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…

November 5, 2024, marks an engaging episode of the Akron Podcast, where listeners are welcomed with the excitement of civic engagement and local happenings. The show kicks off with a reminder for voters about the importance of participating in the elections, noting poll hours and providing links for those unsure of their voting locations. Beyond th…

New Anti-Violence Strategy in Akron In a proactive step against gun violence, Akron City Council has approved new funding for a violence prevention program, set to launch in January 2025. Following a recent surge in local shootings, the council will use nearly $185,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act to hire three 'credible messengers'—individual…

This episode provides crucial information about Akron's leaf removal schedule, ensuring residents are prepared for the upcoming season. The hosts discuss how each ward in Akron has different leaf pickup dates, emphasizing the importance of knowing your specific ward to avoid missing the collection. Listeners will learn how to easily find their ward…

Akron City Council voted 10-3 Monday night to move forward on a heavily contested plan to build a modern waste transfer station at a different site than its current operations. The three council members who voted against the proposal were Johnnie Hannah (Ward 5), Margo Sommerville (Ward 3) and Jan Davis (Ward 4). We are told, "it won't smell..." Me…

Today, we introduce two AI Anchors that help me share information. While they are not real, they sound real and will help me consistently get more information out. Today, you will hear about a ruling on the Police shooting from April 1st. Also, there has been an update on who pays the settlement for Jaylon Walker and how much it is. Got an Opinion?…

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 romant…

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. …

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 un…

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 an…

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 le…

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 Br…

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…

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 starrin…

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 …

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 …

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, m…

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 …

Police Union Willing to Talk At an Akron City Council meeting, Brian Lucey, representing Akron's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, stated the union's willingness to engage in discussions on police reform, offering to meet with anyone at any time for this purpose. Lucey's remarks were prompted by Councilman James Hardy's suggestion to pause discuss…

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…

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 …

Welcome back to the Akron Podcast, where we tackle the tough stories affecting our community. Today is April 11th, 2024, and we have a difficult topic. This isn't an April Fool's Day prank—it's a serious incident involving Tavion Koonce-Williams, a 15-year-old East High School student whom an Akron police officer shot under contentious circumstance…

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 s…

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 …

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 t…

The Bow Street Runners, like Newgate Prison, are one of those setting markers that tells historical romance readers “oh we’re in a historical romance in London, probably in pre-Victorian.” A few different authors have written whole series centered on Runners as heroes—Lisa Kleypas, Kate Bateman, Jillian Eaton, and they pop up in quite a few differe…

The Silver Devil was published by Jacqui Bianchi, under the pen name of Teresa Denys, in 1978. We’ve talked before about bodice rippers with a cult reputation, and The Silver Devil, set in the “opulence and intrigue” of Renaissance Italy, is perhaps the moodiest, bloodiest, most devilish bodice ripper of them all. Denys only published two books: 19…

We’re finishing our journey through Patricia Gaffney’s Wyckerley trilogy. Published in 1996, the final installment in the trilogy, Forever & Ever, is an enemies-to-lovers class difference romance between Connor Pendarvis, a man who goes undercover in copper and tin mines to expose shoddy working conditions, and Sophie Deene, the young and beautiful…

21-Year-Old Male Shot at Drive-Through Akron police and EMS were dispatched to the scene at about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday. They found the victim, an employee at the store, with an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at 11:38 p.m. The shooting occurred after a man approached the drive-thru window on foot seeking to buy black and mild cigars, A…

Akron Council Limits Public Input Akron City Council has implemented new rules, effective January 3, 2024, to restrict public comment during meetings. In an 8-5 vote, the council decided to move the meeting start time to 6:30 p.m. and shift the public comment period to the beginning. However, the most significant change is limiting public comment t…

Jury Duty Scam Beware of a jury duty scam circulating in Summit County, as authorities issue a warning about fraudulent calls threatening fines and arrest for alleged failure to appear. Scammers may demand payments in Bitcoin, falsely claiming that judges accept cryptocurrencies. Summit County government offices do not accept such payments. The sca…

This is our second episode in our trilogy on Patricia Gaffney’s Wyckerley series. Published in September 1995, To Have & to Hold is the story of Sebastian Verlaine, the new Viscount D’Aubrey and Rachel Wade, an outsider to Wyckerley. Rachel, until very recently, had been incarcerated for ten years for killing her abusive husband. Sebastian and Rach…

The Akron Police Department's internal investigation has determined that the eight officers involved in the shooting death of Jayland Walker did not violate police policies. “I found that the facts and circumstances of this tragic shooting show that the officers had an objectively reasonable belief that Mr. Walker was armed and by his conduct prese…

77 South Ramp at Interchange to Close For a Year A big change in the Akron freeway system starting Monday night. The Interstate 76 ramp to I-77 South at the Central Interchange will close for a year. That sharp-turn ramp is being replaced with a so-called “fly-over” ramp. That’ll be just like the recently-opened 76/77 East ramp to Route 8. Also Mon…

