I remember back in the late 80s when I was really just getting started and people were really beginning to know my name.

I once had a teacher said to me that she used to think of romances as being just, you know, trashy novels. And then she

started reading them and she said, you know, I realized that my girls in school,

these are important books for them to read because the stories

were always pretty much middle class and higher and because there was always a happy ending, she said, this is their first introduction

to what healthy man, women relationships could be like. the stories could be perceived as being a little bit of a fantasy, but she said these are pretty much on target. This is what we want. This is what we want in a relationship. A guy who's going to respect you, a guy who's going to make you laugh,

who's going to talk to you, who's not going to play you.

And so if they're 14, 15, 16 years old and they're reading these books, this is a pretty good start on what relationships could be like.

That was the voice of Sandra Kit, one of the first authors for Harlequin American under the new line formed

by Vivian Stevens and the first African American author to write for Harlequin. We are pretty excited to share what comes

from this conversation. We're going to talk a lot about category romance and

its evolution and some amazing stories.

Yeah, some great stories.

Welcome to Fated Mates everyone.

I'm Jennifer Procop, a romance reader and editor.

And I'm Sarah McClain.

I read romance novels and I write them.

And this is Sandurkett. All right, all right.

So thank you so much for joining us.

We are really thrilled to have you.

Thank you.

I know, I told Jen right before we started that I had a little taste of

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