Books that meet high moral standards and contain limited foul language, sexual content, and descriptions of violence.
- Before using this list, please read my disclaimer.
- Every book on this list meets “My Clean Reading Criteria” and is one that I finished, liked, and felt was worth my time to read. To learn more about the purpose of this list please see “About Novaun Novels.”
- For information on how I classify religious fiction, please see “Is Fiction Marketed to Latter-day Saints ‘Christian Fiction’?” For how I evaluate religious content in the books I read, please see “What About Doctrinal Differences?“
- All descriptions in quotation marks come from the book jackets or other descriptions from the publishers. Follow the author links to the corresponding Project Gutenberg pages. Follow the title links to the page, post, or Goodreads review that contains my commentary on the book.
Austin, Lynn
A Proper Pursuit (Christian historical, Evangelical)
“[Violet Hayes] schemed her way to Chicago to discover the mother she barely remembered. As for romance…well, with the help of her grandmother and three great aunts, that is coming along nicely as well—perhaps too well. Each of her relatives— including her saintly grandmother—seems to have a separate agenda for her.”
Card, Orson Scott
Stone Tables (Biblical fiction)
Creative retelling of the story of Moses.
Shadows on the Rock (American classic)
“At the end of the seventeenth century, on that grey rock in the Canadian wilderness known as Quebec, a French family, the Auclairs, begin a life very different from the one they knew in Paris. On her mother’s death ten-year-old Cecile is entrusted with the care of the household and of her father, Euclid, the town’s apothecary.”
Chaikin, Linda
The Royal Pavilions series (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
While working to prove himself innocent of a murder he didn’t commit, knight Tancred Redwan becomes involved with Byzantine noblewoman Helena Lysander and the Crusades.
- Swords and Scimitars
- Golden Palaces
- Behind the Veil
Costain, Thomas B.
The Black Rose (historical fiction)
Walter of Gurnie, the illegitimate son of a Saxon nobleman, leaves England to seek his fortune in Cathay and soon meets the young Greek woman Maryam, also known as “The Black Rose.”
The Moneyman (historical fiction)
When Jacques Coeur, moneyman to King Charles the Seventh of France, selects Valerie Maret to be the king’s new mistress, he sets in motion a chain of events that will end with his being accused of murder, with Valerie as his accomplice.
The Silver Chalice (Biblical fiction)
“Basil of Antioch, a young and skilled artisan, [is] purchased from slavery to create a decorative casing for the [Holy Grail]. Basil pursues his project, diverted only by the charms of two beautiful women, one good and one evil.”
A Tale of Two Cities (English classic)
“After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the ageing Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.”
Dorr, Roberta Kells
The Queen of Sheba (Biblical fiction)
“[The queen of Sheba] journeys to Israel—hoping not only to divert a needless and costly war but to meet the legendary Hebrew King. . . . She finds a compelling faith and powerful love that she can match, passion for passion, without losing her queenly freedom.”
Douglas, Lloyd C.
The Robe (Biblical fiction)
“The story of the soldier who tossed for Christ’s robe and won.”
Eliot, George (pen name of Mary Ann Evans)
Romola (English classic)
“Romola is set in Renaissance Florence during the turbulent years following the expulsion of the powerful Medici family when the zealous religious reformer Savonarola rose to control the city. At its heart is Romola, the devoted daughter of a blind scholar, married to the clever but ultimately treacherous Tito. Her husband’s duplicity in both love and politics threatens to destroy everything she values, forcing her to break away and find her own path in life.”
Green, Jocelyn
Between Two Shores (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
“The daughter of a Mohawk mother and French father in 1759 Montreal, Catherine Duval finds it is easier to remain neutral in a world that is tearing itself apart. Content to trade with both the French and the British, Catherine is pulled into the fray against her wishes when her British ex-fiance, Samuel Crane, is taken prisoner by her father. Samuel asks her to help him escape, claiming he has information that could help end the war.”
The Mark of the King (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
“After the death of her client, midwife Julianne Chevalier is imprisoned and branded, marking her as a criminal beyond redemption. Hoping to reunite with her brother, a soldier, she trades her life sentence for exile to the fledgling French colony of Louisiana. The price of her transport, however, is a forced marriage to a fellow convict.”