Experience a Close Encounter with the Goodyear Blimp at the Santa Claus Express Toy Drive in Mogadore The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. is teaming up with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve for the annual Santa Claus Express holiday toy drive on December 1-3 from 2-7 p.m. at the Wingfoot Lake blimp hangar in Mogadore. The free drive-through event encoura…

The first of the Wyckerley trilogy, To Love & To Cherish came out on January 1, 1995. To borrow the subtitle from Middlemarch, it’s a study in provincial life. Set in 1854 in the fictional village of Wyckerley is alive with Dickensian characters and glimpses of heroes yet to star in their own books. Patricia Gaffney has said the favorite among her …

Why Isn't Akron Pro-Peace? This is Nonsense Akron City Council's unanimous Oct. 16 vote adopting a resolution condemning the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants in Israel has led activists to pack into council chambers for weeks, demanding a resolution addressing the devastating effect Israel's retaliation has had on civilians in Gaza. During t…

Your Water Bill is Going up in 2024 The city of Akron has announced a restructuring of its water rates in 2024, increasing from $2.73 to $3.06 per HCF (hundred cubic feet). Residential customers will also incur a fixed infrastructure charge of $9, leading to an overall monthly utility bill increase of $10-$12 for most Akron residents. The changes a…

Wild Lights At the Zoo Return Wild Lights, the annual holiday event at Akron Zoo, will return for the 2023 holiday season from Nov. 24 to Dec. 29. The event features a lighting display with over one million lights, including the "Rockin' Lighted Spectacular" animated wall set to holiday music. Dates for the event are Nov. 24-26, Dec. 1-3, Dec. 8-10…

If you were to ask someone in the 20th century what a romance novelist looked like, they’d likely have visions of pink chiffon, bright blue eyeshadow, false eyelashes, and excessive costume jewelry thanks to one woman: Barbara Cartland, who was dubbed by the Romantic Times as the “Queen of Romance.” Cartland was larger than life, but like most outs…

Cedar Point and Six Flags Merge Cedar Fair, the parent company of Cedar Point and Kings Island, is merging with Six Flags Entertainment, the world's largest regional theme park operator. The goal is to create a stronger operating model and enhance revenue and cash flow. The combined company will have a diverse portfolio of assets and intellectual p…

Snow is On the Way The National Weather Service is predicting a 60% chance of precipitation in the Akron area Tuesday night with a low of 28 degrees. With a cold front moving through the area, the precipitation will likely start as rain that turns into lake-effect snow later that night, the NSW said. Snow is expected to continue into Wednesday as w…

Ever Wonder How Athletes Get Paid So Much? Bookie.com has once again donned its financial detective hat to unveil the annual sticker shock of attending an NBA game with the whole family. They've scrutinized everything, from the wallet-slimming ticket prices to parking and even the cost of two sodas, two beers, and four hot dogs. Brace yourselves—on…

Akron Is A Tech Hub Akron has been designated a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub by the U.S. Department of Commerce, making it eligible for up to $70 million in federal funding. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown announced the selection from 31 hubs chosen out of nearly 400 applicants. Akron's hub will leverage its historical leadership in the rubber in…

What is an 'unforgivable act'? This week, the rakes explore one heroine's egregious behavior, and the lengths she'll go to to make things right. Peckham's The Earl I Ruined is a Georgian historical romance that's full of surprises: kisses in a wig closet, devastating reveals, and the fresh scent of a pining hero. Join us, sinners! It's bound to be …

Akron leaf pickup schedule Leaf pickup will begin in each ward on these days. This schedule can change due to inclement weather. Ward 5 - Oct. 30 Ward 3 - Nov. 1 Ward 6 - Nov. 3 Ward 10 - Nov. 7 Ward 4 - Nov. 10 Ward 8 - Nov. 16 Ward 2 - Nov. 16 Ward 1 - Nov. 25 Ward 7 - Dec. 2 Ward 9 - Dec. 6 The city suggests residents rake leaves into the street…

Indigo by Beverly Jenkins follows Hester Wyatt, a conductor on the Michigan Underground Railroad. Hester’s hands are marked by indigo, a remnant from her days as an enslaved person on an indigo plantation. When she hides the notorious Black Daniel as he recovers from injuries, he challenges her. Hester finds the man aggravating and attractive in eq…

In Mistress of Mellyn, widower Connan TreMellyn hires Martha Leigh on as the governess to his eight-year-old daughter Alvean. Like many a governess before her, Martha finds mystery and murder at the Mount Mellyn estate. As she comes to know Connan she develops feelings for him but as the governess occupies the space where she’s not a servant but sh…

Gaywyck was published by Avon in 1980. Set on the Long Island estate of the wealthy Gaylord family in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Gaywyck charts an inter-generational terror born of abuse, madness, and unrequited love. We follow the protagonist Robbie as he arrives at the estate as the librarian. Like most gothic romances of …

The Rakes read the second book in the Lotus Palace series, The Jade Temptress by Jeannie Lin. Set during the Tang Dynasty in China in Chang’an, the capital, the series touches back to the Lotus Palace, a school and home for courtesans. Mingyu is one of the most sought-after courtesans, and she crosses paths with the constable Wu Kaifeng after her p…