Finished 1-10-09, rating 3.5/5, YA fiction, pub. 2005

Bella is a normal teenager with divorced parents and low self-esteem.  She moves up to Washington state to live with her father and becomes very popular with the boys of the small town.  One boy in particular, Edward, makes her heart jump and the two begin a relationship.  Of course, she does find out that he is a vampire, but that is of no real concern, they are young and in love.

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I placed my name on the waiting list at the library and finally it was my turn!   It is a nice story about young love and vampires, but nothing more and nothing less.  I used to devour teen romances back in my own teen years and this feels the same.  It is fluffy, shallow, and not really challenging in any way.  The fact that Bella is your average girl and suddenly every boy around her seems lost in love, including a vampire who has not fallen in love in his 100+ years, seems like overkill.

On the positive side it was interesting and about halfway through the pace picked up and became more of a page turner.  The first half may have been a little slow, but once the vampires began fighting each other it gained some momentum.  The game of baseball the vampire clan, the Cullens, played in the woods during thunderstorms was original and fun.

I was expecting something great from all of the hype surrounding the book and the movie and I was a little disappointed.  I can see why teen girls love it but, I am probably not going to finish the series.  There are just too many really good books out there!

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Heather @ Book Addiction