Eclipse

Author: Stephenie Meyer
Published: August 2007 (Little Brown)
Category: Paranormal Romance/YA
Series: Twilight Saga #3
Rating: 9/10

Oh Stephenie Meyer, what have you done to me? Please provide another serving of textual crack so I can stop rereading my favorite parts of Twilight. Anyways, receiving Eclipse was a reward to myself for finishing my move into a new apartment. Also, if I had the book, I wouldn't have gotten any packing accomplished.

Eclipse picks up soon after New Moon left off, with Bella and Edward reunited and her preparing to become a vampire. However, more danger is on the horizon, with someone creating vampires in nearby Seattle, and someone is sneaking into Bella's room to steal her clothes for her scent, and the Volturi (heads of the vampire world) may come to take care of the Seattle problem and stop by to see if Bella's still a human. If she's not a vampire, she'll be killed because no humans are supposed to know about their world. At the same time, Edward is trying to push back Bella's changing, and comes up with the condition that he'll turn her if she marries him first, knowing that Bella has an aversion to marrying young. He's starting to get used to the idea of Bella becoming a vampire, but he doesn't want her to do it because she's afraid of the impending doom of a newborn vampire army hunting her. He wants her to do it of her own free will, not because she's afraid of being killed.

And to add to the angst, Jacob, Bella's pseudo best friend, werewolf, and other part of the love triangle, isn't giving up. Edward makes the good point to Jacob that even though Jacob may love Bella now, as a werewolf, he could imprint on his true mate when she comes along and leave Bella. I was going to give this a 10/10, but the Jacob portion of the storyline bugged me too much. Yes, it's good to have some romantic competition, but Jacob manipulated Bella, and most of the time, he was a little boy trying to act grown up. He knew acting depressed would make Bella feel bad and then he offers to die while fighting vampires so Bella can have what she wants. Ugh.

It's obvious I'm on "Team Edward," but it's mostly because Edward was willing to step back if that's what made Bella happy. Jacob did not take that route in his rough courtship, not taking "no" for an answer and disregarding Bella when she says she loves Edward. And near the end, Jacob has the nerve to say he's like that woman in the King Solomon story who gives up the baby rather than letting it get cut in half. Ummm.... Edward's been like that the whole time, so do you want a cookie or something? I spent most of the book saying, "I hate Jacob!" Stephenie Meyer better not make Bella flip back to Jacob in the last book!

Aside from the Jacob stuff, I loved everything else! Bring on Breaking Dawn!

I was introduced to the world of Twilight less than two weeks ago, and browsing fan sites on the internet is crazy. I find it funny that a lot of people don't agree with the casting of Robert Pattinson as Edward, but I think he's a good fit for the role. Just look at him... and that hair! I can't believe some people think Hayden Christiansen would be a good Edward Cullen. Gah, remember what he did to Star Wars? Or maybe the teenagers who're going nuts about Pattinson being casted were too young to remember the horror of Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker? I hope they'll give Pattinson a chance and at least see the acting before they string him up.

I'm very excited for the future of the series, especially after seeing this B&N video of Stephenie Meyer discussing Breaking Dawn and the next book after that, which is Twilight told from Edward's perspective (I think it's called Midnight Sun). Breaking Dawn is called the last book in the Twilight Saga because it's the last one told from Bella's perspective. Meyer also talks about how each book in the series drew from a classic, like the first was a little Pride and Prejudice, the second obviously Romeo and Juliet, and the third, and best interpretation so far, Wuthering Heights. She picked some great passages from Wuthering Heights to illustrate the love triangle, and ultimately, Bella's feelings for Edward.