Rated 5 stars ***** 2016. Little, Brown and Company. 387 p.
“Twilight”, the beloved story of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2015. In this version, Meyer worked a little creativity into the original story by casting a female vampire, Edyth Cullen, into Edward’s role, while handsome Beau Swan replaces Bella as her irresistible human love interest.
Most of the original adventures of these love struck lovers in the little town of Forks unfolds before readers as we see Edyth through the eyes of Beau, who is struck dumb by Edyth’s beauty. Readers have the chance to see their love story live again through Beau’s eyes as she sweeps him into the heights of ecstasy as only an enticing vampire can do.
I will admit that readers should expect a few surprises in this version, but I won’t give them away. You’ll have to read to the very last exciting page to find out to what I refer. Like me, you might get inspired to read the series all over again.
Recommended for ages 14 and older.
Their mother abandoned Finn and his big brother Sean when she fell in love and moved out of state after their father’s death. In the two years since she left, Sean gave up his dream of becoming a doctor so he could take care of Finn. Everyone in the town of Bone Gap loves Sean and his quiet ways of doctoring as an EMT, while Finn suffers name-calling and abuse because of being unable to look anyone in the eye. He’s different, and the town doesn’t like someone to be different.
Anna hated her life. She was 56, had just gotten fired from a job she loved, and knew no one would hire her because of her age. Just when things started to look bad, she was offered a contract with Pierre Barton, owner of BarPharm, a huge pharmaceutical company. The contract offered her millions, relocation to London, and a new identity. It didn’t take Anna long to decide, and blissfully headed off to London and her new life.
Iris’ first engineering job was to create plans for each floor in the old Bank of Cleveland building, which had been empty for 20 years, ever since it closed in 1978 for embezzlement and fraud. Though creeped out at the thought of working there alone, except for a security guard, Iris was ecstatic to have landed her first real engineering gig. Soon, Iris began to notice strange things about the bank. Not only did it have a secret entrance via an underground tunnel system, but each of the almost 1200 safe deposit boxes still contained their treasures, and all of the bank’s files were still in place.
After a car accident when she was 16 years old, which killed her mother and caused her father to become brain damaged, Felicity was left to raise herself. Over the years she worked hard to educate herself as a chef, and became head chef at The Bancroft, a fancy Seattle hotel. There she befriended Vern, a lonely old man, who, a few years later, chose to gift the hotel and restaurant to her in his will.
Duncan and his boyfriend Jimmy, along with their friends, have been working hard on the campaign of Abraham Stein hoping he will become the first gay, Jewish President of the United States. Stein wins by 1000 votes, and everyone is ecstatic – except for the governor of Kansas who insists there was election tampering and hopes to have him defeated. With his opponent refusing to concede the election, hoping to have Stein lose votes in the recount, Stein invites Americans to join him in Kansas to protest the behind-the-scenes politics working to take away the people’s vote.
People say a skinny white dude can’t ball, but Sticky don’t pay them no mind. He don’t talk much, but lets his mad balling skills do the talking. Once he steps onto the scuffed boards of Lincoln Rec with his boys and a ball, the world disappears. Balling takes him to a place where no one else can go.