Francine Rivers is a name readers of love stories know well. She's written more than a dozen romance novels, reaping top awards for her work.

But after becoming a born-again Christian in 1986, Rivers crossed over from the secular market to inspirational romance with a decidedly religious bent.

With that move, she came to symbolize a growing belief in the publishing industry that romances are for Christians, too--without the explicit sex of mass market novels and with specific references to faith.

Evangelical Christian romances are a small fraction of the overall book industry, but an important part of the burgeoning Christian fiction market. Romance titles make up about 50% of the best-selling fiction on the list of top Christian books published in July's Bookstore Journal, the trade publication of the Christian Booksellers Assn.

Having been on both sides of the fiction market, Rivers knows the differences between secular and Christian romance.

"In any love story in the Christian market, it's a triangle and God is at the top of the triangle," she said. "In the secular market, it's just between the man and the woman and there's usually sexual involvement."

Phyllis Tickle, religion editor for Publishers Weekly, said people in the trade put it more vividly: "It's the difference between whether the bodice rips or just bulges."

But the contrast goes beyond sexual content. Some Christian writers say readers want books with more meaningful relationships than those often depicted in secular fiction.

And for some writers of Christian romance, the books can be tools for subtle evangelism. The authors hope non-Christians who pick up their books will be inspired to become Christians themselves.

Janis Reams Hudson, president of the Romance Writers of America, composed mostly of members who write secular romance novels, said more publishers are distributing so-called inspirational love stories.

"The market for inspirational romance is growing in part for the same reasons that the regular romance is growing," she said. "All of the books deliver messages of hope that . . . at least for fictional characters, things can work out.

"I think it's a reflection on society that people want more hope in their lives."

Later this month, her organization will announce awards for inspirational romance, chosen from both published novels and unpublished manuscripts. Rivers is a finalist for her book "An Echo in the Darkness."