We’re talking about romance with baking and sweet treats today! This is one of romance’s most common Romance Jobs, and we’re getting to the bottom of the appeal of the bakery in romance. Why do we love it when one character makes masterful desserts? What is so compelling about characters who know their way around the oven? We’ve got historicals, reality tv competitions, magic baking and menage — a little something for everyone this week!

Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a chat with Leah Greenberg, the co-Founder and co-Executive Director of Indivisible, our Fated States phonebanking partner! Fated States, our democratic phonebanking initiative continues this week! We’ll be calling Georgia to get out the vote for Jon Ossoff, Keisha Lance Bottoms, 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.

If you’d like to come over and talk about your favorite romance bakers, 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. Join the Fated Mates patreon to get access, and You also get one extra episode a month from us!

Books

• Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas
• How the Dukes Stole Christmas
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee
• Fake It Til You Bake It by Jamie Wesley
• A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley
• Battle Royale by Lucy Parker
• Sweethand by NG Peltier
• Lips Like Sugar by Jess Hardy
• Craving It All by Kati Wilde
• Tart by Lauren Dane
• The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish
• Delectable Desire by Farrah Rochon
• Delicious Destiny by Yarrah St. John

Notes

• We’re discussing slang this week: a hilarious explanation of BDE at wikihow, check out urban dictionary for DTF, a fun new online site I just discovered called GenZ decoded turnt, and although the WNBA’s Washington Mystics Young Heaux nickname was covered in the New York Times, by far the funniest official usage of it was during the televised broadcast of a Mystics v. Storm game.
• The Cupcake Guys is a bakery owned by former football players, and it was also a reality TV show.
• We’ve mentioned them a million times, so they aren’t in the photo array, but the two books with baristas that Jen mentioned are Lick by Kylie Scott and Nero by SJ Tilly. The book with a femdomme is Candy by Torrance Sené.
• Learn more about Indivisible and find a local Indivisible chapter to help at Indivisible.org. Join us for phonebanking every weekend between now and Election Day at fatedmates.net/fatedstates.

Sponsors

• Rachel Grant, author of False Flag, available in print, ebook and audiobook, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.
• Tierney Page, author of Lyrics of Summer, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• 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/2026/10/5/0905-sweet-treats-bakeries-amp-coffee-shops-in-romance
• 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 Intro

02:38 Bantr (We Love You Baby Girl!)

14:24 Eric, the DRM King

17:36 AD: THE STOLEN CROWN

19:17 Sweet Treats

26:58 Fake It Till You Bake It & A Legend in the Baking

33:23 AD: FALSE FLAG

35:41 Battle Royale

42:02 Sweethand

47:20 AD: LYRICS OF SUMMER

49:04 The Luxury of Sweetness

53:49 Lips like Sugar

1:01:22 Craving It All

1:07:10 Tart

1:17:33 The Remaking of Corbin Wale

1:20:57 The Draysons: Sprinkled with Love

1:24:57 Baristas

1:28:00 Wrapping Up

1:30:38 Indivisible