That sounds fascinating, Anne! I think I'll have to give that book a go too. Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors of all time and I've always felt she must have had at least one serious love interest in her life, for her to be able to write about romantic love (and loss) as brilliantly as she does. We'll probably never know the truth, but it's fun to speculate...Anne Gracie wrote: Hope I can say this, but I like one of the (many) authors that has done the Jane Austen book writing spin-off, in this case, written a fictionalised account of Jane Austen‘s life. Her name is Syrie James and I loved the first one I read of hers so much that I contacted the author, and she replied, albeit a brief acknowledgment plus her encouragement to read further books in the series! I have done, and I would definitely re-read these again.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/175 ... ane_Austen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Actually, at the moment I'm reading an Austen continuation / rewrite from another character's viewpoint: Mrs Clay, by Dorothea-Sofia Rossellini, imagining the story of Mrs Clay from Persuasion (a relatively minor but intriguing character in the original book). It's very good so far, written rather tongue-in-cheek and not attempting to imitate Jane Austen's style (probably for the best), but lots of fun, if a bit slow-moving. But the author has obviously done her research well and is hinting that there are some secrets to be uncovered — hidden within the original novel but not made known until Mrs Clay's side of the story was revealed — so I'm interested to see what happens as it unfolds.