna like be like plastered all over anything, everything anyway, right? Correct. Oh, I remembered what I was gonna say, which is if you are an author out there and you think to yourself, gosh, I really wish Sarah and Jenna had known about my book this spring. We do have a Google form, which you can find in our show notes. Same way that I said, you can find the whole list. And you can click on that and you could drop the name of your book and your publication date in there for the back half of the year and through 2027. And then we'll have evidence that it exists and we will try really hard to make it happen on a few trips. So, also, and this is a big one, if you are out there and you are the author of one of these books or you are an author who is not on this list but you wanna be part of Fated Mates, we every year do a debut romance episode. At the end of the year, we talk about our favorite debuts of the year and there is a form for that as well. I will put that also in show notes. And if you have a debut book out this year and you want to be considered for that debut episode, make sure your name goes on that list so that we know you exist and we know that this is your first book because first books are important. Yeah, and then one last little piece of information is, and we say this every time, this list is gonna skew very heavily towards traditionally published books because there's just sort of more architecture and infrastructure for finding about those books and knowing about them in advance. So, this is not to say that we do not love all of our self-pub and indie author friends but just like those books tend to sometimes not quite have the same discoverability even for us until it happens. So, that's just one last thing I'm gonna say. Okay, you wanna start? Okay, I do wanna start. I wanna start with our friend Kate Claiborne. And I'm not gonna talk a ton about this because we are gonna talk about this book when it is out and when we can scream about it and when we can love on Kate because she is one of our very favorites here at The Pod. But her next book, The Long-Awaited, Paris Match is coming April 7th. I'm so excited about it. It is already getting a million accolades including from us. It is about a heroine who has had a divorce but still keeps, has like a tight relationship with her ex-husband's family and she has been invited to Paris for his sister's destination wedding which seems like the most brutal of experiences. Like you have to go to the city of love to celebrate the wedding of the family of the man who broke your heart. But while he's there, there is a very sexy best man who is very gruff and very scarred and very perfect and he is griffin' and you're going to love him and that is all I will say about that right now but if you have not pre-ordered Kate Claymore's Paris Match you would just do yourself a favor, do that now and then on April 7th, you'll be so happy that Past You gave you a delicious gift. Yeah, just take, plan to take the day off work right now. Okay, so I am going to talk about The Art of Loving You by Natasha Bishop. This is, she wrote a book called Only One Week which I really loved and so in this one we have Danny Jenkins. She is a model turned influencer who is just not going to be taking any risks on romance. She prefers to keep things casual, keep things casual until her mentor, a woman named Tanya dies and essentially has left kind of like a, a like sort of like one of these situations where she like really wants to bring Danny back with artist Micah Wright who like broke her heart. They had like a really hard like sort of breakup and it's Tanya's dying wish that Danny and Micah would get back together and she has like left a scavenger hunt road trip to like sort of get them on their way and so this is like a road trip romance. Tensions are really high. Danny is going to refuse to let her guard down but as they continue on their journey maybe she is really kind of realizing that this is a case of the right person but it was the wrong time. So we are going to see that forced proximity bring these friends back into and like sort of X's into a new situation. So that is the Art of Loving You by Natasha Bishop. Okay, I want to talk about Lenora Bell who actually has a book out, had a book out in March under the name Lenora Nash, a thriller which was delicious and everybody should go read that. It also has a little thread of romance in it but Lenora's most recent historical can't get enough of the Duke is coming out April 7th as well. So pre-order this and you get Kate and Lenora all at once and here's the deal with that one. So she is finishing up her Thunderbolt Club series and this one is a marriage of convenience between a grumpy combat scarred Duke and his cheerful ward. And listen, I love a guardian ward situation. I know, I know, I know everybody but I really do love one. War hero Deckard Payne, the Duke of Warburton made a battlefield promise to become the guardian to the orphan of one of his compatriots on the battlefield. He definitely did not agree to marry her but that is exactly what happens when he gets home. He discovers she is no child. In fact, she is a woman of marriageable age and she is in an absolute situation related to her reputation. Of course, Annalise doesn't want a loveless marriage. She were brooding though handsome Duke who lives in a gloomy castle although let's be honest, everybody, that's kind of the dream. She can save him but he is determined to keep her at arm's length. She is just sort of like the sunshiniest sunshine. So this one is for anyone who loves a guardian ward, who loves a grumpy Duke, who loves a grumpy sunshine situation, who loves a marriage of convenience. Lenora Bell is fantastic and one of our very best historical voices and I hope you will all love, can't get enough of the Duke. Okay, so I am going to talk about Married to the Mafia by Lucy Smoke. This is sort of a, looks like to be a little bit of a mafia rom-com, I'm curious, I'm interested. So here what we have is, Daisy Turner is just basically listen, a clueless kind of waitress without like whatever, she's fine. So what she has done is signed up to be a server at a high end ultra private wedding. So she figures this is like a great opportunity to like see some famous people and like, you know, essentially like leave with some snacks in her bag and a bunch of cash, right? Because they're going to pay really well. But in the day of the event, which is a wedding, she walks in and the bride is dead. Turns out this wedding is an arranged marriage between two dangerous crime families in New York. And she is now an accomplice to a mafia murder. And the groom essentially realizes that she has, you know, she's like trying to like sneak out the side door and the groom realizes what's going on and essentially gives her an ultimatum that she has to marry him. And it says the or die is implied, but what is a girl to do? So Daisy ends up married to handsome Julia, Julia La Rosa. And she thinks she's going to be taken care of, but she's not quite sure in which way. So that is married to the mafia by Lucy Smoke. Love it. Let's talk about Claire Contreras, who is a favorite here. Claire has a new Romantic series coming out. This is the first book in the Cursed Realms series. It's called Isle of Wrath. And here's the deal. Lunaris is the world that we are in. And Lunaris has been hidden away from the rest of the world for 300 years. And it has provided asylum to hundreds and thousands of people who need asylum. But when they come to Lunaris to trade for asylum, they have to trade their memories. So when they enter this space, they know one remembers their past, their homeland, or the curse that brings them into this world. They have many, many rules, including not, including a rule that keeps them from revealing their gifts, their magical gifts. Well, Ada Acevedo has been hiding her gift for healing for years, but her twin brother is struck by a poison arrow and she breaks the rule, reveals that she is a healer and then is forced to bargain with the goddess of death to save his life. She does not expect the goddess to send Malachi Bane, listen, what a great name. It is great, that's great. A warrior for the goddess of death to collect. Sure. And she really doesn't expect to be soulbound to him until she repays what she owes. Now Ada and Malachi are working together to lift the shroud and break the curse that's kept this whole world hidden for 300 years. There are forbidden prophecies, there are buried secrets and a devastating truth that Lunaris is not the paradise everybody thinks it is. And it's gonna be Malachi and Ada against the world here and I cannot wait. That is Isle of Wrath by Claire Contreras. This week's episode of Fated Mates is brought to you by LaVenia K. Darcy, author of Return to Kingscote. So this is the first in LaVenia Darcy's The Gallants of Gloucestershire series and it features Maxim Rupert Hammond, a great Duke name. He is the newly minted Duke of Hargrove and he has reluctantly agreed to his mother's demand for a month long house party, Jen. I love a house party. Attending this house party is a whole gaggle of debutons. Of course. And they are eager for a match because guess what his mom wants? Grandbabies. Grandbabies, a daughter-in-law. I mean, it's time for Max to do his duty but his heart remains locked away because his first love is long dead and he remains mourning her. Miss Rose Hamden arrives at Kingscote cloaked in mystery and a veil. She is penniless, scarred and the companion to a cruel countess and her manipulative daughter but Rose has plans. She intends to stay quiet, invisible and out of trouble which those plans never come to pass in a