Here are 77 books that A Passion Most Pure fans have personally recommended if you like A Passion Most Pure. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Captive Heart

MaryLu Tyndall Author Of Veil of Pearls

From my list on on the edge of your seat Christian romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

What can I say? I’m a hopeless romantic. There’s nothing better than a great romance novel set in the past when chivalry was not dead. I’m a published author of more than twenty-five novels, including a great pirate series. I grew up in Florida and fell in love with the tropics as I sat on the beach and dreamt of handsome pirates. Once I became a Christian, I started reading Christian romances but found many of them moved a little slow to my liking, so I decided to write one myself! I have a BA in Computer Science and have won several awards for my writing.   

MaryLu's book list on on the edge of your seat Christian romance

MaryLu Tyndall Why MaryLu loves this book

Reminiscent of the wildness, adventure, and romance of The Last of the Mohicans, Captive Heart sizzles on every page. This is Michelle Griep's best book yet and one that played out before my eyes like an epic movie I kept wanting to watch over and over. The romance is perfect, the adventure nonstop, and the characters really touch your heart. 

By Michelle Griep ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Captive Heart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The wild American wilderness is no place for an elegant English governess

On the run from a brute of an aristocratic employer, Eleanor Morgan escapes from England to America, the land of the free, for the opportunity to serve an upstanding Charles Town family. But freedom is hard to come by as an indentured servant, and downright impossible when she’s forced to agree to an even harsher contract—marriage to a man she’s never met.

Backwoodsman Samuel Heath doesn’t care what others think of him—but his young daughter’s upbringing matters very much. The life of a trapper in the Carolina backcountry…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of Port Royal

MaryLu Tyndall Author Of Veil of Pearls

From my list on on the edge of your seat Christian romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

What can I say? I’m a hopeless romantic. There’s nothing better than a great romance novel set in the past when chivalry was not dead. I’m a published author of more than twenty-five novels, including a great pirate series. I grew up in Florida and fell in love with the tropics as I sat on the beach and dreamt of handsome pirates. Once I became a Christian, I started reading Christian romances but found many of them moved a little slow to my liking, so I decided to write one myself! I have a BA in Computer Science and have won several awards for my writing.   

MaryLu's book list on on the edge of your seat Christian romance

MaryLu Tyndall Why MaryLu loves this book

Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned pirate romance? I read all of Linda Chaikin’s pirate books long before I even started writing. She is an excellent novelist who does impeccable research. Her characters are lovable, the ship scenes exciting, the romance invigorating, and well, the stories are just plain fun!  

By Linda Chaikin ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Port Royal as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The scene is Jamaica in the 1700s--a world of smuggling, slaves, and sugar plantations. A British viscount turned pirate meets a woman with a noble cause. Romance, adventure, and Christian history are interspersed in this exciting series.


Book cover of A Voice in the Wind

Nancy Kimball Author Of Unseen Love

From my list on that put the Roman in romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I watched the Ridley Scott film Gladiator for the first time, I knew then my heart belonged in Ancient Rome. Countless books, films, research papers, museums, and shenanigans later, that is still true. I was a master of make-believe by age ten, and when the time was right, both passions fused into my debut novel, also set in Ancient Rome. I don’t want to just read or write a good book. I want to experience Ancient Rome vicariously through powerful characters that linger in my memory long after the last page. If that’s you too, give these a try. 

Nancy's book list on that put the Roman in romance

Nancy Kimball Why Nancy loves this book

This is the gold standard of Ancient World Christian Fiction for a reason. The author is an RWA Hall of Fame recipient and ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award winner. This first book in the Mark of the Lion series is so much more than a book about early Christianity and why Rome hated it. Words to describe Hadassah and Marcus’s story are… epic, profound, life-changing, powerful, captivating, and I could go on and on. It still freaks me out and totally awes me when reviews for my novels mention her in the same sentence. I want to be flattered and offended on her behalf at the same time, which is completely crazy. If you’re only going to invest in one book from my list, it should be this one. 

