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.

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 Blackshear 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.