I Read 50 Christian Books and Ranked Them Best to Worst (Romance, Nonfiction, Thrillers, & more)

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]Over the past couple of years, I've read about 50 Christian books, and today I'm going to be telling you every single one of them and whether they're actually worth reading or not. So, I have four categories that I've placed all of these books in. Number one are all my least favorite. They're the ones I do not recommend. Number two were the ones that I felt okay about. It was just like I could take them or leave them. Number three is that they're really good books that I do highly recommend. Number four are the best books I've ever read. Like you should drop everything and go buy them right now because you need to be reading these books. They're the kind of books that have everything you want in a Christian story, an amazing storyline, a great writing style, most important part, which is that some aspect of the book really brings you so much closer to God. You feel like you're learning so much about yourself and about him as you read it. So, I'll be starting with the first category, which are all the books that I wish I didn't read. So, the first book in this category is called Low Country Laws. Nobody hate me if you love this book. I think if you're really interested in a cheesy romance with a very light sprinkle of religion on top, this could be the book for you, but it just was not the book for me. The second book in this category is called Swiped.

[00:00:54]Now, I can appreciate the story idea of this book. It takes place in a dystopian society where a bunch of kids are realizing that their world isn't as perfect as they thought, and they're trying to find the secrets of this society and essentially dismantle it.

[00:01:06]And even though that synopsis sounds kind of thrilling, it felt kind of boring to me. I thought the religion aspect was very mediocre. And then on top of that, it is a middle grade book, which I didn't realize when going into it. It just felt very young and silly to me, but I do think that this could be a really good book for a younger person.

[00:01:20]Now, it's time to move up to the next level, filled with books that are okay.

[00:01:23]They weren't amazing, but they weren't terrible, either. And as these levels go up, you'll probably start to notice some of the very famous Christian writers and their books that a lot of you have probably read before. And I'm really curious to know your opinions on where I rated them. Like, for example, the mega popular Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers or the classic Narnia series. So, stick around cuz all of that's to come.

[00:01:41]So, the first four books in this category are actually part of a series.

[00:01:45]They are the Left Behind books. I've read the first four books in this series. I'm going to be honest, the first one was actually pretty good, and I actually really enjoyed it. The second one was okay, as well, but then as I got into the third and fourth books in the series, they started just to feel a little bit off to me. Essentially, it's kind of like about the end of the world according to the Book of Revelation.

[00:02:06]It's supposed to all be about like the end times or whatever. It just started to feel like as the books went on, they were straying further away from the Bible and what the Bible says about this time and more so just trying to like make a thrilling, scary story, kind of like just to scare people, I guess. And by the way, this is a 12-book series, and I only made it four books in. I think definitely the first one is worth trying, and if you like it, keep going, but for me, the series as a whole, at least what I read of it, was just really worth reading. Um, but it wasn't like terrible, either. So, the second book on my list, I actually don't even have with me. I don't know what happened to it. I don't know where I put it. I read it a long time ago, but it's called Miracle for Jen. This is my first nonfiction book on this list, although there are more to come. It's about a girl who gets in a car wreck when she's really young and is supposed to die, but over time, she heals and gets better and is able to walk and talk again, and it's actually a really cool story. But that's pretty much all I remember about this book, and so this is where I'm putting it. The next book I also just read on my Kindle.

[00:03:01]It is called Anomaly. It is a dystopian book. I love dystopian books and actually loved the idea for this story.

[00:03:08]It's all about a futuristic society where people have made humans to like not have any emotions, but the main character is a girl, and she figures out she does have emotions, and she's trying to figure out how to hide them from everyone else cuz she's not supposed to have them. I was so excited about this book when I started reading it. I thought it had so much potential, and it really did. Like, I loved the story idea. Certain like plot points weren't as well thought out as I feel like they should be. There were a few things that just didn't quite make sense in the story, a couple plot holes I noticed.

[00:03:34]So, because of all that, this is the category I'm putting the book in. The next book I actually read pretty recently. It's called Providence. I don't know why I keep picking up Christian romances because they tend to be very cheesy to me, and I usually don't end up loving them that much, although there is one to come that I did really enjoy, so keep watching for that.

