Twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

For reasons of her own, 17-year-old Bella chooses to move to her dad's house in the rainy town Forks, Washington, rather than go with her mom to Florida. Bella describes herself as pale, average, and awkward, but that is clearly not how she is viewed by her new classmates--especially Edward Cullen, a gorgeously graceful and handsome senior who seems oddly fascinated by Bella and her tendency towards clumsiness. Then Bella discovers that Edward and his family are vampires--members of a clan which has chosen to hunt only wildlife instead of humans. But just because Edward doesn't want to feed upon humans doesn't mean that Bella is completely safe with him....

This quick-paced, locally-based vamp novel is cool, tense, and scary. We know from the first page that Bella will be confronted with a hunter intending to kill her--but which hunter? And why?

Descriptions of the dreary weather in Forks may be considered exaggeration by non-locals, but native northwesterners will recognize the truth of life on our wet peninsula, and the joy inherent in sunbreaks. And a climate lacking sunshine really would be attractive to vampires, wouldn't it?

Recommended for readers ages 14 and up. No cussing; violence is mostly implied and threatened rather than carried out "onstage", and though sexual tension runs high between the girl and her vampiric boyfriend, their relationship is necessarily cautious!