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Breaking Dawn: The Twilight Saga, Book 4 (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $60.00
Buy New: $31.50
You Save: $28.50 (48%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  3798 reviews
Sales Rank: 7436636
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B001FD6RLM
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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 3793 more reviews...
 Better than Eclipse and New Moon January 8, 2009
I don't understand why people hate this book so much. I must admit, I'm not a fan girl, or Twilighter, or anything like that. I got dragged to see the movie, and after watching it, I felt it was a good enough story to spend my money and time to read the books. (PSA: If you're over the age of 20, you'll be laughing at unintentionally funny scenes during the movie. I got glares from several teens sitting around me for that...)
Twilight (the book) was decent. The 2nd and 3rd books, not so much. Awful writing, slow storyline--I found myself skimming paragraphs at a time to get to the next part of the story/plot.
So when I started reading Breaking Dawn, it wasn't without some apprehension. I was afraid I would hate it even more than the 2nd and 3rd books. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed it much more. The story moved along at a good pace, Bella spent less time cooing over Edward's "god-like" face and form, and reading about her new vampire experiences was rather entertaining. She was also less annoying since she wasn't as helpless and whiny.
I get the feeling some reviewers didn't like this book because the plot didn't progress the way *they* wanted it to progress. Keep in mind, people, this is the author's creation, not yours. Read it for what it is and enjoy the story rather than hating how everything turned out. So you want Bella to be an evil vampire rather than good? Go write your own sequel. Obtain the permissions and write your own version of Bella's experiences and struggles as a newborn vamp.
The only disappointment was the ending. I'll not give it away, but the ending was so...cheesy. There's no other way to describe it. Well, sickening is another apt adjective. (And now the flamers will tell me to go write my own ending. Touche.)
And finally, sorry Ms. Meyer, but you're no JK Rowling. The HP series are books I read over and over again; they're well written, the plot moves right along, and I don't get distracted by grammatical or other mistakes, and I delightedly discover (or remember) a new detail that I missed in earlier readings.
So, in conclusion, a good read. Not something I'd read over and over, and I slightly regret buying the book, but it's a good read if you don't want to think too much about anything. Borrow it from a friend or library.
 Terrible and totally disappointed!! January 8, 2009
I absolutely loved the first 3 books, I must have read them within 3-4 days. The love story was beautiful, capturing, and mind blowing..it seemed to get more intense once Jacob was involved. I couldn't wait to read the 4th addition..
If this book was mine (I borrowed it) I probably would have burned it by now. It was terrible..in fact, I read only half of it and then skimmed to the last chapter. I couldn't believe what I was reading.
-Bella immediately marrying Edward, after all she put Jacob through
-Bella getting PREGNANT..I didn't realize Vampires had live sperm
-Edward eating the mutant baby right out of her (I had to read that part twice, because I seriously could not believe I was reading the same series)
-Bella becoming a Vampire, after the first 3 books stressed so much on her keeping her humanity. Thats what made it so romantic...a human inlove with the supernatural
-Jacob claiming the newborn mutant baby as his MATE (I guess this part was suppose to be cute since he couldn't have the mother..)
As you can see, the romance that leaves you with butterflies in your stomach no longer exists. Instead, I was left quite disturbed. This whole book was so disappointing, utterly disgusting, and just plain ridiculous...I don't know what the author was thinking, but I sure as heck am glad I don't own this book!
Not like Twilight January 8, 2009
I didn't hate Breaking Dawn like a lot of the twilight community did, but to say that I loved it is also a far cry from the truth as well. At first I loved the beginning; Edward and Bella finally got married and had a wonderful honeymoon, things were looking up, but then everything changed.
I feel like Meyer got stuck half way through, like she dug herself into this hole and had trouble getting out of it. There were points where the book dragged where you just wanted to say, "Oh come on lets move onto something different."
