I’m going to send you to a couple of romance authors I personally know who write clean romances. These are fine Christian romance authors who are super sweet people.
Historical western romances:
Check out Janet Syas Nitsick.
I actually do have one historical romance that is clean. It’s Romancing Adrienne, and it can be found on this page. (It’s Book 4 in the series.) Just link to the retailer you’re interested in.
For contemporary romances:
Check out Catherine Lynn.
Check out Kristy K. James.
Check out Dorothy Paula.
I do have one clean contemporary romance that I wrote in an anthology under the pen name Barbara Joan Russell. It can be found on this page. Look for the book titled Bride by Design. Click the link to where you want to buy it.
For historical or contemporary:
Kristen Osbourne has some clean historicals and contemporary romances. Read the descriptions to make sure they’re clean.
Also, It’s my understanding that Catherine Lynn and Kristy K. James are looking into writing some historicals. (I just checked, and Kristy does have a historical already out.)
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That all said…
I am going to keep putting sex into my romances. I don’t write clean romances because there are SO MANY already out there. There’s more supply than there is demand. You can go to any retailer right now and find a ton of them. You’ll never run out of clean romances to read. Seriously, you won’t.
However, there are very few romances available where the author has made this promise about every single book: the hero and heroine do not have sex with each other until after marriage. I can find an author who does this setup for a few books, but then they have other books where the hero and heroine have sex before marriage. So I never know what I’m getting when I pick up that author’s book.
But I do make that promise about my books, and I am going to keep true to that promise. The only two other authors I know of who are doing this are Rose Gordon and Carolyn Davidson. I am helping to fill a void that exists in the romance market. This is the beauty of self-publishing. I get to write books that very few others are doing.
And some people have told me they’re glad I write sex within marriage. Believe me, no one was more surprised than I was when I found out I wasn’t the only romance reader who got frustrated in searching for an author who kept sex within marriage for every single book they wrote. I thought I was the only romance reader alive who wanted the hero and heroine to wait until marriage to have sex. The reason I started writing romances was because I couldn’t find the kind of romances I was looking for.
I also wanted more virgin heroes. Man, I can’t tell you how tired I was of finding so many sexually experienced heroes in romances. Like magic, he falls in love with the heroine and changes his ways. Never mind the other women he had gone through in the past. It’s like those women never mattered. And that always bothered me. That’s why if I do have a hero who isn’t a virgin AND isn’t a widower or was forced into a divorce, I make sure to show that the hero’s past sexual pursuits weren’t fun. I give him guilt. He has to realize he used those women for his own selfish pleasure. It was never love. It was lust. I don’t see how any man can use women and feel good about himself in the long run, at least not if he has a conscience.
I’m going to keep putting sex into my books, and I will keep describing the act. In a good marriage, the act of lovemaking brings the couple closer together. That’s all I do in my books when I include sex scenes. I’m showing how they grow closer together. I have a lot of respect for the sex act. I find it beautiful and pure. And that’s how I see it when I write about it.
I understand not everyone will agree with me. And that’s why I listed the authors above. Please, if you’re looking for clean romances, check them out. If you want clean romances, I’m not the author for you. If you pick up another one of my books, you’ll be disappointed, and I want to save you that disappointment.
From now on, if someone asks me about writing clean romances, I’ll just point them to the authors I mentioned above.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
Dear Ruth, I didn’t know (or at least I didn’t remember) your pen name Barbara Joan Russell. What a lovely name. I went into Amazon to buy your and Catherine Lynn’s book, Bride by Design, and a note came up that I already had the book on my kindle since 2015. Have you published an updated version or is it the same one as the 2015 copy I have. Thank you for mentioning me along with the other two writers above. I enjoy your books because you keep sex within marriage and portray it so beautifully, and always within our religious beliefs. I have more than several of your paperbacks on my favorite author shelf. A few years ago I wrote a clean romantic mystery entitled, The Consequential Heart. Here’s a mini excerpt. Let me know if you’d like an ebook copy. I’ll gladly send you a coupon for it. Thank you again, and do let me know if the copy I have of Bride By Design has been updated. I will check out Catherine Lynn and Kristie K James books also.
