Customer Reviews

Twighlight Saga

5 star:		(2,204)
4 star:		(184)
3 star:		(52)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(97)

 

 

This set includes all the books from the Twilight Saga, which includes; Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and lastly Breaking Dawn. The books themselves are exactly likes the ones you find at any bookstore, in hardcover. The case it comes in has all the book covers displayed on each side minus the names of each book.
What is included that you couldn't normally get by buying each one individually elsewhere are 4 5x7-ish cards that have the cover picture on one side, then quotes from the corresponding book written on the other. for example: one 5x7 has a picture of the twilight cover, hands holding a red apple, then the other side it says, "About three things i was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him--and i didn't know how dominant that part of him might be--that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." (I included some pictures so you can get a better idea of what they are)

I would recommend this set to those who do not already own the twilight collection(like me) and would like to own all the books(i borrowed them all from a friend). Or of course obsessed twilight fans. There's nothing truly remarkable about the set so i wouldn't go buying this if you already own all the books.

I am very happy with my purchase nonetheless. This saga is one of my favorites.

This is a value buy for those who are contemplating sinking their teeth [pun intended] into Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series as it not only offers all four books, i.e. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn for a great price, they all come housed in a gorgeous keepsake box. I have all four of the books in hardcover, but I purchased them individually as they were released, and am seriously contemplating getting this boxed set which I can keep as a souvenir, and then use the other books as my reading copies.

Well, for those who are new to the series, the books are in the following order:
Twilight - Bella Swan moves to a small town near Seattle called Forks and meets Edward Cullen, an enigmatic student at her high school who turns out to be a vampire and lives with his clan in a magnificent mansion. As the romance between Bella and Edward blossom, they have to face obstacles such as the physical 'constraints' of being in a mortal-vampire relationship, facing objections from their respective families, and threats from other more vicious vampires.

New Moon - Edward and Bella are parted and Bella is so heartbroken that her life becomes empty and without direction. Enter Jacob Black, the tall, dark and handsome friend from the reservation, La Push who provides Bella with not only friendship but someone she can trust and rely on during a desperate time. Of course, nothing in Bella Swan's life is ever quite so simple and complications crop up once again.

Eclipse - Edward and Bella are back together, much to the disappointment and disgust of Jacob Black, himself now an other-worldly being. Will he convince Bella that he is more worthy of her love or will Edward prevail?

Breaking Dawn - the final instalment in the series. Edward, Bella and Jacob feature prominently here, with the most pivotal question - will Bella sacrifice her mortality for an immortal life with Edward? If so, what are the repercussions?

All in all, the Twilight series makes for an interesting and fun reading experience and this beautiful boxed set for the price offered here on Amazon is definitely a keepsake for fans and new readers alike!

I plowed through all four books in eight days. That might indicate an obsession, a speed reader, an easy read, or some combination thereof. In the case of Twilight, it's a combination.

I'll say up-front that I recommend these books, at Amazon's amazing price, for anyone interested in Vampires-meets-90210. It reminded me of a coming-of-age, Dawson's creek-style story with supernatural elements.

The books are very easy to read. The first-person narrative, written like a journal or diary, gets you into the character's head and keeps you turning the pages. Though the perspective changes between characters later on; I found that switching to be a weakness. You can't bare a character's mind and soul, then suddenly switch to a new mind and soul and ignore the previous one--the readers are cheated out of a deeper insight.

The plot is interesting enough to want to finish the books; however, it does kind of eye-rolling at certain points. There are definitely a few teen drama moments and more than a few repetitive statements. Those episodes of juvenile insecurity and monotonous dwelling weaken the story; thankfully, it's not often enough to ruin the entire series.

Mrs. Meyer gives us an amazing glimpse into the main character's life, and the author can write some pretty enticing--but not too explicit--sensual scenes. Vampires and sensuality go hand-in-hand, and the author ties them together well.

