New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer

New Moon, the sequel to Stephenie Meyer’s hugely successful YA novel Twilight, tries to take this ongoing vampire romance saga in a new direction... but hardcore fans of the first book shouldn’t worry: New Moon is just as silly as its predecessor. Once again, the plot veers between breathless melodrama and brain-numbing tedium, the vampire hero still spends most of the book being nauseatingly noble, and, despite the fact that the heroine is supposed to be a completely ordinary girl, half the male characters continue to fall desperately in love with her on sight.

The book opens after the heroine’s return to the small town of Forks, Washington. Bella Swann is fully recovered from the vampire attack that occurred at the end of Twilight, but life isn’t all sunshine and roses: her vampire boyfriend Edward still refuses to “turn” her, and she’s about to turn eighteen, making her older than Edward’s apparent age. When a cut on her arm almost transforms her birthday party into an all-you-can-eat vampire buffet, Edward ends their relationship. Bella spends the next several months in a miserable haze, but she begins to recover when she reconnects with Jacob, the sweet and gorgeous Native American boy who played a minor role in the first book. Jacob and Bella’s friendship teeters on the brink of romance, but Bella’s mooning after Edward paralyzes their relationship, and things get further complicated when Jacob begins to exhibit supernatural powers of his own.

I would have enjoyed New Moon more if there was any real chance that Bella might get over Edward and fall in love with Jacob. Much like Meg Cabot’s Heather Wells mysteries, Meyer seems to be delaying the progression of her main romance by banishing the hero from large chunks of the action. Edward is MIA for the lion’s share of New Moon, making Jacob the book’s main male character. Jacob is very appealing—much more so than Edward, who comes across as self-righteous and rigid—and many readers will be disappointed that Meyer never seriously considers a Bella/Jacob pairing.

The final book in the series, Eclipse, will give Meyer one last chance to redeem this story. If Isabella kicks Edward to the curb and runs off with Jacob, I promise to take back every negative thing I’ve said about this series and proclaim it as one of the most innovative and refreshing takes on the vampire genre I’ve ever read. If, however, the series ends with Isabella and Edward as a matched set of blood-sucking doofuses*, then Meyer will go down as yet another author who took a promising supernatural premise and totally blew it.

*And all signs point to "YES".