Christian fiction set in a college/university

I thought some of you might be in the mood for some collegiate reads as we move into the back-to-school season. We've got students and professors here so hopefully you'll find something just right for you!

The Baxters series... Many of these family drama books take place in a college setting as Luke Baxter starts out as a student and we later follow family friends Bailey Flanigan and Andi Ellis into their dorm and classes.

The Bridge... This Christmas romance takes place primarily in a bookstore but there is plenty of college talk since that's where our protagonists meet. This one has also been made into a Christmas movie I hope to watch this year.

Dear Mr Knightley... This epistolary novel is a modern-day retelling of My Daddy Longlegs. A journalism major gets a scholarship which requires frequent letters to her anonymous benefactor to update her progress... so much fun!

I'll Be Seeing You...  This family drama timeslip is kicked off by a college student interviewing her grandmother as a class project.

Lost Loves series... This is a romance duology centered around a college student finding her biological parents. We explore her parents ' teenage relationship in the first and her own young relationship in the second. These stories include some intense military scenes (plus very conservative military views) that may not work for everyone. I'm a sensitive reader and I made it through but I did feel very upset at times.

The Lost Manuscript... This second chance romance is such a cozy read! I'd like to sum it up in sentence fragments- Missing historian grandma. Professor spouses divorcing but still in love. English castle. Tea. Riddles and clues. *I do want you to know that our female protagonist suffered an off-page miscarriage before the story began and it comes up many times.

Once Upon a Wardrobe... This historical fiction focuses on the student of Professor CS Lewis and her dying little brother's obsession with Narnia. This one was also very cozy in feel.

Someday Home... Ah, something different- in this one our college student is in her 50s and starting a new chapter in her life.

When Twilight Breaks... This WWII story follows Peter, a linguistics grad student in Germany, and a female American correspondent. 

Christian Fiction by Year

I've wanted to start this list for a while now! As I've gotten more and more excited about historical fiction I have wanted to keep a little timeline I can refer back to for understanding the world during certain time periods, revisiting as I'm learning something new, and just for fun. 

Here's what I've got so far! I'll try to keep it updated as I go. 

You might also like my list of Christian fiction by location! 

1352- The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson 

1386- The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson 

1604- Fawkes by Nadine Brandes

1780- The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck 

1781- The Love Letter 

1790- The Love Letter

1805- Set the Stars Alight

1807- All the Lost Places 

1811- Set the Stars Alight

1818- The Barrister and the Letter of Marque

1820- Shadows of Swanford Abbey by Julie Klassen 

1830- The Midwife's Tale

1850- 12 Days at Bleakly Manor by Michelle Griep

1853- A Tale of Two Hearts by Michelle Griep 

1855- The Old Lace Shop 

1861- A Hundred Crickets Singing

1863- Christmas at Carnton by Tamera Alexander // A Hundred Crickets Singing

1864- A Hundred Crickets Singing

1865- All Things New // A Hundred Crickets Singing 

1873- A Hundred Crickets Singing

1880- A Life Once Dreamed by Rachel Fordham // Where the Road Bends 

1882- Where the Road Bends 

1890- Under the Texas Mistletoe 

1891- Laura's Shadow

1893- An Archer Family Christmas (from Under the Texas Mistletoe) // The White City

1895- A Texas Christmas Carol (from Under the Texas Mistletoe) 

1897- The Tapestry of Grace 

1904- All the Lost Places 

1905- The Ringmaster's Wife

1909- No Ocean Too Wide // The Promise of Dawn by Lauraine Snelling

1911- The Moonlight School by Suzanne Woods Fisher 

1912- The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck 

1925- When the Meadow Blooms 

1926- A Promise Kept // The Ringmaster's Wife 

1927- A Promise Kept // The Ringmaster's Wife

1928- The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus by Jaime Jo Wright // A Promise Kept // The Ringmaster's Wife

1929- A Promise Kept // The Ringmaster's Wife 

1930- A Promise Kept 

1931- A Promise Kept

1932- Fireflies in December // A Promise Kept

1933- A Promise Kept 

1934- The Right Kind of Fool 

1936- Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee (also dives into years surrounding the Civil War) 

1937- The Christmas Pony // Remember Me by Mario Escobar  (major trigger warnings) 

