Introducing… Persuade Me

It occurred to me this week that I haven’t introduced the book that releases in just over a month!! This is, obviously, something new that was suggested to me recently, and I did it with Confusing Cassie, but forgot all about saying anything about Persuade Me.

Persuade Me… coming April 5th

One horrible misunderstanding. Two heartbroken people.

For seven long years, Anne Elliot of Kellynch Station quietly mourned the loss of her first love. Now that she’s finally over Fred for good, her sister offers the perfect escape: Uppercross.

This move, from one cattle station to another, offers new friends, new responsibilities, and now that she’s out from under her father’s domineering thumb, a whole new world of possibilities.

The sky is the limit.

Or maybe the sky is the perfect place for helicopter mustering pilot Fred Wentworth to spend his days. It took a while for him to regroup after their breakup, but now he’s back, he’s successful, and he’s put the past so far behind him he doesn’t even think about Anne more than a couple dozen times a day.

Life is good.

Or it was until he quite literally runs into the one person he hoped to never see again. After that, what’s a bloke to do other than rethink every lie he’d convinced himself was the truth?

Although they both seem willing to admit they were wrong all those years ago, when things take a bad turn, Anne is left to wonder… Is it too late for a reconciliation?

Persuade Me: Austen’s Persuasion meets the rugged Australian bush—plus dingoes.

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I plan to write more about the origins of the book–where the idea came from, and how I came to reconcile a class-conscious man with the very much un-class-conscious culture in Australia, but for now lets focus on other things.

Like the cover.

Isn’t that a pretty picture? Would you have guessed that it was taken with an old film camera over twenty years ago? The silhouette has been changed, but the photo itself was taken when Josh, who was only a friend of mine at the time, went on a whirlwind trip through part of the outback with my brother all the way back in 2000. They stopped to camp the night at a dam on the side of the road, which is where Josh snapped this photo of the windmill at sunset.

Originally, the silhouette was that of my brother, but my cover designer switched him out for a girl to better suit the genre. And that turned out to be a pretty cool thing because when I showed family and friends this cover their first response was to ask if that was me. Apparently, it it looks enough like a photo of me from twenty-plus years ago that some thought it might actually have been me.

Also, although the photo wasn’t taken in the exact location where my book is set, it was taken not all that far away.

Considering all of that, it seemed like a fitting suggestion for the cover and I am happy to say that my publisher agreed! Add in the series name and title and… we have a gorgeous cover that feels as authentically Australian as I tried to make the story.

Persuade Me is available to pre-order

I do hope you’ll take advantage of the special pre-order offer and grab it now before the price goes up. Not only that, but there is a free bonus short story that will be given to anyone who pre-orders the book (at this link here).

Oh, and did I mention Persuade Me is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion? The story has been changed to fit the location, the location is vastly different to the streets of Bath… but I think you’ll recognise the premise and the characters, too.

My hope is that you will come to love this version of Anne and Fred as much as we love the Anne and Frederick portrayed in Persuasion. 😊