Beth
@bethhaymond.bsky.social
1/3 of the Reformed Rakes podcast. Mostly reading romance
I'll take any excuse to talk about Lord of Scoundrels
Reconciliation is Central to Romance
Comparing masters of the genre Loretta Chase and Sherry Thomas
ministrations.substack.com
August 31, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I'll take any excuse to talk about Lord of Scoundrels
Reposted by Beth
hi! 😃 i couldn't help but notice that scrolling is sapping your will to live! may i offer u a video essay in these trying times?
youtu.be/Bdj14_jdumI
youtu.be/Bdj14_jdumI
be your own algorithm
YouTube video by pagemelt
youtu.be
July 6, 2025 at 1:04 PM
hi! 😃 i couldn't help but notice that scrolling is sapping your will to live! may i offer u a video essay in these trying times?
youtu.be/Bdj14_jdumI
youtu.be/Bdj14_jdumI
My new love langue is people sending me edits of Robby and Collins
this book features a Jewish doctor reeling from what he could and couldn't do during a plague, so yes, Beth and Emma talk about Dr. Robby and The Pitt.
April 15, 2025 at 3:27 PM
My new love langue is people sending me edits of Robby and Collins
Reposted by Beth
New episode! The Phoenix Bride is an achingly romantic book set in London, 1666 and unlike anything we've ever read. Siegel managed to make an under explored setting feel very lived and pulls off the kind of happily-ever-after we wish we saw more of in the genre.
April 15, 2025 at 1:42 PM
New episode! The Phoenix Bride is an achingly romantic book set in London, 1666 and unlike anything we've ever read. Siegel managed to make an under explored setting feel very lived and pulls off the kind of happily-ever-after we wish we saw more of in the genre.
Reposted by Beth
Back with a new episode! Honeytrap is unlike any genre romance we’ve ever read—asking what can new settings, structures and even endings can look like in the genre, all while being romantic and delightful!
April 1, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Back with a new episode! Honeytrap is unlike any genre romance we’ve ever read—asking what can new settings, structures and even endings can look like in the genre, all while being romantic and delightful!
Joan Wolf is the final boss of horse girls
new episode! this week we’re talking about sex work, mistresses, theater, jewelry, estates and more with @scarr.bsky.social! His Lordship’s Mistress is a charming Signet Regency that explores many topics that newer readers might assume a stuffy Regency would shy a way from.
March 18, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Joan Wolf is the final boss of horse girls
Reposted by Beth
If you listened to the Reformed Rakes episode and want more in depth Balogh, I wrote this about how I see her vision of justice and forgiveness (a major condition for her version of an HEA) relating to the abolitionist imagination.
open.substack.com/pub/restorat...
open.substack.com/pub/restorat...
forgiveness doesn't come with a debt
Mary Balogh's Romantic and Abolitionist Imagination
open.substack.com
March 4, 2025 at 9:02 PM
If you listened to the Reformed Rakes episode and want more in depth Balogh, I wrote this about how I see her vision of justice and forgiveness (a major condition for her version of an HEA) relating to the abolitionist imagination.
open.substack.com/pub/restorat...
open.substack.com/pub/restorat...
Reposted by Beth
We’re going to Bath! This week, Emma talks to Beth and Chels about her favorite author, Mary Balogh, and the history of “category” and “Regency” romances.
March 4, 2025 at 3:14 PM
We’re going to Bath! This week, Emma talks to Beth and Chels about her favorite author, Mary Balogh, and the history of “category” and “Regency” romances.
Reposted by Beth
I'm re-releasing the most legal of my projects at Restorative Romance over the next few weeks, with new legal research and close readings. It's about the theory of marital rape exemptions influencing the popularity of bodice rippers and why I think that parallel is often oversimplified!
correlation present, causation unclear
part 1: bodice retribution
restorativeromance.substack.com
February 24, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I'm re-releasing the most legal of my projects at Restorative Romance over the next few weeks, with new legal research and close readings. It's about the theory of marital rape exemptions influencing the popularity of bodice rippers and why I think that parallel is often oversimplified!