A Refuge Assured (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
“Vivienne Rivard fled revolutionary France and seeks a new life for herself and a boy in her care, who some say is the Dauphin. But America is far from safe, as militiaman Liam Delaney knows. He proudly served in the American Revolution but is less sure of his role in the Whiskey Rebellion. Drawn together, will Liam and Vivienne find the peace they long for?”
Hoff, B.J.
Song of the Silent Harp (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
“Nora Kavanagh, left a widow by the Irish Potato Famine, turns for help to rebel Morgan Fitzgerald, who arranges for her and her son to make a dangerous voyage to New York.”
Les Misérables (French classic)
“Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigation of the dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.”
Note: I read the English translation by Norman Denny.
Lund, Gerald N.
The Work and the Glory series (Christian historical fiction, Latter-day Saint)
“PILLAR OF LIGHT begins the saga of the Benjamin Steed family, who, in the fall of 1826, move from Vermont to Palmyra Township in upstate New York in search of better farmland. Almost immediately they meet a young man named Joseph Smith and are thrown into the maelstrom of controversy that swirls around him.”
- Pillar of Light
- Like a Fire is Burning
- Truth Will Prevail
- Thy Gold to Refine
- A Season of Joy
- Praise to the Man
Maxwell, Neal A.
The Enoch Letters, previously published as Of One Heart (Christian philosophical fiction, Latter-day Saint)
“Elder Neal A. Maxwell tells the story of Enoch’s ministry and the glory of his Christ-centered society through the eyes of a man called Mahijah, who urges his friend Omner to move to Zion before it’s too late. Mahijah’s imaginary letters provide a vivid portrayal of life in the city of Enoch, whose inhabitants the Lord called Zion, ‘because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness’ (Moses 7:18).”
McNear, Shannon
Elinor (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
“In 1587, Elinor White Dare sailed from England heavy with her first child but full of hopes. Her father, a renowned artist and experienced traveler, has convinced her and her bricklayer husband Ananias to make the journey to the New World. . . . But nothing goes as planned from landing at the wrong location, to facing starvation, to the endless wait for help to arrive. . . .
“The colony at Roanoke disappeared into the shadows of history. But, what if one survived to leave a lasting legacy?”
Pella, Judith and Michael Phillips
The Russians series (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
This series explores the lives of peasants and princes in the turbulent decades prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917.
- The Crown and the Crucible
- A House Divided
- Travail and Triumph
Pella, Judith
Mark of the Cross (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
“Against a riveting backdrop of court intrigues and knights at war, a bitter conflict rages between two brothers . . . and a noblewoman holds the key to their future.”
The Russians series (Christian historical fiction, Evangelical)
- Heirs of the Motherland
- Dawning of Deliverance
- White Nights, Red Morning
- Passage Into Light
Sutcliff, Rosemary
Lady in Waiting (historical fiction)
“Shy and retiring, [Bess Throckmorton’s] dream was to capture the heart of the proud and restless [Walter] Ralegh, in whose life it seemed she would always come second.”
War and Peace (Russian classic)
“War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.”
Note: I read the English translation by Ann Dunnigan.
Ben-Hur (Biblical fiction)
“In first century Judaea, Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur is betrayed by his childhood friend Messala and sentenced to life as a Roman slave. When, during a pirate attack in the Aegean, Ben-Hur saves the life of a galley commander, his fortunes improve and he returns to Galilee a free man. There, his quest for vengeance turns into insurrection, but his life is transformed when he witnesses Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist.”
Young, Margaret Blair and Darius Aidan Gray
One More River to Cross (Christian historical fiction, Latter-day Saint) “Powerful new historical fiction series, in the style of The Work & The Glory, that tells the stories of early African-American members of the Church.”
Note: I read the edition published by Deseret Book in 2000.
The Ladies’ Paradise (French classic)
“Emile Zola documents how the first department stores in nineteenth-century Paris made shopping into a religion, while he simultaneously woos readers with his gripping love story between the enterprising store owner Octave Mouret and the rags-to-riches heroine Denise Baudu.”
Note: I read the English translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly.
The featured image “Mangrove Trees” is Copyright © 2022 by Katherine Padilla. All rights reserved.
