Official New Moon trailer!

Okay, so it's not a book, but since I recently blogged about the book it is based on I thought I'd share the New Moon trailer that was just released this weekend. They've been holding out on us for a while — whether to heighten the anticipation or just because it wasn't ready yet I don't know, but it looks awesome! I can't wait!

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

As I expected, it didn't take me long to read Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. I actually stayed up pretty much all night to read it Friday night, slept a little bit Saturday morning, and then finished it Saturday evening while I was babysitting.

I mentioned in my post about Twilight that my NaNoWriMo companions had had a lot of negative things to say about the saga. They particularly criticized Breaking Dawn, claiming it was a train wreck of a plot. I have to say I disagree. I thought it was fabulous. Meyer had been building up to something big for three books — there's no way she could have ended it with anything less... astonishing, in my opinion.

Anyway, I am not going to say too much, because I don't want to give it all away, but let me just say that certain plot developments that seem kind of weird at first actually work quite well. Everything falls into place at the end, which is pretty impressive considering how complex the plot is throughout the three books. It is a fantastic conclusion for a fantastic series of books!

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Well, for a couple of days at any rate, this really has been a "book of the day" blog. I wish I had the time to read like this all the time and read (and blog about) a new book every day, but to tell the truth I've been shirking work a bit to get through the Twilight Saga so rapidly. I haven't genuinely had the time for this amount of reading since I was on my summer vacations in high school.

I guess that ought to say something about how compelling these books are, though — that they can get me to ignore my other responsibilities, something very few books manage to do anymore.

I mentioned in my last post that I wasn't as keen on New Moon as I had been Twilight. I still did love New Moon, but I felt something was missing without Edward around. The suspense in these books does depend quite a bit on the chemistry between Edward and Bella.

Eclipse, luckily, kept Edward around the entire time — and it was excellent. I'm actually not sure which I liked better, Twilight or Eclipse. I definitely love the way Meyer paces the new relationship and new discoveries in Twilight, but I like the new developments in the plot line in New Moon and Eclipse. And since Eclipse has Edward and new developments... Well, you get my drift.

Anyway, I am very excited about reading Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in the saga. I started it yesterday afternoon, and I expect to finish it quite soon.

My husband commented Thursday evening, when I was almost finished with New Moon, that I was going through the books really quickly. I responded, "Good — that way I can go back to my life sooner!" That's pretty much the way I feel — if they are going to be this addictive to me, I might as well just give in and read them nonstop, so that I can go back to my work and my hobbies that much sooner, without the desire to read distracting me from everything all the time!

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

I'm almost reading these books too fast to keep up with them on my blog. I finished Twilight late Wednesday night (or should I say early Thursday morning?), New Moon early Thursday evening, and Eclipse early this afternoon.

The bad thing is that they are all running together, and it's making it difficult for me to write reviews of each book individually. The good thing is that they are all such a continuous story so as to run together like that, and keep me hooked the entire time.

I do know that I didn't enjoy New Moon quite as much as the first book. I think it was partly the budding romance in Twilight that made it so compelling. It was so well written, it made me remember exactly what it was like to be a teenager and be infatuated with a new boyfriend.

New Moon, on the other hand, reminded me of what it was like to go through a really bad breakup. Maybe that's why I didn't like it as much, but I could totally empathize with the depression and the rebound relationship that Bella went through.

I also have to admit, I really like Edward's character and the sexual tension that Meyer maintains between them. It has to be one of the most compelling things about the books. And because Edward wasn't in most of this book, it felt very different from Twilight. Still compelling... but different.

I liked Eclipse much better... But I'll save that for my next post!

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

It wasn't until recently that I even considered reading Stephenie Meyer's popular Twilight Saga. The people in NaNoWriMo with me last year made fun of it a lot, and unfortunately I listened.

What changed was that my husband rented the movie from Netflix. His brother had really liked it, so I grudgingly agreed to watch it.

And you know what? I loved it! So much, in fact, that I insisted on watching the movie a second time before we sent it back — something I don't often do.

I then decided that I needed to read the books. We went to our favorite Barnes & Noble, but a helpful girl behind the cafë counter told us to order the set from the website, because they were much cheaper that way — about $13 per book for all four hardbacks. (The first two are $11 a book for the paperback, but the last two are only available in hardback right now.) So then I had to wait for them to arrive... and, once they arrived, I made myself wait until I'd finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, even though I've read it before, simply because I don't like not finishing books.

So I finally started Twilight a few nights ago, just after finishing Tenant. I read only a few pages the first night, and about 40 or 50 more the next night. And then I read all the rest yesterday!

My friends in NaNoWriMo are so, so wrong about this book. I loved it, every minute of it. I couldn't put it down. I read it while babysitting, and stayed up for nearly five hours last night to finish the remaining 450 pages.

The book is a lot like the movie — or I guess I should say the movie is a lot like the book. It's incredibly intense and sensual. Wow, just wow. I don't know that I can put much more than that into words — you'll just have to read it for yourself.

Needless to say, I'm already reading the next book, New Moon.