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Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading but not great
Review: For a diehard Austen fan, any sequel or attempt is of interest. I found this book to have a much darker tone than all of Austen's work. Aiken takes the story on a path of brooding, sickness and poverty. The characters are drawn with a much heavier hand and seem to be generally bitter and unhappy in a very 20th century way. Worth reading, but if you read Austen to visit a happier, simpler era, this is not the way to go.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining completion, but not for Janeites...
Review: Having read mixed reviews of Joan Aiken, and having read (and reviewed) her JANE FAIRFAX (a look at a major character in Austen's EMMA), I thought I would try this completion of the fragment THE WATSONS. The book is indeed entertaining, although there are many dark moments and the whole story is suffused by the determination or desire of Emma Watson to be independent (something that might be labelled as post-modern interpretation, or feminist interpretation). For those of you not completely familiar with THE WATSONS, the book begins when a young lady Emma Watson is obliged to return to her family - a widower clergyman father and his many children - when her rich aunt marries a fortune-hunter and moves to Ireland. Much of the story is preoccupied with the economic and social position of the Watsons, particularly the three unmarried daughters (a fourth unmarried daughter marries at the outset) and the situation of Emma Watson in particular as she is bounced from home to home. The ending is a trifle unrealistic, since it appears to be a pastiche of Austen's own encounters with Royalty and the happy ending of PERSUASION. The tone is completely unlike that of Austen; I thought I should make that clear for anyone seeking the wit and irony of Austen herself. Although I have not found any sequel or continuation or pastiche completely satisfactory, Aiken's JANE FAIRFAX was the most faithful both in plot and spirit to Austen's own works. This book draws more from Austen's own life and considerably from the situation of the Dashwood sisters in Sense & Sensibility. [In fact, think of this story as Sense & Sensibility, combined with a bit of Persuasion for the ending, with some other highly romantic elements thrown in]. I found the book rather disappointing if I approached it as a Janeite. [Most of Aiken's recent works using Austen characters have been similarly disapointing.] Even as a stand-alone novel, I found the work oddly disjointed. The most brilliantly drawn characters were those who were the villains or the most disagreeable. The personalities of the more likeable characters seem oddly flat, and one of them - the Rev Mr Howard - very different from start to finish. Emma Watson herself, although showing traces of Austen's own character, seemed oddly passive in her relationship with her aunt who had cast her off in preference to a young second husband, a stand that I found too self-sacrificing (compared to her general thoughts and attitudes). I think this could have been an interesting and even a great novel if some characters had been better developed, and if the ending had been made more realistic. For a really good example of how this is done, read Jean Rhys's WIDE SARGASSO SEA.
Rating:
Summary: Falls apart halfway through - Try John Coates
Review: I don't expect Aiken to fool me into thinking that this is Austen's work, but I do expect a competent novel. This was initially promising, but it begins to descend into melodrama. The ending is very perfunctory; the heroine finds her "true love" with almost magically with little development of their relationship. What is there is quite good, it is just not substantial enough for me to believe that the moment Emma catches sight of him, she knows that they are going to be married.
After reading this and Lady Catherine's necklace, Aiken's sequel to Pride and Prejudice, it appears to me that the author is rather bored with romances - I strongly recommend that she try writing something else. It is possible to write a historical novel of this period without leeching off of Austen.
I strongly recommend John Coates' finishing of this fragment, The Watsons.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining little drama
Review: In the post-reading analysis, no, this wasn't a five-star book. But it was still a diverting read, and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Don't, however, read it as a Jane Austen book. You could only be disappointed. It is written with a modern sensibility and consciousness (and in places, vocabulary), which doesn't fit with Jane's work. Read it as a Joan Aiken book, though, and it is an entertaining little drama.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining little drama
Review: In the post-reading analysis, no, this wasn't a five-star book. But it was still a diverting read, and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Don't, however, read it as a Jane Austen book. You could only be disappointed. It is written with a modern sensibility and consciousness (and in places, vocabulary), which doesn't fit with Jane's work. Read it as a Joan Aiken book, though, and it is an entertaining little drama.
Rating:
Summary: Unappealing
Review: Joan Aiken's attempt to re-write Jane Austen's unfinished early piece, "The Watsons", is far inferior to her take on "Emma" from Jane Fairfax's point of view (in a novel named after its heroine, "Jane Faifax"), and it does not have the saving grace of "Jane Fairfax" by a semi-entertaining story with fairly believable characters. Emma Watson, aged 19, is returned to her impoverished family, of 3 sisters and 2 brothers. One brother, Robert, is rich and affluent, but disagreeable, and is married to an equally disagreeable woman. Another brother, Sam, is good-natured, and a budding surgeon. Elizabeth, the eldest sister, is kind and hard-working, and is suffering from a disappointed love of many years ago (rather like Anne Elliot of "Persuasion"). But the other two sisters, Penelope and Margaret, are pretentious and scheming. Emma's gracefulness draw the attention of a wealthy peer, Lord Osborne, and his former tutor, the gentlemanlike Mr. Howard, who is loved by Lady Osborne, Osborne's elegant mother. Aiken keeps true to some of Austen's intentions in her characterization. She does not attempt to reform any sister, as Joan Coates' completion ("The Watsons") did Penelope. However, in all other respects she changes both plot and characters. For example, the would-be triangle between Howard, Osborne and Emma is reduced to nothing. Neither of the men is particularly appealing, and both are weak-spirited and/or weak-minded. The relationship between Emma and her final choice is so negligible that it is barely developed in several pages. The same can be said for Elizabeth's relationship with her own destined spouse. While the prose is the usual Aiken well-written fare, events crowd quickly one upon the other, with too many characters introduced in the first section of the book, and then so many events occurring with long spaces of time narrated briefly. Consequently, the book is teeming with incidents none of which leaves and impression on the readers, or supplies them with any growing attachment to any of the characters. Indeed, some of the events are downright unnecessary and unpleasant. In summary, this book is unsatisfying, and I would not recommend it. If you wish to read a super completion of The Watsons, read Coates' completion. It is not 100% true to the fragment, but it's a good story-unlike Aiken's effort.
Rating:
Summary: DISAPOINTING ENDING!!!!!!!
Review: This book is a sad completion to one of Jane Austens books. Joan Aiken mixed Autens material with most of her own, and did not do it in the most pleasing manner. While this book was nothing like Jane Austens book or writing, I still read on (which proved to be a big mastake) The book does not follow Autens plot or writing methodes. It starts out with Emma Watson, a very pretty girl of 19 who has lived with her aunt for 14 years and has not been with her family for that long. When her aunt marries someone she disaproves of she moves back with her family. While there the whole town cannot stop talking about her. She soon makes friends with a Mrs Blake, and her younger (handsome) brother. Emma starts to fall for this younger brother, but she soon stopes her feeling as she finds out he is to marry someone else... The book goes on with all of these twist and turns, and as I read it (although it was not at all faithful to Jane Autens writing) I still wanted to read on. I was very sadly disapointed to find that the whole book was a waste of time. Throughout the whole book they make Emma fall in love with this young man only to make him marry someone else in the end!!!!!! I was so mad, and I am sure that you will be just as disapointed in this book. I strongly recomend that you do not read this book!!!!!!!!!
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