Traipsey Turveybecause I love

I finished the third book, Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, after a few days of reading it. This time I thought this book had promise. It’s basically a continuation of New Moon and is packed with a little bit of action.

Plot
The Twilight series is basically about star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet, if you will. The twist is that the male protagonist, Edward Cullen, is a vampire while the female protagonist, Bella Swan, is human. That explains why both of them can’t be together. This time, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. This book is more about choices and another love interest is introduced in the book.
Synopsis
It is almost graduation and Bella Swan had already asked the Cullen family to vote for her being a vampire. The family already decided to turn Bella into a vampire after graduation although no exact date had been set even though Edward wasn’t too keen on this idea.

Bella already decided to be transformed into a vampire because she knew that if she would not become one, the Venturi would be after her. Sure enough, there was a crime spree in Seattle that had the Cullen family worried. They had already decided that the crimes were due to newborns (recently transformed vampires) where being made because of an impending war. Alice, Edward’s sister who can see the future (sort of), had already foreseen that the new coven would attack them.

Because the coven had already assembled an army of 18 newborns, the Cullen’s had no choice but to ask for help from the werewolves in La Push. At first, they thought that the Volturi where after Bella but Bella realized that it was Victoria who was the mastermind of the whole attack. The werewolves and the vampires formed a truce and decided to work together to eliminate the army while keeping Bella safe. The werewolf pack had already increased adding two new wolves to the pack, making them 10.

They had devised a way to trap the newborns and split them in two, while Edward and Seth, one of the new wolves, where to guard Bella in a place where they thought she would be safe. The battle ensued but Victoria and her accomplice caught Bella’s scent and attacked. A fight ensued and her accomplice was killed by Seth while Edward eliminated Victoria.

My View
This time, I enjoyed the book. It wasn’t the best, mind you but it was pretty good, especially when the fight ensued. I enjoyed the graphic description of the fight and could easily picture it in my mind.

I loved the part where Bella finally realized that she loved Jacob and was torn between him and Edward. Although she had chosen Edward over Jacob, I could see now that there is really love between them. I still thought that Bella was a tad weak, though. I guess it’s just her personality but I just hate that she closed her mind to other possibilities.

It was insightful actually, when Jacob kissed Bella and she reacted passionately. It was, as Jacob put it, her first kiss. Even if she had kissed Edward, they couldn’t explore their passion because he [Edward] was afraid of hurting Bella if he would lose control.

The epilogue of the book was all about Jacob. He had already given up his fight for Bella and received a wedding invitation between Edward and Bella. I found the epilogue interesting because it explored Jacob’s feelings for Bella. As my previous post indicated, I am all for a Jacob and Bella relationship because I can still see that Jacob “loved her more.”

I know I love vampires but the werewolf Jacob had an irresistible appeal to me. I know, I love bad boys!

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday and I am looking forward to joining this meme next week. I’ve been scrounging around my lappy for good sky photos and I came up with only a few. I’ll take more shots in the future!

I took this shot when I had my going away party with my hubby’s family. We went to the beach and I couldn’t resist taking a snap of the sky underneath the trees.

What are they, you ask? Well basically, Nectarines are a kind of Peach that has a hairless skin; Peaches are fuzzy by the way. It is said that nectarines are erroneously believed to be a crossbreed between peaches and plums, although they do belong to the same species.

Quite frankly, I have never tasted Nectarines before because I’m really not a fruit person. However, grapes, apples, oranges, and grapefruits are another story though.

I have always been a fan of food, heck, I love food (isn’t it obvious?). Anyway, one of the perks when you live, in my case lived, in a seaside town is fresh seafood. Yup, back in Dumaguete City, a small city in the Philippines, fresh seafood is always a staple in every person’s meal.

I miss fresh seafood and one of my favorites, even though I hate peeling them, is shrimp and crabs! I only indulge in this treat sometimes because even though it is yummy, these little critters are quite high in cholesterol even if they are rich in protein and calcium.

What I love about shrimps is that they can be eaten as is or added to any food. I have seen a lot of variations of cooking shrimp on TV because I love watching cooking shows.

I know I’ve been blabbing about shrimp and whatnot but I have recently came across a website that is having a cook off. That’s right, www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com is having a contest were you get to vote among 5 recipes and get a chance to win a trip to Louisiana!

