How is it possible we've never done a governess episode? And how is it possible Louisa Darling hasn't been a guest on the pod yet? We're rectifying both of these injustices this week. We talk about Jane Eyre, The Sound of Music and other primordial governesses, and discuss exactly what kind of buttons these books installed--almost entirely thanks to old school historicals. We also talk about how governess books are some of the only books in which we will suffer a child, and yes, we shout out the nannies, too!

Louisa Darling is the pen name of Louisa Edwards and Lily Everett, and the author of Don’t Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be Scoundrels, Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone, and Scoundrel, Take Me Away.

Our next read along is Gorilla Twins, AKA Lorraine Heath's The Earl Takes All. Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.

If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.

(Apologies for the subpar audio quality.)

Notes

• Learn more about The States Project and donate to the Fated States Giving Circle to keep Virginia blue this November.
• Welcome historical author Louisa Darling. She’s written contemporary romance as Louisa Edwards and women’s fiction as Lily Everett. She imprinted on Jayne Eyre and worked as an editorial assistant for Leslie Gelbman at Berkley, who edited Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz.
• Maybe all those early governess books were really about The Sound of Music.
• We talked about the Molly O’Keefe series that included Wait For It in season 7, and about Vanessa Riley and wet nurses when we had Kennedy Ryan on in season 2.
• Finally, our next deep dive will be Gorilla Twins. The actual title, of course, is The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath.

The Books

• Don’t Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be Scoundrels by Louisa Darling
• Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone by Louisa Darling
• Scoundrel, Take Me Away by Louisa Darling
• Rules for a Proper Governess by Jennifer Ashley
• A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley
• The Duke Who Ravished Me by Diana Quincy
• Deception by Amanda Quick
• Snowed In with the Viking by Lucy Morris
• Sins of a Wicked Duke by Sophie Jordan
• The Game and the Governess By Kate Noble
• The Lie and the Lady by Kate Noble
• The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale
• Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas
• It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian
• The Nanny is Off Limits by QB Tyler
• Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Sponsors

• Harpercollins, publishers of Lindsay Kelk's Christmas Fling, available in print, ebook or audiobook at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Andie J. Christopher, author of Faster, available in print, ebook, audiobook, with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited, or wherever you get your books.
• Lumi Labs, creators of Lumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.
• Katherine Grant, author of The Widower Without a Will, available at Amazon, B&N, 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/2025/10/14/s0805-governesses-with-louisa-darling
• 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.