Twilight Series

Series: The Twilight Series
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers

Series Premise: A young girl moves to Forks, WA where she meets a family of vampires and falls in love with one of them, despite the danger it presents.

Main Recurring Characters: Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Charlie Swan, members of the Cullen family: Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper.

Bad Guys: Vampires who still gain their sustenance from human blood

Number of books in series to date: 4
Twilight, October, 2005 - review
(re-released in paperback September, 2006)
New Moon, August, 2006 - review
Eclipse, August 7, 2007 - review
Breaking Dawn, August, 2008

Next release: Series is finished for the moment, although there is the possibility that Meyer may publish books that are set in the Twilight universe or that tell Bella and Edward's story through different points of view.

Number of books planned: 4
"I have no intention of quitting at three. Firstly, Bella and Edward would never forgive me. Secondly, the next two books would have to be 1000+ pages apiece to get the story to any place that felt like a true resolution. Thirdly, there are other stories to tell here, and, though the narrator might change, the story will continue. I just have way to much fun living in Forks (in my head) to stop anytime soon."...from Stephenie Meyer

Series Appeals to:
Those who like star-crossed lover stories
Those who like vampire stories
Those who like coming of age stories
Those who enjoy young adult characters*
Hardcore Twilight Fans

Level of Violence: Mild, although threat of more extreme violence is present With Breaking Dawn, the level of graphic violence portrayed went through the roof. Not because of any mischief on the part of the vampires but because of the horrific way childbirth is portrayed.

Level of Sex: Sweet - kisses, behind-closed-doors consummation of marriage

Series strengths: Bella as a character and narrator is very appealing and sympathetic, Bella begins as a very appealing and sympathetic character. Edward Cullen is an extremely worthy hero Edward began the story as an extremely worthy hero. The vampire mythology is unique, the pace moves nicely, the love story is extremely well written and the emotions experienced by Bella are almost palpable.**

*Despite its status as a Young Adult novel and the teen-aged narrator, this series easily crosses into adult fiction and can be enjoyed by those out of their teen years.

**After the release of Breaking Dawn, my original assessment of the series changed drastically. While the first book, Twilight stands alone as an excellent installment with the strengths listed above, the series as a whole has very few strengths. Unfortunately.

Series weaknesses: Second title causes some frustration based on the lengthy separation of the hero and heroine. Third title destroys Bella as a likable character and turns hero Edward into a milksap. The addition of a forced love-triangle rings hollow and creates unnecessary drama while diminishing the original love story. Fourth and final story...don't even have the words.

Website: www.stepheniemeyer.com
(This is an excellent website, with an absolutely fascinating story about the unlikely road to publication Stephenie Meyer traveled. It also contains many behind-the-scenes extras as well as links to interviews and fan sites where even more information can be found. An excellent example of an author's website tying into her novels.)

The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series

Series: The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
Author: J.R. Ward
Publisher: Signet Eclipse

Series Premise: A band of warrior vampires fights to keep their species safe from those determined to destroy the race.

Main Recurring Characters: Wrath, Phury, Rhage, Zsadist, Vishous, Tohrment, Butch O’Neal

Bad Guys: The Lessening Society – called the lessers

Number of books in series to date: 4
Dark Lover (September, 2005) - review
Lover Eternal (March, 2006) - review
Lover Awakened (September, 2006) - review
Lover Revealed (March, 2007)

Number of books planned: Open

Next release: Lover Unbound, October 2, 2007

Series Appeals to:
Those who like extremely Alpha males
Those who like urban paranormal romance
Those who like vampire stories

Level of Violence: High

Level of Sex: Hot

Series strengths: Heroes are to-die-for, relationship between the members of the Black Dagger Brotherhood is well expressed, world-building is thorough and well-developed, dialogue is natural and realistic.

Series weaknesses: Heroines tend to serve more as props for heroes than viable characters in their own right, basic plot very similar between the first three books, creative spelling of character names and vampire terminology can be off-putting.

Website: www.jrward.com

Series

Series books. Seems people either love them or hate them.

I’m in the former group. If a writer has pulled me into his or her world successfully, I want to stick around for a while. If I’ve fallen in love with the characters, I want to spend more time with them. I look forward to the next installment with an anticipation I used to reserve for Christmas. And I’m devastated when it seems the series is in process of jumping the shark. I become invested.

In order to set this review site apart from the other million or so out there, I'm going to focus my reviews on books that are part of a series. Along the way I may toss a single title review to fill in some gaps and because not everything I read is part of a series. But since many of the books on my keeper shelves are series titles, that's where I will keep my focus.

I consider series books to fit into one of the following descriptions:

* Books that contains stories set in a single universe, where characters appear in more than one book. As the series continues, time moves forward. People change, and the focus of each book usually shifts to a different set of characters. Home of the dreaded sequel bait.

* Books that occur in a single universe but focus only on one or two key characters. Time may or may not move forward significantly, and the main characters may or may not change throughout the course of the series. Think the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich or J.D. Robb’s In Death series.

* Series written with an explicit end in mind after a certain number of books. Trilogies fall into this category, as do the Harry Potter books.

In my reviews, I'm going to offer a series summary. Too, each individual book review will include a Status of the Series, a snapshot of where the series seems to be heading since many series seem to run out of steam way too soon. I'll include all titles in the series, and I'll try to review each one in order that they were published. Reviews of individual books will assume that the previous titles have been read, so there might be spoilers for those earlier titles.