1938- Hidden Among the Stars by Melanie Dobson // Long Way Home // When Twilight Breaks by Sarah Sundin 

1939- The Italian Ballerina // Long Way Home // The Witnesses

1940- Catching the Wind // The Italian Ballerina // Long Way Home // Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin 

1941- Catching the Wind // I'll Be Seeing You by Robin Lee Hatcher // The Italian Ballerina // Long Way Home  // What I Would Tell You  

1942- Catching the Wind // The Italian Ballerina // Long Way Home

1943- Catching the Wind // The Italian Ballerina // Long Way Home // The Winter Rose by Melanie Dobson // The Witnesses 

1944- The Christmas Blessing // A Hundred Crickets Singing // The Italian Ballerina // A Picture of Hope // The Witnesses 

1945- A Hundred Crickets Singing // The Italian Ballerina // The Lines Between Us // Long Way Home 

1946- Long Way Home

1947- A Hundred Crickets Singing // The Key to Everything by Valerie Fraser Luesse 

1948- A Hundred Crickets Singing

1950- Once Upon a Wardrobe 

1953- Catching the Wind 

1954- Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1955- Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1956- Catching the Wind

1959- Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1961- The Berlin Letters // Catching the Wind 

1962- Missing Isaac

1963- Missing Isaac // Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor // Stories That Bind Us by Susie Finkbeiner 

1964- The Berlin Letters // Missing Isaac 

1965- Missing Isaac 

1966- Missing Isaac 

1967- Missing Isaac

1968- Missing Isaac // Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1969- Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1970- Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1971- The Berlin Letters // The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara 

1972- The Promise of Jesse Woods 

1974- The Choice // Laura's Shadow // Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1975- The Choice 

1976- I Really Do Miss Your Smile 

1977- The Christmas Spirit // I Really Do Miss Your Smile

1978- The Berlin Letters // I Really Do Miss Your Smile 

1979- I Really Do Miss Your Smile 

1980- I Really Do Miss Your Smile 

1981- I Really Do Miss Your Smile 

1982- The Berlin Letters // I Really Do Miss Your Smile 

1984- The Promise of Jesse Woods 

1985- The Light on Halsey Street 

1987- The Berlin Letters // I Really Do Miss Your Smile // What Happens Next 

1988- Even Now by Karen Kingsbury 

1989- The Berlin Letters 

1990- The Berlin Letters

1992- Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor 

1994- The Edge of Belonging by Amanda Cox 

1998- Forgiving Paris 

2000- The Light on Halsey Street

2001- The Baxter Family books by Karen Kingsbury (some of the Redemption series books) 

2003- Plot Twist // The Winter Rose by Melanie Dobson // The Witnesses

2004- Plot Twist 

2005- Plot Twist

2006- Even Now by Karen Kingsbury // Plot Twist 

2007- Plot Twist 

2008- The Choice // Plot Twist 

2009- Plot Twist 

2010- Plot Twist 

2011- The Light on Halsey Street // Plot Twist 

2012- Plot Twist 

2013- Plot Twist

2016- The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara  

2017- Catching the Wind // Unveiling the Past 

2019- The Way it Should Be // What I Would Tell You 

2020- Set the Stars Alight

7 Christian fiction novels with strong grief elements

The Baxter Family books (contemporary)... This is a series about a family and it's filled with all the real elements of life. Love, birth, death, joy, sorrow, pain, triumph. It's my favorite series right now and I always warn that it's full of edgy stuff (substance abuse, adultery, and more) but always with a faith element tied in. 

The Dead Don't Dance (contemporary)... This is a beautiful but emotional novel about a man whose wife slips into a coma after a tragic loss during childbirth. It's full of grief and reminiscence, but also beauty and grace. It'll be depressing if you don't naturally see more than one side of things but it'll deeply move you if you do.  

Life After (contemporary) ... Our main heroine is wracked with survivor's guilt after she's the only person who walks away from a train bombing. She's dealing with a kind of impersonal grief for those she never knew, and she's also working on a memorial project with a grieving family who lost their wife/mother in the bombing. 

The Lines Between Us (historical fiction)... This WWII story is about the mysterious death of a smoke jumper in Oregon and the secret investigation of it all by his sister and best friend. The grief in this one is not as raw as some of the others on this list but there are glimpses of it through the mystery.  

