When I was a teen, I used to love reading. I was the nerdy girl walking around high school hidden behind large glasses and a thick novel. As it usually does, life put a pause on my love of reading for a few years. During college, while teaching, and in my younger years with my babies, I rarely touched books aside from those required for class and rarely read more than my 7th graders’ opinion essays.
Flash-forward to last year. After a nearly 20 year hiatus, I found myself in books again. Oh, did I find myself! I went from (maybe) reading one book in the previous two years to reading over 150 books, usually with 2-3 going at once!
While it’s been a fantastic journey back, reading material now and what was available to me twenty years ago, is vastly different. I’m also in a different stage of life, and I found it tricky to locate books that matched my criteria. While I cast no judgment on those who choose to read books with spicy material (I’m a firm believer that we each deserve the opportunity to find our own reading material), it wasn’t a good fit for my life. As I’ve struggled finding books that I felt were fast-paced and engaging, yet fit into my conservative view on spice, I thought I’d share a list of recommendations with y’all.
Contemporary Fiction/Suspense
- Inferno by Dan Brown. Honestly, everything I’ve read from Dan Brown fits in the low spice category. I love his books for their suspense and puzzles.
- All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham. This is the second suspense novel I’ve read from this author. She does a good job at keeping readers engaged in the story and guessing at the ending.
- The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Later books have faded to black scenes and innuendo, though none explicit. This first one is suspenseful and has a kiss scene.
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. It’s just like it sounds. A small town crime. A girl working to make a difference on her senior project. What could go wrong?
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I love this book for its lesson about the endless possibilities each of our lives is, so long as we choose to live it. Trigger warning: the main character attempts suicide, which is the basis of the storyline.
Fantasy
- A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. This is my favorite find of the past two years and is the first time in a long time that I stayed up until 3am reading a book. It’s a unique Beauty and the Beast retelling.
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. An oldie but goodie. This story has everything: mystery, adventure, folklore, world building. It’s a whimsical fantasy, and is my favorite read of 2025.
- A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. This book is written as though it were a non-fiction, with the main character being a no-nonsense dragon scholar. It just gets more fun as the series goes on.
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett. This is written in a very similar format to A Natural History of Dragons, but our scholar is now a dryadologist and studies fairies for a living.
- Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. You can’t have a non-spicy fantasy list without including Sanderson. He’s my favorite author, and I’ve spent the last two years reading everything I can from him. The Way of Kings is a fantastic series, but if you haven’t read any of his yet, Mistborn is a good starting place.
Romance
- An Agreeable Alliance by Kasey Stockton. Honestly, everything by Kasey Stockton is charming. She is a Regency author and writes following the common standards of that time period.
- A Pocket of Stars by Laura Rollins. This is also a Regency novel with romance encompassed in subtle hand touches and lingering gazes.
- Curvy Girls Don’t Date Quarterbacks by Kelsie Stelton. Kelsie has an entire group of books written for teens who do not fit a standard size 4. She creates well-developed characters and breaks many stereotypes with her books.
What other non-spicy books have you read recently to add to this list?
