The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn

*Warning to all Twilight fans if you haven't read Breaking Dawn this article will contain spoilers*

I find myself so sad with the release of Breaking Dawn! I just finished reading the book yesterday and I'm not ready for the story to be over yet! I feel in love with this story from the very first page of Twilight and I knew I was hooked~no I'm not exaggerating. I feel such a strong connection to these characters and find myself relating to them in many different situations. I've laughed, cried, screamed, became angry, happy-gone through all the emotions with this story. Stephine Meyer created a truly magical work within these books and I haven't enjoyed reading this much in a very very long time. While many people seemed to have been disappointed with Breaking Dawn I found it to be the perfect ending-even if I'm not ready for the story to be concluded.

To give a brief overview without giving every detail the story begins where Eclipse left off with a little bit of back ground story. We get to experience the wedding of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan-the big day is finally here! We get to laugh at Bella as she complains over all the fuss from Alice and all the unwanted attention and then we experience the immense love she has for Edward once she sees him at the end of the aisle. Her long lost best friend, Jacob Black, even makes an appearance which makes Bella feel like everything is complete until of course Jacob gets upset with the mention of honeymoon activities. The wedding was colorfully described and you feel like you are a guest there watching this couples dream come true.

After the wedding Edward takes Bella to a surprise place for their honeymoon which of course he kept a surprise to the very moment they arrived-such an Edward thing to do. They arrive on Esme island-yes Carlise gave Esme an island as a present! The island is tropical and private to them except for the cleaners that visit during the week. When they arrive Bella is excited and nervous at the same time. She wants Edward (a vampire for those who don't know) to uphold his promise to Bella (a human). He promised to try to make love to Bella while she was human before she was turned into a vampire (there is a whole back-story as to why Bella wants/has to become a vampire-go read them!) Of course Edward is very afraid of doing this because he is so much stronger then Bella. If he loses control of himself it would be very easy to kill her, but Bella trusts him and wants to have that connection and emotions with Edward before entering the newborn phase of being a vampire which has been described to her as only wanting blood and nothing else. After getting over being self conscience Bella pushes herself out the door into the ocean where Edward is waiting for her and well you can guess what happens. Being a teen rated book nothing is described except hints as to what they are actually doing. Bella feels like she is in heaven the very next morning while Edward is sulking away from her. He ended up bruising her badly and feels extremely guilty of himself. He "declares" that that little experiment won't be happening again until Bella is a vampire and goes off into distracting her with every activity possible. Eventually Bella dresses up in lingerie for him one night and the "dry spell" is broken and more successful this time so the honeymoon continues as most do hehe.

As the honeymoon continues Bella begins to start feeling different. She eats a lot, is always tired, has nightmares of the same dream occurring (a major clue), and sick to her stomach. She comes to the conclusion that she is pregnant. Both of them are in disbelief more Edward then Bella. Neither one of them thought that a vampire would ever be able to get a human pregnant. Edward rushes them home where Carlise (also a vampire, but a doctor) is waiting for them. Bella is indeed pregnant and progressing much more rapidly than a normal pregnancy. Naturally Edward and some of the other Cullens want to destroy whatever is inside Bella because they have no idea what it is, it's killing Bella (it's very strong-leaving bruises and eventually breaking bones from just moving, growing rapidly, and not allowing Bella to keep any food down) and in the vampire world vampire children are feared and not allowed under any circumstance. Bella of course do not want this to happen. She has grown deeply attached and for the first signs starts showing maturity and change which is not something we have seen from Bella in the past. She reaches out to Rosalie for help (which is very surprising given the relationship between these two in the past) and she becomes Bella bodyguard. The whole family is on the defense and confused as to what is going on. Edward is going absolutely crazy and into full self loathe mode. He thinks Bella is carrying a monster which is what he has always considered himself and watching the thing slowly kill Bella day by day-its torture for him. While this is all going on Jacob returns hearing Bella is sick and assumes she has become a vampire at this point. Jacob learns everything about the situation and agrees with Edward and tries to talk to Bella, but she of course doesn't listen. Eventually they have an idea to feed Bella blood to see if that is what the thing Bella is carrying wants and indeed it is. Bella begins to improve and while they are comfortable relaxing Edward with his mind reading ability hears a new thought which he assumed belonged to Bella. He is taking off guard since he can't normally her Bella thoughts, but it turns out it is actually the baby. With the development of hearing the baby's thoughts Edward does a complete reversal and grows attached to the baby know knowing it's not a monster.

Eventually it's time for the baby to be born. I won't go into details as it's a very descriptive process and anyone who doesn't like the description of blood probably should take that part lightly. Renesmee is born and the rush to "save" Bella is in full scale...you'll see why when you figure out how the baby was born. Edward works his "venom" into her and is scared that it's not working when she doesn't respond. Jacob is convinced that she is dead because of the baby and his anger spurges. He is determined to go and kill her and sets on his way to do as such, but as soon as he sees her his feelings do a complete opposite. Yes, he imprinted on Renesmee!

As the story goes on Bella is awoken into a vampire! Bella is finally a vampire and is totally awesome! I love this Bella so much more lol. She is much more confident in herself. She finally accepted who she was and it shows. Everyone is afraid that she is not going to be in control of herself as newborns usually are not and so they won't let her see Renesmee or Jacob until after she "feeds". Edward takes her hunting which is such a fun experience to finally be able to go on! It's so much fun reading about all their new experiences and new senses as Bella perceives them. Bella demonstrates self control over herself which has never before been seen and is able to finally see Renesmee after she almost kills Jacob for imprinting on her daughter~it's a pretty comical scene actually.