Rock Harbor series (suspense)... This series is about a search & rescue woman and her dog. The first book is full of her grief as she grapples with the loss of her husband and son after their plane goes missing. 

Stories That Bind Us (historical fiction)... This book surprised me in some ways. This is the story of a very recently widowed woman whose estranged sister shows up with a five-year-old son. The two form a beautiful bond through story and the focus of the story is on that relationship far more than her grief. This book almost doesn't belong on this list as a result but there is still an underlying grief so I added it. 

Whose Waves These Are (historical fiction, timeslip)... This timeslip takes place partially at the end of WWII, when a young man starts a project to deal with his grief over the recent loss of his soldier brother. This is a favorite of mine and I was not even a little surprised when it won a Christy award. 

Christian fiction featuring 20-something main characters

Black... This sci-fi read is a great recommendation for men but female fans of sci-fi or dystopian fiction will enjoy it too. 

The Edge of Belonging... Homelessness, adoption, and family secrets! This one has a sweet, gentle feel to it. 

In Search of a Prince... A 25-year-old New Yorker learns that not only is she actually the princess of an African island, she's also required to find a husband, stat! 

Love and a Little White Lie... This is the story of a young woman who starts working at her aunt's church and falls for a worship leader... But there's one little problem: he doesn't know that she's an atheist. 

Moonlight School... This atmospheric historical fiction takes us to Appalachia where a program has just started for illiterate adults interested in learning to read & write.  

A Promise Engraved*... This Alamo timeslip has a great family history storyline centering around a mysterious ring. Fans of historical fiction and family ties will enjoy this gem by Liz Tolsma. 

Redemption... The first book in Karen Kingsbury's Baxter Family series is focused on an affair so took me a while to actually read. It's definitely not my favorite in the series but it was still engaging and worth it to get to the rest of them! 

Sunrise... An Alaskan pilot, the girl he left behind, and some pretty decent family drama + suspense! This was a fun one! 

Until Leaves Fall in Paris... This WWII fiction is about a ballerina running a bookstore in Paris, a collaborator automaker, and the lines between them. 

When Twilight Breaks... Another WWII novel (I love them!), an American journalist, a professor, and things heating up in Nazi Germany. 

* I received a free copy of A Promise Engaged in exchange for an honest review. 

Christian fiction filled with cute children

I love children and I love seeing them make an appearance in the books I read. Sometimes their appearances help me see the world through their eyes and show my own children compassion for their child-sized struggles while other times they just delight me. If you like to see children in your fiction too, here's a list of kid-filled Christian fiction picks I've read. 

At Home in Mitford... Father Tim spends a lot of time fostering a boy in this book. I didn't really love this story the way so many others do but I did think this relationship was cute. 

Beneath the Seams... Our main protagonist here has a mommy-and-me fashion line so we see a lot of sweet moments between her and her daughter. We've got travel, fashion, ethics, and a life-changing new understanding of a pretty underrated issue. Love this one! 

The Haunting of Bonaventure Circus... This one is for my suspense fans. This gothic timeslip shows us the 1920s circus life of Pippa and the modern-day single mom attempting to balance motherhood with a job renovating the old circus depot... And a whole lot of mystery and intrigue in between. 

Karen Kingsbury's Baxter Family series... I love this series! I've linked book 1, which I don't think talks as much about the children, but we soon see a whole lot of the kids in the Baxter Family. My current favorite series. 

Life After... A young girl's mother was killed in a train bombing and now she is teaming up with the only survivor for a big project. The PTSD in this one felt very accurate. 

Over the Edge... Our heroine has been infected with Lyme disease as payback to her husband since he doesn't believe in its ability to cause chronic illness. He doesn't believe her, either and she's trying to balance motherhood with this mystery even while her body is betraying her. So good! 

Remember Me... I was so excited to learn about the Spanish civil war but my goodness! War atrocities, sexual child abuse, and suicide are all depicted in this novel. I felt no hope walking away from it! Still, the siblings' strong relationship was a beautiful thing to see. 

Rock Harbor series... This series is about a search-and-rescue worker and her dog but a child is also very heavily featured throughout each book. I think this is the first adult series I truly enjoyed and saw all the way through. 

