In this chord progression I wanted to modulate to the minor subdominant (Em to Am) but instead of just using a V7/iv I wanted to see if I could arrive to the V/iv in different ways and perhaps by introducing iiØ7 before the V. Here I chose a bII chord which acts as bVI in the original key and from here it descends by diminished 5th to a iiØ7 chord for a iiØ7-V-i in the new key. I realized after however, that I wrote an augmented second in the soprano. In a diatonic setting, I would be advised to avoid this progression and use a different soprano line but does this apply here as well?
NB, the V in the cadence is not a V7