Reformed Rakes

Reformed Rakes
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Reformed Rakes is a historical romance novel podcast steeped in dissipation. Hosted by Beth, Emma, and Chels, this podcast is perfect for every pirate, second son, bluestocking, and viking who wants to hear more about the kissing books we love. We update every other Tuesday.

  1. 14 APR

    62 - History of the Definition of Romance as a Genre

    What makes something a romance novel? Most readers probably have an intuition of where their definitional lines are, and what are the make or break points, pushing something out of “romance” and into a neighboring genre. Critics and professional organizations of authors and publishers might provide a definition, for analysis or award purposes, to create parameters around what is the in and out group. Today’s episode is less about answering the question “what is a romance novel” and more a historiography of that question. When do we start asking it? How have the answers changed in the long arc of romance history? Who gets to decide what the final, be-all, end-all definition is? Are we ever open to change? Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 45min

  2. 17 MAR

    61 - Excellent Women

    Today we’re discussing Barbara Pym’s second novel, Excellent Women, published in 1952. Pym wrote mid-century comedies of manners and experienced some success in the first decade of her career and then struggled to publish new novels. Excellent Women certainly has a Miss Bates style heroine, but uniquely has a romance-style happy ending, if you agree that the match Mildred Lathbury makes has the potential for happiness. Barbara Pym was not a romance novelist and most of her works focus on a generation of gentlewomen just young enough to feel the loss of a vast number of potential marriage partners from World War II, but old enough (and backwards looking enough) that they aren’t able to parlay new social and gender class mobility into rewarding professions. They, like Miss Bates, exist in, if not a genteel poverty, a genteel bourgeois existence. They may be the daughters of vicars, but have little hope of getting the vicar to marry them. Pym is writing at the same time as authors like Barbara Cartland and Victoria Holt, cited as precedents for a lot of genre romance fiction we read today. And if Jane Austen is another grand precedent of romance fiction, Pym is at least a cousin. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 28min

  3. 17 FEB

    60 - One Burning Heart

    One Burning Heart is the latest book in Elizabeth Kingston’s 13th century medieval series, Welsh Blades, and it is a Reformed Rakes favorite. The book opens on a perfunctory sex scene that could be the stuff of nightmares. Margaret has been married to William for six years, and he's decided to tamper down his ill-concealed loathing for his wife in order to beget an heir. While William married Margaret for strategy, what he doesn’t know is that Margaret also married him for strategy. One Burning Heart is an achingly romantic tale that tackles ancestry, loyalty, and doubt, and Margaret is one of the most compelling historical romance heroines we’ve ever come across. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 50min

  4. 16/12/2025

    59 - Just Like Heaven

    Just Like Heaven was published in 2011 as the first in the Smyth-Smith quartet and follows a family set in the Bridgerton world. Quinn’s most successful series is the Bridgerton series, even before the adaptation, features a large, tight-knit family that run around Regency London acting anachronistically and telling jokes that we’re told are hilarious and finding true love. A lot of romance time and effort has been spent on the Bridgerton series, book and television show, along with Quinn’s place as an outsized representation of romance to the non-romance world and this is mostly outside what we’re going to be talking about today. All the Rakes have read at least a handful of the Bridgerton series and none of us really enjoy the television show that much, so we wanted to read another one of Quinn’s books as our standalone exploration of her writing style, to try and parse what works or what doesn’t for us, along with what might be the longstanding appeal to readers for a Julia Quinn novel. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 17min

  5. 18/11/2025

    58 - A History of Harlequin

    We spoke about Mills & Boon last week and now we're onto Harlequin. While we go through the history of Harlequin, we continue with the lens of how gatekeepers influence the romance genre. While writing this script, I was influenced by John Markert’s book Publishing Romance where he argues that gatekeepers often use their own tastes as a barometer for what readers want. Markert argues another driver for gatekeepers is what they perceive market conditions to be. This often results in gatekeepers acting conservatively as they try and find a product that is similar to yet slightly different from what’s on the market. We talk about a few editors again and how they influenced their authors, Vivian Stephens and her time at Harlequin, how heroines having jobs has been editorial policy since the 80s, and how mass market paperbacks will be dramatically scaled down in the upcoming year. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 58min

  6. 21/10/2025

    57 - A History of Mills & Boon

    When we look at the history of romance novels, often people pin the start of modern romance history to the 1972 publication of The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. By doing this, people erase a key evolution and influence in romance, which is the category romance. If you’re from the UK then you already know that the category publisher there is Mills & Boon, and they’ve been a publisher for a little over a century. First starting out as a general publisher in 1908, over the decades Mills & Boon gradually specialized in romance novels. Harlequin, first seeking to re-print their medical romances, eventually bought Mills & Boon in 1971. While we look at the history of the company, we also focus on publishing gatekeepers and how they’ve influenced the romance genre. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 39min

  7. 16/09/2025

    56 - Garters

    Pamela Morsi’s books were different than the typical historical romance of the time. Writing stories set in rural America, with poor or working class characters, Morsi was hailed as the “the Garrison Keillor of romance fiction,” by Publishers Weekly. When demand for the Americana subgenre waned after 2000, Morsi switched over to contemporary romance and women’s fiction with 2002’s Doing Good. She continued to write through 2014, publishing 29 books in her long career. She died this past December. Garters, published in 1993, is one of Morsi’s most beloved books. Following Esme Crab, a poor hill girl who wants to marry up, and Cleavis Rhy, a storeowner with aspirations of being a gentleman, Garters is an unusual tale about class, love, and ambition that is goofy, tender, and at times heartbreaking. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    58 min

  8. 26/08/2025

    55 - Chasing Cassandra

    Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas is the sixth book in the Ravenel series. The Ravenels are the most recent series in Kleypas’ extended universe—going back to the Gamblers of Craven. The Ravenels are a family made up of two sets of cousins: Devon, Earl of Trenear and West Ravenel, then Helen Ravenel and her twin sisters Pandora and Cassandra. Cassandra’s main goal is to have a family and she feels particularly lonely on the day of her twin’s wedding. Tom Severin, an industrialist and sometimes friend to Devon and West and Ravenel, offers to marry her after he overhears her express her anxieties about ever getting married. He’s immediately taken with her beauty and pragmatic interest in running a home, two things he is seeking in a wife. But when Tom reveals to Cassandra that he can never love her because he insists he is incapable, she puts distance between them. This book is one of Kleypas’ more recent publications, from 2020. She has a long backlist and while this book definitely reads like a romance from the 2020s, there are many tell-tale signs of a Kleypas original. Support us on our Patreon! Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @reformedrakes Instagram: @reformedrakes Bluesky: @reformedrakes Beth’s Substack Chels’ Substack Emma’s Substack Thank you for listening!

    1hr 13min
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About

Reformed Rakes is a historical romance novel podcast steeped in dissipation. Hosted by Beth, Emma, and Chels, this podcast is perfect for every pirate, second son, bluestocking, and viking who wants to hear more about the kissing books we love. We update every other Tuesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Reformed Rakes
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    ©Reformed Rakes
  • Show Website
    Reformed Rakes

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