Okay, so it's been over a week since this book was released. It should be safe for me to blog about it now! So, beware... this post contains spoilers!!!
Let's start at the beginning... with Twilight. I was so skeptical about this book. Annalise highly recommended it and I almost always enjoy the same books that she does. (Sorry Annalise, Wild Swans was the exception....) But I waited a while to actually read it. I just couldn't wrap my head around the premise that a teenage girl could fall in love with a teenage boy vampire and it could work out. It just made no sense at all! So, expectations were low... and I think that matters. I loved the book and it continues to be my favorite in the series, but I think I loved it so much because I had low expectations.
New Moon was next. It was a hard read the first time through because Edward is so absent through most of the book. Once you get through it and find out that Edward and Bella get reunited in the end, then it's very enjoyable to go back and re-read it, getting completely involved in the world of the Quilutes and the Wolves. Absolutely fascinating and so well thought out and written. So.... plausible.
Eclipse was third. I loved how much Bella seemed to mature in this book... okay, well maybe she doesn't mature much until the very end, but she really grows up finally. A lot of my friends were so irritated by Bella's "immaturity and irrational" behavior, but I was never bothered by it. Who hasn't been an insecure teenage girl... and she has the boyfriend that just seems too good to be true.... of course she's insecure.... I think Bella is very human, and that's not such a bad thing. I loved the teamwork of the wolves and vampires in the end for the greater good. I loved the compromise. I'm glad Bella finally was able to make a firm choice on who she was going to be with forever. I'm glad she decided to go about tying up her loose ends in a mature way, even though it wasn't necessarily what she wanted.
So, Breaking Dawn opened just days before the "wedding". I love the car Edward gets her when the truck breaks down, but I would have loved to see her drive that rusty old truck a bit longer. I actually got attached to it over the course of the books! (It would have been fun to see what she thought about driving it after she was changed). So Bella survives the wedding without tripping once and Edward takes her to a private island in South America for their honeymoon. This is where the plot took a huge turn I didn't expect... who knew vampires could be so fertile! I was completely shocked that Bella could get pregnant, but in the end, I was so happy with how that worked out. Bella and Edward were able to have a baby (something that Bella had decided to give up in order to be with Edward) and the birth was the catalyst to make sure Bella was changed into a vampire. I'll admit I was leary of having to read through Bella's "newborn" phase, but Bella went through with flying colors. I'm still not sure if this was a "gift" of hers or if it was purely due to her mental preparation. Either way, that was a pleasant suprise. Of course, the showdown with the Volturi was inevitable and I loved how that brought in so many other vampires to get to know. And I loved Bella's "gift/ability". I loved the fact that she was able to finally protect the people that mattered most to her and be a critical part in fighting the battles with their enemies. I especially loved how Bella figured out how to share her memories with Edward. That was a very touching moment and a perfect way to end the book. A lot of people (online reviews) seemed to be bothered that Jacob "imprinted" on Bella's daughter, but it didn't bother me. It was a wonderful way to make Bella's and Jacob's relationship work. Jacob deserves to be happy, and if Bella had chosen him, he could have broken her heart by unwillingly imprinting on someone else down the road. The only thing that puzzles me is... 7 years down the road, and Jacob and Renesmee are able to be together "romantically", what kind of kids will they have? quarter vampire, quarter human, half indian- werewolf? Maybe it will never turn into a "romance" thing... since this is the first time something like this has ever happened... My only real complaint about the book is the name Renesmee. It's hard to say, and I totally agreed with Bella about hating the nickname "Nessie"... but I know from experience, once a nickname gets started, it's hard to stop it!
So, those are my thoughts... I'm anxious to go back and give it a second read, but we're having lots of company next week, so it will have to wait a bit.
I was really shocked to read reviews on Amazon. After 1500 reviews, the book still only averaged 3 stars. It seemed that about 500 gave it 5 stars and 500 gave it one star. It appears you either loved it or hated it. (I read some pretty negative reviews!) What was your favorite part??? Did you love it or hate it?