Lastly, the overall quality of writing is mediocre. While I'm not a professional, I do understand the basics of grammar and voice enough to know that Twilight, and its successors, displayed plenty of weakness in mechanics. There is a lot of adverb and adjective overkill; the proverbial "Show; Don't tell" was abandoned in many, many scenes. The use of tag lines (she hissed, he chuckled, she replied, he retorted) is abused throughout the books. When in doubt, use "said" to tell us who is talking.

Grab the books for the price; don't expect the next Harry Potter or Anne Rice-caliber novel, but take the story as is and you'll enjoy it.

The Twilight Saga is one of my favorite series. I started this series reluctantly by being encouraged to read Twilight by a friend. I checked it out of my local library and knew that I had to own it. Half way through, I queued up New Moon and Eclipse to start immediately upon completion. I then waited for the arrival of Breaking Dawn, which I completed the weekend it was released.

I have all the books on this series in audio and 3 in print, but I have to say, I prefer the audio by far. Ilayana Kadushin does a fabulous job giving Bella a voice and adds so much more depth and emotion to the story than I could personally get from print. Matt Walters is introduced as Jacob in the Epilogue in Eclipse and Book 2 of Breaking Dawn. He also does a great job of giving Jacob a voice.

As for the series itself, I loved it. Twilight, Eclipse are my favorites in this series, followed by New Moon and Breaking Dawn. I won't give an overview of the plot of each of the books as I won't be able to do them justice individually with limited words. I will summarize series as a whole by saying the first 3 in this series are really about love, conflict, choices with a little bit of the supernatural and some action involved. The last look in this series takes an unexpected turn and is more of a fantasy type novel with a little romance - different than what was laid out in the previous three books.

Breaking Dawn seemed to be received with more mixed reviews than the previous three because it deviated from the format laid out in the previous books. I had some mixed feelings about the story because of this, but I still enjoyed it.

This is a fabulous series that is aimed at young adults (mostly female) but has held the interest of adults like myself, and a smaller male audience as well. While the last book in this series is quite a bit different than the previous 3, its still one of my favorite series.

It's not a literary masterpiece and certainly has flaws, but the story laid out out and the world created are absoultely fascinating and highly entertaining. This is why is I think it deserves 5 stars....as well as the readers of the audio version. Great performances.

The audio version is definetly worth the extra expense. If you loved the Twilight Saga, this is a must have in my opinion.

I read all the books in a weekend and again the following week.....I am an avid reader and audiobook listener and when I can no longer ignore my work to read I usually get the audio either from the library or buy them and put them to my ipod. I was much anticipating the cd's to have yet another title to listen to and when I loaded the cd's over the course of a day (all books) started listening....I was greatly dissappointed. The speaker herself read as if she had the book right in front of her and never read it before. She hardly (not at all) captured the essence of the main character let alone the other more prominent characters. Her announciations of "Bella" and her disregard of tonal inflections due to punctuation was bearly tolerable. Mind you...I have listened to more than 50 audiobooks and I must admit that listening to this speaker after so many other better read books probably made this audiobook doomed. Her voice is too throaty and nasaly, she sounded like the words were tripping over her toungue about 50% of the time.

I am going to try and return the set...otherwise I am donating it to the local library. I am sure there is someone who would like to listen to it and not care about the way it sounds.

My recommendations to potential buyers are these....if you HAVE to have it on audio....go to the library...the cd's are too expensive for such a poorly spoken book. If your library doesn't have it....then go in on it with a group of interested readers. Otherwise...just read the book more often.

I bought this to have an untouched set of the books, as my original set has been a bit abused from loaning them out and my own obsessive reading! The box is gorgeous [and sturdy!] with a cover picture of the books on the sides.

The four lithographs are approximately 4 x 11. Each one is the cover of the book [without any of the words]. The back of each has the blurb from the book it corresponds with, in the Twilight font. They are a nice little addition to the set.

