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.
Busse, Morgan L.
The Ravenwood Saga (Christian fantasy, Evangelical)
“Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate. As she discovers her family’s dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy—a legacy that supports her people—or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift.”
2. Flight of the Raven
3. Cry of the Raven
Lackey, Mercedes
The River’s Gift (short fantasy)
“Fifteen-year-old Ariella, lady-to-be of medieval Swan Manor, possesses magical healing abilities that she practices on the animals in the forest adjacent to her father’s lands. One day a magnificent black horse emerges from the nearby river in need of her ministry. The horse is Merod, and he is a more-than-mortal Kelpie, a magical being who converses telepathically with Ariella. Distrustful at first, he warms to Ariella gradually, which is vital to her when, after her father’s sudden death, she is taken away by a brutish cousin to be his bride.”
Lilith (Christian classic, fantasy)
A mysterious raven leads Mr. Vane into a parallel universe where he encounters love, horror, and redemption.
Phantastes (Christian classic, fantasy)
“First published in London in 1858, this adult fantasy novel follows Anodos, a man who searches for his ideal of female beauty in a dream-like world. Anodos has many adventures and faces many temptations in this fairyland, from tree spirit confrontations to a long trek to the palace of the fairy queen, where he eventually meets the Marble Lady. MacDonald would later astonish and influence writers such as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and W. H. Auden, who saw in this work the successful embodiment of the depth and meaning of our inner, spiritual world. The poignancy of ‘Phantastes’ lies in its representation of a spiritual quest, one in which ideals are compromised, and the ultimate surrender of the self brings both overflowing joy and profound sadness.”
McCaffrey, Anne
An Exchange of Gifts (short fantasy)
“A runaway princess and a poor young boy try to make a new life for themselves without revealing their pasts or the magical powers they possess.”
McKillip, Patricia A.
The Book of Atrix Wolfe (fantasy)
Prince Talis, a young mage, finds a book of spells written by a great mage and reawakens the shadowy, savage Hunter that, twenty years previously, destroyed his father and the army of his country.
Ombria in Shadow (fantasy)
“Ombria is a place heaped with history—and secrets. There is a buried city beneath it inhabited by ghosts, accessible only through magical passages and long-forgotten doorways. When the Prince of Ombria dies suddenly, his wicked great-aunt Domina Pearl seizes power by becoming regent to the prince’s young son, Kyel. Minutes after the prince’s death, Domina kicks Lydea, the prince’s longtime mistress, out into the streets to die. But she is saved by a strange girl named Mag, a supposed waxling created by a powerful sorceress who lives underneath the city.”
Winter Rose (fantasy)
“Roaming wild and barefoot in the woods that border Lynn Hall, Rois Melior meets Corbet Lynn, who has returned to rebuild the estate of his murdered grandfather, and Rois becomes obsessed with Corbet’s secret past and the curse that haunts him.”
Mirror of Destiny (fantasy)
“Betrayed by her fiance, Twilla flees into the mysterious forest with Ylon, and together they are transported to a fairie realm where Twilla helps fairies, dwarves, and humans forge an alliance.”
The Scent of Magic (fantasy)
“An orphaned child and captive scullery maid, young Willadene possesses an uncanny ability to sense and understand the magical odors that pervade her world. It is this remarkable talent–or curse–that carries her far from the fetid kitchen into an apprenticeship with a revered herbalist and ultimately to the highest circles of the Ducal court. But there is depravity lurking within the castle’s walls, inspiring brazen treacheries and usurpations–and foul abduction as unthinkable as it is unexpected.”
Norton, Andre and Lyn McConchie
The Key of the Keplian (fantasy)
“All of Witch World knows to fear the hated, fire-eyed Keplian horses who lure riders to their deaths. All that is, save for one young Native American girl new to Witch World, who rescues a Keplian mare and her foal and discovers an awesome truth—the Keplians were created to serve light, not darkness, and to ride with humans.”
