| Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: $22.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3531 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 2.5
ISBN: 031606792X
EAN: 9780316067928
ASIN: 031606792X
Publication Date: August 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Great love stories thrive on sacrifice. Throughout The Twilight Saga (Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse), Stephenie Meyer has emulated great love stories--Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights--with the fated, yet perpetually doomed love of Bella (the human girl) and Edward (the vampire who feeds on animals instead of humans). In Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment in the series, Bella’s story plays out in some unexpected ways. The ongoing conflicts that made this series so compelling--a human girl in love with a vampire, a werewolf in love with a human girl, the generations-long feud between werewolves and vampires--resolve pretty quickly, apparently so that Meyer could focus on Bella’s latest opportunity for self-sacrifice: giving her life for someone she loves even more than Edward. How close she comes to actually making that sacrifice is questionable, which is a big shift from the earlier books. Even though you knew Bella would make it through somehow, the threats to her life, and to her relationship with Edward, had previously always felt real. It’s as if Meyer was afraid of hurting her characters too much, which is unfortunate, because the pain Bella suffered at losing Edward in New Moon, and the pain Jacob suffered at losing Bella again and again, are the fire and the heart that drive the whole series. Diehard fans will stick with Bella, Edward, and Jacob for as many twists and turns as possible, but after most of the characters get what they want with little sacrifice, some readers may have a harder time caring what happens next. (Ages 12 and up) --Heidi Broadhead
Product Description
When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved? To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hangs. Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Just when the frayed strands of Bella's life--first discovered in Twilight, then scattered and torn in New Moon and Eclipse--seem ready to heal and knit together, could they be destroyed... forever? The astonishing, breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3526 more reviews...
 Fan-FREAKy-Tastic December 2, 2008
I'm a 31year old mother of 3 (triplets), so I may not be the standard 'teenager' these books are assumed to target. But Breaking Dawn the conclusion to the series definitely delivers. (mind you my favorite genre is Sci-Fi and I just LOVE a great romantic plot, and I'm a sucker for happy ending). Breaking Dawn to me seemed more mature, more complex, though I have to say some parts were entirely predictable. I liked Breaking Dawn better than the other books in the end. (though Twilight was probably the next runner up).
In Twilight you have the 'heat', of a new relationship. Dizzy headspins over sweet kisses, full on infatuation. It tugs you right along with it.
In New Moon the relationship is challenged, neither sure how much really the other loves them. Heartbreat rings out and you suffer, only later to be pulled out of the flames. Here the relationship is tested.
In Eclipse it's well established that Bella and Edward adore eachother, though Bella is torn by her love also of Jacob. She hurts those she loves, and struggles to make her choices.
Breaking Dawn brings their relationship to maturity. You see more of the sweet, loving, passion, tempered, knowing they can depend on eachother FOREVER love. Knowing your love is knit and will last just like a marriage should be. Edward fearing for Bella's life, haggard, destroying himself by seeing Bella slowly fade away is absolutely moving, her loving sacrifice, his adoration and deep love it shook me to my core. It stands in sharp contrast to happier times.. you see love from all angles.
Sure, there's a 'clean/neat' resolution to the problem that begins in the beginning of the book, before we move onto new problems. Now that Bella and Edward's relationship is knit. And Bella FINALLY seems to have everything she ever wanted. A horrible opponent threatens to take it all away. Not just after her this time, but intent on destroying everything she holds dear. The relationship of all of the Cullen family becomes closer, you see the tenderness, you care so deeply for all of them and you feel pain at the thought of loosing any of them.
(NOT to mention Bella isn't the only perspective from which this story is told.. and it is SOOO SOO FREAKING cool .. to experience the vampire mythos from the eyes of someone exploring a new life for the first time, it really opens up so much more.. you see everything at first from the human perspective then you can see through a vampires eyes.. a werewolf's eyes, and you see Bella through other's eyes too).