[00:03:51]The one thing that did save this is that there was a little bit of mystery about the main character and her family and her past, and it was interesting to figure out to some of the questions she had about her past. If you read the synopsis and you think you would enjoy it, maybe try it out, but I wouldn't like highly recommend. The next one I'm a little bit scared to say is in this category because I know a lot of people love this book. And this is a series, and I've only read the first book in the series, and I have heard that they get much better as time goes on. It is The Wingfeather Saga, book number one. To me, it just felt like nothing much happened in this book. There wasn't too much plot. It was mostly about just like learning about the characters and their life and the world that they live in. I mean, there was some plot, but also again, this book is definitely for a younger audience. Because of that, it just wasn't really that interesting to me. But if you've read that whole series and you think I would like the later books in the series, let me know, and I might try the rest of them. Okay, so the last book is actually a pretty good book, but it's in this category because I really messed up when it came to reading it. This book is one that I just randomly saw in the store. I read the synopsis. It sounded interesting. I bought it, and I read the entire thing.

[00:04:54]And I enjoyed the book for the most part, but throughout the story, I felt like there were certain things that weren't explained that well. So, I was really confused reading this book because I could tell it was good writing, it was a good plot, but things just weren't fully explained as much as I felt like they should have been. And then I had a realization once I got to the very end of the book. I actually read the author's note, and it said something about like, "Thank you so much for sticking around through this whole series. I've loved writing this series."

[00:05:19]And just a lot of stuff about the series. So, I looked it up, and I realized that this book is the third book in a trilogy, and I read the third book first, which explains why I was so confused. the book is called Three Missing Days by Colleen Coble. In my defense, there's not really anything on the book that says it's the third book in a series. There's no number on the spine or anything like that. Now, if I'm not considering all of my own flaws when it comes to this, this was a pretty good book, and I do think I would have loved it way more if I read them in order. But because of my bad experience, I feel like I can't put it in a higher category. I'm so sorry. So, those are all of the books in this category. Now, time to move on to the next one. The next category is a really big one. There are some really good Christian books in here, and we're finally going to start getting into some of the more famous books and authors that you might have heard of before. So, these are some of really good Christian books that I highly recommend. Although not my favorite books in the world yet, they're very, very good, so you should all read them. I'm going to start off with historical fiction. I only have two of these. Number one is Night by Elie Wiesel. This book I read once when I was little. I didn't really remember it much, and then just recently, I reread it, and this book is so good. This is a true story about a 13-year-old kid who gets put in a concentration camp during World War II, and it just details all the terrifying stuff he went through.

[00:06:33]Like, this book is crazy. But it's also very beautiful because he's Jewish, he believes in God, goes through a very tumultuous, up-and-down process of trying to have faith and believe, but really struggling with that in the face of all this suffering. The second historical fiction that I also really loved. I had it at some point, but I don't know where it went. It's The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. I did read this one a while ago, but I remember loving it just as much as Night. I actually want to reread this one again sometime soon. But just another great story of people struggling through the hardships of World War II, but also doing that while holding on really strongly to their faith. So, very good book. And then another historical fiction is called The Librarian of Saint-Malo. This is about a French woman whose husband goes off to war, and she's staying behind trying to navigate normal life during the war. She's very sick, as well, but her main priority is to save her library and not let the Germans burn her books. I don't know if you can consider this a historical fiction, but it does take place a long time ago. It's a book called To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck. When I first read this book, I loved it so much, and I rated it a five stars. However, I've done a little bit more research on the story since reading it, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm not even sure if it's technically Christian fiction. It does have a lot of biblical themes, and I love the whole idea of talking about the human's natural desire to worship something and how dangerous it can be for us to worship things that aren't God, which is kind of what the main character ends up doing in this book.

[00:07:53]And so, I did really enjoy this book, although I don't know if it's technically a Christian book. It does have a lot of very cool biblical themes, so I'm including it. Now, I'm going to move into some nonfiction, which I do surprisingly have a lot of. Number one is The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. This book talks a lot about hurry and rush and how it's a big downfall for people. It also goes into a lot of detail about Jesus's life and his ministry and how when his life and his ministry got busier and busier, he took more time away and to just live slowly.

[00:08:21]It gives some really good tips on how to completely get rid of hurry and rush in your life, and I really like this one.

[00:08:26]Number two is just a commentary. I didn't know if I wanted to include this one or not, but it is a Christian book that I read. It's just all on the Book of Esther. This was so informational and broke down some really complex topics of the Bible in a way that was really simple and easy to understand. So, this one was really good. My next nonfiction is Between the Mountain and the Sky.

[00:08:45]It's about a girl who, just out of high school, takes a gap year and goes visits a country in Southeast Asia, and finds a love for the children there, and eventually builds an orphanage and a school. And it just talks all about her struggles and her journey to get there and to build that at such a young age.

