Persuaded: A Review

Goodreads (Description):

Will he take her back, or fling her aside like she deserves?

Three years ago Amanda made the biggest mistake of her life when she let her friends persuade her to reject the guy she loved. They were convinced he was a loser and wasn't good enough for her.

Now Gregory's back in Farmington . . . taller, stronger, hotter than ever, and worth millions. Those gorgeous girls who snubbed him before are now falling at his feet and he's enjoying every moment of it.

Can he see past the pain Amanda caused him and give her a second chance? Or will she forever regret losing the only guy who truly loved her?



My Review:

So the way this book started out made me really mad. Not because of the way it was written, but because of the choice which the character made. The main character, Amanda, was persuaded by her cheerleader friends to break up with the only man she has ever and will ever love.

Now that just pissed me off. For a variety of reasons.

A) I hate mean girls. They degraded and humiliated this guy not only to his face, but behind his back, ultimately leading to breaking his heart.

B) Being a recent high school graduate, I was reminded of many experiences I had at school with girls like this. Now, I wasn't actually personally involved, but I did have to watch two of my friends suffer through from the terrible things the girls said and did to them while they were on the cheerleading team. I'm not saying cheerleaders are bad people, nor am I trying to be stereotypical. At my school, they just weren't the nicest group of people. I had two friends who were cheerleaders and they are two of the most amazing people I know, but when they were on the team, they had a very hard time and it broke my heart. They eventually left the team, and they grew into much happier people once they surrounded themselves around others who uplifted them and encouraged them--they also became more pleasant to hang out with, they were no longer intimated to act like the others on their ex-team.

and C) I'm not a perfect person, but I do try my best to be kind to everyone. I have learned that by doing so, life is far more enjoyable for everyone. Granted, everyone is not always going to love everyone. This quote is something I try to live by:

This sort of goes back to A). You're not going to like everyone you meet, but I believe that is NEVER okay to make them feel bad about themselves. That's bullying, whether your 6, 16, or 60. It still hurts and I've seen enough friends (and once even myself) go through this horrible pain that I made it my lifetime goal to never be that person.

Now that I told you my anger about how this book started, let me tell you just how amazing it is!

And it really was amazing. Amanda was like my cheerleading friends. She was intimidated and put down by a lot of the people who surrounded her, especially those on her cheerleading team during her freshman year. What I liked about her was that she immediately recognized her mistake and went to set things right, only the love of her life had moved away unexpectedly and she was forced through three years of torture as she fought the guilt that ate her alive.

Now he's back. The now very handsome and attractive Gregory is back and man, is he smoking!

I haven't read the original Jane Austin for this book either, but boy, I really want to.

We get to see the struggle between Amanda and Gregory as they try to find a way to be around each other while desperately trying to avoid the past. It's not easy for them, and they aren't entirely successful. It's glaringly obvious through the whole book that they are still head over heels for each other, but are too prideful to do something about it.

That's why I love Gregory's parents so much. They openly oppose their stupidity, though Amanda and Gregory don't really recognize it until later on in the book. (It's quite humorous, actually).

I really liked Amanda and I felt really bad for the situation she was in. Her family always made her feel ugly and under appreciated, that she wasn't good enough or pretty enough. Her friend Kylie, who wasn't much of a friend (at least, that's my opinion) wasn't exactly her biggest supporter either. What I loved was that Amanda stayed strong and true to herself this time. She didn't let anyone persuade her to do something she didn't want to do, as they did her freshmen year. She really grew up a lot, and I loved to see that in her.

I liked Gregory too, though he did slightly annoy me at times. He was so obviously in love with Amanda that I wanted to slap him to outrageously flirting with anything in a skirt. Still, I understood that he was still hurt by Amanda's open and hurtful rejection all those years ago. What I loved about him was that he was never rude to her, ever. He never said an unkind thing to her and even found ways to compliment her. He was hurt and yet he still made sure that he never did anything to harm Amanda. How honorable is that? So my annoyance gradually fell away and I fell in love with him too.

This was a fantastic book! It surprisingly brought a lot of memories back to me of my recent high school days. I can't say I miss them or that I want to go back, but I did make some great friends there. Friends who had to go through a similar pain like Amanda who turned out to be amazing people. Funny how life goes.

I give this a 4.5 out of 5!