New Release: Takes One to Know One: Marline Williams Brings 1970s Hollywood Romance and Faith to Life

About This Episode

Marline Williams Returns with Takes One to Know One

Author Marline Williams is back on the LiteraryScape podcast. She joined host Melissa LaShure to celebrate the release of her newest novel, Takes One to Know One. This is book three in her Jesus Revolution Romance Series. The story drops readers into 1975 Hollywood, a world of glamour, rebellion, and faith under fire.

Fans of Christian historical romance will love this trip back in time. Williams writes clean, funny, faith-filled fiction set against a backdrop most authors skip. Her 1970s romance novels stand out in a crowded market still dominated by World War II stories.

What Takes One to Know One Is About

This Christian romance novel follows Helene Hoyle, a rising Hollywood star with big hair, a modeling career, and a long list of rules for her life. She resembles a young Farrah Fawcett. Her carefully ordered world cracks open when a face from her past resurfaces in Southern California.

Both Helene and her former flame share a reputation as heartbreakers. Neither wants to admit they might be perfectly matched. Williams calls it a clash of the titans, a classic battle of the sexes wrapped in 1970s sunshine and Malibu beach scenery.

The novel continues the saga that began with All Men Are Liars and Love the One You’re With, following the same circle of friends from the United States to London and now to Hollywood.

Writing by Faith: How Williams Plots Her Christian Fiction

Williams describes herself as a panster, meaning she writes without a detailed outline. She trusts the story to unfold scene by scene. Takes One to Know One wasn’t even supposed to be book three. Helene’s story pushed its way to the front, and Williams followed.

She credits much of her creative process to spiritual guidance. Ideas often arrive unexpectedly, even waking her in the middle of the night. This approach to faith-based fiction writing mirrors a theme running through the novel itself: surrendering personal plans to a bigger, providential design.

A Second Jesus Revolution? The Series’ Deeper Meaning

The Jesus Revolution Romance Series draws its inspiration from the real spiritual awakening of the 1970s. Williams was a college student during that original movement. She began writing the series after sensing echoes of revival on campuses years later, including the widely covered Asbury University outpouring.

She points to a cultural shift happening now. Athletes kneel in prayer on football fields. Young men, not just women, are leading a renewed wave of faith. Williams believes her novels capture this same spirit of spiritual hunger, just set fifty years in the past.

Classic Literature Woven Into Modern Christian Romance

Readers will also find playful nods to classic literature throughout the series. Book two leaned on Shakespeare. This third installment draws from Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, since one character lands a role in a Hollywood miniseries based on the Trojan War.

Williams insists none of this makes her books heavy reading. Her stories stay lighthearted and funny first. The literary references are a bonus, not a requirement, for enjoying the romance.

Behind the Book Titles

Williams shared the surprising stories behind each title in the series. All Men Are Liars comes straight from Psalm 116 in the King James Version. Love the One You’re With nods to the popular 1970s Doobie Brothers song. Takes One to Know One reflects two characters who recognize their own flirtatious nature mirrored in each other.

A Bonus Bicentennial Short Story

Alongside the novel launch, Williams released a free flash fiction short story called The Spirit of 1976. It celebrates America’s bicentennial and the Fourth of July. The story is tucked into her website for any reader who wants a quick, nostalgic read.

Join the Summer Fun: Games, Giveaways, and a Newsletter

Williams built an entire summer experience around the new release. Readers can join Lean’s Laws on Instagram, a running list of rules her heroine sets for her own life. There’s also a Car Stars scavenger hunt, where readers search for vintage cars from the books at real car shows.

Her monthly newsletter includes a personality quiz matching readers to a curated Spotify playlist of 1970s divas, plus a name-that-tune game called California Sunshine posted three times a week on Instagram. A giveaway in July offers a signed, paperback trilogy bundle packed in a retro beach bag.

Listeners can grab Takes One to Know One now and catch up on the full series before book four arrives.

Links From Marline

Visit Marline Williams’s website