We’re deep diving into one of our favorite historicals from the 00s today — Jennifer Ashley’s The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. It’s a great follow up to our Paris episode last week, but we also talk about how Ashley really wrote the heck out of this book. We talk about widows, about sex in historicals, about autism rep in historicals, romance families, and the way this series electrified us as readers. This book is a straight up banger.

If you’re interested in learning more about the AH2 Historical Trailblazer Kickstarter, featuring beautiful, hardcover special editions of Lord of Scoundrels, Indigo, The Magpie Lord, Butterfly Swords and Dreaming of You, head over to the Kickstarter page and sign up for updates!

If you’d like to continue the conversation about The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie or any of Jennifer Ashley’s other books, please come join the Fated Mates Discord, which is accessible to our Patreon subscribers. By joining the Patreon, you meet other Fated Mates listeners and get an extra monthly episode from us. Support us and learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.

Our next read along is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, wherever you get your books, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

Notes

• Check out the AH2 kickstarter, partnering with Fated Mates and Julia Whelan’s Audiobrary. It goes live next week!
• Dua Lipa met her fiance Callum Turner because they both were reading the same book, Trust by Hernan Diaz. Dua Lipa’s book club is called Service 95.
• You, too, might enjoy reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. Or Reacher. Or Murderbot. Jen is thinking of going to bedazzle a copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl, but is that too silly?
• Dorchester Publishing was a house that published mostly mass market paperbacks, and it shuttered shortly after the publishing of The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie. The editor of the book, Leah Hultenschmidt, is now at Forever.
• There’s a new-ish translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson that you might like. Xenia is the ancient Greek word for hospitality, and Wilson talks a about how the word comes from the root xenos, meaning both stranger and friend. Maybe if we were all a little more open to those we don’t know, things would be different.

Sponsors

• HarperCollins, publishers of Laurie Gilmore’s The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Michelle Ruoff, author of A Summer to Stay, available in print, ebook and with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Jennilynn Wyer, author of All Our Next Times, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/5/4/0833-the-madness-of-lord-ian-mackenzie
• 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.