New Moon: Powerfully Emotional, Strangely Affecting

In this book I really feel that most of us who have had that one defining, usually traumatic, first love experience can connect with the emotion Bella is trying to express. I personally found it profoundly saddening and disturbingly identifiable in a beautiful way.

It was the first of the Twilight books that I read and I think that is why I was so sucked in.  I'm not sure that I would have been so involved if I'd started with Twilight.  Plus, it contains the most beautiful quote I've read in a long time, if ever. "Before you Bella my life was like a moonless night.  Very dark, but there were stars-points of light & reason...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything." 

The writing is simple, yet descriptive enough to paint a vivid picture of Forks & La Push and the characters are maddeningly likeable. I understand there are flaws with the book, as many people are quick to point out.  Yet it's the connection the book makes you feel with its characters that defines it to me and the raw emotion that is expressed within.

My favorite of the series is usually Eclipse...but sometimes you're just in that mood.  Everyone knows what mood I'm talking about...the I just want to hear sad music and think kind of mood.   Thats when this book is the best.