In Bed with the Devil by Lorraine Heath is the first in the Scoundrels of St. James series. The series is Oliver Twist fanfiction, as it follows Fagin’s crew of child thieves as grown ups. The first book features Lucian Langdon, referred to as the devil earl as it’s common knowledge he murdered his supposed uncle. I say supposed, because Luke was adopted by the Earl of Clayborne. This earl is the father of the man who Luke killed. Because of Luke’s silver eyes, the earl believes him to be his lo...
Jul 08, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 53
Murmur of Rain is a Gothic-tinged historical romance set in France and Haiti in the 1890s by Patricia Vaughn. Lauren Dufort is the daughter of a descendent of enslaved people in French Guiana and a white Frenchman. Her parents were deeply in love, but their marriage estranged them from society, so when Lauren is orphaned as a teen, she is raised by her paternal aunt, Claude, who runs a gentleman’s club, knowing that her mixed-race identity may keep her from ever making a love match in 19th centu...
Jun 24, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 52
The Rakes discuss The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randall. In response to the question what inspires or interests Dai Randall about a time period, she said: “To me, the period of time is not as important as the historical figure or the event itself.” This focus is evident in her the book that imagines the early years of Empress Wu. Known as Mei, she enters the palace as a teenager in 639 and becomes a concubine to Emperor Taizong. She falls in love with one of his son’s Li Zhi. As their live...
Jun 10, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 51
Previously released as a bonus episode on Patreon , Emma and Beth discuss the books they loved and hated from 2024: Raves The Hidden Moon by Jeannie Lin One Burning Heart by Elizabeth Kingston The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh (related article by Emma “ why now? why this duke? ”) A Splendid Defiance by Stella Riley Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie Medievals series by Madeline Hunter Rants Reading the Romance by Janice Radway (Longer rant by Beth “ Is this 1984 romance scholarship the root of all the ...
May 13, 2025•57 min•Season 3Ep. 50
Notorious Pleasures is the second book in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series. Elizabeth Hoyt came onto the historical romance scene with her 2006 debut The Raven Prince. She writes strong characters who have opposing ideological centers to generate conflict. Lady Hero, the daughter of a duke, is set to marry Lord Mandeville, Thomas, in an advantageous society marriage. They will consolidate lands and interests and Hero can strengthen his parliamentary position . Her desire to marry Thomas comes...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 49
The Phoenix Bride is set in 1666 and Cecilia Thorowgood and David Mendes have both recently lost their great loves to the plague. David has thrown himself into his work as a doctor, taking on more clients outside his small Jewish community and Cecilia has fallen into a depression, staying at her sister’s London house and refusing to see company. Her sister employs David as a last resort, considering his medicine practice close to paganism. David seeks to heal Cecilia’s emotions as much as her he...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 48
Honeytrap is a Soviet/American spy romance set in 1959 between Daniel Hawthorne and Gennady Matskevich. Daniel and Gennady are charged with finding who is behind the attempted assassination of Nikita Khrushchev during his 12-day trip to America. As the bullet only hits the side of a train, the attempt is not well-known. What then ensues is basically an American roadtrip as Daniel and Gennady piece together clues. Unknown to Daniel, Gennady’s boss instructs him to try and “honeytrap” him—essentia...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 3Ep. 47
Jessica Andover needs money to pay off the mortgage on her estate. Instead of capitulating to her blackmailing neighbor who holds the mortgage and marrying him, Jessica decides to go to London and act on the stage, under an assumed name. In Regency England, this is her way of soliciting a protector. Philp Romney, Earl of Linton is the clear choice for Jessica, though many men vie for her, as she is a sudden sensation on stage. Philip quickly suspects there is more to Jessica’s story, even as she...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 3Ep. 46
Today, we’re discussing the career of Mary Balogh. Balogh is a Welsh author who now lives in Canada and we’re recording this near the fortieth anniversary of the publication of her first Regency romance, A Masked Deception . A Masked Deception was a Signet Regency Romance published by New American Library in February 1985. Balogh’s most recent publication was Remember When , also a Regency Romance, published by Berkley and published just this January. Emma talks to Beth and Chels about the histo...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Season 3Ep. 45
The Warm Hands of Ghosts opens on Laura receiving her brother’s clothes in the mail in January 1918. Her brother Freddie fights for the Canadian army in Belgium. Something doesn’t add up about his supposed death so Laura, a discharged combat nurse, decides to go to Belgium herself to find Freddie. From there, the book alternates point of view chapters between the Iven siblings and timelines. Laura is the present timeline and Freddie’s timeline follows a few months behind. Freddie wakes in an ove...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 3Ep. 44