By Francine Rivers ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Voice in the Wind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book 1 in the 3-book historical Christian fiction series by the New York Times bestselling author of Redeeming Love and The Masterpiece.

The first book in the beloved Mark of the Lion series, A Voice in the Wind brings readers back to the first century and introduces them to a character they will never forget―Hadassah.

While wealthy Roman citizens indulge their every whim, Jews and barbarians are bought and sold as slaves and gladiators in the bloodthirsty arena. Amid the depravity around her, a young Jewish slave girl becomes a light in the darkness. Even as she’s torn by her…


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Dreamspell

MaryLu Tyndall Author Of Veil of Pearls

From my list on on the edge of your seat Christian romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

What can I say? I’m a hopeless romantic. There’s nothing better than a great romance novel set in the past when chivalry was not dead. I’m a published author of more than twenty-five novels, including a great pirate series. I grew up in Florida and fell in love with the tropics as I sat on the beach and dreamt of handsome pirates. Once I became a Christian, I started reading Christian romances but found many of them moved a little slow to my liking, so I decided to write one myself! I have a BA in Computer Science and have won several awards for my writing.   

MaryLu's book list on on the edge of your seat Christian romance

MaryLu Tyndall Why MaryLu loves this book

I just love time travel stories. If you couple that with the Medieval time period, I’m there. Tamara Leigh is one of the best Medieval authors out there. This was one of the first books I read of hers, and I was hooked. If you like time travel, romance, great history, and a fun and exciting plot, you will love this book!. 

By Tamara Leigh ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dreamspell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A TIME TO LIVE. A TIME TO DIE. A TIME TO DREAM.

Sleep disorders specialist Kennedy Plain has been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. When her research subject dies after trying to convince her he has achieved dream-induced time travel and her study is shelved, she enlists herself as a subject to complete her research. But when she dreams herself into 14th-century England and falls into the hands of Fulke Wynland, a man history has condemned as a murderer, she must not only stay alive long enough to find a way to return to her own time, but prevent…


Book cover of A Passion Redeemed

Pamela S. Thibodeaux Author Of The Visionary

From my list on Christian fiction that shows the power of God.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am first and foremost an avid reader of a variety of genres, but women’s/romantic fiction is my favorite. I have a passion for God and His ability to pull us out of the deepest pit and transform a life of beauty from the ashes of our past. Although I write from a “Christian” viewpoint, I prefer characters with flaws and books that deal with women’s issues in a realistic way, not glossed over or hinted at. Which is why my tagline is “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ In my opinion, the harder our characters fall from grace, the more powerful their redemption or testimony will be.

Pamela's book list on Christian fiction that shows the power of God

Pamela S. Thibodeaux Why Pamela loves this book

Julie Lessman’s tagline is “Passion with a Purpose” and she delivers this so well, especially in A Passion Redeemed. This story also deals with abuse toward women, (even though the heroine is an adult not a child) and the remarkable power of God to deliver, redeem and heal victims of such atrocities. 

By Julie Lessman ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Passion Redeemed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Graced with physical beauty, though shallow of heart, Charity O'Connor is a woman who knows what she wants. She sets her sights on the cantankerous Mitch Dennehy, editor at the Irish Times, who has unwittingly stolen her heart. And although the sparks are there, Mitch refuses to fan the coals of a potential relationship with his ex-fiancee's sister. But Charity has a plan to turn up the heat and she always gets what she wants--one way or another. Is revenge so sweet after all? Or will Charity get burned?
Full of intense passion, betrayal, and forgiveness, A Passion Redeemed will…


Book cover of A Hilltop on the Marne

W.D. Wetherell Author Of A Century of November

From my list on unjustly forgotten books from World War One.

Why am I passionate about this?

Novelist, essayist, and short-story writer W. D. Wetherell is the author of over two dozen books. A visit to the World War One battlefields in Flanders led to his lasting interest in the human tragedies of l914-18, inspiring his novel A Century of November, and his critical study Where Wars Go to Die; The Forgotten Literature of World War One.

