I subscribe to a daily listing of free and reduced price Kindle books, most of which are self published. The website allows the subscriber to select the genres of interest. One that interests me is historical fiction.

I may cancel that genre of my subscription though, because I have discovered in the weeks that I have been downloading free books and attempting to read them that many, if not most, "historical fiction" novels are just shills for romantic fantasy.

You know, rippling muscles and heaving bosoms. That sort of thing. I can't delete them from my Kindle fast enough. The history part is summed up in the first sentence; there are fleeting references to clothing of the period (before said clothing is ripped off); and the reader is suffocated in a morass of quickened breaths, flashing green eyes (always green), and touching hands.

If I wanted to read romantic novels, I'd select them. It is misrepresentation to say these saccharine "historical" novels have anything to do with history. I prefer books with some gravitas, some substance, to them, something to engage my intelligence as well as my emotions.

OK, down off my soapbox and forward to the rest of the day.