Reposted by Beth
New episode! This week @bayleyreads.bsky.social joins us to talk about Katherine Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts! A WWI magical mystery romance, this book is incredibly special and Bayley helps us figure how Arden pulls off this magic trick. Available on all podcast platforms!
February 18, 2025 at 2:45 PM
New episode! This week @bayleyreads.bsky.social joins us to talk about Katherine Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts! A WWI magical mystery romance, this book is incredibly special and Bayley helps us figure how Arden pulls off this magic trick. Available on all podcast platforms!
Hey @scarr.bsky.social wrote this smart thing about mistresses in romance that everyone should read
The Mistress Character in Historical Romance: A Critical Look
Chez La Modiste by Jean Veber This is the first post in my mistress in historical romance series – a series where I will be writing about romance’s relationship to the mistress character an…
scarrstuff.com
February 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Hey @scarr.bsky.social wrote this smart thing about mistresses in romance that everyone should read
Friend of the podcast @haleystew.bsky.social has immaculate taste in books
The Rakes are back for Season 3 with THE COUNTESS CONSPIRACY by Courtney Milan. Featuring friend of the pod @haleystew.bsky.social, we discuss labor, hot girl hobbies and kissing in this long time favorite book.
February 4, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Friend of the podcast @haleystew.bsky.social has immaculate taste in books
Reposted by Beth
“Milan doesn’t write girl gangs, she writes communities. She doesn’t write hot girl hobbies, she writes about labor.”
such a good episode about one of the best historical romances ever written!
such a good episode about one of the best historical romances ever written!
The Rakes are back for Season 3 with THE COUNTESS CONSPIRACY by Courtney Milan. Featuring friend of the pod @haleystew.bsky.social, we discuss labor, hot girl hobbies and kissing in this long time favorite book.
February 4, 2025 at 3:28 PM
“Milan doesn’t write girl gangs, she writes communities. She doesn’t write hot girl hobbies, she writes about labor.”
such a good episode about one of the best historical romances ever written!
such a good episode about one of the best historical romances ever written!
It's kind of shocking we haven't done a Courtney Milan book standalone episode yet
The Rakes are here. Season 3 starts Tuesday!!
February 1, 2025 at 11:01 PM
It's kind of shocking we haven't done a Courtney Milan book standalone episode yet
Reposted by Beth
evil is not an immutable quality, and thinking that it IS, and that YOU are so smart and special as to have seen through its facade all along… like, all that’s doing is telling me that you think victims are stupider than you. not exactly a progressive stance!
Hey, did you know that when a popular artist is revealed to be a total monster, you actually don’t get brownie points for “never liking them anyway”
January 13, 2025 at 10:28 PM
evil is not an immutable quality, and thinking that it IS, and that YOU are so smart and special as to have seen through its facade all along… like, all that’s doing is telling me that you think victims are stupider than you. not exactly a progressive stance!
Reposted by Beth
I hate Reading the Romance so much so I was THRILLED to read this absolutely banger from Beth
ministrations.substack.com/p/is-this-19...
ministrations.substack.com/p/is-this-19...
Is this 1984 romance scholarship the root of all the arguments I hate?
In which Janice Radway's Reading the Romance pathologizes a group of romance readers and everyone seems to think she did a good job
ministrations.substack.com
December 27, 2024 at 3:34 PM
I hate Reading the Romance so much so I was THRILLED to read this absolutely banger from Beth
ministrations.substack.com/p/is-this-19...
ministrations.substack.com/p/is-this-19...
Hey you should listen to me talk about why this book is bad
Is this 1984 romance scholarship the root of all the arguments I hate?
In which Janice Radway's Reading the Romance pathologizes a group of romance readers and everyone seems to think she did a good job
ministrations.substack.com
December 27, 2024 at 4:28 PM
Hey you should listen to me talk about why this book is bad