[00:09:00]It's a very cool story. And then my last nonfiction is actually a devotional.

[00:09:04]It's called New Morning Mercies. This book is so good. I've actually read over this two times, maybe even three times, over the course of the year. The best thing about this book is that the devotionals every day are very short, incorporating biblical ideas or scripture and translating them into a way that applies to your everyday life.

[00:09:20]Oh, there's so many books in this category. So, I have that romance book that I really loved in this category, but I might save that one for last.

[00:09:26]Frank Peretti is an author that I found I really love over this year. I've only read two books of his, but they were both really great. So, The Oath by Frank Peretti, I loved. I've talked a lot about this book, so you've probably heard me say something about it. It's about a mysterious creature that's invading a town and killing people, and one guy who's on a mission to figure out what it is and kill it. It doesn't seem like this should be a Christian book, but trust me, there are some really great Christian themes in here. Next is Monster by Frank Peretti. This actually has somewhat of a similar storyline.

[00:09:53]There's a monster who's invading these woods and taking people and killing people. Now, I will say the way that Christianity was incorporated into this book was a little silly in some ways, but overall I still really enjoyed the story. Next is a mystery thriller called If I Run. This is a trilogy and I've only read the first two books, but I really enjoyed both of them. This is about a girl whose best friend gets murdered while she is in the area and everyone thinks that it's her who did it and so she's having to run from the police all the while trying to figure out who actually killed her friend. Very fast-paced and intense and such a fun story and the second one was very similar. Then I just recently read Theo of Golden. Now, this is a very sweet book, very unlike the last few I talked about about a man named Theo who goes to the town of Golden, finds a coffee shop where an artist has drawn handmade portraits of a bunch of different townspeople and the coffee shop is selling them. So, Theo takes it upon himself to buy each portrait individually and give them to the people who is drawn in the portrait. Very interesting concept, but such a sweet story about serving others and giving and how everyone just deserves kindness.

[00:10:59]So, very sweet story and then another dystopian book I discovered last year is called A Time to Die. This was a really fun YA dystopian book. Again, another category that I was very surprised I was able to find a lot of that are Christian. It very much reminded me of like The Hunger Games or Divergent. It's about a girl who lives in a futuristic society that's walled off from like the rest of the world. It's about a girl who gets sent outside of the wall and it's about her surviving in this very dangerous territory and discovering so much about the society she lives in and about herself. This is also the first book in a trilogy and I've heard the rest of the books are good as well.

[00:11:33]Also, side note, would you consider Lord of the Rings to be a Christian series?

[00:11:37]Because I didn't at first, but then I made a video talking about them and a lot of people said that they are Christian books. Anyway, I've read those two, those books are great, but I don't know if we can consider those Christians. All right, so I'm going to talk a little bit about the romance book I really loved like I was saying and then I'm going to get into all the books by one of the most famous Christian authors out there, but first a romance book that I read last year that I surprisingly really enjoyed. This is not a book that I would have typically liked, but there was something about just how fun and sweet it was. I feel like the Christianity was incorporated in such a natural way. It wasn't too intense, it wasn't overly dramatic. I also liked the format of the book. It was all in emails sent between two people and I just I don't know, I really liked it. It's called Authentically Izzy. I also think I was just in the right mood to read it before I read it.

[00:12:21]So, highly recommend this book. Now, it's time to get into the books by one of the most famous Christian authors like of all time. I've read a lot of these. Some of them I really loved, some of them I loved a little bit less. I would say they're all probably in this category. That author is Francine Rivers. Number one is The Masterpiece.

[00:12:36]I'll be honest, this is probably my least favorite of hers. This is a romance about two tumultuous characters who like each other but don't think that they should be together or that they would be good together and it's just kind of their whole journey of falling in love. Then we have A Voice in the Wind. This is one of my favorites by her actually. There's romance in this, but I like that there's so much more to it.

[00:12:55]takes place in biblical times, which I really love. It's the first book in a series about a young girl who loses her family and ends up having to be a slave for a very rich family, I think in Rome and it's all about her trying to stick with her faith and stay humble in a place where that's very unusual.

[00:13:11]Francine Rivers also has like a little series of mini books of different biblical characters. Basically, she's like rewriting the Bible story just more in-depth and I read the one she did on Ruth. It's called Unshaken. Yeah, it's essentially the whole story of Ruth, but just with more backstory and a little bit more about each character and just with a little more of a plot and I thought it was really cool. The last Francine Rivers book I read and one that people love so much. I hear so much about this book all the time. It's Redeeming Love. So, I can really appreciate this book. It's all about forgiveness and how it doesn't matter how much you sin or how far you might stray. God is always ready to welcome you back and forgive you. It's roughly based on the book of Hosea in the Bible.

