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We love Pocket Books, an eclectic feminist bookstore in Lancaster, PA, so we asked them to collect some great romances for us. We're delighted by what we got.

This is the first time a bookshop has contributed to The Collections Department, and they did something only a bookshop can do:

They made the entire collection available for purchase at a special price.

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Fated Mates fav Adriana Herrera will join Sarah in Cambridge, MA on 7/15.

Fated Mates Live in St. Louis!

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Back in season four we devoted an episode to Beach Reads that aren’t just beach reads but are actually beach reads, by which we mean romances in which the characters — *ahem* — on the beach.

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Fated Mates Live in St. Louis!

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Dysfunctional family romance recs. 👆

This week, we're talking about romance's most common family: the dysfunctional one! Sarah wrote a book about one, so we're thinking about what makes them special to romance, and what sets the romantic dysfunctional family apart from the ones that live outside of the genre. Jen has five categories. There's a game involved. You can play along at home!

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This week, we're talking about romance's most common family: the dysfunctional one! Sarah wrote a book about one, so we're thinking about what makes them special to romance, and what sets the romantic dysfunctional family apart from the ones that live outside of the genre. Jen has five categories. There's a game involved. You can play along at home!

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Tracey Livesay's LIKE LOVERS DO was a best of 2020 pick. It's $2 today. bookshop.org/a/5779/9780062979575 amzn.to/3HJOffO

Joanna Shupe's THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY was a best of 2019 pick. It's $2, as well. bookshop.org/a/5779/9780062906847 amzn.to/446dvo3

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Friday Book Deals! Annika Martin's SAVAGE MAFIA PRINCE is free today. Meka James's BEING NEIGHBORLY is $0.50.

We recommended BEING NEIGHBORLY in These Books Bang: The Sexiest Romance Novels. We talked about SAVAGE MAFIA PRINCE in Siblings In Romance Novels.

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Second Chance Romance Recs

We're talking second chance romance this week, covering all the ways this trope really works and really doesn't work for us! We're talking about rekindling love, unrequited love, resurrecting old wounds, the unforgivable stuff and of course, pining.

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Sanj loves it when a character whips out a pair of glasses and absolutely derails their love interest’s plans. We do, too.

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A post shared by Chloe Angyal (@chloe.angyal.writes)

Attention Fated Statesers!

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ICYMI 👆

Beverly Jenkins

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We're talking second chance romance this week, covering all the ways this trope really works and really doesn't work for us! We're talking about rekindling love, unrequited love, resurrecting old wounds, the unforgivable stuff and of course, pining.

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Another deep dive episode, and this one feels like it shouldn't have taken so long! We're reading Run Posy Run, talking about the way Cate C. Wells walks a fine line of mafia romance while keeping the book on the morality chain side of the line from dark romance. We talk about heroines against the wall, heroes who have to suffer, the way violence fits into these romances, and about sex and how it's deployed in these books to enormous effect.

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Happy anniversary, Firebirds! Seven years ago this week, we launched Fated Mates with our first episode, A Wolf Without a Foot, in which we planned a tight 18 episode series, here and gone before you'd know it. Seven years later, we're still here, and we're celebrating by doing the obvious: Talking about Sin!

We've taken the seven deadly sins and assigned a great romance novel to each one, and we've dug deep into the dark recesses of our minds, our bookshelves and our psyches to do it. This is a long one (obviously), and full of some real "abandon all hope, ye who enter here" vibes. Thanks for being with us new listeners and longstanding ones...we love you!

Follow Fated Mates in your favorite podcast app.

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AAPI Heritage month is an opportunity to discover new authors and books that you'll carry with you all year long. Take advantage.

@triviareads returns to The Collections Department with a celebration of AAPI Heritage Month.

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The recs. 👆

Sarah is over the moon that we're talking about celebrities again, especially because we're keeping it tight this time around and limiting it to celebrity/normal person romance (mostly -- Jen is ungovernable)! Yes, Sarah is going to talk about Perfect, but also we're going to talk about celebrities who fall for stranger normies, for normies they knew before they were celebrities, for normies who work with them, and for normies who protect them. The episode is 1200 books long.

Thanks to Alice Murphy, Blue Box Press, Bailey Seaborn, Avery Maxwell, and Vedentro for sponsoring this week's episode. Discount codes and book links for Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple, and Bookshop are here.