Plot summary
Isabella Swan, more commonly known as Bella,

moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington

to start a new life so her mother Renee can travel with her new husband, Phil Dwyer,

a "strictly minor league" baseball player.

Even though she never had many friends in Phoenix,

Bella quickly discovers she is the new subject of curiosity at her new school in Forks,

where she is quickly befriended by several students.

Much to her dismay, several boys in the school compete for shy Bella's attention.
Bella finds Forks dull, boring, and just plain horrible.

She hated the ever-raining city as a child,

and even referred to it in Twilight as her "own personal hell on earth".

However, the one exception to her boring life in Forks is Edward Cullen,

the gorgeous and mysterious boy she sits next to in her Biology class.
While sitting next to him on her first day of school,

Edward displays extreme tension.

This leads Bella to believe that he dislikes her.

However, his attitude towards her soon begins to change.

He displays supernatural abilities

while saving Bella from being hit by an out-of-control van about to crush her

into another car in the student parking lot of the high school.

After seeing a dent on the side of the van in the shape of Edward's shoulder,

she realizes the van hit him and that he seemed to be holding it away from her,

keeping her safe. Bella confronts him afterwards about the strangeness of the situation,

but he refuses to talk to her about it.

As time passes, Bella and Edward are repeatedly attracted to one another,

even though Edward desperately tries to stay away in order to keep her out of the danger that he will likely put her in.


Bella eventually learns from her friend Jacob Black of the Quileute

(pronounced Quil-yoot) tribe and her own observations that Edward

and his family are reformed vampires who substitute animal blood

for human blood in their diet, although she doesn't believe that he's a vampire at first.

She attempts researching vampires on her computer, but the information does her little good.
While Bella is on a shopping trip in Port Angeles with two of her friends,

Jessica and Angela, Edward once again saves her life,

this time from a gang of men who had been following her and planning to harm her.

He then takes her to dinner and finally admits

that he truly is a vampire and has the ability to read anyone's mind,

except for Bella's for some unknown reason.
Edward and Bella fall deeply in love.

Their foremost problem is Bella's alluring "scent making it difficult for him to restrain himself from attacking her.

However, despite this and Bella's strange knack for constantly landing herself in dangerous situations, they manage to stay together safely for a time.
The seemingly blissful state of affairs is thrown into chaos

when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks and James,

a tracker, sets his sights on Bella. Thrilled as much by the idea of outwitting a clan of vampires as by Bella's scent, James begins an interstate game of cat and mouse.

Under the assumption that James has kidnapped her mother,

Bella is lured to her former dance studio, where James attacks her.

Edward, along with the rest of the Cullen family,

rescues Bella before James can kill her. In the chaos James bites Bella,

which complicates matters further.

Edward takes up the task of sucking the venom out of Bella,

thus saving her from transforming into a vampire

while also restraining his own urge to drain her empty.
The book ends with the two going to Bella's prom.

Beneath the surface, tension remains as Bella wishes for Edward

to turn her into a vampire and Edward refuses to do so.

The reason for Edward's adamant decision not to turn Bella into a vampire is not yet revealed.

Labels: I saw you dancing and I couldn't get you off my mind.