TWILIGHT (Stephenie Meyer) - January 2/09

I'm actually pretty surprised by how much I eventually wound up enjoying Twilight, as the book's first half - though basically entertaining - did start to grow a little tedious with its relentless emphasis on Bella and Edward's eye-rollingly idealized romance. My pervading thought was that I could easily see why teenage girls have so thoroughly embraced these books, as Meyer certainly does an effective job of getting into the mind of a gawky and awkward teen. Yet there did reach a point at which I found myself really attached to the characters and the momentum of the story pretty much forced me to tear through the last 100 pages in one sitting. Can't wait to read the sequels... ***1/2 out of ****