Random trend?

So, now in 2 books I was reading at the same time I've come across the plot device of old-timey English woman is being blackmailed over, or worried about being blackmailed over, her youthful indiscretions and the resulting nude "postcards" getting out after she's married a socially prominent man. Really? Was this that common? Or just tired?

Anyhow, in the one I finished over the weekend, Lady Emily sets things right in the end in A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander. I think I am over this series. I checked it out of the library knowing it would just be light fluff, but also knowing this was a weekend where I was going to be in serious need of some light fluff. But...meh. I was just bored a lot, and the writing isn't anything to write home about, so to speak, and the characters are flat and the plot developments predictable. The dashing husband isn't even that exciting. I think it didn't help that I read this shortly after the Sebastian St. Cyr books, and those are actually much better, I think, although still not exactly great literature. They're similar, though, in featuring ahead-of-their-time women who are intellectually curious and strong-willed, but the whole "yes I wear a corset but I am an independent woman hear me roar!" thing can be so overdone so easily. It just felt old here. Wealthy woman who defies expectations of her society alongside a dashing, slightly dangerous man. Smoldering glances and carriages. YAWN.