Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Although I have always loved fantasy and sci-fi books, I have never really gotten into vampire stories. Of course I love Buffy, but other than that I was never really interested. Twilight is a ridiculously popular teen vampire book, and while vampires may be classified as horror much of the time, I think that this one falls more appropriately in the fantasy genre. It is more romantic than truly scary.
The main character is Bella, who moves to Forks, WA to live with her father. She is not entirely happy about the move, but it was her choice, so she makes the best of it. She makes friends more easily than she thought she would, except for her strange lab partner. He is a member of the Cullen family, who seem to be incredibly insular. Bella can't stop thinking about Edward Cullen, however, and soon they get to know each other better. Of course, Edward is the vampire love interest of the book, though Bella is not as frightened as she should be by that realization. They are in love, and that's all that matters. Edward's family likes her, but they all seem to understand that it can't last forever.
The story is exciting and romantic, and it is obvious why it is so tremendously popular with teens. The Cullen family seems just a tad too over the top, but otherwise it is entirely seamless. There are page-turning suspenseful scary bits, and it leaves enough of a cliffhanger to have the reader waiting impatiently for the next in the series, New Moon. Of course, the reader could just buy it, but this reader is waiting for her hold on the book at the library. So that review won't be coming for another month or so . . .