romance novel so I'm feeling good about it. But a chance encounter, here we go, out of trouble. In trouble it seems like there's a quiet lakeside glen and a tentative connection and then a strong attraction and then one unforgettable night of passion between this kind Duke and this quiet companion and Max and Rose ultimately have to choose whether they'll bow to duty and the weight of expectation or risk everything for a love that was never part of the plan. So if you would like to check out Return to Kingscote a fun new historical romance with a scarred heroine, I love that, then you should check it out. It is available in print and ebook and if your podcast app supports it, you can click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book. Thanks to LaVenia K. Darcy for sponsoring this week's episode. Okay, so I'm going to talk about Drempt I Found You by Jimin Han. This is a retelling, a contemporary retelling of Korea's most famous Romeo and Juliet myths but the cousin of the star-crossed lovers is there to help them avoid their tragic fate. So in this one, Dahee Shin was nine years old when she made a promise to protect her favorite cousin, Channing, who's always been like a sister to her but now at 30 Dahee has found herself in a sort of New England beach town that has a very Korean, like very strong Korean American community but basically she's like once again sort of running to Channing's rescue because Channing just seems like kind of a hot mess. Channing has spent her life haunted by the tragic story of Chun-young and Myeong-young which are essentially like the Romeo and Juliet characters and she has fallen in love with Min-ja who is essentially like these two are trying to hold off like a powerful politician and sort of this crooked guy and he is really suspicious and obsessed and Dahee begins to realize that if she is going to ensure her cousin's happiness she is going to have to essentially like basically like finally like be the fixer on all of this together. So this is just apparently a really tender retelling of Korea's like classic love story but with and like all the like sort of folklore and magic but and now listen everybody I have not read it the whole part about like helping them avoid a tragic fate leaves me to believe that we will be potentially safe reading this. So this is Drempt I Found You by Jimin Han. I want to talk about The Duke Scott Mail by Samara Parish which is again an epistolary love story everybody I'm so excited about this. Eleanor Wright is the best compositor in London. So a compositor is a person who like typesets things and she is in high demand. She like travels from printing press to printing press all through London but there is a new a whisper of a new machine that is going to put her out of a job. And so she writes to a mysterious pen pal and you know for help and he writes back and then these letters back and forth between them start to become her only relief from this life of like real worry. She is very concerned that like as a woman in England in history she is going to have a real problem soon. Peter Montgomery, Duke of Stratford is trying to get his estate out of debt. He has the solution now. He's created this machine which will revolutionize the publishing industry. Problem is he's now got this witty pen pal who is struggling with this machine and when they find out and they're also falling in love in real life. So when they find out that Peter invented this machine that's going to put Eleanor out of work this is going to make them absolute bitter rivals in person and they are going to have to figure out whether their love can overcome whether their love is mightier than their printing press. So that is The Duke's Got Mail by Samara Parish. Perfect. I mean you cannot stay away from an epistole. I really cannot. Fine. I'm not even mad at him. But I am. I mean I'm a basic bitch. I don't know what to say. All right so my next one is La Dolce Vito only that is spelled V-E-T-O by Caitlin Alice Gilbert. And in this one we have debut author who is telling us the story of a US Congresswoman Isabella Rhodes who is supposed to be making history not headlines but when a devastating betrayal shatters her political career overnight she flees to a sleepy village in the heart of Umbria where the days are slow and the past is handmade and no one knows her name. So there she essentially learned she will be sharing her villa with Benito, a brooding newly elected mayor of the town who is very determined to save his crumbling hometown and he does not trust outsiders. So there's a controversial hotel development. Izzy is pulled into the fight for the town's future and further into his world. But is this gonna happen given like all of the business that she is left behind and right like can she like find a happy new life together in this place considering like everything her whole life back in the States. So that is La Dolce Vito by Caitlin Alice Gilbert. Okay, how about some vampires? You haven't done vampires yet. Let's talk about Love at First Bite by Catherine Dyson. This one is the, so the premise of this is that Lucy Partridge is a reporter who loves reporting unlike the feel good stories of the time. So she decides that she's going to head off to a small seaside town where a goth weekend is taking place and she, and this will give her a little bit of stuff outside of her comfort zone, but it'll still feed the kind of like people having joy feel for her. So she gets there and she discovers that she is in a quite difficult situation Jen because there is only one bed and only one hotel room at the place where she's supposed to be staying. And she is sharing it with six foot three inches of a bar owner, Liam Bramwell, who isn't just a bar owner. He's actually a living vampire. Oh boy. So she knows she should run the other way but he's very handsome and very compelling and the reporter instinct in her says there's more to him than his fangs. So Lucy's like, well, maybe I'll just stay the weekend with him and see what happens. And I love the idea of this like very charming, like vampire, rom-com-y contemporary. On the cover, the tagline for this book is he's a pain in the neck. And yeah. So that's love at first bite by Catherine Dyson. Okay. So I am going to talk about Annie Knows Everything by Rachel Wood because I love a know-it-all. It's fine. So after getting let go from her job and learning her sister is engaged to the worst man alive, Annie needs a win. So what she decides to do is fill in an open role in her company's data strategy team, right? Because who needs to write code? How hard can it be? Surely Connor, the team's overworked, aggravating and distractingly hot interim head will soon realize how capable and awesome Annie is. So she sets her sights on landing this new job, even if it means ignoring the chemistry between her and her new boss, trying to get her sister to reconsider her engagement. But with Spark flying at work and at home, maybe Annie doesn't actually know everything. So this one based on the cover looks like it might be taking place in my home city of Chicago. I can't really tell. But it looks like a really cute one. So that's Annie Knows Everything. All right, I have one that I want to talk to you about. I'm so glad you haven't picked it yet. Do you have Backstage Night with the billionaire on your list? No, I don't, but tell me more. Backstage Night with the billionaire by Mariah Ankenman. Jen, oh my gosh. All right, so, a down on her luck aerialist, Piper, has a rented theater and she has a problem because there is a problem with the theater and she needs a handyman to come in and help her kind of fix up something, Backstage. But she cannot allow anyone to discover that she has rented this theater for a show, but she is also living Backstage. She is deep in her down on her luck era. But this handsome handyman, Callan turns up and he's interested in helping her kind of renovate the Backstage. Problem is Jen, Callan is no ordinary contractor. He is a billionaire with a tool belt. Sure, of course. And honestly, I don't even know what comes next. It doesn't matter. There's a billionaire in renovation going on here. Sure. He does not end even better. He doesn't believe in love, which is- No, all I want, but from a billionaire contractor. But Piper is idealistic and arty and charming and she is willing to dig in and believe that good things are around the corner. And listen, I wish there were more billionaires with tool belts building actual stuff. So that is Backstage Night with the Billionaire by Mariah Unkenman and also in April book. Sure. Okay, so I have more like an Amigos by Stephanie Hope. I have that one too. Yes, so what we have here is a really fun, a sapphic romance set against a wedding and all the family drama that comes along with a big family wedding. So Isabella Valdez knows three things for certain. Her late father's Cuban restaurant is thriving. She owns lots of designer things, but, and both of those statements are absolute lies to make her mother happy. So, but she would do anything to keep her father's legacy alive, including attending her strange cousin's week-long wedding extravaganza. But once she is there, she's convinced that like, once Issa prepares like sort of this, these like delicious meals from her father's chair journal that like her cousin's wealthy fiance will essentially like, you know, be like, yes, let's save the restaurant, right? But to Issa's annoyance, she will be sharing a cabin with Valentina, a former friend to turn rival who ruined her conciera. So that's, listen, I don't blame you for being mad about that, but Val is offering a non-expected deal. She'll help Issa unravel an old family secret in return