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Eclipse — Book Three Reading Level: Young Adult Eagerly awaited, Eclipse never disappoints. Edward and Bella are together again, and Jacob Black is very much in the picture as well. Bella is in conflict, and strange happenings in nearby Seattle have the human, vampire, and werewolf worlds in constant turmoil. While Bella divides her time between Edward, her only love, and Jacob, her best friend, tensions arise between not only these three, but their families as well. Eclipse brings together all that's come before—the good, the very bad, and the usual turns of a small town. Stephenie Meyer once again works her magic to tell a story not only of undying love, but of the human condition as well—hopes and dreams, and how forces beyond the common imagining can affect the lives of everyone. She keeps the tension alive, and she keeps the dream alive. Can love conquer all, no matter what? Whatever the next installment will reveal, there is no question it will be much anticipated. Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga is completely, as they say, “da bomb.”
New Moon — Book Two Reading Level: Young Adult Just when it looks as though things are going well for star-crossed lovers Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, along comes Bella's 18th birthday party. Cutting herself on broken glass at a party full of vampires is a big faux pas in their world, and the blood brings out desires that in normal circumstances the Cullens keep well hidden. Edward decides that, because he loves Bella so much, the only way to keep her truly safe is for him and his family to disappear from her life. That might work with an ordinary teenage love affair, but this one is far from that, and Bella retreats into near-catatonia at the loss of Edward. Months later, with the help of her friend Jacob Black, an Indian and old family friend, Bella begins to rejoin the world. Jacob has his own problems, however, as part of a tribe with a sacred ancient heritage: when vampires threaten the area, the young men of the tribe become werewolves to protect it. To add to his dilemma, Jacob is in love with Bella too, but her obsessive and never-forgotten love for Edward can only leave Jacob as her best friend. Once again, in lesser hands than those of Stephenie Meyer, this story could degenerate quickly into the usual teenage tale, but it never does. Bella's steadfastness in her feelings for Edward, her sincere affection for Jacob, and the wealth of details that make up their everyday lives make this a truly wonderful book. The exciting turns of the story keep readers riveted just as much, if not more than, in the first book.
Twilight — Book One Reading Level: Young Adult Back in 2005, a book called Twilight arrived in bookstores. Its intriguing cover, showing creamy white arms holding a red apple in cupped palms against a stark, black background, was the first hint that something different was afoot in the realm of young adult novels. The book sold at a staggering rate (and still does) along with two sequels, and first-time author Stephenie Meyer became the undisputed queen of the teen vampire romance. Twilight opens with 17-year-old Bella Swan leaving Phoenix to live with her father Charlie, sheriff of the small town of Forks, Washington, on the fog-shrouded Olympic Peninsula. He’s not a father she's spent much time with, since her parents were divorced when she was very young. Bella is about to embark on her junior year of high school, and she's the pretty-but-doesn't-know-it, clumsy fish-out-of-water in her new environment, the heroine that every teen girl wants to identify with. From the first day at her new school, Bella can't help but notice the five exceptionally beautiful Cullen kids, who sit at their own table in the cafeteria—especially the brooding one named Edward, who shows up in her next class. However, from this moment on, Twilight takes a rapid descent into a far darker realm than the chemistry class crush. The Cullens, you see, are vampires—but sensitive ones that don't prey on humans, and their “father” is the most respected town doctor. They've chosen this area because of its lack of sunlight, accessibility to big game, and the naivete of the citizens of Forks. When Edward and Bella fall in love, against all the rules of both their worlds, they become a dark Romeo and Juliet that transcend not just class barriers, but also the boundaries of life and death. Meyer accomplishes the extraordinary herself in the telling of this love story. Her skill as a storyteller pulls the reader in, creating a world that's believable, thrilling, heartbreaking, and impossible to put down. Even though she's dealing with the supernatural, it's the everyday details of Bella's life —from fixing the clueless Charlie's dinner every evening to doing her homework with the impossibly knowledgeable Edward urging her on—that that make the tale real and keep it from from diverging into just another fantasy or romance. We know, as Bella and Edward do, that this is the real deal: it doesn't matter that Bella's 17 and human, or that Edward is 100 and vampire—they belong together forever. They’ll manage to keep that happening as long as Meyer's magic writing keeps the pages turning, and, oh my, she's very very good at it.— Kay Morris
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The Twilight Saga SERIES
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