Here's a little clippet:
"It was not going to be the end of the world. Just the end of the Cullens. The end of Edward the end of me. "
"I prefered it that way - the last part anyway. I would not live without Edward again; if he was leaving this world, then I would be right behind him."
 Disappointed December 2, 2008
I understand that the core of the series is about a teenage girl falling in love and discovering an everlasting love. I, however, did turn a blind eye to the teenage angst and hormones(despite the multiple references that she is supposed to be a woman-child and wise beyond her years) because the main character is a teenager. Overall, I really liked the first three books, especially the third book. Yet, I was really disappointed with the last book. I'll try not to be redundant and will only write about my top three disappointments.
1. Like other reviewers, I lost interest in the book when Bella became pregnant. It just didn't make any sense---women vampires can't have a monthly cycle but vampire men can have sperm (by the way, the book references Charlie Chaplin, a human, not a vampire).
2. I was also very sad and disappointed that Bella and Edward's love was poorly written and very neglected (especially compared to the previous three books).
3. I guess my biggest disappointment with the book was that I really was hoping that Bella wasn't going to be turned into a vampire (maybe it was inevitable). I hoped that Stephanie Meyer was going to allow Bella to actually be wise beyond her years in that she accepts herself as a human and the fact that she will age, but also realizing that her love for Edward (and vice versa) is eternal, regardless of her human "flaws." I guess I was hoping for a different kind of happily ever after.
 Another great series...but with an ok ending. December 2, 2008
Honestly, when I read the reviews for BD I wasn't excited as how I saw many negative reviews it had since it came out. I had to read it for myself to know & I'm glad I did because I loved it. Yes, it is different from the other 3 books but a good kind of difference. I suppose the only thing I didn't like is the fact Stephanie patched things up with one big happy ending and also dragging a scene around 200 pages with the Voltori which came up to be nothing in the end.
For Breaking Dawn, I will say it is either a love or hate book & I am the ones who love it.
Sucker for happy endings December 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book! I am a sucker for happy endings and Stephenie Meyer delivered just that. She tied up loose ends and gave everyone a happily ever after. I wouldn't have wanted anything less with such beloved characters. The story moved at a quick pace and kept me hooked until the last punctuation mark. Well done!!
 Wrong Way to End the Series December 1, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Breaking Dawn is the final book in Bella's point of view, and I must say it didn't live up to it's expectations.
Edwards relationship with Bella was not as strong in the previous novels. I have to admit the wedding scene was great, well written. However after that it seems like their relationship just became about sex and was just kissing. In a way I was expecting this because what made the book series so great was the idea that he was madly in love with her but was faced with the challenge of wanting to kill her. Yet by her becoming a vampire, the thrill of that is gone. So, i don't like how their relationship lacked the spark it once had.
Breaking Dawn was full of many ideas and thoughts that simply weren't followed up on, for example Bella at one point decides she wants to stay human for a while and go to college, problems arise and it's not once mentioned again. There are other examples like this in the text. Stephenie Meyer could have excluded a lot of irrelevant details, that simply took away from the book and made it drag.
Mary sues killed the story. The book felt like I was reading a mediocre fan fiction. One that if I were reading off another site, I would've stopped reading. The whole pregnant situation is very common, she could have used that mary sue and make it her own, but she didn't.
The whole "battle" at the end was completely pointless. I don't get the point of setting up everything for nothing. I think Stephenie Meyer probably just wanted to add more characters for future novels, but I think that was a stupid thing to do. It made the ending weak.
As for Reneesme, I thought she was okay, if I were witting the book, I wouldn't have made Bella pregnant. Reneesme basically caused all the conflicts from the old book to disappear. It was an easy way out for Stepehie Meyer to keep from having to solve everything. For that reason, I didn't like her, or her silly name.
Would I ever recommend this book, no! It was a waste of my time. I love the Twilight series but this was a horrible ending to a good series.
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