Finally Bella and Edward are married in a ceremony reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice. Jacob had left the pack of wolves, destined for a life of solitude after Bella could not love him. He returns as a wedding present. He is mortified to discover that Edward and Bella are planning on consumating the marriage as vampire and human, fearing that Bella will be killed by Edward.

Fearless and determined, Bella and Edward leave for their honeymoon to Esme’s Island, an idyllic setting on a pacific island.

They are successful in making love, though Edward has left Bella with many bruises, he is determined not to ever risk it again, however Bella again seduces him and as she says, they get better with practice.

By the end of the honeymoon, she discovers that she is pregnant, Edward and Carlisle have decided to remove the child before it kills Bella. Bella’s maternal instincts kick in and she enlists Rosalie to help her protect her unborn baby.

Back at the Cullen house, Jacob seeks out Edward fearing that he has changed Bella. He discovers a distraught Edward, sure he has killed Bella as the baby eats away at her.

Jacob tells the pack what is going on and they decide to kill Bella because of the abomination that grows within her. This goes against everything that Jacob believes and he takes back his claim to the Alpha and defies Sam the leader. He separates from the pack, flanked by Seth and later Leah. They swear to protect Bella and deal with whatever the baby may be.

Bella’s condition improves once they decide to feed her human blood and Carlisle has to leave to get more supplies. Bella’s placenta tears in a freak accident and suddenly the baby is in danger and they have to operate to get it out.

An emergency vampirian caesarean is performed and Bella lies bleeding to death after seeing her baby for a moment, it bites her and she loses consciousness.

The baby is taken downstairs while Bella is left in Edward’s hands. Jacob follows Rosalie and takes one look at Renesmee, the chosen name for a girl baby, and imprints totally upon her. We had been led to believe that he had imprinted on Bella, but this was not the case, he was only madly in love with her.

Upstairs, Edward works feverishly injecting venom directly into Bella’s heart and healing her wounds with his venom and licking.

Bella finally transforms into a vampire and survives. She goes through the change in an unconcious state, totally controlling the pain of the fire with her mind and awakens when her heart stops to greet Edward and everyone waiting for her.

The Volturi are told of Renesmee’s existence, and fearing another outbreak of the immortal children, a breed of baby vampires created against Volturi law, they come to kill Renesmee, though their ulterior motive is to take control of Bella and Edward. The Cullen’s call on all the favours they can and accumulate a band of 17 who will bear witness for them against the Volturi. The wolves also protect Renesmee and the Cullens are joined by an increased pack of seventeen wolves.

In preparing for the battle, Bella is educated in her talent. She is a shield. She can protect not only herself but those around her. By the time of the battle, she is able to stretch her shield across all the vampires and wolves to protect them from the Volturi psychic attacks, leaving them to fight on skill alone and they back down.

Alice returns with a witness from the Amazon, another child the same as Renesmee to totally defeat the Volturi’s argument that she is a menace and must be destroyed.

The Volturi know they are outnumbered and outsmarted with partiuclar menace shown to Bella, the most powerful of them all.

The story winds up with Edward, Bella and Renesmee returning to their cottage knowing that Renesmee will survive to live for eternity. Bella shows Edward her gift by revealing her mind to Edward for the first time, by removing her shield and letting him in.

Of the entire series, Breaking Dawn is the longest of the novels at 756 pages, hence the long cliff notes. There is a lot more involved in the story. Meyer’s writing is breathtaking in delivery with the changes of views from Bella to Jacob to Bella. Again I was reduced to tears throughout the novel led by the expert capture of emotion by Meyer. A truly gifted writer. I’m going to move on to read The Host next to compare her style against the Cullen saga but I’m sure she won’t disappoint. I hope she is writing the next volume in the Cullen story.

Meanwhile, Victoria is still tracking Bella and the wereworlves and vampires have a nasty exchange in a border incident while both sides were trying to catch Victoria.

Seattle is now the scene of massacre as new vampires wreak havoc on the city, killing at random. The Cullens are watching this carefully and fear Volturi intervention.

A mysterious vampire visitor to Bella’s room has everyone on edge as it is a new scent. Someone is making more vampires without supervision and the problem is escallating.

Jacob and Bella’s relationship intensifies as she realises that she is also in love with him, but not as strongly as she is with Edward.

Alice finally has a vision of what is to come, a swarm of new vampires are coming to attack the town, led by Victoria, to kill Bella.  The Cullens are outnumbered and enter into an alliance with the werewolves whose pack numbers are now 10.

