Are There Any Christian Suspense Romance Authors Like Terri Blackstock?

This is one of my favorite parts of comparing a book’s cover to the movie’s casting. Book covers are so often idealized paintings of the main characters. They can be beautifully posed in amazing settings. In contrast, the actors who end up playing these characters in the movie can look completely different in real life. It’s interesting to see how different filmmakers perceive the “look” of characters and often end up completely opposite of how one imagined. The online discussion boards are often flooded with comments about whether or not an actor looks like how one pictured the hero or heroine. I think this is a small but fun part of being a part of a fandom. It’s a fun game of matching your imagination to reality of a person. This is a lot of fun matching your imagination of the book characters to reality of the actors chosen for the roles.

I recommend books on faith and anxiety written by authors who are “real” and have struggled through similar tough times. My favorite is “Hope in the Dark” by Craig Groeschel, a short and very real book that leaves no space for useless words. Instead he gives the reader the same kind of motivation and encouragement that he would give in a session of coaching someone to trust God and His plan. Sheila Walsh also tackles anxiety with faith in her book ‘Praying Women’. It is full of personal testimony and also shows us how to use Scripture in our prayers in a really powerful way. Alternatively, for a quieter and more reflective read, Ann Voskamp’s ‘One Thousand Gifts’ is stunning. All of these authors are very different but they have all written books that embody practical faith. So whether you need to be encouraged or just needing to be reminded that you are not alone these books are like having a good friend on your book shelf.

From my experience, some authors are simply better with audio than others and manage to consistently produce high-quality audio versions of their works. Even authors I “love” in printed form can be a total letdown in audio format, while others who I didn’t consider to be as great can really blow me away. That’s partly because for audio-first readers, the experience of “reading” a romance can be so much more intense with audio, because you can actually HEAR the yearning in the other person’s voice, etc. Some authors are just better served in audiobook format than others. Many of the big-name authors in romance get fantastic production on their books. (Of course, I always recommend the author AND the audiobook narrator separately. For the audio-first reader, author/narrator is huge. An amazing book ruined by a flat reading is far worse than a very good book that gets wonderful reading.)

You'd want to start with classic big names like Linda Lael Miller for her McKettrick and Creed series, and Jodi Thomas for her heartfelt, character-driven stories set in places like Harmony, Texas. For something with a grittier, more possessive edge that still uses that frontier setting as a backdrop for intense relationships, I recently read 'Sinful Alphas: A Dark Romance Collection', which bundles shorter works where the lawless atmosphere fuels really dominant, morally gray characters clashing with equally strong wills.

Claire Cook’s Must Love Dogs is a funny and sweet novel that’s got plenty of romance and lots of Boston flavor, set as it is in the suburbs. For historical fiction lovers, there’s Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader, which combines a great romance with a bit of mystery set against the Boston backdrop. And for pure contemporary romance, look to new voices like Sarah Echavarre Smith, whose The Boy with the Bookstore is a charming and fun enemies-to-lovers story that takes place in a lovely Boston bookshop. The city is a wonderful setting for love stories, and these authors are particularly good at making it shine.

Author Julie Garwood deserves a monument for her historical romances written in the 1990s. In that decade, she wrote such popular historical romances as “The Bride”, “The Prize” and “The Secret”. These books were written in a warm and humorous manner and set in medieval and Regency times. Their relationships were well developed with much witty repartee, while the growing affection between the hero and heroine was as important as the external plot. Her heroines are typically clever and strong, but by no means difficult to read as 20th century women transplanted to another time. Her stories also nearly always contain a found family of sorts for the heroine, which is so sweet. I read a lot of historical romances, and I think Garwood is the best for people looking for Historicals that are a warm read with lots of plot. The 1990s backlist is perpetually in print, for good reason.

I just adore Closed-door romances. They're one of my favorite genres to read within, which provide a sweet and emotional read. I just love Denise Hunter who has written not only The Convenient Groom but also Sweetbriar Cottage. Both of these novels are very emotional, real and additionally end up exposing the real emotional connection between two main characters. Rachel Hauck is another favorite of mine. In The Wedding Dress, Hauck expertly weaves together several past love stories and one present day story, all done so delicately. Her novels are uplifting and, so often, include a strong dose of faith which complements a romantic story perfectly. Another really good book for a contemporary setting is Bethany Turner’s The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck. It was very funny and sweet as Sarah got a second chance at love. The dialogue was witty and the character growth was very satisfying. This is a great example of how clean a romance can be and still be really good and engaging.

After romance there is always love lost. It's a fairly universally acknowledged truth. Often these storylines follow on from a previous romantic work but while that first was taking its characters from abstemious lust to something way more real this other work looks at how people grow apart over time. The most definitive work on human growth and how time and space can tear apart two people with the deepest of connections of childhood is 5 Centimeters per Second. 'The Garden of Words' is another beautifully written and directed film by Makoto Shinkai. This one is a bit shorter, and a lot denser. It follows a young student who meets a older woman in a garden’s pavilion on rainy mornings. Their relationship is ambiguous and there’s a clear feeling of both of them being saved by the other from their lonely lives. It’s a poem-like film and it explores the idea of a fleeting but very impactful connection with another human being. In contrast, ‘I Want to Eat Your Pancreas’ is not exactly a romantic film, although there is a very deep and powerful romance in it. Instead it explores the impact that a truly deep and honest connection can have on someone’s life, even if it’s not meant to last.

I have a soft spot for the ‘old school’ digital pioneers. I’m thinking of people like Lora Leigh whose Breeds series (paranormal) used to be everywhere in the early 2000s. Or Shayla Black whose Wicked Lovers series is some of the best modern erotic romantic suspense out there. The smut in these books can feel a bit dated at times. The alpha males can be rather dominating in a somewhat less aware way to present days and the language can be rather more clinical and/or use more euphemisms but these authors are true foundations of the genre. Reading them is like watching a genre grow up. You can see the beginnings of modern consent discussions and of female agency as well. And yes, there is plenty of steamy sex in them too – often in creative and unusual scenarios. When I read these authors, I can see where contemporary romantic fiction is coming from. I can even see the seeds of contemporary discussions of consent, and women’s agency, and all of that – but mostly I am reading them for the steam, which is creative and very enjoyable. If you’re a completist, or you just want to read some historical fiction that helps to explain how we got from there to here – that is, from clandestine distribution of hardcover books to this amazing open smut market that we have today – reading some of the earlier specialists in this field is kind of fascinating.

I always recommend Denise Hunter because she writes clean romance so well and always creates believable emotional wounds and healing in her characters. My favorite of hers is The Wishing Season which is a live-in cook-off for a house. Her characters are very real with lots of past hurts and present fears but in the end they get to heal and find love. Her books often have a spiritual element but it’s usually light. She focuses mostly on grace and how people can get second chances. For another authors who write clean romance I really enjoy reading Susan May Warren, especially her Deep Haven series which is a fictional MN town and has that one town kind of feeling as well as a good community backbone which is typically found in Hallmark movies and series. The characters and stories have a lot of higher stakes especially in a search-and-rescue type of career which makes for good storylines that keep you wanting to read more but still end up hopeful in the end for the romance.