Romantic Reads: Know You More

Welcome Jan Thompson to the blog! 

She's here today to talk about her book Know You More. 

Enjoy the interview!

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Interview with Jan Thompson about her book, Know You More: Christian Coastal City & Beach Town Romance (Savannah Sweethearts Book 1)

Alexis: Why did you write this book?

Jan: I wrote Know You More in part to show that multiracial and multiethnic Christians can worship God together in peace and harmony in a Christian church. In fact, Riverside Chapel somewhat mirrors the first century churches that the Lord led Peter and Paul to start. For example, in Acts 2:5-11, we saw a list of believers from many countries coming together to hear Peter preach at Pentecost. Also, back in the day, cities like Ephesus and Corinth were trade crossroads in which people from all over the known world congregated to do business and meet one another. Those were the places Paul planted churches.

Alexis: Describe the setting of this story. Why did you set it in a coastal city and beach town?

Jan: Know You More is the first book in my Savannah Sweethearts series (not counting the prequel, Ask You Later), and sets the tone for the entire series about a community of multiethnic Christians who attend Riverside Chapel, a church housed in a riverboat that’s docked on the Savannah River in Savannah, Georgia. The churchgoers live in the area, in the coastal city of Savannah, and also on the beaches of Tybee Island across the bridge.

I grew up on a tropical island, and my family lived about ten minutes (depending on traffic) from the bay and beaches. Many of my contemporary Christian romance books gravitate toward beach towns, and I find that my experience of having lived on an island and in a coastal city enables me to describe life by the ocean. I love the coasts and beaches, and so I write about what I love and have experienced in my own life.

Alexis: You’ve described this story, Know You More, as a “multiracial romance.” What is the ethnicity/racial makeup of your main characters Diego Flores and Heidi Wei?

Jan: Diego Flores’s father is a Hispanic-American pastor who is now the part-time counseling pastor at Riverside Chapel. The semi-retired senior Flores doesn’t want to do it full time because he wants to spend half his time traveling with his Italian wife, Diego’s mom, to Italy where they like to spend the summer. However, Diego still talks to his dad regularly to get pastoral advice on church and love.

Heidi Wei is a Chinese-American Christian who is an active member of Riverside Chapel, as is her brother, Ming, who happens to be Diego’s best friend. They all attended the University of Georgia some years ago before Diego was called into the pastoral ministry and went off to seminary. They all met again years later in Savannah, when Ming invited Diego to pastor their church. Know You More begins over a year after the friends have reunited.

Alexis: Describe Diego’s church, Riverside Chapel. What makes it special to him?

Jan: Diego has been an associate pastor in the previous churches he worked in. This is the first time Diego is the senior pastor of his own church. Needless to say, he is quite nervous about shouldering such a heavy responsibility. As with any growing church, finding space to house Sunday morning services becomes a challenge for him. Diego sees how God comes through for his church every time they have a need. As his church grows in number, God provides for them a bigger space. Even though it’s on a riverboat, it’s rent-free. Diego is thankful to the Lord that Riverside Chapel continues to grow without getting into financial debt.

Alexis: What role does faith in God play in the lives and hearts of your main characters?

Jan: As the senior pastor of Riverside Chapel, Diego not only preaches the Word of God, but he also has to live what he is preaching. As they say, he has to “walk the talk.” Diego sees that his friend Heidi Wei has a strong faith and wants to do everything she can to help their church grow. Together, they learn to minister to their congregation, while God works in their hearts about their relationship with each other.

Alexis: How does your real-life faith in God impact your fiction storytelling?

Jan: My Christian faith plays a very integral role in my storytelling. I have to understand what God is saying before I can write it in my books through the eyes of my characters. That is to say, if I don’t understand a Bible passage, I cannot explain it. In some of my novels, I allow the characters to study and learn more about the Scripture, and sometimes it becomes clear to me as I write out the scenes and chapters.

Savannah Sweethearts is more involved because all eleven books are about members of the Riverside Chapel church community, starting with their pastor. Diego and Heidi show up in every book, so I do have to remember what their theology is. After all, Diego is their pastor. In fact, he is also a counseling pastor to several people in my spinoff series, Vacation Sweethearts.

Alexis: Thanks for the interview, Jan! Do you have closing comments?

Jan: Thank you very much for inviting me to Romantic Reads for this interview. I appreciate it. I’m happy to write the books I enjoy reading, and I hope that there are readers out there who also love to read the types of books I like. My publishing imprint has a verse that has been an anchor for me in the process of publishing and marketing my books: “That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works” (Psalm 26:7). 

Ultimately, to God be the glory!

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Author Bio:

USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson writes clean and wholesome multiethnic contemporary Christian romance with flavors of women’s fiction, Christian romantic suspense with elements of mystery, and inspirational international thrillers with threads of sweet Christian romance. 

Her books are for readers who love inspiring stories of faith, family, and friends.

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Blurb for Know You More:

He loves her… He loves her not… She’s waiting for him to decide.

A young pastor of a growing church in a thriving coastal community, Diego Flores has to come to grips with God’s will for his pastoral and personal life as he falls in love with his best friend’s sister.

If you enjoy reading clean and wholesome Christian beach romance, you’ll enjoy USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson’s Savannah Sweethearts series set in the coastal city of Savannah, Georgia, and the neighboring beach town of Tybee Island on the Atlantic Ocean. Savannah Sweethearts begins with Know You More, the multiracial romance of Pastor Diego Flores and Heidi Wei.