for help sabotaging the wedding and winning the heart of the bride. What? So saying yes is a bad idea, but Issa's perfectionism meets its match and Val's carefree demeanor. And then all of a sudden it's these two that are falling in love. So that is More Like An Amiga by Stephanie Hope. Perfect. Danielle Allen has a new book out this month called, it's part of her Curve series. And this one is called Big Girl Blitz. And Jasmine Payne, the heroine, has fled her hometown and all of the fat foes who live there who made her life hell. And she did that the moment she graduated high school. So her haven growing up was Aunt Addison. But when Aunt Addison's health takes a drastic turn, she insists that Jazz come home and spice up her life. But an emphasis on spice. So like Aunt Addison is like, come back, get dating and tell me all the gossip. But dating is the last thing that Jazz has on her mind until Lamar Anderson sits next to her at a local sports bar. We know like Danielle loves this sort of sports bar setting. There's always sports in her books. He is sexy, fun and refreshingly drama free. And with him, Jazz isn't able to pretend that everything is all right and let down her guard. But when real life intrudes and the past comes back and her aunt's sickness comes to a head, she has to decide if she's willing to stay in this town and stay in the past and or rather reckon with the past in order to maybe find love for the future. And I've loved Danielle's books. I love her heroines and I'm looking forward to this one. That is again, Big Girl Blitz by Daniela Allen. Okay, how many more do you have for April? How many is that seven for me? So I can do one more. Okay, so all right, I am going to do The Ride-Off by Cara McDowell. So what we have here are, we have like a second chance book where it's been 13 years since Mars darling first met West Emerson on a bench outside their riding class. Their friendly Rai-Lori turned into best friends and then for a brief time romance. Now it's a decade later and Mars is staying on their college campus. She was once an esteemed YA fantasy author and she comes face to face with West who was the muse behind like this trilogy. She wrote like a heartthrob hero but he betrayed her in the worst way. So she is determined not to let her come back to or be ruined by the fact that West is also with the festival as an author but the longer they're on campus with so many shared memories, she's starting to wonder if it is not just her riding career that deserves a second chance. So this actually gets told in dual timeline once back when they were in college and another one here in the present as they try to get it all together. So that is The Ride-Off by Cara McDowell. Okay, I wanna talk about I Choose the Bear by Shaila Walker. Okay, all right. So this, I mean, immediately the moment I saw this title I was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna read this. So, okay, Ivy thought she had found like one of the good guys, nice guy who everybody liked and then they head to a lake house for a night to watch a meteor shower and Neil, this nice guy has some plans that Ivy isn't into and when she says no, he doesn't like it. Enter the bear. Jonah is on a hiking trip with his best friend and after he is a bear shifter and after the unexpected death of his clans, Alpha, he is enjoying the last few hours of freedom. He'll know for quite some time because he is about to become Alpha of his clan. The countdown is ticking. He is just having like a nice time beneath a meteor shower as a soon to be bear Alpha. It is shattered by the shouts of an angry frightened woman. Liam and Jonah take off running to investigate and as they reach the edge of the property, Ivy shouts, you're the woman, the reason, you're the reason why women choose the bear, Neil. And now Jonah abides by the laws governing supernaturals and doesn't reveal himself to be a shape shifter but walking out there in his bear skin isn't really revealing himself, right? Predators deserve to be frightened, don't they? But then he sees Ivy and his whole world is in chaos and he has fallen in love with a human and he's gotta be a bear shifter leader and love is not convenient but she is gonna choose the bear and I have a feeling the bear is going to choose her. Perfect. I choose the bear by Shiloh Walker. Amazing. Okay, so I'm gonna talk about my last book for April is Unbound by Peyton Corrine. I really love- It has a beautiful cover. Yeah, it has a beautiful color. I love the first two books in this series. I'm really looking forward to this one. And in this one we have, she just writes really, I mean, if you're like, I love Anxt, then Peyton, Corrine is the low lady for you. So Paloma Blake is just antagonistic, Bernice. But she has a lot of trauma and she masks it with things that are like walls that are really designed to keep people away. And everyone just sees what she wants them to see and that's like sort of this like sexy attitude, you know, essentially kind of vibes and the person who can see through it is Bennett Reiner. He is very carefully controlled. He's a neurodivergent and a goalie. So he is like a man who has routines and sticks to them. And because if he doesn't, he can really get overwhelmed by like sort of anxiety and OCD and things that, so you know, he has to really keep a tight lid on it. So this quiet and meticulous of Bennett sees everything, including the real girl underneath Paloma's sort of masks. So be essentially, they are like the real first love. There was like this heartbreak that they kept hidden from people. And then all of a sudden here we are like in the present with them like really trying to figure out if they can figure it out again now that they're older or wiser and really determined to not let love get away from them again. So I anticipate that I will be just a mess and crying and all that good stuff. So that's Unbound by Peyton Grinn. This week's episode of Faded Mates is brought to you by Metal Tail Press, publishers of S.E. McPherson's A Villain's Hope. This is the second book in the Heart Mage trilogy. So after the end of the first book of this series, Elias, one of our protagonists, has all that he ever wanted. Magic has garnered him the love and trust of his two royal partners, Bo and Penny. He's got the supernatural skills to protect them from any evil and the power to make any noble in their world dance at his whim. But all magic is a trade in this universe and every gift from the Mage King has taken something from Elias in return. So he's really suffering silently here. Not to mention the fact that Bo, one of his lovers, made a deal with an ancient entity to bring Elias back from the dead in the last book. And now that entity is back, ready to take, uh-oh, it's Pound of Flash from Elias. So Elias, Penny and Bo have to fight. They have to do everything they can to beat this old Mage. And in doing so, they find their kingdom caught in a centuries old battle between ancient magic and the secret society that's built to defend against it. And the big question is, can Elias come to terms with the man that he was before Bo? Can he come to terms with the fact that he may have to go back to that man to becoming that man? And how will he secure the unlikely allies that will keep magic from breaking the world in this book? So this is, if you're really into like a cinnamon roll king, a loyal guard, a badass queen, and characters that are a little bit older in their 20s and 30s, then you would definitely love this series. Also, the first book in the series, A King's Trust, was named one of the best LGBTQ plus indies of 2025. It is available in ebook. And if your podcast camp supports it, you can click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book. Thanks to Metal Tail Press and S.E. McPherson for sponsoring this week's episode. All right, so that's April. And there are a lot of, you guys, there's so many more books in April that we could have talked about. I have so many. But hopefully we'll talk about more of them on the podcast as we go. Okay, so let's get to May. I wanna talk about Mothman as my boyfriend. I mean, me too. Tell me more. Okay, this is by Micaela Coyle. And I believe Micaela Coyle has written all 10 of the stories inside this book, which is entitled, Mothman is my boyfriend, 10 Tales of Cryptid Love and Lust. Sure. And listen, I'm in it. I'm already in it. Welcome to Cryptid Creek, an invitation only a rare few receive. This is a cozy romantic series or series of short stories. Each story about one of 10 mysterious inhabitants of this secret town, Cryptid Creek, where humans and cryptids fall in love. So you've got Yetis and Lake Monsters and Sasquatches and Nightcrawlers and yes, Mothman. And it sounds utterly charming. Again, I love a short story collection. So this is right up the, up my alley. And what's even cooler about this is each of these stories, aside from having a unique kind of cryptid monstery creature in it, is a LGBTQIA related. So there are multiple non-binary characters. There are late in life Levspians. There are trans characters and gay couples and kind of mask presenting Sasquatch and all sorts of like cool little things going on in these books. So if this sounds like it's something that is up your alley, then it is up mine too. I'm very excited. I've already requested it on Netgalley and I hope I get approved. So that's Mothman is my boyfriend by Micaela Coyle. Perfect. Okay, so I am going to talk about Death's Daughter by S.A. Barnes. This is the first book in a new series called The Children of the Old Ones. And so this is like a real, has like mythology meets Buffy vibes. And so our heroine here is Yo-Kesta. She is carved out a normal life for