Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People

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

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

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

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

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

Today we're celebrating the season with some help from season six. Enjoy!
The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2023/10/3/s0604-sweater-weather-romance-novels-with-pumpkin-spice-vibes
If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

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

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

Sponsors
Lucy Score, author of The Dead Guy Next Door, the first in the Riley Thorn series, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
HarperCollins, publisher of A.T. Qureshi’s Rider of Dragons, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
MJ Hastings’s Firstborn, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
LJ Andrews, author of The Stolen Crown preorder now in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/9/21/s0903-carpenters-plumbers-and-other-metaphorical-romance-jobs
If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

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

This is a fun one! We’re talking romance novels with numbers in the titles today, a wide collection of books from zero to infinity! While we came prepared to talk about four or five books each, we ended up playing a little impromptu game where we name books for every number we can. We haven’t reread most of these, but you’ll hear that there are a few peppered through here that we were prepared to talk about. We had a great time, and hope you do.
If you’d like to come over and talk about romances, with or without numbers, please join us on the Fated Mates Discord, where you’ll find a few thousand other listeners who love talking about these books we love. You also get one extra episode a month from us!
Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative begins this week! We’ll be calling Georgia to get out the vote for Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms! There will be games, prizes and special guests! Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
A Number of Books
Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood
Zero to Sixty by Marie Harte
It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
One and Only by Jenny Holiday
Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
Goldie and the [three] Bears by Hannah Murray
Three Dirty Secrets by Nikki Sloan
Three Way Split by Elia Winters
Party of Three by C. Travis Rice
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas
Six by Opal Carew
Holiday for Six by Kelly Finley
Seven Secrets of Seduction by Anne Mallory
The Seven Rings by Nora Roberts
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Chasin’ Eight by Lorelai James
Eight Nights of Flirting by Hannah Reynolds
Eight Seconds to Ride by Ashley James
The Hell’s Eight Series by Sarah McCarty
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean
Ten by Roxie Riveria
Ten Hammers by Liz Archer
Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart by Sarah MacLean
Twelve Nights by Hope Tarr
A Duke a Dozen by Shana Galen
Cowboys by the Dozen by Tina Leonard
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Fifty Shades of Gray by EL James
52 Reasons to Hate my Father by Jessica Brody
99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
To One Hundred by Melissa Blue
The 1001 Dark Nights Series
3000 Reasons to Act by Jamie P Bradley
10,000 Hours with a Rich Menace by Jahquel J.
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrilyn Sparks
The Blackout Billionaire Series by Naima Simone
Infinite by Corinne Michaels
Love Times Infinity by Lane Clark
An Infinite Love Story by Chanel Cleeton

Sponsors
Harpercollins, publishers of Laurie Gilmore’s Big Bad Wolf, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Orbit Books, publishers of Rachel Gillig’s The Knave and the Moon, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Little, Brown & Company, publishers of Elin Hilderbrand & Shelby Cunningham’s The Thoroughbreds, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Union Square & Co., publishers of Morgan Elizabeth’s Meet Cute Magic, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon,

Nine seasons of talking about romance, and no signs of quitting! We’re starting a new season, full of much of our same old nonsense, now with more nonsense, because who needs tropes when you can talk about microtropes! Today, in honor of Season Nine, we’re talking about Cloud Nine — both the WNBA star and the feeling you get when you fall in love. We’ve got a whole lot of books featuring romance in the sky — pilots, astronauts, plane crashes, astronauts and mile-high-clubs…and all of them featuring romance that won’t quit.
If you’d like to come over and talk about romances, both in the sky and on land, please join us on the Fated Mates Discord, where you’ll find a few thousand other listeners who love talking about these books we love. You also get one extra episode a month from us!
Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative begins next week. Learn more and register to phone bank with us at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.
Books
The Vegas Top Gun Series by Katie Porter
On Broken Wings by Chanel Cleeton
Wild Card by Elsie Silver
Beyond the Limits by Katherine Garbera
The Last Man on Earth by Shae Sanders
Puck Me Secretly by Odette Stone
Crash Landing by Annie McQuaid
Pregnant in the Italian's Palazzo
Turbulence by Whitney G.
The Skyland Series by Kennedy Ryan
The Professional by Kresley Cole

Notes
Fated States is back! We’ll be phonebanking every weekend on Saturdays starting September 19th, but the final weekend before the election, we’ll instead phonebank on Sunday Nov 1 to avoid Halloween.
The way to find a book club is to read River Town by Peter Hessler and then go to your nearest local indie bookstore and let the bookclub reveal itself to you.
Find out more about The Sunday Letter Project.
Pilots have been hot since Top Gun, and not just because of the volleyball scene.
Natasha Cloud is a baddie and she gave an irrelevant man the business for being transphobic, and Jen thinks she’s a literal hero.
The Spanish Space Program, the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial was created in the 1940s and was replaced by the Agencia Espacial Española in 2021. According to Wikipedia, as of 2026, there have been Four Spanish astronauts.

Sponsors
Harpercollins, publishers of AT Qureshi’s Rider of Dragons, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
Rose Prendeville, author of The Unknown Birds, available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or with your monthly subscription to Kobo Plus. Use the code FATEDBIRDS at Rose’s website to get a signed print book and 30% off!
Isabel Sterling, author of With All My Haunted Heart, available in print, ebook or audiobook, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local bookstore.
Orbit Books, publishers of Louisa Carmody’s The Shadows that Listen, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, your local bookstore, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
Blue Box Press, publishers of Ashley Eckstein & Samantha Chase’s Lucky 22 and David Eckstein’s Just Enough, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

The Rest
For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/9/6/s0901-cloud-nine-romance-in-the-sky
If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some...