Things about Renesmee as discovered her and Bella's explanation of how things are so much more different for her now by all the senses she has gained. She didn't think she could possibly love Edward more but in fact she does and realizes now just how much he had to hold back to not hurt her while she was human! At one point she actually hurts him from hugging him too hard lol! Trying to spoil as little as possible things occur which bring in the much hated Volturi into the picture. I enjoyed this part of the story a lot as you get to meet many new vampires as the Cullens gather "allies" against the Volturi. You get see just how different each vampire is and all the gifts each one brings. We get to learn much more about Bella gift and why mental things have never had an effect on her. The suspense builds and you are convinced that the Volturi are going to win and everyone who fights against them will die-including all of the Cullens. There are some huge surprises here that I won't ruin especially something with the loveable Alice. Eventually the Volturi come to a conclusion that leaves most of them standing and the others are free to go-again I won't say how ^_^

Everyone gets to have their happy ending with the new baby in the picture. You can't but help to fall in love with Renesmee and as you get to know her you will see why. I thought the very last chapter was the sweetest thing in the world and I admit it actually brought tears to my eyes. Bella lowers her "shield" which has kept Edward out of her thoughts and for the very first time he gets to experience what she is thinking. She shows him her favorite memories of them together and how intense her feelings are for him. I thought this was so touching because we all know how deeply Edward wanted to know her thoughts and how much thoughts mean to him-it's almost like validation in its purest form for him. He is moved beyond words when she does this for him. The books ends with them kissing and them declaring they have forever to love each other~the perfect happy ending which they deserved after everything they went through!

I've read many people's comments to this book and I simply can't understand why people where so unhappy with it. For me it's one of my favorites if not favorite-I can't decide between New Moon or Breaking Dawn. People have complained that there was too much blood and too graphic, not enough fight scenes, that it's too much like a fanfic, etc. My response is it is realistic! The blood that is graphic here is to make it realistic and could have been a lot worse (read Anne Rice's books). It's too be expected giving the situation that was happening and if you don't like blood well sorry that sort of goes against the whole vampire thing-those two things are kind of tied together. I've read somewhere that Meyer actually wanted to make it more violent for it to be even more realistic but she couldn't seeing as the books are teen rated.

I highly enjoyed getting to know Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and the rest of the Cullens more in this book. She gave us more of an insight on them which was just plain fun. I don't think I'll ever get over Emmett and his sarcastic comments toward Edward and Bella "love" life. It was also fun getting to see the inner workings of the werewolf packs and the struggle of it as well. I was taken by surprise by Jacob and Sam's behavior as the situations changed and enjoyed Jacob's finally decision-it was only a matter of time before that happened. It was also very entertaining to watch Charlie's reaction to various things that occurred. That poor father lol!

I too find myself wanting a fight scene as we have had in the prior books especially after all the suspense that is worked up when the Volturi appear. That is my one and only disappointment with this book but it really isn't a factor when I sit and think about it because the situation played as something realistic would. I think Meyer did an excellent job at wrapping this story up and making things as realistic and believable as she could instead of stretching it to where we would be thinking that would never happen. I rather it be believable and more real-it helps me connect more to the story and characters involved. I absolutely love how she had Bella change when she became a vampire. As corny as it sounds take "super girl" to another level! I was relieved to get rid of the Bella that was constantly I love you Edward, I want to be with you forever, but no I don't want to marry you! That drove me insane and I found myself often yelling at her for how stupid she was. The "new" Bella is just the opposite and so confident with herself and I think that is Meyer's point. Bella finally found the "skin" she was comfortable in and a place where she felt she belonged. I can't even describe the new Bella, you will just have to read about it and see how fun she is!

The one other thing that was a little disappointing is there is not a lot of Edward moments in this story, but it's to be expected given what it focuses on. It is just hard for us fan girls who think Edward is the most perfect man ever even if he is fictional lol. And for those of you who think he wasn't paternal enough may I suggest taking a closer looks and a view from Edward's perspective on this one. As I explained above he was convinced that Renesmee was a monster who was killing Bella which is ultimately his fault for obvious reasons. As soon as he heard her thoughts and intentions Renesmee had him wrapped around her fingers and it is easy to see the different this has on Edward as his actions validate that.

The one thing I did notice that was different from this book from the others is she never said the title in the book. In all the past ones she made a point to put the title of the books in the dialogue somewhere and it makes me wonder if I missed it in this one or if she did it on purpose since it's the last one!

I give Breaking Dawn 5 stars and gained a new favorite author out of these books. After all the reading I've done it's been so long since I feel in love with a book so quickly and grew so attached to the characters. The Twilight saga will always be special to me even though the saga is supposedly concluded with Breaking Dawn. I am looking forward to Midnight Sun which is told from Edward's perspective and of course Twilight the movie in December! I sincerely hope the movie is close to how the book is and portrayed correctly and beyond expectations! I will also continue to read Stephine Meyer writings as I think she is a talented writer who has a gift for bringing you into the worlds she creates and from there it's not hard to fall in love with the characters. It's been a great and wonderful journey Twilight fans! I think I'm going to go read them all over now back to back lol. I will leave you with some of my favorite quotes from Breaking Dawn:

Bella showing Edward her thoughts: "Now you know," I said lightly, and shrugged. "No one's ever loved anyone as much as I love you."

Bella: "You nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness Monster?"

Edward to the newly created vampire Bella: "Um...carefully, Bella. Ow."

Bella in response: "Oops"

Bella upon realizing Jacob imprinted on Renesmee: "Edward, I don't want to hurt you, so please let go of me."

Aw and so much more! Go read the books, you will love them!