Twilight

I have just finished reading all the books published in the Twilight Saga and the half finished, illegally posted online then posted online by Stephenie Meyer herself 5th book. Yes, I was that in to it that I sat in front of my computer and scrolled through a PDF on www.stepheniemyer.com. I guess you could say that I'm not the target audience and it's true I'm a late comer to the saga considering that the first book was published 5 (or more?) years ago.
I mentioned in my blog of 2009 that I'd read the first 2 books in the saga but I didn't reveal that I hadn't even heard of it until I saw something on the news about the New Moon movie premiere. I love to read and I particularly like reading series of books. I like to know what happens to the characters after the end of a story so a trilogy or a quadriology (?) is ideal for me.
I enjoyed all the books and I have to admit that my least favourite was New Moon. I've been trying to work out why and **spoiler alert** I think it's because Edward is away for a large part of it. The thing that keeps me hooked is the relationship between Edward and Bella so when he's not there (or I guess if she weren't there) then I find it hard to get involved with the story line. I'm not saying that I'm only interested in Edward - it's the whole "we are absolutely right for each other and we've known it since we met" that I like. I think that this is what millions of others like about it too - i mean i could be wrong - but if I was reading this as a 15 year old I just know I would be obsessed by it. As it is I'm reading as a 30something married woman and I can't quite get it out of my head.
When I was at school I used to have to write book reviews as part of my English homework. "Home Readers" they were called and you could pick any book and you had to write a 4 part review. The 4th part was "what age would you recommend this book for" and I always wrote that I didn't believe in recommending books for particular age groups as if you could understand the words you could understand the story. I may have been missing the point as I was always reading books like ""the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" and reviewing them instead of reading Judy Bloom which is what I'm sure my English teacher was expecting. This popped back in to my head whilst I was reading the Twilight novels.
Stephenie Meyer has, I think, captured something of the intensity of relationships and this is often hard to find in books no matter what the target audience.