herself at Beecher University as normal as it could be. If your name is Yo-Kesta and your father is the, and you are the only child of Death. So she has friends and a messy situation ship with her former TA, but none of them know the truth about who she is or what she is. So they would be horrified to discover that Joe must feed to survive. And she feeds on them. She reviews us to take their life instead feasting on their disappointments, their failures and their rejections. It's not a perfect system, but it works until a sexy stranger and a descendant of lust shows up on campus because Death has just named Joe as his successor, all of a sudden making her either a powerful ally or a massive target. So her little safe bubble is about to burst, but she really wants to protect anything, will do anything to protect the people she loves even if it becomes, even if it means becoming what she hates. So I don't know, this just seems really fun. I love it when your dad's death, it seems bad. And the tagline on this one is she's dying to get a life. Perfect, perfect. Death's daughter by S.A. Barnes. Okay, I wanna talk about there's something fishy about my boyfriend. Oh yeah, I had this one too. That's fine, you beat me to it. By Gloria Duke, part of the Jersey Shore Merman series. Romance. I love ya. Unmatched. Unmatched. Unmatched, it begins, the description begins, Jim Tan Merman. Welcome to the Jersey Shore where the men are hot, the sun is sizzling and the boardwalks seen it all until now. So after the years of living on the shore, Hannah, our heroine, is sure of two things. One, her family, bed and breakfast is her future. Like that is what she is aiming for. She's going to run this place, she's gonna run it beautifully and this is her future. And two, men like Xander, mysterious, charming and very, very attractive. Do not just wash up on the shore, except Xander appears mostly naked and half conscious in the surf. And Hannah does what any sane, decent person would do. She brings him into bed. Her bed and breakfast, that is. It is polite and it is the right thing to do and it is very neighborly and she sets him up in the B&B and the whole thing goes sideways fast when this man who is perennially topless starts to fix leaky faucets with a wink and make fishy dad jokes and casually reveal that he is a merman. Not only that, but he is the merman who rescued her a decade ago and then ghosted her. So that was rude. But now Hannah reels from the revelations and Xander is trying to stay one step ahead of the danger lurking in the sea that has washed him ashore this second time. And they are going to have to do some serious figuring stuff out if they are gonna learn to live together as merman and lady. Anyway, there's something fishy about my boyfriend by Gloria Duke. Yeah, perfect. Okay, so I am going to talk about Soon by You by Dahlia Adler who I really love, she writes great, why romance is, so I'm really looking forward to this one. And this one is sort of like 27 dresses seemed almost in, so we've got a rom-com set in the modern orthodox community of New York City. So Ariel Becker is one horror away from a meltdown. She has been the bridesmaids too many times, including the Spanx and the heels and the hideous dresses. And she is super over it and like, right, like being asked to spend all this money and she just doesn't wanna do it anymore, right? Especially when they keep coming in contact with the same smug judgmental wedding singer, right? And so, Judah Klein is the go-to guy, right? He is the wedding singer and the most eligible bachelor of all of these sort of the whole community. So years of failed setups have left him really jaded until repeated clashes with a fiery bridesmaid wake him right up. But when snark turns to sparks and fights turns to feelings, things get really complicated. Ariel is not a girl who settles down and Judah is not a guy who hooks up. So why does walking away feel so impossible? So we have off the charts chemistry between these two at the like everybody loves a, okay, everybody, that's me, loves a romance set against a wedding. I cannot get enough of it. So that's soon by you by Dahlia Adler. Okay, let's talk about Double Happiness by Heather Eng. So Mae Lee, our heroine runs into Alexander Brodor at a family function and they are, sparks are immediately flying. They are, Mae and Alexander knew each other years ago and it just like, it didn't click then, but now suddenly there's something very different about him. There's just like rich chemistry between them. However, this is a very bad thing for Mae because she has created an incredibly carefully constructed life and it has no room for this man because she is engaged to Joey, a fellow native of Queens who keeps her grounded as she works her ass off and like is making herself a star in the tech world. They have known each other forever. After a childhood marked by financial and emotional turmoil, Mae is like, Joey gives Mae the stability that she has always wanted. The problem is, is that like Alexander is so enticing and they are so connected in a way that she just isn't with Joey and it doesn't take long for immediately everything to just like fall apart and Mae is starting to think, is the future with the guy who she has already committed to or is there something different and changed and brighter and more powerful with someone else? This obviously is a book that is going to be about a love story that is, I'm sorry, this is obviously a book that is gonna be a love triangle and I think it won't obviously be for every person. There's probably going to be a sort of thread of cheating in this one, but as you all know, I love that in a book, so I'm super excited. And wedding dates fast approaching and how are these, who is she going to choose? That is Double Happiness by Heather Eng. Okay, so I am gonna talk about The Dating Pact by Lulu Morris. Ellie essentially is a nurse who has bluffed her way into a high end party with her best friend. The last thing she expects is to end up going home with infamous Alex King, he's an actor. And the thing is, it's not that like they're going home for sexy times, it's that this dummy is too drunk to remember the hotel he's staying in. But the next morning when the paparazzi catch them together, their new kind of friendship becomes the tabloid, like sort of front page fodder. So Alex realizes like this could really work to his benefit. He needs a plus one because his brother is marrying his ex and he's really become the villain in the eyes of the press. So if he has like a date who's all like thrilled to be with him by his side, maybe the public would finally see him as like moving on. You know, this play he's a part of might get the ticket sales and needs to stay open. So this is the big plan is that Alex asked Ellie to go to this wedding in the Bahamas with him. But you know, it's like gorgeous celebrities. Ellie is plus sized and it's just like this is a nightmare. But you know, Alex is sort of like being all lovey-dovey, but it turns out that this affectionate becomes more real and less fake, but she's really worried it will like, she lose herself in the process of being like swept into sort of this life of like celebrities and all and you know, famous beautiful people. So that is the dating pact by Lulu Morris. This week's episode of Fade Amates is sponsored by Neha Liu, author of Midnight at Soulfield. So Midnight at Soulfield is a dark academia romance where 18 year old Midnight O'Young essentially is just like laying out in her yard one day. It's this amazing opening when she is visited by like a demon, Sarah, you will love it, an incubus in her dream. I love an incubus. And this incubus is essentially like we are bound together and she like wakes up and immediately like runs into her home and tells her father essentially that this has happened and like they can't avoid it anymore. She has no chance but to go to Soulfield, which is like a magical academy. And this is like her birthright because this is where her parents met. And on the way she like her mother who has died leaves her this like letter that of course tells her all the things she shouldn't do no matter what. And of course- Like laying out with Incubi? Also no matter what, if she finds the Satori sword, don't let anyone have it, including the headmaster. Uh-oh. I was like, she's gonna find this sword. So I love the beginning of this and like the mystery of like why Midnight has this ability to like speak or like communing with an incubus and what is going to happen when she gets there and meets a handsome fellow student named Jack. I also love a Jack. So if you also love an incubus, a Jack, dark academia, morally gray characters, dark romance, possessive lovers, et cetera, et cetera, then you are going to love Midnight at Soulfield. You can get it right now in print or ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. If your podcasting app supports it, you can click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book. Thanks to Naya Liu for sponsoring this week's episode. Let's talk about Swati Hedge's new book, Love Beyond Reasonable Doubt. This one is about two lawyers who, so Nina Shetty is a proud workaholic and she is that way because a year and a half ago she broke, she had a terrible breakup at that center, kind of on this chaotic, intense vacation, searching for a no strings attached fling, which she found on the beaches of Goa with a handsome stranger. But the deal with that fling was they would not tell each other their actual names. They would respond to all personal questions with wrong answers only and they would definitely not reach out to each other after this like one particular fling. Jen, who do you