Bella tries to entice Edward into making love to her, but he will only do so after they are married and the engagement is made official.

The wolves and Cullen’s train together for the battle.

Jacob and Edward come to understand each other in a camp out before the battle.  They realise that they both love Bella equally and agree that Jacob would be the better choice for her, but Bella has chosen Edward regardless.

The vampire pack attack and Edward and Bella are cornered by Victoria and Riley, a new vampire she made for this purpose alone.

Edward eventually wins with the help of Seth, the youngest werewolf, beheading and dismembering Victoria in front of a terrified Bella.  Seth has shredded Riley and both corpses are burned.

On the other side of the field, Jacob is critically injured.  Carlisle and the Cullen’s take him home to La Push.  He has several fractures including, right leg, arm and several ribs.  He heals too quicly and Carlisle has to re-break some bones.

The Volturi arrive at the end of the battle, incredulous that the Cullens had defeated 20 new born vampires and Victoria.  They also check on Bella’s progress and are told that a date has been set for her transformation.

Bella visits and says her goodbyes to him as she tells him of her decision to marry Edward.

Alice is over the moon being allowed to arrange the wedding for the 13th August.

The book ends with a devastated Jacob having received the wedding invitation, because Edward felt he should have the choice to attend, and phases into a wolf, resolving never to become human again.

By now I”ve been picking a few literary faults, but the story is so fast paced and compelling, that the writing style is not annoying enough to keep me from reading. As with all popular fiction, it’s the story, not necessarily the way it’s written, that keep readers glued (and up until three in the morning) completing these books.

My girls were raving about these books and their friends were borrowing them, so I decided I better read them to find out what it was all about.  I’ve had the complete series sitting on the book shelf for about two months.

The movie came out in Australia on Thursday 11 Dec so everyone was cramming to get the books read.

Here comes the spoilers

Twilight is about Bella and Edward. Edward is a vampire but one of the good ones, they only feed on stock not humans.  Edward is part of the Cullen family consisting of Carlisle (dad) Esme (mum) Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper.  There is an uneasy treaty between the local indians and the Cullens.  The Indians, primary characters Jacob, Bella’s friend and Billy, his wheelchair bound father and tribesmen elder.

Bella and Edward fall hopelessly in love (see wuthering heights) and Bella is invited into the Cullen’s world.  It is there she comes across some not so friendly vampires, Laurent, Victoria and Jason.

James is a tracker and becomes obsessed with Bella and eventually attacks her and bites her, but the Cullens come to her rescue just in time and Edward sucks out the venom.  James, the bad vampire is killed in the battle.  James is the life partner of Victoria.

Carlisle works at the hospital as the local doctor having been able to totally conquer his need for human blood.

It is this conflict that keeps the book moving, Edward wants Bella on multiple levels. he loves her and also wants to suck her blood.

Bella wants to beomce a vampire and be with them forever but Edward refuses.

This is where Twilight leaves and New Moon begins.

Edward decides the best thing is to leave Bella because he has put her in mortal danger and he doesn’t want to take her soul by turning her into a vampire.

Bella is devastated and cannot function without Edward.  After months of torment she eventually rekindles her friendship with Jacob, from the Indian tribe.

Something strange is happening to the Indian boys, and eventually Jacob becomes a werewolf, mortal enemy of the bloodsuckers aka Edward and the Cullens.

The werewolves have been tracking the not so nice vampires, Laurent and Victoria who have returned to find Bella.  Victoria wants to kill her to avenge James’ demise.

Jacob and Bella have a rocky patch but eventually she accepts him for all his werewolfness.

Bella nearly dies and Edward is told that she is in fact dead, so goes off to kill himself ala Romeo and Juliet and Bella and Alice intervene at the last minute and are given a reprieve by the vampire godfathers The Volturi but Bella must become a vampire or else they will kill them all.

Carlisle agrees to change her, but Edward is still not happy about it and eventually bargains with Bella to wait until he can change her himself so they can be together forever.

Victoria, the bad vampire, is still loose and hunting Bella and the Volturi will be coming to check on her vampire progress, all the while Jacob, now in love with Bella has to accept that Edward his mortal enemy will break the treaty by biting her and turning his love into his enemy.

Am waiting for my copy of Eclipse to be returned so I can read it and will let you know how it goes.  But by now, you’re up to date.

Although it’s set in the myths and legends that have been done to death, Meyer creates a realism that has been missing in this genre for a long time.  To invoke tears several times throughout both the novels, is a rare gift, and the pace in which they’re written makes them hard to put down.

Highly recommended reading.  You’ll speed through them.