I think the biggest problem I had with the book was that it felt nothing like the Twilight series. When I was reading it I didn't feel like I was reading the original Twilight series, I felt like I was reading some sort of fanfiction or something along those lines.
I know most people always say that ALL of Meyer's writing reads like fanfiction but Breaking Dawn really does.
If you like the Twilight series then I feel that you have to at least read Breaking Dawn, it does give closer only to me the closer was a little too sweet, like everything had to come together in this perfect circle and make everything perfect which is kind of boring.
I don't hate it but one of my least favorite out of the Twilight series.
 Immortal (Vampire) Love story January 8, 2009
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved all of the books, and the characters. I see nothing wrong in creating another immortal love story. Its like a new Tarzan and Jane, Superman and Lois Lane, or Radha and Krsna. I for one think these kinds of love stories are the best ones.
 Poor final book to what should have been a good saga January 8, 2009
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lots of spoilers here...
This was just as bad as the second book in my opinion. It wasn't that it didn't have enough going on. It was that everything seemed so disjointed; characters falling completely...out of character. It all started out smoothly. But then it all went downhill so fast. You start out thinking "finally, we can get this vampire change thing out of the way & get on with things", but no. Honeymoon...great! Everything seems happy. Then it comes to sex again & moods get ruined, and suddenly you've got bartering on Bella's end to get the sex she wants, and Edward naming more conditions. Then it comes down to Bella postponing the "change" just to get some sex. And that leaves you wondering if she's never going to become a vampire, which was what the whole series was about...she didn't fit in as a human, is more comfortable with the vampires, and desperately wants to be one.
And then, out of nowhere, the author throws in another curve ball. Congrats! You're pregnant! Enjoy! Not only that, but suddenly Bella wants to be a mom. What happened to not wanting marriage? Not wanting to be a mom? So then you've got a very accelerated gestation period. Bella's hanging on by a thread. No one can talk sense into her, so she keeps wasting away during pregnancy. Then you've suddenly got Jake back in the picture as Edward basically tells him he can have a kid with Bella. Another curve ball! After we've beat up on him so much, now he gets dragged back in again.
Now she's so wrapped up in her "baby" that she doesn't care if she dies (which would result in Edward kiling himself), she doesn't care that it hurts both Edward & Jake to see her like that, and she doesn't care that her family & friends are left blowing in the wind. All the things she used to obsess over...she suddenly no longer cares about? The second she finds out she's pregnant she suddenly doesn't even care that previously she didn't want to be a mother? All logic just went right out the window. It's different when you want to be a mom, or have been pregnant long enough to come to terms with the fact that you didn't want this, but it happened, and you're okay with it (and grow into the "i'll die if I have to" mindset). But she gives birth, if you can call it that, and then becomes a vampire.
They also build up the Jake/Leah thing. I was growing into the idea of those two being together...orphan-type situation and whatnot. But then Jake imprints on the baby, and so Leah is left hanging out to dry. By the end of the book everyone is happy (or has a chance for happiness) but Leah. Way to go! But lets get back to Jake. He no longer obsesses over Bella. But now Edward is angry over the imprint. This comes after he understood the process, that it wasn't controllable, and after Jake having been told that someday he would imprint & be happy.
So at that point I think, "okay, now we can get on with her new life". Apparently not. I'm thinking that we'll get to see how she handles the newborn process, but she ends up skipping it. First vamp in history to do so. So then I figure that at the very least the rest of the book will be about her discovering her abilities, learning to use them, and the Jake/Nessie relationship (what with her accelerated growth). But all of that drags out with a whole lot of nothing until the very end of the book. I mean, even out beloved Alice flat out flees the scene. Sure she returns later, but when she left there was absolutely no hope of her return (not even a hint to Bella that she left to help, not just flee). So when she did actually return I wasn't suprised or excited, I was annoyed, regardless of the fact that her return had relevance. This book was a terrible ending to the saga. I can only hope that she continues the story in some form in the future, reads some critiques, and developes a truly enjoyable book, the whole way through.
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