At long last on the "Twilight" Bandwagon

Ok I admit it, I thought it would never happen but to my shock it did! A few months ago I finally found myself at long last on the “Twilight” bandwagon. I fought it for long as I possibly could. How did I manage to find myself tangled up in something that is definitely not my style? While I do have a thing for vampires and such, I normally don’t have a thing for all the mushy stuff that comes with the Twilight series. How wrong I was! I was pleasantly surprised that there is still a young, innocent 17-year-old girl lurking inside of me somewhere. I watched the movie while I was sick (Yeah that's the excuse I will use for being so shameless) and was expecting cheesy and sappy instead my heart and mind was transported back to when I was 17 and still in that fairy tale stage of love. Back to a time when the only worries were what to wear to school and high school crushes. I ended up watching the movie several times (which I rarely do) and decided I had to run right into the library and get a copy of Twilight to read. While reading Twilight I found some parts of it that irritated me. The “movie” Bella I was fond of but the “book” Bella was a huge irritation for me. Not since Jay Gatsby has a character aggravated me more. With that said I did like the other main character Edward Cullen (and who wouldn’t?) and that gave me the desire to root for their forbidden love.

It is a typical teenage love story with a twist – When young Bella Swan moves to a new town and starts school, the boy she inevitably falls in love with turns out to be a vampire. What happens next is somewhat predictable: vampire boy struggles with whether to hold her hand in the hallway or shove her into a dark corner and drink her blood. There are no real surprises to the story - but that doesn't stop it from being a page-turner, I did find myself from time to time wondering what the Adonis-like Edward saw in plain, boring ordinary Bella but, despite all of that, I enjoyed the book. Stephanie Meyer is a wonderful storyteller. There was a cliffhanger at the end of each bite-sized chapter pressing the reader to continue on, if for no other reason than to see whom else is glaring or grimacing at whom. The story also had a light-hearted comedic edge, which played in its favor. For some reason once you’ve started reading it’s hard to stop. I realized this when I found myself quickly moving through the other books in the series, I had to wait a little while on the last book “Breaking Dawn” but I can tell you it was definitely worth the wait. I was a little apprehensive about how it was going to end, I had my worries that Ms Meyer wouldn’t see the logical ending the way I saw it. In the end she and I both were in agreement and I was satisfied with the ending. My biggest dilemma now is… waiting patiently until the release of the movie “New Moon.” November 20th seems like a long way away!

For those who are interested in reading the series here are their titles....

1. Twilight
2. New Moon
3. Eclipse
4. Breaking Dawn