Helen Fielding became a worldwide celebrity when she created the character Bridget Jones. And she wasn't shy about writing a sequel. But Fielding was ready to move on at that point, so her new book is about an entirely different kind of character.

Recently, Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, authors behind the phenomenally successful Left Behind series of suspense books based on biblical prophecy, made a similar break.

In October, LaHaye, along with co-author Greg Dinallo, launched what he hopes will be a new series of books with Babylon Rising (Bantam). At the time, the publishers promised that this book and others in the series would be "even faster-paced thrillers" than the Left Behind series.

And following last year's Soon, Jenkins, who lives in Colorado Springs, delivers the second in his solo series, titled Silenced: The Wrath of God Descends (Tyndale House Publishers). The tale, scheduled for a July release, begins after the third World War, "a holy war that resulted in the destruction of entire nations." Sounds like light summer reading to us.

Glorious Appearing, the recently published 12th book in the Left Behind series, was considered the climax of the series. But we're guessing that fans of this dynamic writing duo haven't seen the last of them.

After all, do you really believe the pair will leave behind a concept that has sold more than 40 million books? We don't either.