"New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer

The hook has been set in my subconcious, officially. I must see this through to the end! In this second installment of the Twilight series, we find that Edward and his vampire family has left town, primarily to protect Bella from the dangers of hangin' with bloodsuckers. He has explained his departure to Bella, however, as a good, old-fashioned break-up, and tells her "it will be as if I have never existed". OK, we have all been there, and we know the angst and heartbreak that you go through when your one true love denies you. You feel her pain. Bella goes catatonic for awhile, then is brought back to the land of the living (ha) by her childhood friend Jacob, who is in love with Bella, is quite attractive, and who just happens to be a, uh, werewolf and the numero uno enemy of vampires? Puleeeeease. I just shake my head at the idiocy of it all. To make a long story (to the tune of about 560 pages) short, Edward and Bella meet up in Italy in the presence of the vampire grand poo-bahs, and in order to ensure to them that the vampire secret is safe with Bella, promises to turn her into the walking dead in the near future. They are officially reunited, and promise to never leave each other again.

Again, the story is fairly innocent, with teenage hormones boiling below the surface.
The intensity is still there, with Bella riding motorcycles, cliff-diving and talking to strange men in dark alleys to rebel against Edward's abandonment. Edward tries to commit vampire suicide when he thinks Bella has died from a cliff-diving escapade. I feel that the story line also took a fairly ridiculous turn with the werewolf rival, but what do you want from a book geared towards adolescents? I still read it, didn't I? I was quite entertained actually and look forward to the little treat of the third installment...