Persuade Me

When do you let your heart rule your head?When it comes to love, Anna Elliot is stuck in the past. No one can compare to Rick Wentworth, the man she gave up ten years ago at the insistence of her disapproving family. What if she's missed her only chance for real happiness?Since Anna broke his heart, Rick has moved on - or so he thinks. Out in Australia, he's worked hard to build a successful career - and a solid wall around his feelings.The words 'forgive and forget' aren't in Rick's vocabulary. The word 'regret' is definitely in Anna's. So, when they meet again on his book tour of England, it's an opportunity for closure.But memories intrude - the pure sensuality of what they once shared, the pain of parting. And she has to deal with another man from her past, while his celebrity status makes him the focus of unwanted attention.With Anna's image-obsessed family still ready to interfere and Rick poised to return to Australia, can she persuade him to risk his heart again?This contemporary retelling of Jane Austen's last completed novel is the second book in Juliet Archer's Darcy & Friends series, offering fresh insights into the hearts and minds of Austen's irresistible heroes.ReviewOnce I started Persuade Me, I had a hard time putting it down. I loved Archer s easy writing style and her appreciation of Austen's humor when it comes to exaggerated secondary characters, especially in transforming Anne Elliot's hypochondriac sister, Mary Musgrove, into Anna's alcoholic sister, Mona, and Mrs. Clay into Cleopatra, a masseuse with a phony French accent. I also enjoyed how she lets readers into the heads of both Anna and Rick, though knowing the innermost thoughts of both lessened the excitement a little bit. . . Archer does a wonderful job adapting Persuasion for a contemporary audience while staying true to Austen s story of second chances. Her ability to add a modern flair to every event that transpires in Persuasion exemplifies the timelessness of Austen's novels. --Anna Horner, Austenblog About the AuthorJULIET ARCHER is from Newcastle upon Tyne in England. She studied languages at the University of Nottingham. She describes herself as a 19th-century mind living in a 21st-century body. Actually, some days it's the other way round. By day, she masquerades as wife, mother and businesswoman. By night, with a glass of wine and a box of chocolates in hand, she becomes an author. Juliet's Darcy & Friends series are modern day versions of Jane Austen. Her debut novel, The Importance of Being Emma won the 2011 Big Red Reads Fiction Award and was short-listed for the 2009 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. It was warmly praised by international bestselling author, Joanna Trollope. Her second novel, Persuade Me was short-listed for the 2011 Festival of Romance Best Romantic Read Award.