You do? Really? I'm so glad, because I fell headlong into this (to me) obscure genre late last year and would love to pass along some of the discoveries I've made thus far. I'm no expert yet, having copiously avoided any series set in Alaska or among the Amish. But I have devoured enough historical inspirational romance to know that you haven't experienced true mortification until you've wept while reading a Christian bodice-ripper on public transportation. Here's a starter kit of my Top 5.
by Francine Rivers
Francine Rivers invented the genre, and nobody does it better. Her first novel, Redeeming Love, tells the story of Angel, a California Gold Country prostitute, and Michael Hosea, a hunky, Jesus-loving farmer who is called to love her. Rivers shocked me, thrilled me, inspired me, and made me cry on this wild ride of a life redeemed! Yee-haw! This one is currently my favorite book ever. I also love Rivers' fantastic Mark of the Lion Series (early Christians in Rome! Yes, there are lions) and A Lineage of Grace.
by Lynn Austin
A mysterious hobo wanders onto a struggling widow's farm during the Great Depression and opens up questions that have been buried for years. A surprising and wonderful story filled with complex and lovable characters.
by Deeanne Gist
This novel was my gateway drug to Deeanne Gist, who writes by far the raciest novels of the genre. Lady Constance Morrow is an English noblewoman who has somehow ended up on a colonial auction block at the mercy of rakish farmer Drew O'Connor. He "buys" her as his wife (a bizarrely recurrent theme in Gist's novels) and all sorts of frolicsome trouble ensues.
by Sharon Ewell Foster
Alena is a sheltered black girl living in Mississippi in the aftermath of the first World War. When her friend returns from the war only to be brutally lynched, Alena’s parents pack her off to Chicago on a relative’s assurance that conditions there are better for black folks. Alena arrives in Chicago determined to become as jaded and hardened as Pearl, a slick Pullman porter fixed on corrupting Alena. Her loving aunt Patrice and the foxy, fearless Major James join the fight for Alena’s soul against the backdrop of the South Side riots of 1919.
The tale of Jacob, Rachel and Leah stretched into 1500 tear-and-tea-soaked pages set in 18th century Scotland. The fact that you know the outcome from the beginning does not take anything away from how wrenchingly compelling this story is.
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