Below is the complete list of Lynn Austin books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Chronicles of the Kings Books
Publication Order of If I Were You Books
Publication Order of Refiner’s Fire Books
Publication Order of Restoration Chronicles Books
Publication Order of Waves of Mercy Books
Publication Order of Standalone Books
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas Books
About Lynn Austin
Lynn Austin is an American author of Christian historical fiction whose novels often place ordinary people inside periods of political, social, and spiritual upheaval. She is especially known for the Chronicles of the Kings, Refiner’s Fire, and Restoration Chronicles series, along with stand-alone historical novels such as Hidden Places, A Woman’s Place, Until We Reach Home, If I Were You, and Chasing Shadows. Across her work, Austin frequently explores faith under pressure, the consequences of war, the changing roles of women, family relationships, and the ways personal conviction can survive uncertainty and loss.
Austin attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, before completing a psychology degree at Southern Connecticut State University. After marrying her husband, Ken, she lived for two years in Bogotá, Colombia, where she taught fourth grade while he performed with a symphony orchestra. She has described this period as important to her development as a reader: without television and with more time for books, she began reading extensively and eventually started thinking seriously about writing fiction herself.
Her early writing years coincided with raising a family and later living in Canada. Austin worked on her fiction for more than a decade before publishing her first novel. She eventually left teaching in 1992 to pursue writing full-time.
Her debut, Gods and Kings, appeared in 1995 and became the opening volume of the five-book Chronicles of the Kings. Based on the biblical accounts of the kings of Judah, the sequence dramatizes the reigns and spiritual struggles associated particularly with King Hezekiah and the turbulent world surrounding him. Austin’s research for the books included participating with her son in an archaeological excavation at Timnah in Israel in 1989. That experience also helped inspire Wings of Refuge, a novel that connects characters from different periods through the history of the Holy Land.
Austin broadened her historical settings with the Refiner’s Fire series, beginning with Candle in the Darkness. Set during the American Civil War, the trilogy approaches the conflict through different characters and perspectives rather than treating the war merely as a backdrop. Fire by Night follows women involved in wartime nursing, while A Light to My Path examines slavery, emancipation, and the difficult transition toward freedom.
The Restoration Chronicles—Return to Me, Keepers of the Covenant, and On This Foundation—returned Austin to biblical historical fiction. Drawing on the period following the Babylonian exile, the books fictionalize events surrounding figures such as Ezra and Nehemiah while emphasizing the individual families and communities affected by political and religious restoration.
Many of Austin’s stand-alone novels focus particularly strongly on women confronting restrictive circumstances. A Woman’s Place follows four women entering wartime industrial work during World War II, while Until We Reach Home tells the story of Swedish sisters immigrating to America. If I Were You moves between wartime Britain and postwar America, examining friendship, class, identity, and deception. Chasing Shadows is set in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, while Long Way Home considers the lasting emotional damage of World War II after the fighting has ended.
Her novel Hidden Places was adapted as a Hallmark Channel television film starring Shirley Jones, whose performance received an Emmy nomination. Austin has also received eight Christy Awards for excellence in Christian fiction and was inducted into the Christy Award Hall of Fame in 2013.
Alongside her novels, Austin wrote Pilgrimage: My Journey to a Deeper Faith in the Land Where Jesus Walked, a nonfiction account shaped by travel in Israel. Biblical history, archaeology, and questions of faith have remained recurring elements of her career even when her stories move into nineteenth- or twentieth-century settings.
Austin’s fiction is distinguished less by historical spectacle than by the people living through it. Wars, migrations, biblical upheavals, economic pressures, and social restrictions create the circumstances, but her central concern is usually how individuals respond when familiar structures collapse. That combination of historical research and character-centered spiritual fiction has made her one of the most decorated writers in modern Christian historical fiction.