The first book in Stephanie Meyer's quadrilogy is aptly named Twilight. From what I've read on her Web site (hopefully it's her writing), this story was never meant to continue. After Meyer realized that she could not stop writing epilogues (mass amounts of money and multiple book deals may have been present), she went on to further the story between a young girl and her beloved vampire.

Bella Swan is a girl just starting to grow and get to know herself. Bella does not consider herself attractive, no matter how many boys at her new school ask her out (Bella's just moved from Arizona to the rainy town of Forks, Wash.).

Edward Cullen is a 100-year-old stuck in a 17-year-old's body because of his immortality. Now, I don't want to say that this book is vain, but Meyer does seem to play the unpopular-girl-get-unbelievably- attractive-boy card well. If the story were not fun, I would have had very little luck coming up with praise for Twilight. The idea of human psychology mixed with vampires is not that original. At times throughout this entire series, I've felt as though, had I been a pre-teen girl who can only dream about the hunks I've wanted to get my hands on ever since fifth grade, I would have given up my religion/lungs/daddy's credit card to read this stuff.

The story goes like this. Bella loves Edward more (because he's hot); Edward loves Bella more (because she's hot ... blooded). There's a vampire, James, who wants to kill Bella because (1) he knows that Edward loves her; and (2) he's a tracker (which seems to mean that he can find people better than other vampires). Edward, after a lot of airport hopping, saves Bella and kills James.

NEW MOON

The second book in the Twilight series is New Moon. Bella and Edward love each other, each more than the other. Everybody is happy, with Edward assuring Bella that he will never leave her, even though he ought to. In an unbelievable plot turn, Edward does leave Bella. Telling her that he does not ever want to see her again, he and the rest of his family pack up and disappear. Bella's life is shattered, and she goes into an unending post-breakup depression. (Note: I really did like the use of the months as chapters in this book.)

Even with a broken heart, Bella becomes besties with her childhood friend Jacob — a boy from the Quileute rez. Here's the kicker: Jacob is in love with Bella. Throughout the book, and as their friendship/Jacob's love grows, Bella begins to wonder if she could survive the rest of her life as a shell, in love with Edward, while pleasing Jacob by being with him. Bella also decides to get reckless. In her case, this means riding dirt bikes without a helmet and going cliff diving.

Of course, when she finally conquers her fear and jumps into the ocean, Edward, who has been keeping tabs on Bella through his sister, Alice (who can see the future), thinks she is dead and goes to Italy to take his own life. What is in Italy? The Volturi, or the vampire peace-keepers. Edward seems to think this is the easiest way to end his life; by showing himself as a vampire and letting the Volturi kill him.

At the same time Alice finds Bella still alive and quickly jets off with her to stop Edward before it's too late. They arrive, they meet and stop the Volturi. Edward and Bella are happy again. We also learn that Jacob is a werewolf, along with his Quileute friends, and that werewolves and vampires are sworn enemies (later we learn that Jacob is not a werewolf ...).

ECLIPSE

Really, nothing new happens in this book. Eclipse is a very long segue into the fourth and final book of the series. Bella loves Edward, Edward and Jacob hate each other, Jacob loves Bella, Bella loves Jacob — as a friend. Victoria, the vampire who loved James, is out to kill Bella. Somehow, throughout this book, Edward and Jacob come to respect each other. Neither are giving up their fight for Bella. Victoria is finally killed after eluding both the vampires and the werewolves and creating an army of newborn vampires in Seattle.

BREAKING DAWN

Edward has won the fight with Jacob, and he marries Bella while Jacob falls into a downward spiral of sorrow. While on their honeymoon (they are now married, which means they can now make love; my guess is it's got less to do with Edward being a vampire than it does with Meyer being from Utah), Bella gets pregnant. Their baby is growing at an unbelievable rate as well as killing Bella. For some reason, Jacob is still hanging around the Cullens, watching Bella slowly die. Soon after their arrival back home, the child is born and Bella dies in the birthing process. She is miraculously saved by Edward and his vampire blood, turning her into one of them. Jacob, also miraculously, imprints onto Bella and Edward's daughter (which we find out earlier is like finding your soulmate, but for werewolves). So everybody is happy again.

The story isn't over yet! The Volturi are coming to destroy the Cullens. Why? Because they are corrupt. The Cullens quickly band together with other long-lost vampire acquaintances to try and reason with the Volturi. We find out here that what we thought were werewolves are actually "shape-shifters," or "skin-walkers." Of course the plan works and almost everyone goes home safely, albeit one or two vampires that die for no apparent reason.

Apparently, Meyer was planning on rewriting the Twilight series, from Edward's point of view as opposed to Bella's, up until the manuscript of the first book was leaked onto the Internet. Meyer has since said that she has tabled this project indefinitely.