Reformed Rakes

Hold Fast is a medieval Scottish romance and MacArthur invites and garners a lot of comparisons to perhaps the most famous romance novelist who wrote this subgenre: Julie Garwood. Hold Fast is the story of a woman who was handfasted to an abusive laird and once free of that arrangement, assumes she will never be in a relationship with a man again. Her love interest Ewan is laird of a nearby, rival...

Maybe a yearly tradition? Where we recommend books to each other. Chels recommended the first in the Psy-Changeling series to Beth because of their shared love of Heather Guerre. Emma recommended a Carla Kelly because she’s quickly becoming a pod favorite. Keeping with last episode, Beth recommended two contemporaries. Emma and Chels did like an uno reverse to each other and recommended two kind o...

Keeper of the Dream, published in 1992, has this real threat of danger throughout the book. Arianna is the daughter of the Welsh prince and Raine pledges his fealty to Henry II, who is currently invading Wales. In the first scene, Raine kills one of Arianna’s brothers in a skirmish and the book doesn’t really let up from there. Arianna is a seer and has visions, which include insight into the past...

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is a Victorian crime novel centered around two young women: Susan Trinder, who grew up in a house of thieves, and Maud Lilly, a lady who is trapped by her uncle in a macabre house called Briar, and compelled to work for him as a secretary. When it was initially published in 2002, Fingersmith made waves for its central lesbian relationship, as well as its shocking twist...

In this episode, we’re specifically focused on Waterloo, Napoleon’s last stand and a favorite backdrop of historical romance. Waterloo took place June 18, 1815, when Napoleon’s Army of the North was met by the Seventh Coalition, an army composed of Wellington’s English troops, and various German and Dutch units at a small village just outside of Brussels. Around 50,000 soldiers died in the conflic...

Published in 2022, A Caribbean Heiress in Paris is the first full-length historical romance from Adriana Herrera. We follow Luz Alana Heith-Benzan, who travels to the Exposition Universelle in Paris to expand her family’s rum trade throughout Europe. It’s there that she meets James Evanstan Sinclair, the Earl of Darnick, a Scottish man who works in whisky and goes from being her rival, to her frie...

Meredith Duran has an unlikely publishing story: at her sister’s encouragement, she submitted her first manuscript, Duke of Shadows , to the Gather.com first chapters contest, and won first prize: Duke of Shadows would be published by Pocket Books. Duran followed up with Bound by Your Touch and Written on Your Skin , two late Victorian novels starring friends: Viscount Sanburne, the happy-go-lucky...

A Sherry Thomas story is built around one central conflict and then mining as much story from that conflict as possible. In her debut novel Private Arrangements , we follow Gigi and Camden who have the ideal marriage. They live separately and now after ten years Gigi wants a divorce. Camden says he’ll give her one after she gives him an heir. Their separation, sparked by an act of fraud of Gigi’s...

Last episode, we covered the rise of Janet Dailey, one of romance’s biggest stars in the 1970s and 80s. A secretary turned millionaire, Dailey was one of the genre’s biggest success stories, but her husband’s work as her manager, and his interest in making her the #1 author in the world fueled “Svengali” rumors. If you haven’t already, go back and listen to Janet Dailey: Part One for the full...

In 1997, a scandal rocked the world of romance: Janet Dailey, one of the most successful and prolific romance authors of all time, got caught plagiarizing the work of Nora Roberts, one of the other most successful and prolific romance authors of all time. Before the scandal, Janet Dailey was the queen of American romance. Born in small-town Iowa, married in Omaha, and settled in Ozarks, she was a...

Tom and Sharon Curtis’ most famous work is 1984’s The Windflower published under the pen name Laura London. The Windflower is about a young sheltered woman named Merry who is kidnapped by the pirates on a ship called The Black Joke, and falls in love with her captor, the excruciatingly handsome second-in-command, Devon Crandall. Largely considered a classic of the genre, The Windflower is heartwar...

Currently on hiatus from writing historical romance, Mallory has written eleven histroms. Her books often are genre hybrids, with a mystery plot as an undercurrent with the romance. The books are Regencies and edge toward the wallpaper line, with a few historical inaccuracies, almost dollhouse like settings and sometimes some incomprehensible world building. For the Earl’s Pleasure is a mystery-ro...

Today we’re going to talk about a sometimes polarizing topic—pregnancy in romance. We think pregnancy poses some interesting narrative questions and conflicts. For historical romance novels, babies and pregnancy bring up questions that aren’t really as much of a contemporary concern like legitimate heirs and who will inherit what estate. What does a person do if they have a child outside of wedloc...