Diego’s Disquiet…
Diego Flores has been interested in his best friend’s younger sister since their college days, but his calling to grow Riverside Chapel takes up most of his time. 

When Heidi Wei becomes his strongest supporter in his church ministry, how does Diego show his feelings for her without giving her the wrong idea?

Does she see him as potential husband material or just the pastor of their church?

Heidi’s Hurdles…
Heidi suspects that Diego is sweet on her, but he seems to believe that his divine calling prevents him from acting on it. If it isn’t meant to be, she’s not going to push for it. Yet every time they are together, something happens between them. Have they moved beyond the platonic relationship they have enjoyed all these years to something more personal?

When a crisis hits Heidi’s family, Diego has to balance pastoring his congregation and ministering to Heidi without losing either one. Being in love while pastoring a church is difficult for him to juggle. Which path is more important? Which one should he focus on?

If you like Know You More, you’ll want to read the rest of the Savannah Sweethearts series. The next book is Tell You Soon, a romance with suspense featuring Heidi’s brother, private investigator Ming Wei. In this second book, there’s romance, there’s intrigue, and there’s a beach house for sale. Have some tea, settle in a comfortable reading chair, and enjoy these sweet celebrations of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ.

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Buy Know You More on Amazon

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Connect with Jan:
Website: JanThompson.com
Book News: JanThompson.com/newsletter
Amazon USA: JanThompson.com/amazon
Goodreads: JanThompson.com/goodreads
BookBub: JanThompson.com/bookbub
Facebook: JanThompson.com/facebook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thompsonauthor

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Enter this book giveaway contest for your chance to WIN a copy of this book by filling out the entry form on the Rafflecopter widget below: 

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Devotionals for the Heart: God's Plan

Trust God’s Timing And Plans
A devotional by Julia Wilson

“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” –Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

God has a plan for your life and He has a plan for mine. Sometimes He reveals His plans many years in advance. Other times, we do not even realize that we have glimpsed the plan for our future.

Let me share with you the plan that God showed me though I did not realize it at the time and I was too young to even know about God. My twin brothers are three years younger than me. This event happened before they were born. I do not know how old I was.

I remember my Mom dressing me in an all-in-one winter suit and my parents popping me in the car. We drove somewhere. We got out of our car and walked. I remember seeing a bridge across a river with rows of houses either side. I felt drawn to that place.

Bewdley in England (Photo Credit: Julia Wilson)

The longing for that place with the river, the bridge and the houses never left me. As I grew up I would constantly question my parents, asking, “Where did we go?” The answer never changed: They had no idea where it was nor did they know what I was talking about.

I got married, had a family and we lived in four different houses in three different towns. The sense that I desired to go back to that place never left me. I walked my children to school every day. It was about a mile and a quarter up to school and back. I did it twice a day.

One day as I was walking to collect my children, I rounded Beales Corner (as I always did). Suddenly, it was as if the scales fell from my eyes as I looked ahead.

There was the river with the bridge and the houses either side! The place I had been longing for all my life was the place I now lived, and had lived in for several years. Wow! I had done that walk so many times yet never seen it like I saw it that day. Years and years of yearning to return … and yet, I was already home.

Bewdley in England (Photo Credit: Julia Wilson)

I do not know why God put that desire on my heart as a very small child. I do not know why I did not recognize the place of longing the first time I walked to school. But what I do know is God was with me, even when I was too young to know Him. He planned my life out. He put a desire in my heart. And He fulfilled that yearning all in His timing.

I never need to worry about my life because God holds me in His hands. God holds us all in His hands and in His heart. Even when we do not know God, God knows us. He loves us and He cares for us.

If you do not know my caring and loving God, you can know Him today. You can trust His timing and you can trust His heart.

May I lead you in a prayer to help you get to know God?

Let’s Pray: Dear Jesus Christ, I know I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust You and follow You as my Lord and Saviour all the days of my life. In Jesus’s Name I pray, Amen.

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Author Bio:

My name is Julia Wilson but I also go by Christian Bookaholic. 

I live with my husband and five cats in a small town in Worcestershire on the banks of the River Severn (England). We have four grown up children and three granddaughters.

I have always loved reading and have always been surrounded by books. I used to work as a teaching assistant for special needs in the local high school. Ill health forced me to stop working in December 2015. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (known as M.E.) and fibromyalgia. I now have plenty of time to read and review books!

Our eldest son set up my Christian Bookaholic blog. I review every book I read. I read over 300 books a year. I read Christian and mass market. I prefer stories set from 1850 onwards. My favourite type of books to read is stories set in WWI and WWII, and Russia under Czar Nicholas II.

I am a historian, having a Combined Humanities degree where I majored in History and minored in English. I also love swimming. I only learned how to swim in 2017 and go swimming four mornings a week for 90 minutes before breakfast, it keeps my joints going.

I am also a crazy cat lady. I absolutely love my cats. I have grown up with cats and cannot imagine life without them. My dream is to own an old fashioned seal point Siamese … but not while we have our young rescue cat as she hates other cats!

I love God and love going to a large lively church called Lifecentral. I cannot imagine life without God. He gives a peace even when life does not. He guides my life. He is my Rock.