#lol had to vent a little bc i'm a bit frustrated by the discourse re: historical romance's slump atm

[mermaidsirennikita]

Any more historical romances with spanking? 👀 It seems to me that maybe it’s not as prevalent in HR which is funny considering it was more normal (maybe?) back in the day

I mean, it was definitely more normal for men to spank their wives societally back in the day... but as true punishment versus consensual funishment, you know?

One issue with historical romance (and one of the reasons, though there are many, why I think it hasn't been selling very well lately) is that the subgenre has essentially kowtowed to a vocal readership that doesn't represent the whole, imo, and certainly doesn't represent the number of readers who COULD be captured, that want "Austen After Dark", essentially. They want explicit sex on the page (to an extent). But they want that sex to be vanilla. The heroine has to be a virgin, the hero has to be experienced, you want as much heteronormativity as possible, la la la.

I think there are honestly a lot of authors who would have and do write kinkier historicals, but they were prevented from really going there as much as they wanted to because tradpub wished to please an audience they perceived as being super white, super cis, super het, fairly conservative and obsessed with a fantasy version of history, and incapable of growing beyond that. And in doing so, they basically created this self-fulfilling prophecy because other readers perceived that, and did not think there was anything interesting or diverse in historicals for them. Which isn't true. But you can see how they got that impression. Read the reviews for The Earl's Mistress on Goodreads and you'll see what I mean. None of that FILTHY KINK in my HISTORICAL ROMANCE NOVEL!!! THAT'S FOR THE WHORISH 50 SHADES READERS!!!!!

Anyway I digress

Sierra Simone has written some historicals—her Ivy Leavold and Molly O'Flaherty books have spanking for sure. S.M. LaViolette's books don't always have it, but are more likely than not if you read her Victorian Decadence novels.

People will probably recommend you Golden Angel for this, and I'm here to tell you that I find those books horribly written and would recommend against. I don't often do that, but like.... yeah. Try it if you please, but don't expect much.

The Earl I Ruined by Scarlett Peckham has some spanking, I think, though the kink is a bit more on the psychological/toy-based level.

I think there's a bit in Olivia and The Masked Duke by Grace Callaway, though her books are a bit bigger on the light bondage, voyeurism, good girl-ism etc than spanking.

There's a teeny bit in Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean!

It's been a while, but I think there may be some in Adrian Herrera's The Bootlegger's Bounty, which is an MMF historical.

Oh, I totally forgot that Io by S.M. LaViolette, which I loooooved, has this. Like, literally within the first few pages.