New Moon

‘New Moon’ by Stephenie Meyer, is the second book of her famous ‘Twilight’ series, continuing the story of Bella and Edward from the first book.

 Bella’s life is complete by having love of her life Edward with her, He is her school mate and his sister Alice is a good friend. But why is she unhappy? Her boy friend is a Vampire, forever struck at his 17 year age, while she is getting older (Just 18) day after day. Her nightmares are filled with horror when she imagines him to be forever 17 and breathtakingly beautiful while she gets older and has wrinkles. He is careful to keep physical distance from her for her safety, while she is the one who carves more. He is intent on keeping her human to save her soul, while she believes being Vampire like Cullens is not bad idea when it gives Edward for eternity.

On her 18^th  birthday, an accident happens on her birthday party and Edward’s Vampire brother Jasper loses his control attacking her. The incident leads to Edward and his leaving her, with the parting line, "You're not good for me, Bella." He turned his earlier words around, and so I had no argument. How well I knew that I wasn't good enough for him."

Bella goes into depression and tries life threatening antics to hear his voice (hallucinations), and to ease the pain in her heart on his leaving. Meanwhile her friendship with Jacob Black grows and she starts coming out of her depressions. Until one day Jacob black stops receiving her calls and supposedly has joined the others of LA push gang and Bella suspects he is into killing of hikers on the road.

Forks is threatened by Bear sightings, hikers are getting killed. Jacob black and other boys at La Push are behaving wildly and Bella knows their secret. Amidst Alice, (Edward’s Vampire Sister who can see future), mistakes one of Bella’s cliff diving adventure as her suicide attempt and the information reaches to Edward. Edward now has headed to Italy to provoke Vampire royalty- Volturi to get killed, and Bella along with Alice, rush to Italy to clear his misunderstanding and Save him.

The plot again is very interesting. While the predecessor ‘Twilight’ was full on romantic love story, with action only coming in climax, ‘New moon’ is adrenaline infused story especially whenever Jacob comes into scene. If Edward is the epitome of Magical - Romantic Prince Charming, Jacob is the fearless boy next door, full of raw masculinity. When I first read this book, I was very sad as Edward was missing for the most of the book, but the climax made up for it. Though Bella’s heartbrokenness makes us cry, the writer has kept it in limit to save the book from turning very dry. Thanks to these adventure filled antics she has infused in book, ‘New Moon’ turns out to be action packed sequel to Twilight.

Its again 4/5 read (-1 due to absence of Edward in the book, I am up for Team Edward).

The famous quotes:

“I promise that this will be the last time you’ll see me. I won’t come back. I won’t put you through anything like this again. You can go on with your life without any more interference from me. It will be as if I’d never existed

“It was like someone had died — like I had died. Because it had been more than just losing the truest of true loves, as if that were not enough to kill anyone. It was also losing a whole future, a whole family — the whole life that I’d chosen”

“The prince was never coming back to kiss me awake from my enchanted sleep. I was not a princess, after all. So what was the fairy-tale protocol for other kisses? The mundane kind that didn’t break any spells?”

“I thought I’d explained it clearly before. Bella, I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist.”

“It never made sense for you to love me. I always knew that.”

“Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars — points of light and reason… And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything.”

“The fairy tale was back on. Prince returned, bad spell broken. I wasn’t sure exactly what to do about the leftover, unresolved character. Where was his happily ever after?”

Twilight

“Twilight” is the first book of the same named series by Stephenie Meyer. There are other three books in the followed the series, New Moon, Eclipse & Breaking Dawn. The book was then adapted to make widely popular movie series with the same name, but personally for me the book series is much better than the movie one.

The story as widely known is about a teenage human girl falling in love with 104 year old vampire. Bella swan is an ordinary girl, who falls a lot, is very clumsy, always doubts on her abilities, cannot lie convincingly, and thinks about others before her own self. Sacrificing her love for the sun filled Phoenix so that her mother can live with her new husband, Bella moves to live with her Father to Forks- a sunless constantly raining place. In the high school, she sees a strange family of adopted brothers and sisters - The Cullens. {It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them. They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them.}

Edward Cullen is the mysterious boy of her class, who is repellent of her for no reason.  He is dream boy of girls in the school, breathtakingly beautiful with flawless skin and ruffled hair. But like rest of the Cullens, he doesn’t mix with anybody in the school and behaves extremely abnormal around Bella, who is mystified by his beauty and horrified by his uncalled repentance towards her. {I didn't look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw his posture change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. Inconspicuously, I sniffed my hair. }

Circumstances shape up like this that Edward had to save the life of Bella, and she starts to notice how different he is from a normal human being. Edward is now friendly to her, yet, evades her inquisitions but is obviously attracted to her. Bella tries to find her own, and after listening to local tales by   Jacob black- an old family friend, she realizes the cullens are in fact Vampires.