Stories That Bind Us... This 1960s story is about a newly widowed 40-year-old and the relationship she begins to strike up with the young nephew she never even knew existed. This one is very sweet. 

Until Leaves Fall in Paris*... This WWII story has so many things I love in a book! We have a ballerina, a bookstore, secret resistance missions, and a big meaty moment of intensity! Plus the cutest little girl, Josie, who is a creative little storyteller herself. This was a good one! 

*I received a free copy of Until Leaves Fall in Paris from Netgalley. Opinions are my own. 

Adult Christian Fiction with Teenage Main Characters

I have been a bookworm my whole life but I have not always read Christian books. I didn't really enjoy YA (young adult) novels as a teen so I read maybe ten of them during my teenage years, otherwise adult books.

I wish I hadn't read most of what I read back then but alas, I did. If I could go back, if love to recommend these adult novels to my teenage self! These are all clean Christian fiction novels featuring teenage main characters. 

The Alliance... I've talked about this Amish apocalyptic story, set immediately after an EMP, a few times. This one is edgier than most Christian fiction as there is violence (people in the outside world want to take out the Amish community or their resources) and non-graphic talk about a person who used to use and sell drugs. There's also non-graphic about people fearing someone may have been sexually assaulted. I found this story (and it's sequel, The Divide) quite compelling. This one is told from the perspective of a 19-year-old young woman in the Amish community (with lots of emphasis on her 15-year-old brother she's a guardian for) and the Englisher (non-Amish) young man who happens upon her community at the start of the EMP so it will be of interest to teen boys and girls alike. 

Dear Mr Knightley... My bet is that our main protagonist, Samantha, is about 19 years old, maybe 20. She's given a scholarship to a prestigious journalism program but the caveat is she must write progress letters to her anonymous benefactor, whom she calls Mr Knightley. She tells him everything and things get a little crazy! This is an epistolary novel, told all in letters, and it's a retelling of classic novel Daddy Long Legs. 

Even Now... This Karen Kingsbury novel is the exact kind of dramatic teen pregnancy cautionary tale I loved in middle school. In this one our heroine, who is around 17 or 18, has been raised by her grandparents. She discovers her mother's old journals, from she was a pregnant teen in the 80s, and uses the clues found there to search for her estranged parents. The sequel, Ever After, is about the daughter's relationship with her new boyfriend and something that will be a spoiler to the first one. I liked both.  

The Key to Everything... This one will also work well for teen boys. Set in the 1940s, out 15-year-old male protagonist sets off on a bike ride down the coast of Florida, both in remembrance of his recently deceased father who once took the same bike ride and in search of the girl he's fallen for. All the main characters in this one are very sweet and almost flawless. I like the sweet mother-son relationship. 

The Moonlight School... This one is set in 1911 Appalachia. Our primary protagonist is 20ish-year-old Lucy, sent to stay with her aunt Cora and help bring literacy to the hills of Appalachia. I also enjoyed the perspective of teenage Angie, who is sweet on a boy who's sweet on this young new teacher. Atmospheric and fun. 

The Nature of Small Birds... This book was really interesting, at least from a writer's perspective, because it's essentially a story about Mindy that's told in alternating timelines and from her family's perspectives... But we never actually hear from Mindy herself! The 1988 storyline is from Mindy's sister during their teenage years. Mindy was adopted from Saigon, Vietnam in the 1975 Babylift. As an adult she's going back to meet her birth mother and it brings lots of things to the surface.  

No Ocean Too Wide... This is a story about the McAllister children who are separated when their mother takes ill. This based-on-true-events book is set in the early 1900s and is about the children's attempt to reunite the family despite seemingly impossible circumstances. 

The Shunning... Katie is kind of a rebel Amish girl, always stretching a toe over the line and wishing for things she knows aren't suited for Amish women. She crosses the line and is subject to a shunning, but also unearths a family secret and goes to great lengths to track it down. I don't normally love Amish fiction or Beverly Lewis' writing style but I still liked this enough to finish the series! 

Whose Waves These Are... This timeslip, set in sleepy Maine, is one of my favorites. There's a contemporary anthropologist heroine unraveling the story of an old man's young adult past, which we get to see from his own perspective just after WWII. This is a novel about grief, unconventional families, forgiveness, courage... Love it so much! 