Sanderson, Brandon
Elantris (fantasy)
“Princess Sarene of Teod arrives for a marriage of state with Crown Prince Raoden, hoping . . . to also find love. She finds instead that Raoden has died and she is considered his widow. . . . Sarene decides to use her new status to counter the machinations of Hrathen, a Fjordell high priest who has come to Kae to convert Arelon and claim it for his emperor and his god. But neither Sarene nor Hrathen suspect the truth about Prince Raoden. Stricken by the same curse that ruined Elantris, Raoden was secretly exiled by his father to the dark city.”
Tolkien, J. R. R.
The Lord of the Rings (fantasy)
“In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.”
The Silmarillion (fantasy)
“Designed to take fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings deeper into the myths and legends of Middle-Earth, The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. . . . The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.”
Wheeler, Jeff
The Grave Kingdom Series
- The Killing Fog (fantasy)
“Survivor of a combat school, the orphaned Bingmei belongs to a band of mercenaries employed by a local ruler. Now the nobleman, and collector of rare artifacts, has entrusted Bingmei and the skilled team with a treacherous assignment: brave the wilderness’s dangers to retrieve the treasures of a lost palace buried in a glacier valley. But upsetting its tombs has a price.”
- The Grave Kingdom
- The Immortal Words
The Harbinger Series (fantasy)
- Storm Glass
“The privileged live in sky manors held aloft by a secretive magic known only as the Mysteries. Below, the earthbound poor are forced into factory work to maintain the engine of commerce. Only the wealthy can afford to learn the Mysteries, and they use their knowledge to further lock their hold on society. . . . As Cettie dreams of living above and as Sera is drawn to the world below, they will follow the paths of their own choosing. But both girls will be needed for the coming storm that threatens to overturn both their worlds.”
- Mirror Gate
- Iron Garland
- Prism Cloud
- Broken Veil
The Kingfountain Series (fantasy)
Prequel: The Poisoner’s Enemy
- The Queen’s Poisoner
“King Severn Argentine’s fearsome reputation precedes him: usurper of the throne, killer of rightful heirs, ruthless punisher of traitors. Attempting to depose him, the Duke of Kiskaddon gambles…and loses. Now the duke must atone by handing over his young son, Owen, as the king’s hostage. And should his loyalty falter again, the boy will pay with his life. . . . Owen must win the vengeful king’s favor by proving his worth—through extraordinary means. And only one person can aid his desperate cause: a mysterious woman, dwelling in secrecy, who truly wields power over life, death, and destiny.
- The Thief’s Daughter
- The King’s Traitor
- The Hollow Crown
- The Silent Shield
- The Forsaken Throne
Williams, Thomas
The Crown of Eden (Christian fantasy, Evangelical)
“When a simple blacksmith unearths the lost crown of Eden, he is torn between his love for a beautiful maiden, who is promised to marry a tyrannical prince, and his duty to honor a 100-year-old prophecy. To deliver the crown is to lose her. To hide it will forever doom the already decimated empire of the Seven Kingdoms. He must choose, but how?”
The Devil’s Mouth (Christian fantasy, Evangelical)
“When political conspirators murder his father, Prince Lanson of Lochlaund flees for his life. He falls in love with a beautiful tavern maid who is hiding from the moral condemnation of the powerful Lochlaund church, which has a stranglehold on the kingdom. Ultimately Lanson must decide whether to release her to the church’s legalistic justice or defy the church and save her life by wedding her.”
Wrede, Patricia C.
Lyra series:
1. Shadow Magic
“Alethia of Alkyra was too practical a princess to believe in Shee and Wyrds and Shadow-born—until they reached out and changed her life.”
2. Daughter of Witches
“Magic is death in Drinn. And the three strangers who come to Ranira’s inn are definitely magic. So why does she link her destiny to theirs?”
3. The Harp of Imach Thyssel
“Music to make the Shee weep and power to bring a dying man to life again—that’s the magic of the Harp. But the cost may be higher than Emereck the minstrel is willing to pay.”
5. The Raven Ring
Eleret must return to her mountain home with her mother’s mysterious Raven Ring, despite the evil forces that seek to steal the Ring.
The featured image “Whirling Reflection” is Copyright © 2022 by Katherine Padilla. All rights reserved.