Mini excerpt – “And you remember who I mentioned in my notes,” Jim whispered.
“Yes, I do.” JoAnn answered. “But those suspicions were never made public.”
“Nevertheless, my office was broken into and files searched. Nothing was discovered missing except the file I carried with me in my briefcase.”
“Alliston’s,” JoAnn said, shakily.”
Jim nodded.
“We are all in danger, aren’t we?” JoAnn said.
“Yes we are,” Jim said. “There’s already been one murder committed relative to this case.”
This is the same version. I figured I’d mention it again since I’ve had people ask if I have any clean romances, and that is one of the two that I’ve done. I don’t know if it does any good to mention it since it’s an older book, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
I’ll have to look through my book catalogue to see if I already have The Consequential Heart. I typically buy all of your books, and i usually get them either in paperback or on Amazon. As much as I want to support Smashwords, it’s more convenient for me to read something on my Kindle or in paperback form instead of on my computer. 🙂
Thank you so much for mentioning me! I really enjoyed writing the Bride by Design anthology with you. I write clean for a particular reason, and I think you know what it is. 🙂 And I love your books. You do a great job of portraying how important a good sexual relationship is in marriage. I respect that a lot.
And, yes, I am in the process of writing a historical romance. It’s Gothic and a little dark, but not too dark for those who love romance. I think I’m really going to enjoy this genre.
Again, thanks so much for the mention!
You’re welcome! 🙂
I’m looking forward to reading your historical romance! That’s going to be a fun read.
we all know that sex has been around since the beginning of time, and I don’t see it going away in the future. It is what drives the human race. I like novels that have zing.. Yes there are men who are driven by lust, ( women too) . It remains so , even in modern times. It seems it was a given , years ago, that only men had “needs” and it was alright for them to sow their oats, but so many men liked to seduce the debutantes and leave them by the wayside. And the poor girl is ruined and SHE is always the cause of her downfall… I like a strong woman who can get up and dust herself off and thumb her nose at society and the ton, because she had business sense and a
sense of her own worth and made her life a success.
I am waiting for a novel where this heroine is left , with child, and the chump dumps her and dashes off to marry a virgin heiress. However , and here is the twist…. our heroine has a son, loves him to bits, makes a success of her life( with some hardships) , finds a Hero who loves her for herself, and the Chump and his wife are childless, he is in a loveless marriage .. and our heroine refuses all monies from him so he cannot prove or claim his son.
I have all your regency novels in my library, some hardcover, some on computer. keep writing !
I have written something close to the set up you mentioned, but it’s a historical western and the hero never marries. I have a feeling that kind of thing happened more than we would imagine. I don’t know of a Regency that fits that bill, though. I haven’t come across one like it.
I haven’t seen that scenario in Regency yet.. The scene comes somewhat close in many novels, but the guy always gets away with ruining the woman by having his atrocious wife dying conveniently and he gets to marry the heroine after all, and gets to keep the kid.. Not good in my way of thinking, I want to see the cad suffer as he made the heroine suffer for so many years because she had to claw her way back to a good name , and protect here son…. I have a wild imagination, but not good at putting words to paper…. lol
I’m sorry I’m getting to you so late on this comment. I didn’t realize it’d been so long ago until I was going through emails this morning. Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?
I wanted to say that I agree with you on how upsetting that scenario is. I hate jerk heroes. Unless they have to pay for what they’ve done, I’m not satisfied with them. I know what books you’re talking about. I’ve seen the description that fits that on several Regencies, and I don’t buy them for that reason. Another plot I’m not thrilled with is the hero marrying or seducing the heroine for revenge against her brother or father. I have a hard time relating to a hero like that. I can see how he could be redeemed if done right, but the storyline doesn’t appeal to me, mainly because he’s setting her up for a heartbreak. It’d be one thing is she had jilted him in some way, but she’s innocent. I see no reason to plot against an innocent character like that.
Anyway, I do think heroes who are cads like what you mentioned should suffer. Otherwise, how they can really be worthy of the heroine’s love? But yeah, having a cad watch the woman be happy with someone else and the child would be sweet justice, too.