This is a four book saga that I've read before but I felt like some light, easy reading that was fast. When I originally read the books they took me roughly a day per book although the last book took about a day and a half just because it was bigger. This time around it took me about 3 days to read these as well as a portion of an un-published book Midnight Sun by the same author.
Midnight Sun is essentially the same as the first book in the series, Twilight, but told from the perspective of the guy whereas Twilight is told in the voice of the girl. Part way through the project, someone leaked a rough draft of Midnight Sun on the internet. This caused the author a great deal of grief and consternation and it halted the project. Since then, she has posted her last rough draft on her website for those interested in reading it. It only covers about the first third of the book Twilight but I enjoyed it more than I thought. Originally, I thought she should write a fifth book to wrap up the series more but in hindsight, I agree with her decision. Too bad it was never completed.
The first book in the series, Twilight, it is a story of teen love and the life of a girl, Bella, who is both insecure and comfortable in her own skin, in a way. The object of her affection turns out to be a vampire, Edward. The difficulties of the relationship are both obvious (he wanting to drink her blood) as well as unusual. When other vampires set their sights on Bella, Edward saves her life and saves her from becoming a vampire as well.
The second book in the series, New Moon, was the most tedious for me to read. Bella falls completely apart when Edward leaves her. He tells her he no longer loves her and the devastation of the news leaves her in a very zombie-like state. Only the friendship of a family friend, Jacob, brings her back to the land of the living. He is an Indian boy from the nearby reservation until, of course, he transforms into a werewolf. Bella is forced to make a decision between her love for Jacob, the werewolf, and her love for Edward, the vampire. She risks her own life in a brave attempt to save Edwards life and succeeds. But by doing so, she begins the breaking of her best friends heart.
The third book, Eclipse, is a tug of war between vampire and werewolf for the love of Bella. The fact that they are natural enemies does not help matters at all. There is some pretty good action in the book as the vampire family must unite with the wolf pack in order to fight an army of newborn vampires intent on killing Bella. Bella is finally able to make her decision about who she loves most but still is unable to release her bond with Jacob.
The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, is the best of all the books. It is broken into 3 parts telling the story from the perspective of Edward then Jacob then Bella. I am reluctant to say much about this book because there are so many surprises that I don't want to be a spoiler. I'll just say that if you read the first two books of this series, keep going. It only gets better.
The movies of the first three books have been made and they are separating the last book into two movies because it was so long and encompassing. If I had made the movies, I would have definitely done a few things differently. The first movie especially was a disappointment.
These books are young adult fiction and are pretty much just chick-flicks with vampires and werewolves. They are fast easy reads. The main thing that bugged me was the co-dependency of the relationship between Bella and Edward. I think there are insecure teen girls that would read this and think that is what a "normal" relationship should be. If you take all the books as a whole though, you see there is a supernatural element to their relationship that isn't really alluded to until book 3 and really talked about until book 4. Anyway, if you want an easy romance read with some supernatural fantasy and myths, these are a good choice.
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