Twilight by Stephene Meyer

"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. "

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.

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. (Ages 12 and up)

My Review:
I'd heard so much about this book, yet it sat on my TBR shelf after I won it in a giveaway, until I fianlly found time to read it. It's a perfect romance novel, written especially for teens. The author understands teens. I am far away from my teen years, but I enjoyed it too. That's unusual for a book to reach across such a wide generation gap!

The protagonist, Bella, is a high school student who is paired with the perfect young man who has one problem: he's a vampire. Now, I don't go for scary reads, so this is my first vampire book. Although there are some scary elements, this book did not keep me awake at night. It has tons of romance, yet no sex scenes. What a nice relief! Even though it's about dark characters, there's no profanity--a treat indeed! To fully enjoy it, you will need to suspend your disbelief and play "Let's Pretend." It's a fun fantasy.