[00:13:50]So, if you know what that book's about, it's kind of the same thing. So, there were a lot of things that I could really appreciate about this book, which is why it's in this category. hope people aren't disappointed that it's not my favorite of all time. In this last category, you're going to find all of the most amazing Christian books I've ever read before. They're all so good, but the last one is by far the all-time best book ever. If you don't read any other book from this video, you have to read this last book. Are you ready for it? The best books you will ever read.

[00:14:15]These are my favorite books of all time, not just in the Christian category, even though they are Christian books. These are my favorite books of all time in general. These are books that you need to go buy it right now because they will change your life. I have a lot of the same author in this category, so I'm going to start there. The author is C.S.

[00:14:30]Lewis and some of my favorites of his is obviously the Narnia [clears throat] series. I actually didn't read The Chronicles of Narnia until I was a bit older, but even though these are technically kids books, they are so good and I would recommend them to anyone at any age. I loved all of these books. I do have to say though, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is my favorite.

[00:14:48]I'm assuming you already know the general Narnia story, so I won't explain everything to you, but every time I look at these books on my shelf, I just remind myself I need to reread them sometime soon because they're just so good. So, another C.S. Lewis series that I also really, really love is his space trilogy. These are three sci-fi books of his. A lot of people don't know about these, but they're more or less all about this one guy who in the first book goes to a new planet on accident, but he ends up really loving the planet and becoming friends with all the unique creatures on it and the second one is specifically about him traveling to a new planet where the planet has just been created. It's kind of like the beginning of time and it retells the Adam and Eve story. They all have like subtle biblical metaphors like woven in.

[00:15:30]They're definitely very unique books, I have to warn you. Parts of them are a little bit hard to understand, but if you can really get into them, they're so worth it. I love this series. Then we have some C.S. Lewis stand-alones starting with The Screwtape Letters. I just love this book because it's the most unique story I've ever read before.

[00:15:46]It's essentially all written in letters back and forth between two demons. Only these demons talking to each other, but you can still see God so clearly the way that they're trying so hard to get away from him. Then we have Mere Christianity. This is another non-fiction book. This book takes a little bit more time, a little bit more effort to get through, I feel like. You do or at least I really had to focus in order to understand this book, but it was so worth it. I would recommend this book to Christians, but even like non-Christians who are interested in Christianity. He breaks down the whole concept in such simple terms and like responds to so many arguments about the religion and then even as a Christian, I learned so much more about religion and then even just how to like defend it better. And then my last C.S. Lewis book does not have a cover, so just ignore that, but this is one of my all-time favorites of C.S. Lewis's. It's called Till We Have Faces. This is a Greek mythology book, which you wouldn't think would be a Christian story. It's about a girl who more or less is struggling with her appearance and the way that she looks, so she wears a veil all the time and so much happens that's all meant to be like a metaphor for the way that we interact with God and how we try and hide things from God and how we can't really experience the fullness and goodness of him while also trying to hide parts of ourselves. This book is a really fun, exciting fantasy story that whole really cool message underneath it.

[00:17:00]So, the second to last book, which I've talked a lot about before, is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. People, whether they're Christians or not, love this book. It's a retelling of the Cain and Abel story in the Bible and it just does some really good digging into what makes people good and what makes people bad and kind of like what God has to do with that. Is it all our choice or does God make us that way? Some of the best characters I've ever read in a book before. Beautiful scenery. Yes, it's a longer book and it's a little bit more slower going, so so so worth it. And then the last book actually wasn't getting included until just a few minutes ago I realized it's the biggest Christian book in the world and I've read the whole thing and it's my favorite book of all time, so why wouldn't I include it? It is, as you can probably expect, the Bible. Guys, throughout reading every single one of these books in this video, I was also on the side reading this book every single day. I don't need to promote the Bible, you guys know it's the best ever, but I do think it's important to remember that even though all these other Christian books are amazing and I think everyone should read them, this is the best one by far and if you only have time to read one book in a day, read this one. So, those are all the Christian books that I read, at least I think. I hope I'm not forgetting any. Let me know what your all-time favorite Christian book is and I might be reading it next cuz I'm really excited to keep finding more amazing books like all of these in the future.