W.D.'s book list on unjustly forgotten books from World War One

W.D. Wetherell Why W.D. loves this book

The good news? After a long career as an editor in Boston, Ms. Aldrich retired to her beloved France in June l914. The bad news? The cottage she bought was only a few miles behind the front lines once the war started later that summer. This is her eyewitness account of what the Great War does to her adopted village, and memorably combines two literary genres that would seem to be incompatible: a book of simple rural pleasures with a book on war.

By Mildred Aldrich ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Hilltop on the Marne as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Mildred Aldrich (November 16, 1853 – February 19, 1928) was an American journalist and writer She was born in 1853 in Providence, Rhode Island. She grew up in Boston, taught at elementary school there and went on into journalism.[2] She wrote for the Boston Home Journal, the Boston Journal and the Boston Herald. She started the short-lived The Mahogany Tree in 1892. In 1898, she moved to France, and, while there, became a friend of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. She worked as a foreign correspondent and translator.


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of The Promised Land

Pamela S. Nadell Author Of America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today

From my list on memoirs through the voices of women.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a professor of history and Jewish studies at American University and author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, winner of the National Jewish Book Award – 2019 Jewish Book of the Year. Since childhood I have been reading stories of women’s lives and tales set in Jewish communities across time and space. Yet, the voices that so often best evoke the past are those captured on the pages of great memoirs.

Pamela's book list on memoirs through the voices of women

Pamela S. Nadell Why Pamela loves this book

When we think of the memoirs, especially immigrant memoirs, contemporary literature pops out —Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior.  But long before their families came to America, more than a hundred years ago, another immigrant family, this one Jewish, landed in Boston. In 1912, at the age of thirty, Mary Antin told their story. Her tale of flight from the land of oppression to the land of freedom has remained in print for over a century, the quintessential memoir of the world opened to a young child who thirsted to learn and to live.

By Mary Antin ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Promised Land as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Promised Land is a compelling account of one woman's journey from Polotsk to Boston and her attempts to embrace a new culture and identity. Author Mary Antin highlights the old values and contemporary views that shaped her immigrant experience.



In The Promised Land, Antin recounts the many obstacles she encountered before and after emigrating to the U.S. Arriving in 1894, she details the years in Boston where she attempted to assimilate while facing religious, political and financial challenges. Despite hidden pitfalls and social barriers, Antin continued to make strides towards her American dream.

Although it centers a specific experience,…


Book cover of Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System

Jan Woudstra Author Of The Regeneration of Public Parks

From my list on the history of public parks.

Why am I passionate about this?

Living on the edge of a town, brought up by an enthusiastic nature-loving mother and a father involved in outdoor activities, I explored both natural and designed landscapes. When discovering that several of the natural landscapes I perceived were, in fact, (re-)designed by the nineteenth-century landscape gardener Lucas Pieters Roodbaard, my curiosity in cultural landscapes was raised. Soon, I explored a wider context and started collecting literature, ultimately studying landscape architecture, and always with a strong interest in history. The focus on public parks became inevitable when I ended up in landscape consultancy. 

Jan's book list on the history of public parks

Jan Woudstra Why Jan loves this book

This book reminds me of a spell in Boston, in my first job, and I acquired it then as I was eager to take the opportunity to explore its famous park system. This title was recommended to me as the main source of reference. I was immediately attracted to it because it was well-illustrated and with a direct, clear, and accessible text that explained the progress of the project.

To me, it provided a concise context and background for the park system that became prototypical as ‘the emerald necklace,’ not only in the USA but also internationally. I like the way it also addressed the theoretical development, the design process, down to the very detail of the project, in what remains one of the few such critical monographs of a single landscape concept.