I signed up and voted for my favorite recipe Shrimp and Andouille Cassoulet which is Louisiana Shrimp and Andouille sausage smothered in a white bean casserole by Chef Brian Landry of Louisiana. I chose this recipe because I thought that this one isn’t really hard to make, plus it looks delicious! What’s more, this recipe uses the freshest shrimp that is caught right in Louisiana. How fresh can that get?

Just hop on over to www.GreatAmericanSeafoodCookOff.com and vote for your recipe and win a round trip ticket to New Orleans, including hotel accommodations, dining experiences and more!

I have heard quite a lot of hype regarding Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series so I decided to check them out for myself. I often do not rely on word of mouth when it comes to books; I just have to read them for myself to form my own opinion.

I decided to skip on the ebooks and borrow all 4 of Meyer’s books. Unfortunately Twilight, the first book in the series wasn’t available so I decided to skip it and start reading the second book, New Moon. Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea because I formed a different opinion regarding the protagonist, Edward.

Plot
The Twilight series is basically about star-crossed lovers; Romeo and Juliet, if you will. The twist is that the male protagonist, Edward Cullen, is a vampire while the female protagonist, Bella Swan, is human. That explains why both of them can’t be together. All throughout the series, I expect a lot of reference to Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.

Synopsis
New Moon starts with Bella having a dream/nightmare when she turned 18. This is important to note because Edward is 17 and will never turn 18. On her birthday, Bella doesn’t want anyone to celebrate her birthday, especially Edward’s family (a group of vampires are called a coven but in Meyer’s book, she refers to the Cullen’s as family). Edward’s family consists of six vampires, which is said to be the biggest coven outside that of the Volturi, the ruling vampires coven.

Alice, Edward’s sister, decided to throw a party for her but it backfired when Bella cut herself. It is interesting to note that the Cullen’s are what Meyer’s call good vampires because they refuse to kill a human to slake their thirst. From what I have gathered, all six of them have trained themselves to only hunt when they really need to. The party ended badly, with all five vampires leaving the room and Carlisle, the head of the family, stitching up Bella’s injury. This scene marked the end of Edward and Bella’s relationship because the Cullen’s have decided to move. Edward even told Bella that he didn’t love her anymore.

In the months that ensued after the Cullen’s left, Bella was like a ghost of her former self, a shell, if you will. However, she made a friend with someone interesting. His name is Jacob and he helped Bella get over Edward but there is a catch, Jacob became a werewolf, the sworn enemy of the vampires.

My View
Now, I will not continue to make my own synopsis of the book because it in this part that I definitely didn’t enjoy. Perhaps, it’s because I skipped reading Twilight and started on New Moon first. It’s just that as the story unfolds, I don’t see how Edward could have loved Bella. There is nothing in the book that shows his love to her, only that he says he loves her so much and he is protecting her. In fact, I can’t help on rooting for Jacob and Bella to be together and I believe that they are a perfect pair. Not that I have anything against Edward but I just don’t see his love showing in the book, even when he told Bella in the end that she was the light of his life, something or other.

There was a part in the book where Bella and Alice went to Volterra to save Edward from the Volturi when he learned that Bella died, when in truth, she didn’t. It was interesting to note that Bella is not receptive to the powers of the vampires. I also read in Meyer’s website that this was one of the reasons Edward fell in love with her in the first place. That and her scent.

Meyer fans would probably disagree with me but this was what I felt was confusing in the book. I know I need to read Twilight to get a clearer view on how Edward and Bella came to be in love. I also thought the Bella’s character was pretty weak. I am definitely more of an independent character than of someone who simply bows down to the wishes of others. What I find quite disturbing is also the fact that Bella seemed fickle. It is pretty obvious in this book that she seems like she is simply using Jacob to forget Edward and when Edward returns, she leaves Jacob so that she can be with Edward. I find that callous and cruel.

The book ends with a confrontation between Jacob and Edward and an understanding that they will not kill each other unless Bella becomes a vampire. A veiled threat, so to speak. Perhaps there will be something brewing in the mist this time because Bella has taken into her mind that she wants to become one of the damned.

I have the next book Eclipse and I am definitely planning to read the one next.