Today is a very special episode voted on by our Patreon subscribers. A starchy hero is uptight, obsessed with morals and propriety, and often a bit awkward in company. He’s often an aristocrat who puts too much value in his social standing, and doesn’t take enough time to smell the roses. With the help of a love interest, his entire world will be shaken up, until Whites is no longer his favorite c...

Today, the Reformed Rakes discuss Think of England by K.J. Charles along with special guest Mel . Set in the early 20th century, the story follows Captain Archie Curtis as he arrives at Sir Hubert’s estate. This isn’t merely a social call, as Archie suspects Sir Hubert of purposely sabotaging weapons sent to British troops during the Boer War. Once there, Archie meets Daniel, a man who also has a...

Midsummer Moon features what Kinsale calls the “hedgehog humor” of some of her lighter novels and is the origin of that label. Midsummer Moon is goofy! It does in fact feature a hedgehog, along with an aphrodisiac salt, a pre-Alexander Graham Bell invention of a telephone-like device, an inventor heroine named Merlin and a Duke with so many names that Merlin lands on calling him “Mister Duke” most...

The Bow Street Runners, like Newgate Prison, are one of those setting markers that tells historical romance readers “oh we’re in a historical romance in London, probably in pre-Victorian.” A few different authors have written whole series centered on Runners as heroes—Lisa Kleypas, Kate Bateman, Jillian Eaton, and they pop up in quite a few different standalone books as well. But like how we inves...

The Silver Devil was published by Jacqui Bianchi, under the pen name of Teresa Denys, in 1978. We’ve talked before about bodice rippers with a cult reputation, and The Silver Devil , set in the “opulence and intrigue” of Renaissance Italy, is perhaps the moodiest, bloodiest, most devilish bodice ripper of them all. Denys only published two books: 1978’s The Silver Devil , and 1980’s The Flesh and...

We’re finishing our journey through Patricia Gaffney’s Wyckerley trilogy. Published in 1996, the final installment in the trilogy, Forever & Ever , is an enemies-to-lovers class difference romance between Connor Pendarvis, a man who goes undercover in copper and tin mines to expose shoddy working conditions, and Sophie Deene, the young and beautiful owner of Wyckerley’s copper mine. What do yo...

This is our second episode in our trilogy on Patricia Gaffney’s Wyckerley series. Published in September 1995, To Have & to Hold is the story of Sebastian Verlaine, the new Viscount D’Aubrey and Rachel Wade, an outsider to Wyckerley. Rachel, until very recently, had been incarcerated for ten years for killing her abusive husband. Sebastian and Rachel meet in strange circumstances for a romance...

The first of the Wyckerley trilogy, To Love & To Cherish came out on January 1, 1995. To borrow the subtitle from Middlemarch, it’s a study in provincial life. Set in 1854 in the fictional village of Wyckerley is alive with Dickensian characters and glimpses of heroes yet to star in their own books. Patricia Gaffney has said the favorite among her historical romances is To Love & To Cheris...

If you were to ask someone in the 20th century what a romance novelist looked like, they’d likely have visions of pink chiffon, bright blue eyeshadow, false eyelashes, and excessive costume jewelry thanks to one woman: Barbara Cartland, who was dubbed by the Romantic Times as the “Queen of Romance.” Cartland was larger than life, but like most outsized figures, the “self-publicizing juggernaut’ wa...

What is an 'unforgivable act'? This week, the rakes explore one heroine's egregious behavior, and the lengths she'll go to to make things right. Peckham's The Earl I Ruined is a Georgian historical romance that's full of surprises: kisses in a wig closet, devastating reveals, and the fresh scent of a pining hero. Join us, sinners! It's bound to be a wild time. Support us on our Patreon! Follow us...

Indigo by Beverly Jenkins follows Hester Wyatt, a conductor on the Michigan Underground Railroad. Hester’s hands are marked by indigo, a remnant from her days as an enslaved person on an indigo plantation. When she hides the notorious Black Daniel as he recovers from injuries, he challenges her. Hester finds the man aggravating and attractive in equal measure. As he pushes for a relationship, Hest...

In Mistress of Mellyn, widower Connan TreMellyn hires Martha Leigh on as the governess to his eight-year-old daughter Alvean. Like many a governess before her, Martha finds mystery and murder at the Mount Mellyn estate. As she comes to know Connan she develops feelings for him but as the governess occupies the space where she’s not a servant but she’s not his social equal either. In this episode,...