All in all, if you were to buy the hardback versions separately, this boxed set is only a little more and you get the lithos with it.

This Bundle actually costs more than purchasing each one separately for the Kindle... Only by a dollar and a few cents, but you would think that a bundle would be offered to safe money now wouldn't you?

Since I work at a bookstore, I've sold quite a few of these things. I'm constantly having people come up to me & ask them what the difference is between the box sets & whether they should purchase this rather than the individual ones. I'm not going to review the books, but rather the set itself. (I assume that if you are purchasing it, you have read the books. If not, then I recommend reading the thousands of reviews for the books on amazon.)

The amazon price for this is very good. At my store, we sell it for the full original price unless there is a sale going on. A few of us did a calculation as to what the difference is between the price of the set & the price of the hardbacks individually & there is no real difference. This is at the individual hardback regular prices & does not take into consideration whether the books are on discount or not. The price difference on amazon is about $2, with this boxset currently being cheaper. Since prices can fluctuate here, I recommend looking up the various prices yourself & doing the math.

The only reasons to choose this set over the individual novels are the lithographs of the book covers (which are lovely) as well as the box itself. The set comes in a decorative box that shows all of the various covers of the series, which is a plus. (I may not have liked the books, but the covers have all been beautiful!) If you want to show off your books, this is the best way to do it. The only thing I would recommend is that you be a little careful with the box set- it's not as sturdy as some of the other boxes I've seen out there. (The box is made of a thin cardboard like paper & will withstand some abuse, but I wouldn't leave stuff on top of it when the box is not filled with every book.)

If all you want are books to read, then you will probably be better served collecting the books individually as you could probably find them at local stores for cheaper than this box set. If you want something to collect and/or show off, then I would recommend this box set. It's a good way to get all of them at once for a decent enough price.

If you're planning on getting these books on the kindle, I advise you to buy them separate rather than in this set. It will end up being about $5 cheaper.

Now, before people jump down my throat about this review and start claiming that I don't know what I'm taking about, I feel I must say that I have read all the Twilight books, and I believe the title of this post says it all. I strongly discourage anyone who wishes to retain a decent number of brain cells from reading this atrocious series. Stephenie Meyer, as Stephen King said, "cannot write worth a darn," and her "vampires" are, quite frankly, wimps. The relationship between Edward Cullen, (a "vampire"), and Isabella Swan, is preposterous, and based mainly on the fact that Edward is pretty and Bella smells good. Neither of those, in my opinion, is a good idea to be with someone.

*Possible spoilers beyond this point...Not that there's really anything to spoil; even if you only read the first chapter, it's all pretty obvious what's going to happen in the next 2505 pages of the series*

The plot of the first Twilight book is as lifeless as Bella's personality. For 7/8 of the book, Edward and Bella struggle with their forbidden relationship. Example:

Bella: Edward, I love you.
Edward: I know, but we can't be together. I am just too dangerous.
Bella: I don't care!
Edward: I know what is best for you, Bella. You can never see me again.
*A day goes by, during which Bella mopes around, and the next morning, Edward is in her driveway with his Volvo*
Edward: I've come to take you to school, Bella.
Bella: Edward, I love you.
(etcetera etcetera...)

Oh. My. God.

This, as you can imagine, begins to get very, very boring after a while, but then, lo and behold, there is a small gleam of hope for some sort of pick-up when a "Tracker vampire" named James decides he wants to kill Bella. Well, I personally think he'd better get in line since Edward saw her first, but whatever. Eventually, after running from Forks, Washington to Phoenix, Arizona, Bella is lured to a ballet studio by James and a home video, and nearly killed. Not quite as exciting as you may think, especially since Edward and the gang arrive in time to save her and kill James. Bella, though she is bitten, is kept from becoming a "vampire" thanks to some quick thinking from Edward.

Yeah, because if Edward let Bella become a "vampire", then their lives would just be soooo perfect, and Stephenie Meyer wouldn't have been able to torture the world with more of her stupid ideas.

