Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight, #3

YA, PNR

Readers captivated by Twilight and New Moon will eagerly devour the paperback edition Eclipse, the third book in Stephenie Meyer's riveting vampire love saga. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob --- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

“Look after my heart - I've left it with you.”

I admit I had some hope brewing after the second improved over the first, earning three stars in front of two, but...no. The third went backwards again. It keeps the slightly improved writing flow, but that's about it.

The Bella-Edward obsession is back. While he isn't overdoing his eyebrows and shifting his mania moods every paragraph, and isn't even dis-likable anymore, Bella is the worst. She gets so mad at Jacob over a playful kiss that anyone else would have seen coming from a mile away, she hits him and unrealistically breaks her hand. She has this very bizarre worry about aging - why is turning 20 the end of the world? Why won't she compromise even a little with Edward and wait awhile? Her moaning about aging and waiting takes up a large part of the angst.

The second annoying thing that makes no sense at all is she won't wait to turn into an immortal creature, despite Edward's warnings - but she is terrified of marriage because she thinks its wrong and embarrassing to marry right out of high school. Yeah, makes no sense.

Then she starts harping on Edward not having sex with her before she changes because she's worried she'll change personalities later, but this is still worth a risk for her while marriage wasn't?

She is dedicated enough to die for him, give up being human for him, but is scared when he talks about being engaged and refuses to wear his ring right now because it's too unsettling?

She won't let him even buy her a birthday present (only homemade allowed), but she tricks and forces him on other things like not group fighting and not waiting to turn her?

Bella really does have to be one of the most annoying characters ever. Seriously. The side characters don't even bother me now - Edward, Jacob, Alice, Charlie, etc. are fine - but the main character? Yikes.