think is working at the law firm that Nina is now desperate to become partner in? Do you think it could be the mysterious one night stand or casual fling from the beaches of Goa two summers ago? That's always how it works, of course. Well it is, Teas Rajput is there and they are now working side by side and he is like, this is all terrific. That fling was great and why don't we just do it again? And she's like, absolutely not, no relationships at all. We don't know each other, don't perceive me. So now they're sort of stuck together on a case that could make or break the firm and their careers are on the line and the big question is, are they gonna take a risk on love? I think they might. I think they might too. So that is Swati Hedges' love beyond reasonable doubt. All right, so I'm going to talk about Marooned by Ben Shelfin. In this one we've got sort of a survivor kind of element because Ryan Levine is a contestant on the newest season of Marooned, which is a hit reality TV show where 18 people are stranded on a desert island and they compete in challenges and voting each other off until one is left to claim the million dollar prize. And listen, Ryan is like, I have one thing I'm trying to do here, which is take home that money and nothing is gonna stand in his way until he meets Cole Walker. And Cole is his handsome tribe mate with a great smile and a great laugh and a great body. But in other words, so Cole is a real distraction and like Ryan can't afford distractions because the slightest mistake would get him voted off. So they are now going to be navigating the twists and turns of the game and try to win their million dollars or are they gonna go home with empty pockets and broken hearts? So that is Marooned by Ben Shelfin. Okay, I wanna talk about Edward Underhill's new book, The House of Now and Then. Edward has, I think until now, only written YA, but this is his first adult book. And this is a story of a trans man in his 30s who books a Cape Cod cottage for one lonely summer. And Harlow has his academic career is in shambles. His relationship with his longtime boyfriend, Jackson has absolutely collapsed. And he gets thrown a sort of suspiciously cheap summer rental on the Cape, which if you know anything about the Cape, like the moment I read this, I was like, oh, there's definitely something up with that house because you could barely find an expensive summer rent. You cannot find an expensive summer rental on the Cape. Anyway, he heads off to this seaside cottage, it's picturesque and it's perfect. And inside he finds his discouraging former professor, his father making coffee in the kitchen and a very handsome young repairman fixing things in the bedroom, but oh, and the boyfriend is in the bathroom, the ex-boyfriend, none of them will leave. No one else can see them and they won't leave him alone. So this seems crazy. And also, so they're not dead, they're just there. So the house isn't magic only for Harlow though, as the summer grows kind of busy with tourists, these kind of old wounds and fresh secrets begin to transform it and him. And it's clear that the house is trying to send him a message and he's pretty sure it has to do with the handsome repairman who suddenly seems to be everywhere that he looks, but Harlow isn't sure that he can let go of all of his concerns and his fears from the past to go off and find that handsome repairman. Who is gonna let you live on the cape all year round, which, get it Harlow, get it. So that is the house of now and then by Edward Underhill. Perfect. Okay, so I am kind of excited that vampires are back, Sarah. Yeah, me too. So I am going to talk about the last true vampire by Kate Baxter. So Michael Aristolv is the last vampire king, he survived a massacre that killed all the other vampires and now he's just an immortal predator hanging out in the light clubs of Los Angeles, longing for vengeance, but he needs to find the woman whose blood will restore his power, his fated mate. Along comes Claire Thompson. She survives by stealing from men who underestimate her and you know I love a street thief. And so she is fast and fearless and sharp tongue and she never planned on crossing a monster, she's not an idiot until one claims her. So the moment their fated mate bond sort of clicks into place, it does more than tie them together. It makes him stronger but puts a target on her back because the slayers who like massacred all of the other vampires are watching and they are willing to kill her to destroy him. So Claire has spent her whole life running from danger and now she's like, well, I would like to run again, but this immortal king is ready to burden the world down for her, what's a girl to do? Step into the shadows beside him and become something far more dangerous or you know, I don't know, I think that's the answer. So this is The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter. Cool. All right, I wanna talk about the Long Hall by Hannah Doyle which sounds very cool. It's a little Groundhog Day this one. So Nina Moss has a once in a lifetime work trip to Australia and she is pretty pissed off when she is in the airport like ready to go and it is rudely interrupted by her perfect coworker and arch nemesis Callum Bang. Shut up, but that's amazing. A plus. She is furious at Mr. Bang, but then worse, worse things happen Jen because she sees the one that got away boarding the very same flight and she realizes that she is gonna be stuck with these two dummies for 18 hours of travel. So she devises a plan to get away from Callum and back into Hamish, the one that got away's heart or at least to the seat next to him, but the universe has other ideas. When Nina wakes up to her blaring alarm, packed suitcase and airport outfit the next day, all over again. This is a time loop romance where they are caught on a long haul flight with, she is caught on a long haul flight with her enemy and her ex in an infinite time loop and has to figure out how to get out of it. So it's perfect for fans of enemies to lovers in grumpy sunshine, but probably less so for enemies of air travel. So I'm gonna read the shit out of this book though. Really truly terrible. Okay. That is The Long Haul by Hannah Doyle. Preparations prepare a pace for our once to be our like time travel episode, right? Time loops, time travel. I am going to talk about Second Chance Prince by Sarah Bennett. And listen, I feel like we don't get enough historicals with a prince, so sign me up. Here we have Prince Nikolai of Holtzwig. He's journeyed to London with one purpose, to stand of trouble until the unrest in his country dies down, but after an assassination attempt at the season's first ball, which I think sounds really fun, only because I don't have to be a target to that, he has no deal, no choice but to accept a deal from the British government. Essentially they're like, we will offer you protection if you get engaged to a proper English woman. And Nikki is just not interested until they suggest his childhood best friend, Lady Roberta Ashton. And Roberta was totally infatuated with him, kind of those summer when they spent a couple summers ago, all those years ago, and he basically is like, all right, let's fake this engagement, because it would definitely liven up the season for her, but there's a difference between lively and deadly. So as the threats increase along their attraction, Roberta and Nikki must learn to trust each other and protect themselves and their hearts. So that is Second Chance Prince by Sarah Bennett. Perfect. All right, I wanna talk about Running Home to You by Samantha Saldivar. This one is a sapphic sports romance, two college softball stars competing for each other's hearts. So Abby Cruz transfers to this new university and she joins the softball team. And it seems the only thing that she and Kate Hutchins have in common is their love of softball. Abby's raw talent, reckless behavior, Kate is careful control and absolute focus. And this is especially true when the coach assigns Kate the unwelcome task of tutoring her rival on just like getting it together. So they learn to work together, they discover their differences are exactly what they've been missing off the field. And Kate provides Abby with like a sense of home after some loss and some grief. Abby meanwhile helps Kate embrace freedom that she's never known because she had this like very strict religious upbringing, which is tricky for the sapphic-ness of this romance. As they chase the national title, it's not long before they're falling for each other. Their relationship though, it requires like pretty perfect timing. So the book tracks them over a full decade. And this game of softball keeps bringing them back together from Puerto Rico to Tokyo and courtrooms and churches in Las Vegas casinos. And they fight to sort of chase each other, throw off the past, throw off the expectations of family and culture. And finally an alumni game returns them to the college field and they decide if it's really the game that's called them home or if it's the chance to finally get it right with each other. So that is Running Home to You by Samantha Saldivar. So I am going to do When Sparks Fly by Monica Murphy. And this one we have 22 year old, Eris Rachel Henderson, she has one goal this summer, she's going to like hide out at her family's lake house and recover from the most mortifying breakup Manhattan society has ever witnessed. Sun swimming, zero paparazzi, what could go wrong? Well, I'll tell you what's gonna go wrong. She's going to light a candle and burn the house down practically. And the local fire department shows up, specifically the ridiculously hot fire captain. And his name is, you know what they don't even tell