Buy: Amazon | Paperback | Hardcover | Audio

Review

4 ‘Team Edward forever’ stars

Midnight Sun is finally here! The retelling of Twilight from Edward’s perspective brings us a fantastic addition to the Twilight series as we get to embrace the other side of the story and see all of that vampiric ~~stalking~~… ~~obsession~~… intensity up close and personal.

Could a dead, frozen heart beat again? It felt like mine was about to.

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that the Twilight series is one of the romance genre’s defining love stories from the naughties (even with its moody teenagers and glittery vampires), and I was one of the Twihards who jumped all over Midnight Sun when Stephenie Meyer produced a free, partially-written version on her website many years ago. So, when I learned that she was finally releasing the full book, of course I was thrilled!

When I read the previously released part of this story, I eagerly rated it a glowing 5 stars on Goodreads. But for me, that was ten years ago now. I’ve changed, my reading tastes have changed, and though I still slow-mo the scene of Robert Pattinson walking across the school parking lot whenever I watch New Moon, I’m not as enthralled as I once was. But I eagerly dove into this book with high hopes that I’d be able to recapture all that this story meant to me, but tentatively aware that those feels may not be there anymore.

As excited as I was to get inside of Edward’s head, let me just say that this is definitely a read for die-hard fans of the series – or for those who are intensely curious about Edward’s feelings and motivations during the events of Twilight. It’s a marathon read – 675 pages, or 25 hours and 49 minutes of audio. That’s a lot of Edward. And we get every thought, every feeling, every look, every touch, every word. Every little moment of Edward and Bella’s story is here in incredible detail.

It’s a lot of information, a lot of it repetitive – not just because it’s a repeat of Twilight events, but within this book, there’s a whole lot of Edward mooning about Bella. From his initial obsession to his desperate need to push her away to his desperate need to protect this girl that he cannot live without. It’s all intense, all the time, and it’s repeated over and over and over again, and I don’t think we needed quite the amount of monologuing that we got. Though even after all of that treading, I remain perplexed over how they fell in such intense love so very quickly. But whatever, they’re 17 (sort of) and it’s a paranormal romance, so let’s just go with it.

My life was an unending, unchanging midnight. It must, by necessity, always be midnight for me. So how was it possible that the sun was rising now, in the middle of my midnight?

I have read the Twilight series a few times now, but it’s been a while since my last reread, so I enjoyed delving back in to the story. Had I recently read it, I’m sure it would have been incredibly repetitive because it’s the same events and conversations, just with a bit of a twist. And that twist was actually really interesting as we saw Edward’s confusion and frustration over all that he was feeling, and just how deep those feelings go. And, of course there are extra scenes during those few times where Edward and Bella aren’t together.

And it’s those extra scenes that I loved. Learning more about Edward, about his and his family’s background, their relationship with others and more about their world; and the additional conversations with characters that Bella wasn’t privy to, and that final exciting chase scene were a really interesting. But I particularly loved seeing more of the Cullen family dynamic – Edward’s strong parental bond with Carlisle and Esme, his special connection with Alice, and his relationship with his brothers was a definite highlight (Rosalie – not so much). I enjoyed seeing their unwavering love for each other, and just how much Edward’s family supported him through this huge change in his life.

“It’s going to be fine, Edward. This is going to work out for the best. You deserve happiness, my son. Fate owes you that.”

I think the fact that I listened to this as an audiobook made this book so much better. Jake Abel narrates the story, and he is just sensational. He’s a better Edward than Robert Pattinson, hell, he’s even a better Bella than Kristen Stewart. He tells Edward and Bella’s story with heart and emotion, and just the right amount of intensity, and it was a real pleasure to listen to this one.

I did enjoy this book. I loved being back in the Twilight world, and I appreciated this alternate look at the events of a story that I know so well. I think, had I read it when Meyer initially intended to publish it, it would have been a 5-star read for me. It’s well written, of course I still love the story, and it does bring back some of those old feelings. But it just doesn’t hold that level of mad love that I had all those years ago.

Still Team Edward forever though.

4 stars.

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.