Book 2 in the Twilight Series......

Well....I can't stop reading the series now, can I? Not a series that has my son begging for more books?? I went out and bought New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (608 pgs, Little, Brown Young Readers, 2006) as soon as Chad was disappointed he was on a waiting list at school to get the book. I figured it was an investment in his education!! Again, I can see the appeal this series has for the younger set.

I felt like I was trapped in one of those terrifying nightmares, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough. My legs seemed to move slower and slower as I fought my way through the callous crowd, but the hands on the clock tower didn't slow. With relentless, uncaring force, they turned inexorably toward the end -- the end of everything.

Things for Bella seem to be going smoothly. She and Edward are a couple. No one knows the Cullens' secret about being vampires. Life is good. There is still one tiny problem -- she wants Edward to turn her so they can spend eternity together, and he wants nothing to do with it. But dating a vampire has a few drawbacks!

Then the Cullens throw a surprise party for Bella's birthday, and in typical Bella clumsy fashion, she gets hurt. The realization that she IS human and they are not seeps in. The Cullens leave town, and Edward breaks up with Bella. In harsh fashion, he tells her that he just can't take their relationship. He doesn't love her enough to do it.

Bella goes into a tailspin of depression. So bad that her friends no longer want to be around her. Charlie is ready to have her committed. She is sleep walking through life. Until she finds if she is in trouble, she can "hear" Edward's voice inside her head. So Bella starts do really reckless things just to feel closer to him. She evens buys 2 motorcycles, although they need a lot of work. And who does she get to help her with it, but her old friend Jacob Black.

Bella starts spending a lot of time with Jacob. He comes her best friend, and the person she relies on the most since Edward left. It's pretty obvious that Jacob's feelings are a lot stronger than Bella's. But she really does care for him. But Jacob has secrets of his own, and now Victoria is back....and pissed off. She is trying to exact her revenge by killing Bella. Since Edward killed James, she is planning to kill Edward's mate. Mate for Mate. And Bella is scared.

Really, I do see how this series became so popular. Meyer's writing is smooth and certainly addictive. Once you start, you can't put it down. But I don't think I liked this one as much as I did Twilight. Edward and family took a backseat to the new monsters in town, and frankly, I am rather partial to vampires!!

Again, Bella stilled annoyed me WAY too much. I get that she's a teenager. Losing your love is traumatic at any age. But we've all been through it. She fell into such a depression, feeling so sorry for herself, that it made me want to scream!! Her recklessness was really starting to bother me too. Personally, I didn't blame her for turning to Jacob. I've read a lot of reviews that said she was being really fickle...but I just didn't see it that way. I think she valued Jacob as a friend. She was very honest with him that she didn't feel the same way about him...and he accepted that. But she did come to love who he was....and if that was gone, she was going to be sad.

And Edward....oh let's get started on him. If he can't have Bella, he's just going to kill himself?? Please. Give me a break. You'd think that a 100-year-old vampire would be smart enough to get over a whiny little thing like Bella. Maybe I'm being jaded by dismissing the whole "Soul Mate" idea. I get the concept....but I just have a hard time buying into it. And marketing books to teens that promote this kind of worshipful love seems kind of dangerous to me. Sheesh. Maybe I AM too old to be reading this series!!

Anyway, I enjoyed the book. Not as much as Twilight. But since I bought Chad both Eclipse and Breaking Dawn for Christmas, I'll definitely be finishing out the series!! 3.75/5