me his name in the spoiler, but I'm not even sad about it. Anyway, the house is saved, but the captain scorches her pride by giving her a stern lecture about fire safety. So determined to prove she can handle life on her own without her family's help. Rachel finds a new roommate and a new job, she's kind of terrible at it. And she keeps running into captain tall, dark and infuriating all through the town. So they spend more time together, his name's Wyatt. And she thinks that maybe they're going to fall in love, but Wyatt is all about roots and permanence in this little town. And Rachel is the very definition of flighty. So what is going to happen? I cannot say, but when sparks fly might help you find the answer. Sounds like June. Yeah, it does sound like June, let's go. All right, June it is. Let's start with Julian Long's Game of Rogues, which people are already reading and talking about. Very exciting. Julian Long has a new historical coming out, a sexy regency about a lady on the edge of ruin and the king of London's underworld. You had made the king of the underworld right there. I had everybody, everybody's now like, hang on a second, let me get my pen. Gabriel, listen, it's time for Julian Long to get her Gabriel. Sure. Gabriel, Marshawn ruthlessly fought his way up from the gutters of singiles to preside over London's most exclusive gaming hell. Few dare cross him, but when a young Earl gambles away his inheritance, Marshawn makes an enemy, a woman with a wit like a dagger and the softest eyes he's ever seen. So he says to Gwynevere Woodville, the dumb Earl's sister. All right, I'll call off your brother's debt. What does he have to, what does she have to do, Jen? Don't ask me these questions. She has to spend a night in his bed. Of course she does. Anyway, so she is like, I would rather die. Unlike me, who'd be like, show me the way. Are you the Lord of the underworld? I hear your beds are very nice place to be. How exactly can I get into your debt? But when they're seething and Mifiga gives way to sizzling attraction, the offer haunts her and soon it seems a matter of not if she's gonna get into that man's bed, but when. Anyway, this is gonna be great. I'm not even gonna tell you anymore. I don't, why would you? I don't feel like you need to know anymore. I don't, I absolutely don't. Game of Rogues by Julianne Long and just a little plug if you love historical by historical. Yes. Thank you. Correct. Okay, so I am going to talk about Samantha Spook Paranormal Wedding Planner by Elise Lynn. Perfect. Samantha Spook that is S-P-U with like the two little dots over at K just to be clear. What's that, an umalot? No, is that what it's called? Yeah, I think so. Okay, anyway, she is your go-to wedding planner. Be it for a werewolf, a vampire or a fay, even if it's the last thing she would have imagined. So, Sabi has spent her entire life trying to escape her family's legacy of supernatural chaos. She's finally graduated and landed a nice normal nine to five job in New York accounting firm, but then she gets the call. Grandma Rose is gone and Sabi has been named executor of her magicly binding will. So now Sabi is stuck in her dreaded hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, which I hear is very nice actually. Taking on some odd jobs, some very odd ones, like wedding planning for not so human locals until she can sell the family home. At least this means a date with Henry, the mysterious hottie Sabi meets in the neighborhood graveyard. With a home from Henry, a talking head sidekick and a manic pixie assistant. Sabi might pull these weddings off in time to salvage her accounting career, but is she ready to say goodbye to her paranormal one? Oh, perfect. Seems very cute. I was super won over by the title. So that is Samantha Spook, paranormal wedding planner. Tia Williams has a new book in June, because of course she does. It's June is Tia Williams time. And this one is called The Mist Connection. Sasha Cruz is a casting agent and she knows types, Jen. She's always casting. Anytime she meets anybody in the world, that happy hour at the grocery store, everywhere. She is always looking for the perfect person to act in the perfect role. But what she does not do is relationships because that is simply not her business. They take too much time, they take too much energy, they never work out. Anyway, she's on a flight to Paris for work and the man sitting next to her is very attractive and very mysterious and sparks fly and they have the most incredible few hours together and they don't exchange contact information. So she gets off the plane and is kind of like, I'm pretty sure I have lost out of my soulmate, which she does the only thing possible. She emails her work friend to say, how do I find this very handsome man who sat next to me, describes him and accidentally sends the email to her and cut entire company all around the globe. Oh no. Starting an international manhunt. She probably should leave the planet. I had a very embarrassing thing to tell you. Meanwhile, Sasha hires a detective who she knew in another lifetime to find this man and this detective is also complicating things because he is pretty irresistible himself. So there's a worldwide search underway and Sasha is going to have to either leave the planet or trust herself enough to fall in love. So who knows what will happen, but I know that Tia Williams is gonna make it great. Oh, of course. And that is The Mist Connection by Tia Williams. Okay, so I am going to, listen, I am thrilled to have a new sports emerge under sports romance landscape and that is a volleyball romance. Ooh, all right. It is called Bump Set Sparks by Jennifer Moffitt and it's great. You guys, the cover is like these two women like walking on the beach and the, like the sun is setting in front of them and then the sun has like the volleyball lines on it. It's very cute. So in this one, we have Jess who loves volleyball. She really does, but she, so she plays in us, Southern California Beach League with her best friend, but they've had a real like losing streak recently. And so a lot of what used to really bring her joy just isn't cutting it anymore. And it doesn't help that Vivian, which is one of Jess's rivals in the league, always seems to be around just when Jess is feeling at her worst and Vivian is everything Jess isn't beautiful, effortlessly charming and most infuriatingly winning. So Jess, when she's ghosted yet again, it's just like her ego is just crushed. And so who better to challenge her than the most confident girl she knows? So as Jess gets to know Vivian off court, she discovers there's way more to her than being just a pretty face and a wicked serve. So there's an undeniable connection between them, but they are also competing for the same spot in the pro league. So Jess has to like build herself confidence and figure out a better life for herself, but she has to do it by believing in herself. And she doesn't want to lose all the things that she's gaining. She is tired of losing. So can she have volleyball and the girl? We are about to find out that is a bump set sparks by Jennifer Moffitt. Fun. All right, let's talk about Sophia Benoit's debut, the very definition of love. This is a regency romance, everybody, so exciting. Harriet Bancroft is on her fifth season with absolutely no marriage prospects, but she's totally fine with it because she is working on a dictionary of modern slang. Words are her passion and she especially likes the dirty ones, the ones that have been kept from women for far too long. She accidentally finds herself through, you know, just being curious into a compromising situation with a notorious rake and has no choice but to kind of kidnap him and suddenly they're eloping. This is an arranged marriage and it has a single condition, one of our very favorites, it will be a name only. Leaving each of them to follow their own interests, Harriet is gonna continue her dictionary work and Alexander is gonna, you know, cat around town. But soon Alexander discovers that like it's not so fun hanging out with his rakeish friends when he could be spending time with Harriet and Harriet just devastated to discover that she might actually like her husband. Behind the closed doors of their house, they things get complicated and Harriet seems to start to realize that like there is somebody in her home who could give her very thorough explanations of each of the indecent words in her dictionary. So maybe this marriage won't just be a name only but definitely gonna have to decide whether or not they're gonna let it be about love. So that is Sophia Benoit is the very definition of love and we're excited about it. Okay, so I am going to talk about Puck by Samantha Allen. And one of the things you need to know about me is like I really love a book that commits to the bit, okay? And so this is essentially like a retelling of a midsummer night's dream. And Puck in this case is a reality TV show producer and a real agent of chaos with a talent of for bringing people together. So Puck is a non-binary 30 year old mastermind behind a TV show called Homewreckers, right? A dating show that puts troubled couples through hell with help from their exes. So they are perfectly primed for like a real shock in their personal life when, okay, so Puck's college bestie is Mia and she has announced that she has, she has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend and now she is engaged to Xander's best friend Damon. And Puck is like, what is going on? You didn't even, you don't even know this guy. What about Xander, right? And so the friend group is reeling. And so when they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian Forest, Puck is