"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer

I just finished a book a bunch of teenage girls are running around with. But, when I was a teenage girl... I'm kidding.

Stephenie Meyer doesn't just take her time as she tells the story of Bella in "Twilight", the first in a series about a high school girl, a little wise beyond her years, who falls in love with a vampire Edmund. She paces herself so distinctly that she casts you into the setting of Forks, Orgeon, where the story takes place. Telling the first part of the saga in no less than 490+ pages, it never slows and gets boring. It is paced very well, right up until the last 100 pages when the true adventure begins.

Bella, having just moved in with her father (divorced parents) begins her new journey at Forks High School. She despises the place, which is wrought with endless rain, but has an easy time making friends since she is the new girl. As she eats lunch daily with her new clan, there's another clan, a beautiful sect that's a family, that keeps Bella's eyes. Edmund, one of the few that keeps her attention, befriends her in science class (after trying to be rude and avoid her, which the attempt fails) is drawn to her and she is drawn to him.

The characters are true-to-form, and the teenage girls that are running around reading this can definitely relate. The best part about this vampire love-tale is that it's believable...meaning, it's not too hard to suspend your disbelief. The vampires described are fantastic beings, but people, too. I think the best part is how Meyer describes the achingly new relationship between Bella and Edmund in a way that's believable, but describes it well, and keeps it clean. It's not gory and there's no sex, not even a hint or temptation of it. With all the danger attached to these vampires and this new tortured love story, it's very innocent.