Eclipse [Hardcover]

I just had to get this off my chest.
The last few chapters of Eclipse have entirely ruined the Twilight Saga for me. Bella kisses Jacob back? Shes in love with him? She craves a different set of arms besides Edwards? What the hell is this?! I've never gonna be able to enjoy Twilight and New Moon the way I did the first time I read them because now I know the whole things a sham.
I think the main reason that fans are so obsessed with these novels is because they love the idea that two people can be so passionate about one another to the point where it seems as though they were truly made for the other person. All of that goes out the window once Bella admits shes in love with Jacob; it compromises everything that shes said to Edward about him being the reason for her entire existence. This story is no longer about two people who love each other with every last ounce of their being.
The scales have been tipped dramatically, in my opinion; Edward and Bella do not love each other equally. It's obvious that Edward is telling the truth when he says that he wants nothing more in life than Bella. But now we know that this is not the case for Bella. She can't give herself to Edward completely, because part of her heart belongs to Jacob. Shes extremely reticent to get married to Edward, which she claims is only because she hates the idea of being married at such a young age, but if she truly loved Edward the way that he loves her, she wouldn't care what anyone else thought.
I can't read these novels anymore without feeling sorry for Edward, and being completely dissapointed with Bella. Every time that Bella says something to the effect of 'you're my life' or anything regarding how much she loves him I can't help but think that her love for Edward shrinks each time while the part that loves Jacob grows ('smaller, but getting louder and angrier every minute, screaming at the rest of me'). The romance in this saga is gone for me. The absolute, unconditional, timeless love that we all thought existed between these two is not what it seemed, and therefore these novels are not what they seemed.

I was recently coerced into reading this series by a coworker, and though it's not nearly as good as people make it out to be, it is definatly an easy read and well-worth the time.

The author does a good job of portraying Bella as an angsty teen and narrates in a way that keeps readers interested.

The only real problem I have about this series is that in Twilight and New Moon the reader is put in a world where nothing exists but Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Alice and Jacob. The other characters used in the book aren't fleshed out and don't have a history of their own. Most of the time being used to push Bella to one of the fleshed out characters so something interesting can happen.

This is where I find Eclipse starting to fill in the gaps. Within the first half of the book, we're explained Rosalie's history, the Quielutes(sp?) history and Jasper's history. Other people around the couple start getting much more involved with the story, which is a refreshing departure from the problems-with-edward, make-me-a-vampire sections which have filled most of the previous books.

All things said, this is a good read. It's hard to put it down once you've gotten started though, so make sure you have time to read it.

Have and watch the DVD's for this series. Am enjoying the fact that the books and movies are so close together in their stories. Brilliant!