I'm getting rude now, and I apologize; I'll tone it down.

In New Moon, Edward does finally leave Bella because another "vampire" named Jasper tries to eat her, and she sits in the woods for almost a day. Just sits there. Because, as we all know, a girl simply cannot function without a guy of her own. Mhm, sure. That isn't archaic or anything. So, after Bella sits in the woods until her father and some other guys find her and drag her home, she is basically catatonic for months. Really. In the book, you turn the page, and it says OCTOBER, then the next page says NOVEMBER, then DECEMBER, and so on and so forth. I don't remember what finally snaps her out of this funk, but by that time, Bella has begun to hear Edward's voice. In her mind.

Yeah, she's not going insane or anything.

Oh, and since this only happens when she's in life-threatening situations, Bella sets out to do all this dangerous stuff, including jumping off of a cliff, just so she can hear Edward's voice in her head. I guess the fact that she might die did not occur to her. Meanwhile, Jacob, (an indian boy who was also in the first book), is being led on by Bella, who is bored and wants him to rebuild her a motorcycle for free, because he, like everyone else in the world of Twilight, cannot get enough of her, in spite of the fact that she is very plain and lacks any sort of personality.

(By the way, I don't think that Stephenie Meyer has ever been on an indian reservation in her life, because she seems to have no idea what she's talking about. Then again, that applies to most everything she writes, so maybe it's just her style is to be ignorant.)

So, while Bella is stringing Jacob along, she is attacked by the late James' "vampire" mate, Victoria, and Jacob turns into a werewolf and saves her. Sure, okay. Bella, not the sharpest tool in the shed, thinks that Jacob's wolf-form is actually a bear for a while. Nice.

Anyway, as all of this is happening in Washington, Edward is in Italy planning to kill himself. Why? Well, through a series of miscommunications, he heard that Bella committed suicide, so, naturally, he must die as well. Bella and another "vampire" Alice go to stop him. They arrive JUST IN TIME, and then escape back to Forks, but not before a group of "vampire" royalty tells Edward that Bella has to be turned into a "vampire" or killed because she knows about "vampires". To Edward's dismay, it is decided that Bella will be changed when she graduates high school. Bella 1, Edward 0.

The next book...what is it called again? Something about the moon... *checks wikipedia* Oh yeah, Eclipse. So, in Eclipse, Bella is still being hunted by the "vampire" Victoria. Edward, who had since returned to Bella and Forks, is being especially obnoxious, because now he's jealous over Bella's relationship with Jacob. He forbids her to see him, but, for the first time ever, Bella decides to disobey Edward, and begins visiting Jacob on a regular basis. This makes Edward even more jealous, so he decides that he must marry Bella and take her off the market.

Edward didn't count on Bella being super against marriage.

In spite of this, when Edward proposes, Bella accepts. Practically the next day, Edward and his family decide to join forces with Jacob and his pack to fight off Victoria and her band of newly-turned "vampires". Bella is taken up a mountain, and watched over by Edward during the fight.

At some point, I can't recall exactly when, Bella has to cuddle up to Jacob in order to stay warm. Edward is there, and as he still does not want Bella to be a "vampire", he basically offers to lend Bella to Jacob for sex without even consulting her about this because, as always, her opinion doesn't matter. I believe Jacob says no.

Anyway, back to the story. When the fighting ends, Jacob shows up and, when he hears of Edward and Bella's engagement, he threatens to rush off and get himself killed. Bella, in her infinite wisdom, kisses Jacob, and realizes that she loves him too.

Thus, the love triangle.

Victoria manages to find Edward in the mountains, and after a brief fight, she is destroyed. Bella is still trying to convince both herself and Jacob that she loves Edward more, but after Edward gives Jacob and invitation to the wedding, Jacob, distraught, runs off into the woods.

Real manly there, Jacob.