Edward saves Bella’s life once gain in Port Blair, and they went for dinner outside. Bella confesses her theories about his mind reading & the knowledge that she knows he is a Vampire, who hunts animals instead of humans. Edward though initially shocked, admits to it and his liking for Bella and explains how he is trying to control his urge near (of blood drinking) her.

{About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how potent that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.}

The rest of the story is about how their love progressed till comes a villain. The story ends on a dramatic climax.

The best thing about Twilight is that though principal character in it is Vampire, the heart of the story is the love between Edward and Bella. The vampirisim of Edward only offer him a super hero like image without compromising with the intensity of the first love.

Twilight is best read because –

- The Principal characters Edward’s larger than life personality. He is not a scary vampire but somehow Stephen makes him boy of every girls dream.

-   The ordinariness of Bella, which makes every girl associate with her. She is not high school captain or most beautiful girl in the town. She is clumsy, doesn’t know how to dance, but every boy likes her.

-    Writer has taken pain to mark every even a tiny little detail and put it on paper for us.

-   The romance, the hesitation of the first love, the anxiety before the first kiss, all the feelings are aptly described in the book.

-     Vampirism is not bloody or scary but magical and loving.

It is indeed 5/5 read for me,  making me thirsty.errr…hungry to grab the next book in the series.

Sharing other favorite quotes not listed above:

{"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb…" he murmured. I looked away, hiding my eyes as I thrilled to the word.

"What a stupid lamb," I sighed.

"What a sick, masochistic lion." }

{And I knew in that I had my answer. I didn't know if there ever was a choice, really. I was already in too deep. Now that I knew — if I knew — I could do nothing about my frightening secret. Because when I thought of him, of his voice, his hypnotic eyes, the magnetic force of his personality, I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now.}

{He shook his head again. "I was wrong about you on one other thing, as well. You're not a magnet for accidents — that's not a broad enough classification. You are a magnet for trouble. If there is anything dangerous within a ten-mile radius, it will invariably find you."}

(And then, as the room went black, I was suddenly hyper aware that Edward was sitting less than an inch from me. I was stunned by the unexpected electricity that flowed through me, amazed that it was possible to be more aware of him than I already was. A crazy impulse to reach over and touch him, to stroke his perfect face just once in the darkness, nearly overwhelmed me. I crossed my arms tightly across my chest, my hands balling into fists. I was losing my mind.}

Pride and Prejudice Book Review

If anybody asks me which book I am never tired of re-reading,  it would always be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

The plot, the characters, and Jane’s writing style - all are very engaging. The book was written in 1813, but lovers in todays era would also connect with the story. 

The story is about Miss Elizabeth Bennet a.k.a Lizzy, the second daughter of the Bennets and Mr. Filtzwilliam Darcy, a.k.a Mr. Darcy, the owner of the Pemberly state. Throughout the book we will find that how the protagonists proud nature and their prejudice towards each other stops them from expressing their mutual love and affection for each other.  Misunderstandings create a further rift and Lizzy starts hating Mr. Darcy.

Finally the love wins over all the prejudices and arrogance, and Mr. Darcy expresses his feelings for the lady love. And Lizzy also realizing that she was wrong on judging Mr. Darcy’s character, accepts his love.

What I loved the most in the story:

- Though story is about Miss Elizabeth & Mr. Darcy, the other characters, Mr & Mrs Bennet, Elizabeth’s Sisters, Mr. Bingley etc get their due share in the book.

-  The inception of the story on the dream of the mother to get married here five daughters to wealthy suitor’s appeals to many, the authors writing style and characterization looks real.

-  The inability of the leads to accept their love for each other due to misunderstandings, arrogance, prejudices against their way of upbringings connects with many readers.

-  The subtle romance, it’s the best in this story.

To sum up ‘Pride & Prejudice’ is a very cherished love story, with drama, plot, characters...all ingredients that make it an all time favorite read.    

In the end, sharing my favorite quote from the book, that’s how Mr. Darcy divulges to Elizabeth how he began loving her;

‘I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I HAD begun.’

Finally did it!!!

I always wanted to do lot of things as a kid. Sometimes I would want to become doctor or teacher or nurse or astronaut or something else. What I knew was I wanted to do something in my life which can make me feel different. In the place where I grew up, it meant to study and to get a steady job which was lot of girls didn’t prefer.

So as taught to me from beginning I started working hard on academics, wanted to excel in the area. I became a “keetabi keeda”.  I got the job not just the job but a kind of dream job for many. I was super happy even though I had to leave my home, shift in the new city & live alone for it.

What looks like a happy ending here, in fact was the beginning of the new life. No, No I am not talking about the Prince Charming in waiting with his white horse here. It’s about sudden discovery of your hidden desires and inner passion. The family less- bachelor life made me alone very alone and I turned to my books for solace. I started reading a lot. The joy was in freedom to enjoy a book without worrying about the grades and marks.  I started getting lost in world of classics, fantasy; romances on paper. I too had a passion, though I realized it very late.

From sometime I wanted to share my love and passion to the world, but never had courage to do so. Lot of self persuasion has made me start this blog. Finally I did it!!!