What I would LOVE to See More In Christian Fiction in 2026

Hey everyone!!! Guess what! This is a tag! I’ve been pretty busy lately, but I am finally here with it! Bella from Peculiar Treasures tagged me- please click on the link and check out some of her fun posts!

This tag was originally by Iona from Story Blossoms, another blog I also recommend you check out! It was cool to see her original post and how it has gotten around in the blogging community and even made it to me! I have loved reading everyone’s answers!!

Before I dive in, there is one thing I want to mention. I don’t keep up too well with what’s new in the world of books, so I don’t really know what all is big and popular in Christian fiction right now. A lot of the time, I read books that have been around a while. There have been times when I’ve found a new book or series that’s new to everyone (not just me), but a lot of the time I just come across interesting-looking stories and read them regardless of when they were published. So if any of my answers sound weird because there are lots of books with a specific item from my list in them, that’s why. Anyway, here we go!

The Guidelines:

1. Post the Guidelines on your post! 
2. Pick one item from the post that tagged you, and give it a shout out in your post that you agree.
3. Link back to the original Story Blossoms post, and who tagged you!
4. Make a list of what you’re so ready to see in Christian Fiction that you haven’t seen much of, or at all yet.
5. Challenge 5 bloggers by tagging them!
6. Do these in your preferred order, do be wholesome and biblically honoured, and be yourself

For my shout-out (item #2 in the guidelines)… I liked all of Bella’s list, but the one I will mention here is #1: “Romance where faith is actively working in both people.” I like romance in books, but I don’t want it to overshadow the spiritual growth of the characters as individuals! And I want to be able to see God working in both lives- of the girl and guy who are falling in love. I want to see progress and depth in a main character, instead of someone who has it all figured out and who doesn’t seem to have anything to work on in their lives. I want more than just romance. I want to see God-honoring relationships where both characters are saved and growing in their faith! (Also, Bella mentioned the Christy Miller series on this one, which, ironically, is one of the series that’s been on my TBR for several months now!)

Alright, now onto my list…

1. Main characters who are fresh out of high school and in the college-age time of life. I feel like this age range kind of gets skipped over. I haven’t specifically searched extensively for Christian fiction about 20-year-olds, but a lot of Christian fiction I’ve read are either about high schoolers or people in their upper 20’s. It’s not even that I want to read about kids in college, but rather, I want to read about people around my current age and see how they navigate this time of life. To get more specific, I like romance, but I like it to end in marriage. I feel like this happens in the stories about the upper-20’s or 30’s characters, but not the high schoolers, who usually just end up “with” someone and you never get to see who they actually end up marrying (not saying I want to see high schoolers getting married, though!). But I think it would be nice to see romance in 18-25-year-olds that end up in marriage in that time frame.

2. Homeschoolers/homeschool families. I know I said I wanted to read about people who are out of school, but I don’t mind still reading about high schoolers! I didn’t really know of any books about homeschoolers -specifically Christian books- when I was in school, which is kind of a bummer. I would like to see homeschooling a little more common in Christian fiction, especially for those of us who are/were educated in this way! I would like to see more examples of how it is or could be done! There is not one way to homeschool -you can do it however you want!- so there must be so many ways it could be portrayed in fictional stories! I want there to be books that Christian homeschoolers can pick up and relate to and love. There may be books out there about homeschoolers, but secular YA books often have a lot of inappropriate things in them, things I wouldn’t have felt comfortable reading about at that age (or to this day!). I also feel that there should be more homeschooling themes in Christian fiction because a lot of Christians do homeschool and I feel that Christians should be in support of homeschooling in general.

3. Light reads. I know this sounds kind of vague and general, but I shall explain. I feel like in a lot of books the main character is going through something hard, like the death of a parent or something, or tragedy takes place in the story. I don’t mind these stories on occasion, and I know that these elements make them realistic, but I also like books that are light-hearted and fun and warm and cozy and romantic and such, and I feel like there are less of these than the ones that have dark and depressing themes or elements. A book doesn’t have to be sad or scary to be good! I like the idea of getting lost in another world full of delight and not be reminded of the dreadful things happening in our real world. Sometimes it is nice to be able to relate to what a character is facing, but sometimes you want to get away from it and have a distraction!

4. Main characters who are strong in their faith and have a close relationship with God. Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of characters in Christian fiction are not yet saved at the beginning of the story, or they’re not super spiritually mature or knowledgeable yet. As someone who’s been a Christian most of my life, I want to be inspired by characters and be able to look up to them. That’s one of the things I’ve been appreciating so much about the Elsie series I’ve been reading- Elsie and her family are very devoted followers of Christ, and the books are full of biblical truth and examples of how we should live as light in the world.

5. Sisterly bonds, specifically between actual sisters. A lot of main characters do have a “best friend,” but I think I’d enjoy seeing deeper, closer sisterly relationships, whether it’s between true sisters or sisters in Christ, as a bigger part of the story in some books. I think Christians in general should treat one another in a more brotherly manner, but as a female, I specifically would like seeing girls having closer relationships with each other. Girls who can completely be themselves with each other, who support each other, inspire each other, lift each other up, are loyal to each other, etc. etc. In some of the Elsie books after Elsie is grown and has her own children, I love the relationship between Elsie’s two older daughters, Elsie and Violet. I also liked the sister trope in Melody Carlson’s series, “On the Runway.” This is a theme I can really relate to in real life!

6. Close cousin relationships. I don’t often see this one, but I think it would be fun to! I know there are a lot of different kinds of cousin relationships all over the world, but some, like mine, are all pretty close and are kind of a friend group of their own! So I think it would be fun to see cousins who grew up together and are like siblings to each other.

Well, that concludes my list! I feel like I could come up with more if more time and thought were put into it, but these are the ones that have come to mind. I would love to hear what you think about my thoughts! Thanks again, Bella, for the tag! (-:

The Tags

I don’t know if any of these bloggers have been tagged, but here are my five:

Gracelynn at xoxo, Gracelynn

Alannah Faith at Let’s Run Free

Molly McTernan

Bella Raine

Midna at Life Through the Window

Thanks for reading!