We would characterize Milan’s works as the best possible combination of historical research and alternative realities that serve her characters’ stories. She doesn’t fudge history out of laziness or received wisdom, but in order to tell a better romance and backs up her creative license with research into aspects of history that might go underdeveloped in a weaker author’s books. She says of her settings: “I try to write books that I say are historically possible, but not historically average.” ...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 43
In An Extraordinary Union , published in 2017, is the first in Cole’s The Loyal League series, both main characters are attempting to shape the politics of their time through espionage. Elle Burns is a freedwoman who has been living in New England with her parents after their enslaver died and his son freed them. She has an eidetic memory that has been treated somewhat as a party trick for most of her life, including by well-meaning, but thoughtless white abolitionists in the North. Elle joins t...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Last episode, we covered Fabio’s not-so-humble upbringing, his journey to America, his early romance career, and his rise to fame. In this episode, we’ll start at the height of Fabio Mania in 1994 and end in present day, thirty years later. We’ll be taking you through viking battles, chivalry lessons, an A-list celebrity beef, and, unfortunately, a right wing rabbit hole. As a spokesman, Fabio billed himself as “a gentleman,” but what did he become instead? This episode is dedicated to THE GOOSE...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 57 min•Season 2Ep. 41
In the 90s the face of romance was the Italian cover model Fabio Lanzoni, who broke out of the insular romance fandom into mainstream superstardom. Known briefly as “The Fabulous Fabio,” he and his managers parlayed his success in romance modeling into an internationally recognized brand. Fabio was no longer just a model, but a spokesman for romantic, courtly love. But what some people might not know is that even during the height of his fame, he was a lightning rod amongst romance fans and auth...
Oct 14, 2024•2 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 40
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 clan whose lost members of his family in ways that made him anxious to fall in love, so he similarl...
Oct 01, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Season 2Ep. 39
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 of heavy-hitter political histroms. A good time was had by all. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our ...
Sep 17, 2024•2 hr 32 min•Season 2Ep. 38
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 and future. Raine is the unloved, illegitimate son of an earl and he is seeking power and status by...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 2Ep. 37
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 the second act. The book was critically lauded: shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the Ora...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Season 2Ep. 36
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 conflict. The battle led to the voluntary surrender of Napoleon to the British a month later, after a serie...
Aug 06, 2024•2 hr 12 min•Season 2Ep. 35
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 friend, to her husband. The book is a really fun twist on marriage of convenience: a business partnershi...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr 49 min•Season 2Ep. 34
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 rake who uses his dissipation to conceal something much darker, and Phineas Granville, a spy-turned...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Season 2Ep. 33
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 part, propels Camden into a cycle of anger against her. He refuses to forgive Gigi. Here is where Th...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Season 2Ep. 32
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 story, as this is information you’ll need for what’s to come in this episode. This week we’re picking up...
Jun 11, 2024•2 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 31
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 down-to-earth, blue-jeaned rebuttal to the only romance author that outsold her in the 70s and 80s: ...
May 28, 2024•1 hr 48 min•Season 2Ep. 30
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 heartwarming, surprising, and very, very funny. Haley joined us on our discussion! You can find her on TikTo...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Season 2Ep. 29
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-romance hybrid as we try to uncover what led to Valerien Lord Rainewood attempted murder, which now ha...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 28
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 wedlock? More universally, how does this pregnancy affect the relationship? Sanjana ( @baskinsuns ) join u...
Apr 16, 2024•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 27
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 club and suddenly, maybe frolicking through the trees seems like a good idea. The rakes categorize so...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 26
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 purpose beyond the social. Archie takes an immediate dislike to Daniel, a man so outwardly and obvio...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 2Ep. 25
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 of the time. Midsummer Moon might sound kooky, and it is, but it still comes with typical Kinsale c...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 24
