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"My friends told me I had to read it," my mom said, making a face as she handed it over. "I couldn't get through the first chapter." Nevertheless, it was claimed within two minutes of being listed on Paperbackswap.
I crack the book before it goes flying out the door en route to some lucky recipient and begin reading on page 262, para 3:
Eeee!! Glittering vampires! As I read this bit of dialog aloud, my husband laughs, loud and spontaneous. It's a long, long running joke between us that women wish men wanted to know what they were thinking. I asked him once, what he was thinking, very early in our relationship, both of us still in high school. We were sitting side by side on the sand gazing across the waves at the last glowing wisps of the sunset.
After a moment he replied, "There's got to be a lot of big fish out there."
By chance or because that is the entirety of this book, I have struck a vein of pure girl!porn at first glance. And what is our heroine thinking?
I'll admit it, the first bit made me feel quite superior, undeservedly as always, but this last bit, I cannot laugh at: the wish to have a partner who cares more about one's comfort zone than their own gratification. It was this quality in A that made him a keeper, 'big fish' notwithstanding. I've read that Stephanie Meyers probably means it differently. That Edward is protecting Bella from the 'evil' of pre-marital sexuality. Either way, I can't mock the appeal this holds for so many.
I crack the book before it goes flying out the door en route to some lucky recipient and begin reading on page 262, para 3:
I lifted his hand, turning it this way and that as I watched the sun glitter on his palm. I held it closer to my face, trying to see the hidden facets in his skin.
"Tell me what you're thinking," he whispered.
Eeee!! Glittering vampires! As I read this bit of dialog aloud, my husband laughs, loud and spontaneous. It's a long, long running joke between us that women wish men wanted to know what they were thinking. I asked him once, what he was thinking, very early in our relationship, both of us still in high school. We were sitting side by side on the sand gazing across the waves at the last glowing wisps of the sunset.
After a moment he replied, "There's got to be a lot of big fish out there."
By chance or because that is the entirety of this book, I have struck a vein of pure girl!porn at first glance. And what is our heroine thinking?
"I was wishing that I could believe that you were real. And I was wishing that I wasn't afraid."
"I don't want you to be afraid." His voice was just a soft murmur. I heard what he couldn't truthfully say, that I didn't need to be afraid, that there was nothing to fear.
I'll admit it, the first bit made me feel quite superior, undeservedly as always, but this last bit, I cannot laugh at: the wish to have a partner who cares more about one's comfort zone than their own gratification. It was this quality in A that made him a keeper, 'big fish' notwithstanding. I've read that Stephanie Meyers probably means it differently. That Edward is protecting Bella from the 'evil' of pre-marital sexuality. Either way, I can't mock the appeal this holds for so many.
