Product Description

"Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. ''Be very still,'' he whispered, as if I wasn''t already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat. " As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he''s a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.Meyer has achieved quite a feat by making this scenario completely human and believable. She begins with a familiar YA premise (the new kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be just another realistic young adult novel. Bella has come to the small town of Forks on the gloomy Olympic Peninsula to be with her father. At school, she wonders about a group of five remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the cafeteria but never eat. As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires, part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has inspired them to renounce human prey. For Edward''s sake they welcome Bella, but when a roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect the fragile human in their midst. The precision and delicacy of Meyer''s writing lifts this wonderful novel beyond the limitations of the horror genre to a place among the best of YA fiction. (Ages 12 and up)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.com Review
The book that started the phenomenon is now available in a deluxe collector's edition! Featuring a ribbon bookmark, cloth cover, ragged edges, new chapter opener designs, and a beautiful protective slipcase, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up–When Bella Swan moves from sunny Phoenix to Forks, Washington, a damp and dreary town known for the most rainfall in the United States, to live with her dad, she isnt expecting to like it. But the level of hostility displayed by her standoffish high school biology lab partner, Edward Cullen, surprises her. After several strange interactions, his preternatural beauty, strength, and speed have her intrigued. Edward is just as fascinated with Bella, and their attraction to one another grows. As Bella discovers more about Edwards nature and his family, she is thrown headlong into a dangerous adventure that has her making a desperate sacrifice to save her one true love. One of the more original vampire constructs around, this recording of Stephenie Meyers debut novel (Megan Tingley Books, 2005) is narrated with great style by Ilyana Kadushin, who makes the infinitely romantic tale of star-crossed lovers resonate with a bittersweet edge. Although Edward and Bellas romance and subsequent danger develops slowly, the pacing is appropriate for teens who want learn all the details in this suspenseful tale. An excellent purchase for both school and public libraries.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. In the tradition of Anne Rice and YA titles such as Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss (1999) comes this heady romance that intertwines Bella Swan's life with that of Edward, an alluring and tormented vampire. Bella's life changes when she moves to perpetually rain-soaked Forks, Washington. She is instantly drawn to a fellow student, Edward Cullen, beautiful beyond belief and angrily aloof. Bella senses there is more behind Edward's hostility, and in a plot that slowly and frighteningly unfolds, she learns that Edward and his family are vampires--though they do not hunt humans. Yet Edward cannot promise that his powerful attraction to Bella won't put in her in danger, or worse. Recklessly in love, Bella wants only to be with Edward, but when a vicious, blood-lusting predator complicates her world, Bella's peril is brutally revealed. This is a book of the senses: Edward is first attracted by Bella's scent; ironically, Bella is repelled when she sees blood. Their love is palpable, heightened by their touches, and teens will respond viscerally. There are some flaws here--a plot that could have been tightened, an overreliance on adjectives and adverbs to bolster dialogue--but this dark romance seeps into the soul. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Twilight
This book was for my daughter and she said that is was great and had me order the other 3 in the series.

A compelling Romance with Sci-Fi Flavor
I'm not part of the Teenage crowd (31year old mother of triplets), but to be fair Sci-Fi is my genre of choice, and that being said, this book fits in nicely with my tastes. I'm a sucker for a bit of the unusual mixed in with a nice Romance, and this book delivers.

Twilight is the compelling tale told from the perspective of an unlikely heroine, Isabella Swan, who moves to the rainy town of Fork in the Pacific Northwest to live with her father. Bella was never something special, she's akward, clumsy, always getting herself into 'sticky' situations. She can't see in herself what all of the boys were so interested in about her. (Like the majority of us, her self-esteem isn't fantastic).

But her sharp wit and biting sarcasm make her a character I can identify with. There's alot of humor in the book. Unlike most teenagers, she has no interest in the school dance, is annoyed by boys asking her out, and hates presents, parties and being the center of attention.

As the first book is set mostly at a highschool, and obviously the lead character thinks much as a highschoooler does (though her brain is wired a little differently), this story would be pegged as a teen book, but I know people from 16-55 who thoroughly enjoyed the ENTIRE series.

The writing could be a bit better, but the plot line is engaging, and I couldn't put the book down. The font is large, and the book though thick was an easy read and I was able to finish it in about 16 hours all together.

Stephanie Meyer's approach to vampire mythology is different, but *shrug* who are we to say what myths about vampires are true and which aren't. I was glad that we weren't burdened with the traditional definitions of vampirism, and that they're not very much at all as they're painted to be.

What's very entertaining is the story of an intense budding romance between a vampire, and what should be by all accounts 'prey'.

Here's a taste of some of what you can expect from Twilight

[I could feel his cool breath on my neck, feel his nose sliding along my jaw, inhaling.

'I thought you were desensitized.'

"Just because I'm resisting the wine doesn't mean i can't appreciate the bouquet," he whispered. "you have a very floral smell like lavendar... or freesia," he noted "it's mouth watering"

'yeah it's an off day when I don't get somebody telling me how edible I smell'.

He chuckled and then sighed.]

The story of Twilight drew me in and always held my interest. Every time Bella's heart raced, mine did too. By the end of the first book, Stephenie Meyer had me eating out of her hand, and the 'peak' at the next book had me lining up to buy the next as soon as i was through with the first.

Good Read if You're a 13 yo Girl.
Very easy read. The story moves along at a fairly good pace. I only read this book because I wanted to see what all the "hype" was about for myself, but was a bit disappointed. Readers of the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice will find this (for the lack of a better word) "weak".