Review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I feel like the last person on earth to read the first book in Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster series, Twilight.

And since I'm so late to the party, I don't feel bad about discussing the story. So if you don't want spoilers, definitely don't read past the next paragraph.

I expected to like the book, since all of my girlfriends have raved about it. Still, I took my time getting into it. I borrowed the book from a friend and only got through it because I read it while I was on jury duty last week. It's a very fast read, and from about halfway through, I found myself unable to put the book down. (It's a very good thing I didn't get called to a courtroom!) I was actually surprised at how much I liked the book considering it's about teen love. But the story was so compelling and well-written that I found myself appreciating my own marriage anew - causing Marc to encourage me to read the rest of the series ;)

**Spoiler alert - don't read further if you don't want to know anything about the story**

I found the vampires much more interesting than Bella herself, so if you've read the first book, I highly recommend the incomplete book available on Stephenie Meyer's web site, Midnight Sun. You might have heard about it earlier this year, when part of the manuscript was leaked and she had a complete meltdown over it. When she recovered, she decided the best course of action was to publish what she'd written so far on her site, so it's there in pdf format. If the book came out at midnight, I'd be at the bookstore for it. That's right - I enjoyed what I've read of Midnight Sun so much that I would sacrifice many hours of sleep for it.

Midnight Sun is a retelling of Twilight from Edward's perspective. And maybe it's because I'd just read Twilight (and haven't read the other books yet), but I was enthralled. I totally believe these vampires as they are described, and it's beyond anything I could have imagined. Of course, I'm always captivated by well-told stories of characters I could not have created myself. (I'm equally fascinated by the clones in Karen Traviss's Star Wars: Republic Commando series.Until I read the first Republic Commando book, it had never occurred to me to think of the clones as people.)

I was able to borrow the third and fourth books in the Twilight Saga, but the second one is eluding me, so I'm just going to have to buy it - I really don't want to to wait!