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Twilight is the first book in the Twilight Saga. It is based on the love story between Bella and Edward.

As the first of four books, Twilight needed to have the storyline that would grip audiences and make them want to read more and more, author Stephenie Meyer managed to do this with her creative imagination, impressive writing skills and a pretty elaborate dream. With her writing and imagination, Stephenie Meyer makes you feel like you are there in the story watching it unfold, with the detail of what everything looks like, how they smell, and how the characters interact with each other, you can’t help but escape to this place and get hooked into this other world.

This book is aimed at young adults but manages to cross the lines and boundaries so that other ages, whether old or young, can read them,not feel out of place and end up not wanting to put it down. It is narrated in first person, being from Bella’s perspective, and no-one else’s, so Edward and his family are kept a mystery and only unravelled as the story goes on.

In this book, Stephenie Meyer has successfully managed to detail young romance and how it feels to fall in love for the very first time, how it feels to lust after someone who could very well be completely no good for you. She manages to keep the storyline fresh and compelling, so it makes you want to read further, and find out what happens next.

New Moon starts with Bella’s 18th birthday party held by Edward and his family. She is not at all happy about turning 18 as this means she will officially be older than Edward. During the party, Bella manages to get a paper cut on her finger from wrapping paper, this creates a feeding frenzy in Jasper, Edwards brother. Edward is convinced Bella is more danger is he and his family stay in Forks, so they leave, leaving Bella completely distraught.

As she feels her whole world has just fallen apart around her, she becomes very distant from her friends, which leads them to abandon her in the time that actually really needs them for support, and ends up feeling all the more isolated and alone. After seeing how his friend is coping, Jacob Black comes back on the scene to help mend her broken heart. Although she loves Edward still, Jacob can’t help but love Bella, and tries to help her by hanging out with her, and taking her mind of the one thing she feels she needs the most. When she goes out with a friend from school, Jessica, Bella soon realises danger and adrenaline make her hear Edwards voice. Completely over-joyed with this fact, she ropes Jacob into helping her mend two motorbikes,

As time goes on, Jacob starts worrying about his own friends, Embry. It seems he has joined this gang of lads and doesn’t talk to anybody else any more, and Jacob doesn’t understand why. When the exact same thing happens to Jake, Bella learns something truly shocking, her normal best friend, isn’t quite so normal. He’s in fact a werewolf, who naturally hates vampires. One day, Bella sees people jumping off cliffs, and Jake explains to her that they are cliff diving, and its actually quite fun, if you know what your doing. This gives Bella an idea, and soon goes cliff diving herself, but is on her own when she does it. She soon realises the current in the ocean is too strong and she’s pulled under water. She starts losing consciousness when Edward comes to her again and pleads that she keep swimming so she will survive. Jacob soon finds her and brings her back around.

Because Alice can see the future, she sees what happens to Bella and rushes back to Forks, only to find her alive. Edward finds out about what has happened to Bella, but thinks she’s dead, so he head to Volterra, Italy to ask the Volturi to end his existence. Alice and Bella head to Italy to try and save Edward, but will their efforts be a waste of time...?

With the storyline being about Edward leaving Bella, the author has written remarkably well as to how Bella is feeling and what she is going through and shows that New Moon is based on Bella’s loss. Although it concentrates on that theme, it somehow doesn’t drown in it, and focusses on other stories as well, such as the rogues vampires Laurent and Victoria coming back into town, and the welcome of the werewolf Quileute Tribe.

With heartache, grief, suspense and a few quite scary moments, this book is quite frankly a really good novel. It’s one of those books in a group where you can read it on its own if you wish without reading the first, however to fully understand the way its been written, reading Twilight beforehand is a good idea.