The second installment of the Twilight saga begins with another close call as Bella is put in harm's way after an accident at the Cullens' house. Refusing to put Bella at risk again, Edward and his family move away from Forks, leaving Bella alone with her grief over losing the love of her life.

In Edward's absence, she develops a close relationship with Jacob, only to discover that like Edward, Jacob has a secret he's been hiding. He's one of a clan of werewolves, tasked with keeping the vampire population in check.

When Edward returns, Bella is forced to choose a side - she now cares for two men, each with a supernatural power that puts her in great danger.

Teens especially, but anyone who enjoys a vampire and werewolf tale or a story about a Romeo & Juliet kind of love.

The mythology behind the vampires and werewolves was interesting, particularly when Bella goes to rescue Edward from the ancient Volturi.

The first half of the book had a little too much pining by Bella over the departure of Edward. It just seemed to go on and on... and there's only so many paragraphs one can write about feeling brokenhearted before it starts to get stale and drag. Fortunately, the last half of the book picked up immensely.

Part of me wanted to jump right into the next book, Eclipse... but another part of me wanted to just be done with the series, not sure if I could handle all the teen angsty stuff that took up so many pages in New Moon.

Here's my litmus test for those who have read Twilight. If you loved Twilight for all the romance and the relationship between Bella and Edward... you'll probably like New Moon. But if you liked Twilight for the vampire mythology... you're going to have to really struggle through a few hundred pages of moping and mourning until you get to that.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of New Moon (The Twilight Saga)   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jul 10, 2009 at 5:01pm • Submit your own review...