This review WILL contain spoilers. Please skip if this is an issue for you.
Although at 28, I'm hardly in the target audience for the Twilight books, I must say I immensely enjoyed the first book in the series. The second one was a bit blah whereas the third one picked up again. Looking back, I should've left it at that.
Don't get me wrong, Breaking Dawn is not all bad. The first part, told from Bella's perspective, is lovely. Part 2 with Jacob is worse, and part 3 (with Bella again) is where things get really bad.
What intrigued me about the previous books in the series was the intense, burning love between Bella and Edward, the care and tenderness that they showed (had to show) for each other to sustain the relationship and each other. Sadly, all of that pretty much goes out the window in Part 3 of Breaking Dawn.
Admittedly, the author was painting herself into a corner from the get-go: the tension and intrigue was certain to be lost once the star-crossed lovers were married and particularly once Bella becomes a vampire and loses her human fragility. Still, the way they seem to turn from eternal lovers into semi-platonic parents who sneak away at night for a romp seems to happen literally overnight. The romance dies in a blink of an eye. I guess this is kind of reflective of real life, but still, a huge disappointment.
I was not the least bit interested in the descriptions of them doting on their daughter while patting each other on the back supportively. This is particularly true of Bella who is even described as not being able to take her eyes off their daughter to gauge Edward's reaction to something. YAWN.
Secondly, which is nearly as bad, the description of the "newborn" Bella is so absurd and over the top that it's almost self-ironic. There's not a speck of realism in any of it, and the mundane conflict between the human Bella and the world of the vampires that was a hallmark of the earlier books (and made them if not plausible, at least believable) is simply gone. The "new" Bella is annoyingly perfect in every way: beautiful and strong, immediately able to control her immortal urges, a natural mother at 18 of a miracle child that never seems to be anything but happy and content. Oh, and her father is suddenly and unexpectedly OK with the whole vampire and werewolf scheme as well. Not to mention the sugary-sweet cottage and a flippin' sports car that she receives for her birthday. Gag. She's an empty shell and very uninteresting.
The much talked-about sexual references did not bother me at all; there is nothing direct or graphic in the book, much of it is alluded to only. Still, with the romance gone, the sex scenes seem crass and unnecessary. In contrast, the description of Edward and Bella's honeymoon in the first part of the book is very sweet.
All in all, I think the author really shot herself in the foot here, ruining the characters to a point where I am no longer interested in revisiting the first three Twilight books despite enjoying them before. I don't know what she was thinking.
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