S03.51: Mistresses, Courtesans, and Cheating in Romance with Adriana Herrera
Fated Mates - Romance Books for Novel People
Can't Have Both?
In spanish, the word for wife is esposa, which literally means handcuffs. The word for mistress is karita, which means beloved. There's a lot of messaging in our culture towards girls and women that socialize us to really feel that that's the way we gain respectability. And those who stray must be their fault at some point.
Adriana Herrera, a FIVE-TIMER, joins us this week to talk about the third-rail of romance…infidelity! We’re talking about cheating, and about all the other bits related to it: mistresses, courtesans, illegitimate children, sex work…and get your pencils ready because (of course) we’re toppling TBRs with this one.
Don’t miss Fated Mates LIVE! to celebrate the release of Sarah’s next book, BOMBSHELL! Join us and some of our very favorite people on August 24th! Tickets are a copy of the book, and available at five participating romance friendly bookstores. Get them here!
Speaking of BOMBSHELL, it is our next read along! Get it at Amazon, Apple Books, B&N, Kobo, or Bookshop.org, or at one of the participating romance-friendly bookstores hosting the Fated Mates Live/Virtual Bombshell Launch! Orders will come with a Fated Mates Sticker!
Thank you, as always, for listening! Please follow us on your favorite podcasting app, and if you are up for leaving a rating or review there, we would be very grateful.
Show Notes
- Welcome to five-timer Adriana Herrera, our very own Rizzo, and her Pink Lady jacket is on the way. PS. It was only in working on these show notes that Jen realized that Rizzo’s first name is Betty.
- The phrase “safe romance” is used in online spaces to describe books without a single molecule of infidelity energy.
- Infidelity in evangelical christianity (and everywhere, honestly) often places the blame on the wife if her husband strays and also on “the evil other woman” -- in this model, you know who’s not to blame? Men.And that’s pure patriarchy.
- Lavender wasn’t invented because it’s a plant and its known history dates back 2500 years.
- Courtesan culture was inextricably tied to colonialism in India, in China, and in the USA.
- Summer Brennan’s patreon about The Book of Courtesans. Hallie Rubenhold's Covent Garden Ladies, which is the book that inspired the Hulu TV show Harlots, is about Harris's List of London "working girls."
- The Spanish word for wife is esposa, which means handcuffs or manacles, while the word for mistress is amante, which means beloved.
- We have had some deep dive episodes where there is infidelity: Waking Up with the Duke by Lorraine Heath and Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas
- There are so many bastards in historical romance, partly because it’s an easy on-ramp for creating a character who is an outsider.
- Ethical non-monogamy is the practice of talking to your partner(s) about the boundaries of your relationship. Polyamorous and Open relationships would fall into this category.
- On Maryse’s Book Blog, there was a 2015 post about cheating in romance, and most of the titles are self-published and indie.
- Sarah talked about Lorenzo Lamas and Dynasty and Jen and her brother Mike talked about Santa Barbaraon Adriana’s Instagram Live conversations about telenovelas and soap operas.
- We are having a live episode of Fated Mates to celebrate the launch of Bombshell on August 24th at 7 eastern, to get a ticket, you'll need to buy a copy from one of these indie bookstores. (If you already pre-ordered from WORD in Brooklyn, you'll get log in details in an email.)
The Rest
- For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2021/8/1/s0351-mistresses-courtesans-and-cheating-in-romance-interstitial-with-adriana-herrera
- 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.
The AI-powered Podcast Player