immediately like, Mia's gonna be miserable with this new man. I am the perfect person to essentially ruin everything. So Puck is determined to essentially like rearrange the couples without anyone finding out, but there is a type A made of honor, which, you know, she is determined to essentially keep the wedding happening, right? And so Puck has met their match and it is clear that in order to essentially like get what they want, they're gonna have to really take their eye off the bridesmaid. But as it says in Shakespeare, the course of true love never did run smooth. And so we get a lot of Shakespearean mischief from Puck, which is like a real rom-com for our chaotic era. So that is Puck by Samantha Allen. All right, well, you know, I love a storm chaser romance. I don't like outside at all. No, but I do like storm chaser romance. So there's one coming in June and it's called Chase Me If You Can by Heather Francis. And the cover's great. It's so like sexy, they're kissing. She has big hair in the storm. The rain does nothing to romance. Romance hair is, if it's raining, it's still gravity defying. Sure, of course. It never gets stringy. Anyway, wedding photographer Sloane Michaels spends most of her year taking pictures of brides, but she takes six weeks off every spring and she chases tornadoes because she is actually chasing the prestigious cover shot of Nature Shots Magazine. And she knows that winning this cover shot could be her best opportunity to establish herself as like a landscape photographer, a serious photographer trademark. The last thing she needs is a distraction in the form of reckless Wild West Talbot. Wes is a legend among storm chasers. He is Sloane's close personal frenemy and for the last decade, he has won the cover contest. So Sloane isn't surprised when Wes gets into an accident that jeopardizes his chances, but instead of just like letting him fade away and running to win the gold and the cover contest all at once, she's like, you know what? I wanna beat this man fair and square. Like I don't want to win on a technicality. So she invites him to join her for the remainder of the season. And these two are together racing through hail, high winds and stormy skies. Sloane's soon realizing that Wes might be more than the rich, flirty wild card that she thought she knew and that the feelings blooming between them are pretty charged and dangerous, much like the storms they chase. That is Chase Me If You Can by Heather Francis. Okay, so I have another like time travel book up my sleeves here and that is Sometime This Century by Samantha Silva. So what we have here is Annabelle Blake was born in the wrong century. She is an Austin loving book nerd, dreams of being a writer herself and just wrote a Regency romance to essentially prove it, but her hope is sink when her hot author crush rejects her saying that the novel reads like she's never been in love. So Annabelle sees the chance to rewrite it when her boss sends her to England to like sort out the boss is like sort of crumbling old pile of the country house. So when she gets there, there's this like invitation on an antique writing desk. There's a period coachman at the door and so she's whisked away to a local Regency Society ball. Candlelight costumes dancing, this is gonna be the inspiration she needs when she meets the perfect and wildly out of her league, Henry Layton Deversy. But when Annabelle's audacious influencer sister crashes the party with her super chill ex-boyfriend, the unlikely trio wake up to find themselves trapped in the actual Regency era, no Wi-Fi, no lattes, no cell phone, just a world where manners, money and marriage rule. And it turns out that Henry, right, Deversy is in fact part of this like real Regency landscape, what is happening? So we're gonna have to sort out some time travel, sort out some marriage march stuff and sort out everything about being a good writer, I guess. So that is sometime this century by Samantha Silva. Let's talk about the open era, another sports romance by Edward Schmidt. This one is a tennis romance. So, and it sounds, when I explain it to you, you'll know why I say this, but this one might be a really good read for those of you looking for something to read while you're waiting for heat arrival race season two. So recently turned pro tennis player Austin Hardy has been out since high school and it has never been a big deal. He's like publicly gay. That is until he becomes the first openly gay man to compete in a grand slam tennis tournament. And then suddenly being gay is a huge deal and the headlines like don't seem to care about his tennis as much as they seem to care about his sexuality. And he is unprepared for this new spotlight. So Austin is going through it. He is, his anxiety disorder is returned. He trips and he falls at practice and he is really struggling and right in front of very attractive, very talented and very likely straight Diego Cruz who is ranked number two in the world. So these two are professional rivals and they start a friendship off the court, but between their flirty banter and Diego's mixed signals and a looming showdown at a grand slam tournament, Austin is thrown further off his game by Diego. So the eyes of the world are on him. The weight of history is on his shoulders as a first and Diego is across the net and now Austin has to decide whether love means nothing or if it means everything as he battles for the trophy during two weeks at a US Open. That is The Open Era by Edward Schmidt. Okay. All right, I am going to talk about The Great Outdoors by Kayla Olson. So we have a romcom about a high maintenance woman who embarks on a wilderness trek to prove to her ex how low maintenance she could be only to find herself realizing, I don't know, something maybe he has points. So Sadie has essentially, like her nickname is basically be prepared, right? And so she's always been praised for being the one in the room who has thought of everything, every backup plan, every situation and she knows exactly what she wants, exactly what she loves and will go to great lengths to make her life run as planned. So when her laid back boyfriend breaks up with her for being too high maintenance, she's determined to prove him wrong and she signs herself up for a weeks long guided wilderness adventure in high Sierra's of California. Camping, hiking, repelling, kayaking, this is a miserable uncomfortable situation, what better way to prove that she's up for anything. So she's really a resort girl at heart, but the tour guide is August Thorne. He lives for adventure and is always keeping a very professional distance from the trekkers under his care, but there's just something about Sadie and he finds himself wanting to get closer. So as they explore the wilderness together, Sadie realizes the great outdoors might truly be great with the right person. Let's talk about Waking Up Married, Jen. Let's talk about it. We've done a whole episode on it. It never gets old. Never. Let's talk about Winner Takes All by Emily Martin. This one is about Eleanor Thompson, who is a talent scout who arrives in Las Vegas to sign a popular rock group called Dempsey to her record label and save her job. Unfortunately for her, Adam Shaw, a former colleague who she hates and who recently poached the top performing artist from Eleanor's roster, is also in Vegas to do exactly the same thing. Adam crashes Eleanor's dinner meeting. It sets them off on a one night of shot-fueled one-upsmanship that ends with them waking up fully married. I love it. And these two realize pretty quickly that annulments are a lot easier to get on television, especially when you factor in that one of them is missing an ID, there is a run-in with casino security, and a ban that it is expecting to be wooed before hitting the stage for the final show that night. So they have a few hours until the party where Dempsey plans to announce which record label they're going to. And Eleanor and Adam are embarking on a wild dash around Vegas to fix the previous night's mistake. So there's like a meeting with lawyers in the back of strip clubs, getting blackmailed into playing the newlywed game, and then some pretty deep moments that are surprising them both. And these two are like shockingly falling for each other in this like big, crazy bananas day. So the big question is, are they gonna place a bet on love, or are they gonna miss their shot on this day in Vegas? This one is obviously inspired by the hangover. It sounds like shenanigans. I'm actually really excited about it. It sounds like it's gonna be a very, very fun book. So that is Winner Take All by Emily Martin. Okay, so I'm gonna talk about romantic hero by Kirstie Greenwood in this one. Okay, Gertie Bickerstaff is an author. She writes happily ever afters for a living, or she did until her own love life fell apart. So now her ex is thriving, she's got a deadline looming, and she cannot write a single word. So the last thing she needs is more drama, like waking up, for example, to find a confused and rugged cowboy on her sofa. And not just any cowboy, this is River Oakley, the villain from her unfinished novel. Somehow very real and very shirtless. River just wants to go home, Gertie wants her life back, so they strike a deal. He'll use his cunning villainous ways to help her win back her ex. She'll finish the novel and send him back to wherever he came from, only River Oakley is proving to be more than just the bad guy. So does Gertie have to go with a plot twist she never saw coming in order to get the ending she thought she wanted? Another historical coming out in June, Shayna Galen has a shopgirls guide to wooing a lord. And this is a class difference regency from Shayna Galen who