By Cynthia Zaitzevsky ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Whether flying a kite in Franklin Park, gardening in the Fens, or jogging along the Riverway, today's Bostonians are greatly indebted to the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted. The man who dreamed of an "emerald necklace" of parks for Boston completed his plans in 1895, yet his invigorating influence shapes the city to this day, despite the encroachment of highways and urban sprawl. Cynthia Zaitzevsky's book is the first fully illustrated account of Olmsted's work: the process of "getting the plan" of a park, supervising its construction, adding the necessary "furniture" of bridges and other structures, and selecting plants, shrubs,…


Book cover of Cold Service

John J. Jessop Author Of The Realtor's Curse

From my list on detectives from wacky to dark and deadly.

Why am I passionate about this?

With a Ph.D. in pharmacology, I worked in drug development for many years. Now a published author, mysteries are my passion. I love to laugh and enjoy the humor of Steve Martin and Mel Brooks, so I’ve written a medical comedy mystery series. This dysfunctional detective series, starting with Pleasuria: Take as Directed, takes place in the pharmaceutical industry, a surprisingly fertile ground for humor, and murder. I’ve also written a dark mystery series, The Guardian Angel series. This includes a serial killer, a cult leader, and a touch of vigilante justice. With my overactive imagination you’ll enjoy engaging characters and unique plots.

John's book list on detectives from wacky to dark and deadly

John J. Jessop Why John loves this book

Robert B. Parker’s Cold Service is one of my favorite Spenser novels because it provides more insight into the character Hawk. Hawk is in the hospital, three bullets in his back from trying to protect a bookie from the Ukrainian mob. The Ukrainians are spreading their turf from NYC to the Boston area (a town called Marshport). Spenser comes to the rescue, and the two men take on the impossible task of defeating the Ukrainian mob and their Afghani heroine-dealing overlords while avenging Hawks shooting. Alone, Hawk can’t deal with the thought of showing weakness and Spencer ponders his mortality. Together Spenser and Hawk appear to be invincible. Their code allows them to engage in brutality and come out as likable characters. The way in which Parker spins a tale using simple dialogue is ingenious. His main characters Spenser, Hawk, and Susan Silverman are a joy to get to know…

By Robert B. Parker ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cold Service as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When his closest ally, Hawk, is beaten and left for dead while protecting a bookie, Spenser embarks on an epic journey to rehabilitate his best pal, body and soul. But that means infiltrating a ruthless mob-and redefining his friendship with Hawk in the name of vengeance...

"Cold Service moves with the speed of light."-Orlando Sentinel


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution

James R. Fichter Author Of Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773–1776

From my list on think twice about the American Revolution.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up all around history—my childhood home was across the street from where one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence used to live—and have long been fascinated by the connections between American and other countries’ histories, especially in the old ports and harbors where sailing ships connected America to the world. I’ve lived and taught for the past two decades in Hong Kong, one of the world’s great ports and a place to think about the American Revolution not as “our” history but as part of how to explain Americans to the world.

James' book list on think twice about the American Revolution

James R. Fichter Why James loves this book

What do we know about the Revolution, and why do we think we know it? Sometimes, even canonical events we think we know are not nearly as well-documented as we might think, like the Boston Tea Party.

This book is about history and memory, the gap between what happened when colonists threw the East India Company’s tea into Boston Harbor, and how that event was remembered decades later. Drawing on the as-told-to-reminiscences of Tea Party participant George Robert Twelve Hewes, which were written down over half a century after the Tea Party took place, Young plumbs the gap between the “destruction of the tea,” as the event was known at the time, and the “Boston Tea Party,” a name which only emerged in the 19th century as Americans reimagining that revolt into the story of how America was made. 

Young shows us that accounts like Hewes’s had as much to…

By Alfred F. Young ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Shoemaker and the Tea Party as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who participated in such key events of the American Revolution as the Boston Massacre and the Tea Party, might have been lost to history if not for his longevity and the historical mood of the 1830's. When the Tea Party became a leading symbol of the Revolutionary ear fifty years after the actual event, this 'common man' in his nineties was 'discovered' and celebrated in Boston as a national hero. Young pieces together this extraordinary tale, adding new insights about the role that individual and collective memory play in shaping our understanding of…


Book cover of The Captive Heart
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