"running away from love is truly a sign of weakness"
Reviewed by Sandra Wurman
Posted January 27, 2013
Romance
First let me say that AN ACT OF PERSUASION introduced me to
Stephanie
Doyle as it was the first book of hers I've ever read. But
let me assure you it won't be my last. This is a truly
amazing story -- yes of course it is a love story since its
genre is romance -- but I'd be so shortsighted if I don't
elaborate. As I said this is an amazing story of survival
and life. Just what inner strengths does a person have to
possess or develop in order to stay ahead of the fray that
life creates. Doyle introduces us to a myriad of characters
that have developed that strength and have survived. But
the burning question is -- is it good enough to just survive
or do people need to get past that mode and take the giant
leap toward living and loving and trusting to invite
another person into the calm, safe cocoon keeping them just
out of reach of the world beyond. Anne and Ben what an odd couple they make. Having said that
they had no intention of ever being a couple as they worked
closely together in Ben's investigative business. Anne was
Ben's super assistant for over six years but each was very
careful to avoid crossing the line between business and
pleasure. In all the time they never seemed to have much of
a personal life outside the office. The business was their
lives and their work friendship seemed to keep them
satisfied. Privately Anne held very different feelings for Ben then
she would ever admit to. He was becoming more important to
her each year and when he had to valiantly fight against a
life threatening illness Anne became the care giver without
any hesitation. Watching Ben battle against the illness and
how it weakened this very strong, independent, vital man
was beyond difficult for Anne. Anne who battled for years
against her own fears of abandonment now faced the
possibility of losing this man who meant so much to her. So true to Anne's habits she ran. When she realized that
Ben wasn't about to acknowledge that their relationship had
moved on beyond friends and work Anne did what came
unfortunately easy for her and literally severed all ties
with Ben. She even took an administrative job with one of
Ben's competitors. Hey if you're going to do it -- why not
jump in with both feet. However, there was one thing Anne couldn't run from and
that was the fact that she found herself pregnant from the
one time she and Ben had lowered their guard and acted upon
their mutual attraction. For Anne it had been an unguarded
moment of realizing her need to get closer to this man who
she loved. For Ben it was finally acting on the need he had
successfully hidden for all these years. His need for Anne
brought with it several problems for Ben, most assuredly
his need to be in control of his life. His desire for Anne
was something that just wasn't going to disappear even with
her absence from his life and his company. In fact he now
found himself absorbed in this need to reconnect with the
woman who was carrying his child. But if he was truly
honest with himself -- she not only had his child but his
heart. Now he was going to have to convince her that they deserved
a chance at being a real family. Sounds easy but couldn't
be farther from the truth of the situation. The battle of
wits had now begun and it was questionable whether either
would survive the war. I am purposely being vague about the meat of this story as
it engrossed me from the very start. There was no way I
was going to give away any of the plot other than gloss
over the mutual attraction of the two major characters.
Doyle made each character so unique and yet fabricated a
rich tale about getting over differences and more
importantly fears. I loved it and candidly can't wait for
more.
SUMMARY
For all the wrong reasons? Anna Summers has always been more than Ben Tyler's
assistant. She's even been more than his best friend. Too
bad Ben didn't realize it until after she quit. Now that
he's more like his old self after facing off against a
life-threatening illness, he's ready to win Anna back. Of course, it's not simple. One night Ben broke his own rule
about getting involved with an employee. And now Anna is
pregnant. She refuses to let him use the baby as a reason
for them to reconcile. It will take an act of persuasion to
convince her they belong together…and not only because of
the baby.
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