S04.03: Secret Baby Interstitial

Fated Mates - A Romance Novel Podcast

We’re doing a big one this week — secret babies! We’re talking the babies and the pregnancies—and why they are such a juggernaut in romance. We’re talking about why people are all in on secret babies or absolutely all out on them, we’re pinpointing the itch they scratch and why have they installed such buttons in so many of us, and we’re getting to the bottom to why these secret babies are often sired by billionaires. It’s a ride.

Next week, our first read along is Amanda Quick’s Ravished—which Sarah describes as “Harriet, in a cave, with a rake.” It’s great. Get reading at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local indie.

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Show Notes

The secret baby trope can be broken down into secret baby or secret child. Secret pregnancy is just earlier on the timeline, while surprise pregnancy. Often, a secret baby plot happens because there is a fear that the baby is in danger.

More about the word Interstitial.

We recently re-released our bodily autonomy interstitial from 2019.

If you are on Facebook, join Sarah’s OSCRB group (Old School Romance Book Club) if you want more romance talk.

On some old school covers, you see lots of people with gravity defying hair.

Sarah mentioned the “Four Js” and she meant these old school historical romance powerhouses: Johanna Lindsay, Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, and Judith McNaught.

The most dangerous third rail in romance is cheating.

More about “the heir and the spare.”

The Right Stuff is a movie about astronauts, but Terms of Endearment is the movie where Jack Nicholson plays an astronaut. The movie was released in late 1983, and Long Time Coming was released in 1988.

The Cut went ahead and published two pieces about Sally Rooney’s latest book, and they loved the sex in Rooney's book and think folks want more, but somehow they’ve never heard of genre romance.

Given that description of the book Sarah was looking for, Jen thinks if it exists, it could have been a Harlequin Blaze, rather than a Loveswept or a Desire. But who knows!

Next week, we’re reading Ravished, a 1992 historical about fossils by Amanda Quick. Yes, actual fossils.