For my daughter there were DE foreign language courses at the high school and then she took College Credit Plus at a college branch for Math, Science, and other courses. She felt the DE at the high school was easier than the courses at the college branch, but she also really enjoyed the foreign language teacher which kept her interest. She did not take AP Lit. We are similar that there isn’t a choice for Honor’s English senior year. She chose regular English and it was easy for her, probably too easy.
OTOH my son is currently in AP Lit. There are some rather hard books along with poetry which he doesn’t care for AT ALL. Luckily he really likes the teacher. He used this teacher for one of his Letters of Recommendations and she has pushed him to stay the course. He feels he will be well prepared for the AP test. He has also taken/currently taking a variety of AP including Calc BC, Physics, Govt, Econ and more as well as DE foreign language and DE Accounting at the high school.
Bottom line at our school, I believe AP is harder than DE, but a lot depends on the teachers. Do you know who the teacher is for the DE English course? Maybe have her ask around for his/her reputation. If it’s favorable I would think she would be fine. She sounds prepared and will do very well for yourself. And given the fact she would get credit, I would pay it if it were my child.