S02.09: Sierra Simone's Midwest: Priest

It’s Priest week! Sarah put Sierra Simone’s Priest on her Books that Blooded Her list, and this episode is a ride! Jen’s reading first person narrative, we’re both escaped catholics, Sarah imprinted on The Thornbirds, we’ll get to the bottom of anal sex in church (see what we did there?), and fully disagree about how much guilt is too much guilt for a hero. Plus, you’ll hear us tell you how brilliant we think Sierra is.

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In two weeks, we’re going to a classic of classics! The read was on both Jen & Sarah’s list—Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, which is on the lions’ share of Best Romance Novels Ever lists. We’ll get into why. Read Lord of Scoundrels at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.

Show Notes

• We love Sierra Simone! Sarah talked about Sinner on the Best Friend's Sibling episode, and Sierra was a special guest on our MacRieve episode. She'll also be joining us on a very special future interstitial.
• Will Kresley drop Munro like Beyonce? One can only hope.
• If you want to join Sarah's FB Old School Romance Book Club group, click here and wait for moderator approval. We (try to remember but sometimes have to be reminded to) post a discussion post for each week's episode there.
• Have you listened to what we consider to be our sister podcasts: The Wicked Wallflowers, Heaving Bosoms, and Black Chick Lit? We also love Learning the Tropes and RomBkPod. Check them out for all your listening needs.
• Facebook is garbage and Zuckerberg is aiming for Bond Villain.
• The modern day dirty priest fantasy is Fleabag, the old school one is The Thornbirds.
• If you're not following Jen Porter on Twitter, what are you doing with your life?
• Sierra's Markham Hall series is an erotic retelling of Jane Eyre.
• Jen doesn't like first person present.
• What does it even mean to be star-crossed?
• More about reader response theory.
• A defintion of "framing device" and how they work in fiction.
• In the Catholic Church, penance is one of seven sacraments.
• In case you want to know more about hairshirts as a thing, but please don't wear one.
• In the Ice Planet Barbarians series, the khui is a mystical thing on the ice planet. That's really all you need to know.
• More about the history of Rhode Island as a haven for escaped Catholics. No not that kind of escaped Catholic.
• The 2015 movie Spotlight is about the investigative journalists who broke the story of priest sexual abuse in Boston. In one famous scene, a reporter knock on the door of a retired priest who answers her questions in a shocking way. (All the trigger warnings on that scene, by the way.)
• Mark Ruffalo the hulk vs Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight.
• Sarah recommends the audio of Priest.
• This summer, the Catholic Diocese of Providence released the names of 50 priests who were credibly accused of abuse.
• Celibacy is a core tenent of Catholic priesthood, but as less and less men enter the priesthood, that might be changing in some interesting ways. Please note that the Vatican is more likely to lift celibacy requirements before they'd allow the ordination of women.
• Eddie Izzard.
• If this is the defintiion of an inspirational romance, then Priest qualifies.
• The Tessa Bailey book with "baby girl" is Fix Her Up. It's hot if you don't mind that sort of thing.
• What we know about priests and sexual abuse.
• Hot Cop is a book by Sierra Simone and Laurelin Page.
• In season 2 of Fleabag, the therapist who asks if she wants to "fuck the priest or fuck God" was played by Fiona Shaw. Kristen Scott Thomas gives a barn burner of a speech after the "people are all we have" moment.
• All about Saint Anselm.
• In case you don't know, the home at the parish for the priest is called the rectory.
• Sarah refers to the book of the Bible as Song of Songs, but it's also called the Song of Solomon.
• Jenny Nordbak was a guest host on Heaving Bosoms talking about Priest, and it's a great episode if you just need more. Sierra Simone was also on a delicious episode of Wicked Wallflowers!
• The sequel to Priest is called Midnight Mass.
• Why is a nun's outfit called a habit?
• Erin from Heaving Bosoms famously does not read prologues or epilogues. We love her even though we don't really understand.
• Shop for buttons from Best Friend Kelly and t-shirts and totes from Sarah.
• Christina called in today to talk about Colleen McCullough's The Thornbirds, and we hope she enjoyed Sarah's shout out to it this week!
• Coming up: Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase on Nov 20, 2019; Indigo by Beverly Jenkins on Dec 4, 2019; Born in Ice by Nora Roberts on Dec 18, 2019; and A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught on Jan 8, 2020.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2019/11/4/s029-priest-by-sierra-simone
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• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.