Also on my radar: Children of the Stars // The Choice // A Long Time Comin' // Set the Stars Alight // Stars of Alabama // Under the Magnolias // Under the Tulip Tree // When Stars Rain Down 

Christian Fiction for Animal Lovers

🐎 Along a Storied Trail*... Tansy Calhoun is a Kentucky packhorse librarian serving 1930s Appalachia. If the horse and librarian angles aren't enough to pique your interests then perhaps the love triangle element will! I haven't read a lot of booms set in Appalachia OR the great depression but still the setting feels quite believable in my humble opinion. 

🐘 The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus*... This suspenseful timeslip isn't as animal-heavy as some others on this list but there were still plenty of circus animal mentions! (And you all know how much I love circus animals!)

🐎 The Heart's Charge*... This book is technically second in a series but I don't think you miss anything by starting with book 2. "The Hanger's Horsemen" are unexpectedly tangled up with a baby, a former flame, and a case involving missing children. Also, this one's set in Texas! This is one for those of you who love a good mixture of romance and intrigue. 

🐎 The Moonlight School*... I just loved this one! Very loosely based on a true story, this is a tale about "moonlight schools" set up to teach literacy in Appalachia. There are a couple of very interesting sub plots and I was guessing I'd like this book but surprised myself by giving it a five-star review. Lucy rides her horse Jenny out into the holler to read and transcribe letters and I was romanticizing horseback riding the whole time! 

🐕‍ Rock Harbor series by Colleen Coble... This suspense series' heroine is a search and rescue ___ along with her German shepherd. Suspense isn't my main genre these days but it was for a while and I loved this series! 

🐎 Second Chances for Trampled Hearts... Y'all know romance is not my preferred genre but Shoshanna Gabriel is such a kind soul, I had to read one of her books! This is the first in a series set in fictional Bear Creek, Idaho. Our heroine is restoring an old restaurant and is thrown into country life in the process. Our male protagonist is a horse guy and you'll see plenty of horse action through him! 

🐕 That Dog Won't Hunt by Brandilyn Collins... This southern contemporary novel, about a family meeting the youngest son's fiance for the first time, heavily features a very expressive Yorkie named Lady Penelope. I really liked it, but trigger warning- this book does contain memories of an abusive childhood. 

*I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Homeschool History: Revolutionary War

We've been working through American history and I've decided to list our favorite resources for a specific time period ever so often. We'll start today with the Revolutionary War and the resources I've used for ages 5-7.

Adventures in American History... My mom got us this Adventures in Oddysey audio drama and it's a huge hit. They just want to plow through it and I'm constantly having to convince them to wait for the next episode until we've read books and explored other resources for the subject they just learned about! 

Bedtime History Podcast: Paul Revere's Ride // George Washington part 1, 2 & 3

The Good and the Beautiful's History Year 1... These lessons were a bit lengthy if you're only working with the early elementary crowd but my son still loved it. The lesson book, the Big Book of History stories, the Keys of History board game, all of it.

Picture Books: American Girl: The Story of America (this is such a fun timeline book! Each time period is much too brief to be used alone but it's a great sidekick!) // George vs George // George Washington's Teeth 

Early readers:  George Washington: the First President by Sarah Albee // Imagination Station books 13-15 // Ranger in Time: Night of Soldiers and Spies

Middle Grade: Toliver's Secret by Esther Wood Brady (we read this a read-aloud, as recommended by TGTB's history unit. I liked it. A was on the fence at first but loved it by the end).

Videos: America: the Story of Us (definitely best for ages 10 or 12 and up) // Animated Hero Classics: George Washington

I've shared before that my childhood history lessons were dry and lackluster. I retained very little of it so I've been enjoying learning alongside my children. Those elements of history that did stick for me all involved historical fiction making it all come alive so I'm reading a historical fiction grown-up book with some units, too. For this one I read Rachel Hauck's Christian fiction timeslip The Love Letter. Romantic stories are never my favorites but I did like this one (she's a great writer) and it did indeed help this time period come alive for me! I don't necessarily recommend it for high schoolers but you know your kid better than I do! 

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