Eclipse by Stephenie MeyerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Continues the story of Bella, Edward and Jacob after Edward and his family return to Forks.
The love triangle continues. Now that Edward is back, Bella is conflicted. On the one hand, she loves Edward unconditionally. On the other hand, she considers Jacob her best friend in the world (though she doesn't seem to treat him very well). So, here we have two guys who adore Bella, but she can't seem to say goodbye to either of them. This was the first time I started feeling sorry for Edward, too, especially when Bella's dad, Charlie, begins to assertively favor Jacob over him. Charlie's ploys to encourage Bella and Jacob to hang out are pretty funny.
Beside the thickening romance, the Victoria revenge plot thickens. Mysterious disappearances in nearby Seattle, an unknown vampire rifling through Bella's things and stealing personal items from her room, and of course, Victoria sitings all build the level of danger quite effectively. I really enjoyed the build up and the ultimate show down, which I won't go into details about. I must say Meyer has a knack for writing a memorable fight scene. Had my heart racing.
And we cannot forget the Volturi. Like in New Moon, they only have a cameo, but really, that's all they need. A few minutes of face time between the main characters and the Volturi and the tension lasts for the rest of this book and through the end of the last one. They make good "lawmaker" villains because they set and enforce the vampire code of conduct, and are almost too powerful to challenge. It's the perfect recipe for corruption, and the Cullens' unique gifts have put them on the Volturi radar.
As for Jacob, he gets more interesting yet again, especially now that we get a little more insite into his pack. The last chapter of the book is the first one that breaks from Bella's point of view in favor of Jacob's. It was a bit surprising, but very well done. His voice is definitely well-defined and differentiated from hers, all the way down to the chapter title.
Overall, I loved Eclipse just as much as the first two in the Twilight Saga. I experienced emotions ranging from excitement and amusement to anger and fear. The main characters aren't always likeable (I'm looking at you Bella), but they do draw you in. Even when they were at their worst behavior, I still cared what happened to them.
I highly recommend Eclispe to those who enjoy YA paranormal romance, particularly those who actually enjoyed the first two in the series. If you read previous books in this series and didn't like them, you are in for more of the same, so maybe this isn't the book for you.
On an aside, I must say the movie was pretty close to the book, though there were a couple of differences I noted. In the movie we see more of the fighting at the end (since we aren't restricted to Bella's point of view), and the scene when Bella caves is much more romantic. The edits did the story some good for the big screen.
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