An Honest Skeptic

(Clearly, I've been reading a lot of books published in Britain lately.  For the LIFE of me, I couldn't remember if it was spelled "skeptic" or "sceptic"!  Turns out, the answer is both--"k" in the US, "c" in the Commonwealth.)

All right, gang.  After years of being bombarded on every side every time I step into a bookstore, and far more ferociously, months of barrage from book bloggers, I am--though reticent--willing to consider the question of so-called Jane Austen sequels.  I hope you all appreciate how difficult it is for me to even type those words, because for years, the very phrase has been anathema to me.  But when I found fire-breathing, hard-core Jane Austen fans--women who devote their lives to blogging about Jane, her books, her manners, her clothes, her England, all things Regency--who had jumped on this bandwagon, I began to wonder if there might be something worthwhile in it, after all.  There's a whole industry made up of people who write all the things they think J.A. should have and maybe would have written if she had lived long enough, for heaven's sake!

So, I'm sending out a general call to all book bloggers.  Please, I ask this in all sincerity--tell me what about these seeming interlopers makes them such good reads that I need to break the habits of a lifetime and give them a shot?  Because if you're all really sure that I'm missing out on something, I really will at least make an effort to read a couple and see if it's worth it.  I would love to get not just comments, but whole posts on this, because I can't be the only skeptical one out there.  Broaden our minds; enlighten us nay-sayers.  Maybe some of us will find friends we never knew we had in some of these sequels.  Spread the word [yes, I'm looking particularly at you, Gina Hott, and you, too, Bev, :) ]; even if you don't read this genre yourself, I'm sure you know plenty of bloggers who do, and I really want to try and understand this phenomenon.  Help me out, fellow Jane devotees.  I earnestly await your replies.

P.S.  I'm sorry, but I absolutely draw the line at vampires and zombies.  I'm firm on that point.  I like my Jane Austen to be completely of this earth, thank you all the same.