Stormfire by Christine Monson is a bodice ripper with a reputation for violence. Set during the Irish rebellion of 1798, Sean Culhane kidnaps his political enemy’s daughter, Catherine Enderly, out of revenge. Here at Reformed Rakes, we don’t believe romance books are instructional manuals or need to portray relationships to aspire to. With that disclaimer, today we’ll talk about Monson’s powerful story about cyclical violence, grounded in political strife between two enemies.

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In the spirit of excess and self-indulgence, the rakes inspect our own characters. What is a historical romance rake, and can they be categorized by type? Join us as we discuss Byronic rakes, malevolent seducers, charming rakes, loquacious weirdos, and so much more. This is a fun one with lots of recommendations, so ignore your gambling debts and hop in your curricle, we're on our way to the Hellfire Club! 

For further reading, check out A Taxonomy of Rakes on Chels’ Subastack.

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Come with us to Cornwall as we discuss A Bride for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath, a working class romance between a former schoolteacher and a prizefighting publican. This episode includes discussion of the gothic POV, stargazy pie, and a desperate plea to for historical romance authors to write more non-aristocratic main characters.

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The first in the regency imposter series by Cat Sebastian, the book centers on a romance between Alistair de Lacey and Mr. Robert Selby. As their relationship progresses, we learn Mr. Robert Selby was born Charity Church. For her own reasons she’s put on the Robert Selby persona but she’s not a woman dressing as a man, only. In this episode, the rakes discuss historical accuracy, the importance of names, the most romantic crime (property fraud obviously), acknowledging family, and why we love starchy characters becoming unstarched.

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Newgate prison served as the main punitive facility in London for six centuries until it closed in 1902. If you expect this genre to be limited to country houses and The Ton, you might be surprised at how often authors invoke Newgate in their stories. Newgate as a recurring thematic space becomes shorthand for terror, grime, and pain. What’s the effect then when it’s invoked in a romance novel? In this episode, the rakes cover Newgate itself and several books that fictionalize Newgate. Much of what we talk about stems from Emma’s current research on Newgate.

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The rakes discuss The Ruin of Evangeline Jones by Julia Bennet, a Victorian romance between the Duke of Harcastle and a medium. The Duke, Alex, occupies himself by exposing mediums. His latest target, Evie, challenges his reasons for doing so and, they fall for each other. The rakes talk about mediums in Victorian England, the choices characters have to make when there really isn’t a choice, the history of photography, and garbage fathers.

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Why can't we just talk to each other? The Reformed Rakes have an honest conversation about why miscommunication is so reviled in romance, and argue that miscommunication is necessary for a genre that is so character driven. In this episode, we go over miscommunication vs miscommunication trope, outline different types of miscommunication, and talk about some of our favorite historical romance books where signals are missed, words are misinterpreted, and assumptions are made.

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The Reformed Rakes tackle booktok. Often touted as the savior of Barnes & Noble (questionable), and a driver of romance book sales (unclear). We review several articles making those claims, including from NPR and The Guardian, and make our Citation Needed loud and clear. These articles often reference authors who say romance readers feel less shame about sex and that happily ever after has “come back in fashion.” What stats these articles do offer mostly comes from NPD BookScan: a subscription service accessible only to publishers.

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The Reformed Rakes talk about Cecilia Grant’s Blackshear series. Cecilia Grant published the first Blackshear, A Lady Awakened, on January 1, 2011. She published a book a year until 2014. The Blackshears series deals with themes of family reconciliation, labor, and the economics of sex. The Rakes heartily recommend all three books as singular examples of the high angst, high reward relationships in historical romance.

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