New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Every teenage girl has boyfriend problems...right? Well, for Bella Swan things are a little more complicated than just "boyfriend problems." Edward, Bella's boyfriend, left town recently. He not only left her, but his whole family behind. Why you ask? Edward, being the honorable gentleman that he is, thinks that Bella is safer with him out of her life. You see, Edward is a vampire. Yes, the blood sucking kind. Edward's whole family are in fact vampires except that unlike normal vampires that feed on people, Edward and his family strictly eat animals. Fun, right? The thing is, Edward has to fight with himself every moment that he is around Bella. He has to fight not to kill her. For some reason Bella's blood smells better to him than anyone else's blood. It torments him to be with her, but it torments him more to be without her. Edward has waited his whole life to find a match as perfect as Bella, but he loves her too much to turn her into a vampire, so he decided she would be better off without him.

.

.

Here is one thing that Edward didn't count on, Bella is not better off without him. Her heart is so broken by his departure that she falls into a deep depression. Eventually, she begins hanging out with her friend Jacob Black. He is a Quileute Indian living on the reservation near her house. Jacob is everything Edward is not, Jake makes Bella feel warm and safe and loved. He made her heart ache only half as bad. Jake would like nothing more that to take Edward's place in Bella's life, especially since the Quileute Indians have been enemies with the vampires for as long as the two have existed. The Quileutes have been protecting the town people from the vampires and it turns out that they do this by turning into werewolves. It isn't until months later that Jake himself turns into a werewolf. This is especially ironic because Bella always thought of Jake as her safety net, and werewolves aren't exactly safe.

.

.

This complicated love triangle comes to the edge when Edward comes back into Bella's life, having realized that they were both miserable without each other. Now Bella has to make a choice, does she want to become a vampire and stay with Edward? Or does she want to stay human and live with Jake, who just happens to turn furry every so often? Bella has to choose though, because she can't have it both ways. When she decides which boy to give her heart to, she will also be deciding who to cut out of her life for good.

.

.

This was an amazing book that I only wish had been out when I was younger. I always liked the supernatural and Stephanie Meyer does a great job of making the supernatural seem commonplace. Bella, Edward and Jake jump off the pages and become people you feel like you have known for years. I have to admit though, I started to read this book and then stopped. I decided to go back and read the first book in the series, Twilight. I am really glad that I did and I wouldn't recommend reading New Moon first. If you really want to get to know the characters and how they got to the point where New Moon starts, then you really need to read Twilight first.