Massive fan of fantasy YA? Then you’ve probably heard or even read one of the books in the Twilight Saga series.
A mixture of teenage romance, vampires, and slow-paced small-town life—another clichéd story, but it’s hard to beat that combo.
The Twilight book series follows the journey of a 17-year-old teenage girl, Bella Swan, and her love story with a 104-year-old vampire, Edward Cullen.
That sounds creepy. Yes, kind of, but… Edward is a vampire who was turned when he was 17, so he looks 17.
Ah, better!
I decided to have this article dedicated to the series. So, I listed all the Twilight Saga books in the order they were published. I have also stitched a couple of summaries of the best 4 Twilight series books.
Before we get to that, let me share with you the bits I found on the author’s life journey.
Who wrote the Twilight books?
Twilight is a fantasy romance book series written by Stephenie Meyer. The American author is one of the best-selling authors, having sold over 100 million copies of Twilight worldwide.
Stephenie Meyer was born Stephenie Morgan to Stephen and Candy Morgan in Hartford, Connecticut on December 24, 1973. The second of six children, Stephenie grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Chaparral High School before going to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on a National Merit Scholarship.
Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in literature in 1997.
In 1994, she married her childhood friend, Christian “Pancho” Meyer, with whom she raised her three sons as a housewife.
Meyer completed a manuscript for the first of her vampire-themed book series, “Twilight,” in 2003. But she had to weather a flurry of rejections from literary agencies before she got her big break.
Jodi Reamer of Writers House liked what they saw, and soon after, she was offered about $750,000 by Little, Brown and Company.
Her era as Queen of vampire-themed romance had begun, and shortly after, her books became three major movie hits; Twilight (2005; film: 2008), New moon (2006; film 2009), and Eclipse (2007; film 2010).
Among her accolades, Stephenie Meyer has won the Young Adult Library Services Association for Best Fiction for Young Adults (2006), the USA Today award for Author of the Year (2008), and the British Book Awards for Children’s Book of the Year (2009).
Meyer has also published two other novels, The Host (2008) and The Chemist (2016), and launched her own film production company.
Twilight Books in Order
- Twilight (2005)
- New Moon (2006)
- Eclipse (2007)
- Breaking Dawn (2008)
- The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (2010)
- Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (2016)
- Midnight Sun (2020)
Top 4 Twilight Books
I usually review five books in this section but considering that the series only has five books covering the plotline, I’ll only review four.
Well… if we’re going to have the best books listed, then there has to be a book that’s not good enough to be on the list.
1. Twilight (2005)
This is the first book in the Twilight Saga series, but that isn’t the only reason that I picked it as the number one Twilight book.
This book doesn’t just arouse fascination for vampires; it is also a good romance read. Imagine a mixture of teenage naivety, vampires, a slow-paced small-town life, and romance.
The story follows a young teenage girl, Bella Swan, who moves to Forks, a small, cold town, to stay with her father, Charlie. She then falls in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire aged 104 who, as I iterated in the intro, looks youthful.
The two contrasting lovebirds develop a relationship, but the 17-year-old girl is soon put in danger by a tracker vampire.
Things do not seem too rosy for Bella Swan after this, but she is so obsessed with Edward that she’ll choose love over her safety.
This book was Stephenie Meyer’s quantum leap, an award-winning work of genius that earned her her first publishing deal with Little, Brown and Company.
2. Midnight Sun (2020)
I would do a long summary of this book, but this concise one is the best summary, without significant spoilers: it’s Twilight told from Edward Cullen’s point of view, a story that made us (me and everyone else who’s read it) understand Edward’s thought process as he fell in love with Bella.
In short, it is just like a recap of Twilight.
One thing that I like about Midnight Sun is that it made both Bella and Edward become well-rounded characters.
Reading the other books in Bella’s POV didn’t give a rich perspective of her personality. You could see additions to her personality, especially when Edward was eavesdropping.
Although this book was published in 2020, it could have been published more than a decade earlier had a partial manuscript not been leaked back in 2008.
3. Eclipse (2007)
Bella’s perils do not end with Twilight or New Moon. There’s no happily ever after in Eclipse; uh-uh—that’d be too easy.
Apparently, everybody wants Bella: Jacob, Edward, and—of course—Victoria.
But, Victoria wants Bella… dead.
There’s a rogue vampire army that is intent on killing Bella. An angry “Victoria” is back, engrossed in vengeance for her dead lover, “James”. She blames Bella for his death, so she raises an army to fight the Cullens and kill Bella.
There’s a truce between vampires as they unite to protect Bella.
In the end, Victoria is defeated, but the fight leaves Jacob hurt. He heals from the injury, but his suffering is far from over; his heart gets broken when Bella agrees to marry Edward.
4. New Moon (2006)
This is the second installment in this book series. The story continues to follow the two love birds, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, and it’s the same high school romance, albeit too dramatic.
Following the dangers that his vampire origins seem to pose to Bella’s life, Edwards decides to move away from Fork along with his family, ending the relationship.
It was kind of a good and bad thing that the Bella-Edward romance took a back seat in this book.
Of course, Bella was crushed and depressed, but the breakup also gave her a chance to reconnect with her friends and grow in so many ways.
I felt sorry for Jacob because even when he had Bella all to himself, she couldn’t fall for him.
At least not entirely.
In the end, both Edward and Bella pull some sort of Romeo and Juliet suicide antics that attract the attention of the wrong crowd for Bella: the Volturi.
Once again, sweet Bella is in danger—or is she?
Twilight Book Series FAQs
Who wrote Twilight?
Stephenie Meyer.
How many Twilight books are there altogether?
The Twilight book series is about 5 books in total. But there are two other books that are related to the series; The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse, a branch-off Twilight novella; and Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (2016), a gender-reversed retelling of Twilight.
Will there be a 7th Twilight book?
The author does not plan on releasing any other book after Midnight Sun, which retells the story from Edward’s Cullen point of view.
How many books has the Twilight series sold?
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide.
What was Twilight’s target audience?
Twilight is a young adult fantasy novel, but as we know, YA is for everybody who likes it.
Conclusion
Stephenie Meyer brings us into a dark and dangerous world, a wonderful human-vampire romance seen through the lenses of Bella and… Edward, in Midnight Sun.
A spiked curiosity leads her to discover the town called Fork, where she discovers that vampires are not mere legends but true.
Despite knowing that vampires are famed for being gruesome and evil creatures, Bella becomes obsessed with one. She quickly and madly falls in love with Edward, although she’s aware that he could bite her or do something worse to her.
And that, in fact, is the whole series in one sentence. Bella obsesses over Edward, despite the looming danger.
There was a time I felt helpless for Bella. It was as if she went out looking for trouble hoping to be saved.
All in all, the Twilight book series shows us that there’s more to vampires than blood-sucking and violence.
