Title:  Twilight

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

No. of Pages:  498

First Released:  September 2005

Synopsis:  Really?  Doesn’t everyone know the premise of the book by now?

Comments and Critique:  There is no shock when I state that I love this entire series.  I’m too much of a fangirl to keep quiet about it.  However, I have never come out and shared my thoughts on why I love the series so much.  I’ve let people assume that it is because it is a great love story.  It is, but that is not the entire reason.  For the first time ever, I share with you my reasons for this book being one of my favorite books ever.

I know that many girls (and women) identify with Bella.  I am hear to tell you that I not only identify with Bella, I was Bella.  I was awkward and painfully shy.  I preferred to be alone and read versus hang out with a group of friends.  I was always considered more mature for my age.  I never had a boyfriend in high school.  I always considered myself an outcast.  And then I met Jim.

Jim was older, wiser, more mature and somewhat mysterious because he was a college student who lived out of state.  My parents did not quite trust him and felt that he was all wrong for me.  What few friends I had in high school did not understand our relationship.  We connected immediately and roughly two months later, we were already discussing our life together.  I had no doubts from the moment I met him that we would be together forever.  Whenever he would go home for summer break or Christmas break, I would feel that a part of me was missing.  Even today, fifteen years later, I realized this past week, when Jim started working first shift again after two years of working either second or third shift, that there is a part of me that isn’t quite complete without him around. 

I call Jim My Edward because to me, that is what he is.  I know without a doubt that he would do anything to keep me safe.  He left the Army for me.  He left his job and took his new one for me.  He read the Twilight series and let me spend a ridiculous amount of money on concert tickets because he knows that they are important to me.  He spoils me, and I adore him for it.  But most importantly, we are best friends.  Like Edward and Bella, we can talk for hours and not run out of things to say or get bored.  Or we can sit in comfortable silence and just enjoy each other’s company.  It is a special relationship that can continue to provide that type of connection year after year.

I can relate to how Bella feels at the thought of Edward going away.  I’ve been there, experienced that through various deployments, temporary duty assignments, business trips and second shift work.  Throughout twelve years of marriage, I would say we’ve been apart for approximately five years of it.  You can function without your soul mate, but it is not fun. 

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (and the rest of the series) reminds me of those heady times when I first met Jim, what it felt like to be young and in love.  It reminds me that I still have the man I love, and if anything, our experiences have brought us closer together.  Twilight is more than just a beautiful, coming-of-age love story – the story makes me remember to take a look around at how good my life is and just how special my husband is. I fall in love with my husband all over again every time I read the book.  This is why I love this series so much.  It reminds me of my own happily ever after.