by Pauline

Created on: March 03, 2009

"Eclipse" continues to chronicle the thrilling romance between vampire Edward Cullen and high school student Bella Swan. The book follows the highly successful best sellers "Twilight" and "New Moon," written by acclaimed author Stephenie Meyer.

In this book, Bella and Edward remain inseparable and hopelessly in love. However, Bella is torn between wanting to spend time with her best friend Jacob Black, who happens to be a werewolf, the mortal enemy of Edward's kind. She struggles with her feelings, as she eventually realizes that she is also in love with Jacob. Towards the end, she chose to remain with Edward, because she knows whom she could not live without.

Further complicating things is the mysterious killing rampage in Seattle. The Cullens suspect that there is a savage vampire behind all of the murders, someone who created an army of new vampires, strong, uncontrollable and thirsty for blood. The Cullens are forced to work with the werewolves before more lives are lost. Eventually, they found out that it was Victoria who was behind the army of newborn vampires. She was subsequently destroyed and life resumed to normal.

"Eclipse" is by far the most action packed book in the series. But more importantly, the book did not just focus solely on Bella and Edward. Readers were given a glimpse of Jasper's life, who is one of Edward's adopted siblings. His extensive knowledge of vampire killings gave the Cullens and the werewolves an edge over the enemies. Jasper has always been portrayed as the weakest amongst all the Cullens, as he struggled to control his thirst for human blood. It is interesting to know how he became to be that way. The book also gave some insight on the depth of Jasper and Alice's bond, how she saved him and brought humanity back into his life.

Despite the high expectations set by millions of Meyer's fans given the success of its predecessors, "Eclipse" did not disappoint its readers. The book brought more dimension and character into Bella and Edward's personality. Bella still struggled with her abandonment issues after Edward left her in "New Moon." On the other hand, Edward was a bit too controlling in this book, forbidding Bella to see Jacob at first, bringing a human dimension into a vampire's character: jealousy. But nonetheless, "Eclipse" had the elements which made the entire series a huge success: romance, adventure, suspense, with a few scattered bits of dark humour. The book also left its readers frantic to read the concluding chapter of the entire Twilight franchise, "Breaking Dawn." Will Edward and Bella finally find their happily ever after? We're about to find out.

Learn more about this author, Pauline.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.