Persuade Me by Juliet Archer

We've all heard the saying, "when you assume, you make an ass of you and me." In this book, there's a LOT of assuming and thus, a lot of people making asses of themselves... and that's part of what makes this book so funny and entertaining.

Quick summary: Rick and Anna loved each other long ago, but her snotty family convinced her to give him up. She lives in England. He lives in Australia. Ten years after their tragic romance, he is right in her backyard doing a book tour. Do they have a second chance?


The characters... my gawd.. the family of Anna. It is like a comedy sitcom. Walter is so full of himself, it is unbelievable. "He felt a huge sense of achievement (looking in a new fancy mirror) now that he could view his appearance from 360 degrees." Walter's daughters are Lisa, Anna, Mona. Anna is the only sane one among them. Mona is a psycho mom who bosses Anna around. Lisa is a feminine version of her dad. And there's Cleo, a slutty masseuse, William the gold digger, James the mad poet, Lou the slut who throws herself (literally!) at men, and a lot of family. 


And all these people try to keep Anna and her true love, Rick apart. Because nobody really knows what is going and that is that Anna loves Rick, NOT William and Rick loves Anna, NOT Leo, but everybody makes assumptions and they're all wrong and Rick and Anna both misunderstand and every single time one plans to tell the other those three simple words (I love you) and fix the relationship that was so damaged years before, someone steps up and gets in the way. Well Rick is only in England for.. 6 weeks? Time is running out.... 


I, the reader, found myself chuckling on numerous occasions and laughed out loud at least twice. (Walter's Little Problem in That Department!!!! LOL) I was also cheering for the hero and heroine and found myself getting angry at times with certain characters. That's a sign that the book has really sucked me in.


However, I found the heroine, Anna, to be ridiculously spineless at times. Even in the end of the book, I still felt she was a bit too submissive and wall flowerish. As I prefer reading about strong, independent women, this grated on my nerves. She constantly lets people boss her around and rarely speaks up for herself. Thus, despite all the laughter on my part, I give this a four instead of a five. 


Favorite quote: "We can all go on as we are, doing nothing different. Whereas 'hop' is an action word - or should be. Something aspirational, like - how did he put it? - living our dream. But, to achieve it, we usually have to come out of our comfort zone and change in some way." 


I received this from the publisher for pre review.