Darling Edward

If you haven't read the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer, you are missing out. They are the perfect escapist books . . . kind of a mix of Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Pride and Prejudice . . . three of my favorite things, by the way (I know, an odd mix).

Yes, yes, these books started out being marketed as teenage fiction, but boy, have they moved beyond that demographic. After the last Harry Potter book came out last year, I never thought I would experience that feeling of breathless excitement for the next book in a saga again, but the Twilight series brought that back for me. I took the first book in the series to the beach with me this summer, and finished it in a day. I seriously contemplated driving around NC's southern Outer Banks in search of a Target so that I could find the next book. Instead, I ended up re-reading the first one three times that week. I finished the final three books within the next week, leading DH to comment that "ever since you started reading those books, you don't talk to me anymore. You just read." Oops. Sorry about that, sweetie.

Little did DH know that I was having a literary fling with one of the two main characters of the books. Sigh. Darling Edward. Edward Cullen is (DON'T LAUGH) a 100+ year-old vampire who falls head over heels in love with a human high school girl, Bella (and she with him). How could she not? He has the manners of Mr. Darcy combined with the face of an angel and the always intriguing danger element (since Bella is, on a basic level, lunch). Their love story is just my style - Necessarily chaste (the standard issue romance novels just make me blush) but completely fiery under the surface.

So you think you are immune to the siren song of Edward Cullen? Let's just say that after following my recommendation to get Twilight, a friend of mine ended up reading it at stoplights and stalking the delivery of volumes 3 and 4 on the online UPS site. She has sterling taste in everything, so clearly it's a worthwhile read . . .