What does “clean” mean here?
“Clean” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Like movies and music, on this site, “clean” means:
- No explicit sex scenes
- No spicy fade-to-black scenes
- No or *very little* swearing/cussing. If a book has more than 1-3 uses of he** or da**, we’re not including it on this site. We do allow made up cusses and “in-world” swear words (like “flaming stars!”). Feel free to send us a message if you have any concerns.
- No gory descriptions or gratuitous violence. We do allow deaths, intense themes, and fantasy violence (like swordfights, knife wounds, etc) when the violence is an important part of the story and not an excessive, gratuitous experience. If the book’s violence would be a PG or PG-13 movie, we allow it.
- Overall vibe is uplifting and positive. We don’t have the time to note every trigger and potentially disturbing content item. We allow traumatic backstories and difficult content when the story is uplifting, redemption arcs are clear, and the book leaves you with feelings of hope and healing.
“But do you allow…”
We’ve had a lot of questions about what we do allow. We do share books with the following content:
- Traumatic backstories
- Death of side characters
- War, betrayal, torture. Again, these are very subjective. If we include books with these elements its because they ultimately contribute to an uplifting, hopeful, and/or healing vibe in the book.
- Fade-to-black scenes between married characters that are not explicit or spicy. We don’t want to see clothes coming off in these scenes, but we don’t mind implying that married people are sleeping together.
- Kisses! We don’t want to read descriptions of clothes coming off, tongue behavior, or hands roving under shirts, but we love emotional kisses, romantic tension, and all the loving gestures! Forehead kisses, finger touches, a cheek stroke… they’re the best!!
Clean Fantasy Romance Books 