has been around and knows how to write a book. Tamsen Archer, our heroine, is having the worst year of her life and that is saying something, considering her father is dead, her mother was maimed at work, and her family regularly sleeps under London's bridges. But when her younger siblings go missing one day, Tamsen decides like she has to step up and she has to do something. Desperate times call for desperate measures and she is disguising herself to sneak into homes and steal from the rich because that's what we have to do. Unfortunately, she gets herself into an Earl's house and is immediately caught by Garrett Kildare, the second son of the Earl. And much to Tamsen's surprise, Garrett has no interest in turning her into the police. He wants to help her though she's pretty wary because she has been taught by life never to trust good luck. So the unlikely pair form an alliance, Garrett proves to be helpful and suddenly we are in a class difference romance. He knows he has to be careful because if he falls for a woman of the lower classes, this is gonna be a very, very serious problem. His family is already on thin ice when it comes to social standing and there are eyes everywhere, but at the same time, he's really into her and ignoring their attraction is pretty much proving to be impossible. So the question is how much is responsibility and respectability going to come into play when Garrett and Tamsen can't keep their eyes off of each other? This is Shayna Galen's a shop girl's guide to wooing a lord. Okay, I'm going to talk about Leave and Come Back by Lavanya Lakshmi. And in this one, listen again, this is really perfect for me. I love it when people are like the plot is like, I can't believe we have to act like we're in a Bollywood movie. All right, and so what happens is Simran is living out a perfect, like sort of swoon worthy romance. Anything it would rival the beloved Bollywood films of her childhood, right? And so this is her boyfriend's name is Leo Bridgers and she receives an invite to her cousin's wedding. And so now she's gonna essentially have to like go back to the home she's been avoiding for seven years to take part in this big two week long, like Indian wedding, like the whole situation, right? So family drama is already at a peak when Leo essentially accidentally crashes the engagement party and all of a sudden, the entire family is like, what is going on? Who is this gentleman? And so now Simran and Leo essentially have to like, they all like Simran and Leo and the cousins essentially are gonna rally together to get Simran's judgmental aunt, Vina to essentially fall in love with Leo and then therefore like approve of like their relationship. So what happens is there's like misdirection and hijinks. Leo's whole job is to essentially prove himself to be the most charming, helpful, wedding guest imaginable and he cannot give away that he has ever met or is it currently in love with Simran? And for Simran, all of like being around family is just really bringing back a lot of difficult memories about her parents and what happened when they died and nosy aunties. And so, you know, she has to find a way to like heal these wounds or risk losing her happy ending with Leo and her family. So this is leave and come back and it just sounds really delightful. So, Christina Forrest has a new book out this summer. In June, the summer girlfriend arrives. So Noelle Lewis is really, she is hustling. She does not have time for free time. She is busy saving up to go back to college. She was recently laid off and now her main job is to serve as a stand-in bridesmaid. So you've heard of these people, Rich, and like, or like there's an extra spot, like the man has more friends than the woman in a wedding. And so she has to hire a stranger to like for pictures. It's a weird job, but she doesn't have, it doesn't pay very much, but you know, it's whatever it pays towards her next semester's tuition. Luckily, she runs into Jeremiah Smith II, grandson of the founder of a kind of well-known baked goods company. And Jeremiah has since his grandfather's death tried to clean up his act, but when his family requests that he attend a party and an event at the summer house, a summer house in New Jersey, he resists going because he has some very painful memories from that place. And he claims that he already has plans with his girlfriend. He's so sorry, he's too busy. His girlfriend is, you know, too girlfriend-y. And his family says, hey, no problem. Why don't you just bring her? And luckily, this is where Noel comes in. He doesn't have a girlfriend, but he does have somebody who he's met, whose job is to basically like be a companion and actually to make people be fun at a party. So he hires her, they make a deal. She says she'll stand in as his girlfriend for a weekend and he will pay her tuition, which is quick, easy money. But as it turns out, his family is really lovely and he is really lovely. And then the weekend turns into a whole summer. And then the big question is like, how are these two gonna work it all out? Which they will because they sound lovely. So Christina Forrest's The Summer Girlfriend. All right, my last June book is The Winged Game by Sophie Kim. And I am basically like, okay, it's fantasy, meets sports romance, which I was just like, hello, this is what I want. So in this one, we have, there is, okay. So Tasia chose whole life, essentially was playing this like kind of violent rugby-esque game called Kara Witchet. And you basically play it on top of like these wing beasts. And she was the UK's most promising player until her nemesis rival player, Keon Locke, destroyed her career in a single moment. So she's been expelled from the sport in disgrace. And Tasia has spent the last two years dreaming of nothing but revenge and relishing watching Keon's team plummet to the bottom of the league. So when Tasia is offered the chance to redeem herself and her career, she can't refuse even if the offer is coming from the very man who ruined everything in the first place. So it's pretty close to a dream come true, except for a pesky clause in her contract that demands that she and Keon enter a fake relationship in order to garner some like PR, good PR for the team. This could not be a worse match. Tasia and Keon only have two things in common, their love of the game and their hatred for each other. But when a mysterious illness befalls all of the winged creatures that are like kind of help the league exists, right? Putting their, the beast's lives in the sport itself at stake, Keon and Tasia have to essentially figure out who is like, correct the case of this eerie sickness. This takes them on an adventure where maybe their fake for the camera's relationship is something real after all. So that is The Winged Game by Sophie Kim. Well, there you go, Sarah. I think we've done it again. You know, every time I just feel like we're tighter and tighter. I know, sorry, it feels a little bit like we just blew through that, but I know everybody, listen. We talked about 50 books, you're welcome. Did we really? Was it 50 books? And I could have talked about another 20. Of course, of course. You guys, April, May and June are full to the brim with romance novels. So make sure you get to your local independent bookstore, the one that really likes romance novels and check out all the new releases every week because it's literally every week there are piles of new romances. And you're gonna have a great time. I'm gonna have a great time. I just downloaded like 10, 15, 20 books and I'm gonna download more and I can't wait. And we also specifically didn't talk about some books. I specifically didn't talk about some books that I know we're going to talk about over the course of the next few months. So it's gonna be fun. I love, look, I actually really love these episodes because I'm like, oh, there are always books I can read. Yeah, it is, it's great. It's great for us to like sort of, it's great for us, it's great for you all. So lots of fun things to look forward to as you are thinking about your spring and early summer reading. I'm Sarah McLean. I'm here with my friend Jen Prokop. We are Fated Mates and you can listen to us every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us online at FatedMates.net where you can click on episodes and read the show notes where every book we talked about this episode is listed. You'll see all the covers. You can shop at Wim there. And then you can also see, for those of you who are authors, links to our forms to submit books for the next few discoverability episodes. And also if you're a debut to the debut form where you can tell us about your debut romance for 2026 so we don't miss it. Additionally, you can find us online at Instagram and threads at Fated Mates pod and at Blue Sky at Fated Mates. What else, Jen? What else do we do? Oh, that's on. Patreon. Looks like. Listen, if you're just looking to hear about more books, more books, more books, the Patreon is for you. If you join our Patreon at FatedMates.net slash Patreon, you get access to our Discord where people are talking all the time about romance novels and also you get an extra episode every month while you're there. So that is exciting. And again, you can find that at FatedMates.net slash Patreon. Other than that, that's what we got for you. Neither of us are gonna be doing anything interesting for the next foreseeable future, but we hope you're doing something interesting and we hope that you come over to social media or join the Discord to tell us all about it. So thanks so much for having us. We love you. We hope you read a million amazing books in the next three months. And next week, we have more excitement for you.