Persuaded

Anne Elliot, the second daughter of megachurch pastor Walter P. Elliot, has finally been allowed to create a plan to solve her family’s financial woes by making a deal that hands over the reins of Let the Redeemed Holiness Church (LRHC) and its pastoral home to a new pastor and first lady.

To her joy and dismay, Anne discovers that the new pastor’s wife is the sister of her broken-hearted ex-fiancé. Ten years ago, Anne’s family persuaded her to reject Freddie Wentworth, a preacher’s son, struggling musician, and ladies’ man, saying that he was not marriage material for her or any pastor’s daughter.

Running into a now romantically stable and musically successful Freddie at the home of her sister’s in-laws, Anne is surprised to confront a seething man who seemingly wants nothing to do with her except to exact revenge by pursuing a relationship with one of her friends.

As any possible hope for forgiveness slips away, along with her belief in love, Anne meets Gregory Elliott, whom her family adores. However, she slowly begins to have doubts about him, and this apprehension causes Anne to confront the dilemma of whether, once again, she will be persuaded to follow the advice of others when it comes to love, or will she finally trust the murmurings of her own heart.

Persuaded is a modern African American retelling of Jane Austen’s classic romantic novel, Persuasion. The book will appeal to lovers of Jane Austen fan fiction, as well as to African American/Christian romantic readers who want an honest yet humorous discussion about the responsibilities and pressures that the church places on preacher’s kids, while failing to discuss the profoundness of love and sex.