Last, and definitely least, Breaking Dawn. If all the books up to this point have been bad, this one is truly and without question the most god-awful of them all.

Bella is brain-dead. Not literally; she just acts like it. She wants Edward to have sex with her BEFORE she is turned into a "vampire". He argues, but they eventually do it, and, OF COURSE, Bella gets knocked up. Friggin' fantastic story-writing here, Meyer. A few days after Bella and Edward go at it, (during which they have sex a few more times), Bella begins to feel her stomach kicking. I believe it to be much more likely that she has a bunch of snakes inside of her than a child, since that was way too quick, but it did turn out to be a kid.

Break out the cigars.

Edward, who is apparently not a big smoker, freaks out and wants to abort the child, with or without Bella's consent, but Bella refuses and he actually listens to her. Why does she refuse? Because she's stupid. Over the next few days, she swells like a toad, and enlists the help of a "vampire" named Rosalie to keep Edward from doing anything rash. Rosalie, who had always wanted children, agrees to help Bella out. Personally, I also think Rosalie hoped Bella would die, and my condolences go out to her that this dream was not realized.

Bella begins craving blood, and she drinks some human stuff that the "vampires" had on ice from a sippy cup. Meanwhile, Jacob's pack wants to kill Bella and the kid, but then Bella gives birth. Most of her bones are broken, and she loses a bunch of blood, but then, at long last, Edward turns Bella into a "vampire". Happy friggin' day.

Oh, and Jacob imprints on Bella's kid. Imprinting=immediately falling in love forever. Creepy, huh? I really wanted Jacob to imprint on Edward, but I suppose you can't always get what you want.

Now that Jacob has found his soul-mate in the form of Bella's newborn daughter, named, (can you believe it?), Renesmee, Bella has to get used to being a "vampire". As she was uber-clumsy in life, I thought that that was the trait Bella should have taken to death, but no. Instead, she is unnaturally in control of her "vampiric" instincts.

Ugh.

The rest of this book is just unbearable. Renesmee is thought to be an "immortal child", which is apparently bad, so all these bad "vampires" come to kill her and Bella and all the other good "vampires" called the Cullens. Another kid like Renesmee is found, and he tells the bad "vampires" that Renesmee is not an "immortal child", but is a crossbreed like him, and poses no threat. The bad "vampires" leave, and then Bella and Edward, and I quote, "continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of [their] forever."

Holy two-pound bag of sugar, Batman.

So, now that I have taken time to write this out, I hope beyond hope that I can convince just a few readers that this series is a complete waste of time and paper. For the love of God, people, the "vampires" SPARKLE. Don't even try to tell me that that's not one of the lamest things you've ever heard. And they don't have fangs! Didn't catch that? Hold on, I'll say it again. THE "VAMPIRES" DON'T HAVE FANGS!!! I am so freaking sick of seeing all the Twilight paraphernalia, (which, by the way, is EVERYWHERE), with fangs on it. Bella clearly says so when Jacob asks if it the fangs hurt when she kisses Edward.

In closing, I must say that these are all fictional characters. Seems obvious, yet I have noticed a troubling number of girls calling themselves Mrs. Edward Cullen online, writing it in their notebooks with bubbly hearts, and even scribbling it onto bathroom walls in permanent marker. So I shall say it again: Edward is not real. Hear me fangirls? NOT REAL. Move on with your lives and stop defacing public restrooms.

And, if he was real, would you really want some controlling, vaguely creepy, undead fellow as your paramour? Personally, I would have dumped him the minute I found out he had been watching me sleep. The fact that he was constantly lusting for my blood wouldn't have helped much, either. (Speaking of which, Meyer ignored Bella's female time-of-the-month, but I can't bring myself to care. That would have put these books over their quota for awkwardness, which was already satisfied thanks to all the uncomfortable staring and such.)

The End

P.S. Save trees; RECYCLE Twilight books.