At long last, after so many weeks of ‘pagtitiyaga’ reading the Breaking Dawn ebook on my brother’s HTC phone, I was able to finish it na! I had always been a voracious book reader even way back in elementary and high school, in fact, I do not recall anymore the number of times I had a book confiscated for reading in class or even during flag raising formations (hehehe that’s how addicted I am to reading pocketbooks then). …but all of this waned when I got married and had to juggle duties as mom, wife, and employee on a day-to-day basis. Thus, I had very little time left to myself and so reading was placed in the back burner.
I still read from time to time but not as prolific as before when I can finish a book in one sitting, instead, I just read a few pages here and there during lull moments and before bedtime. I especially welcomed the onset of ebooks and gadgets to read them with, though I wanted so badly to own a Kindle, I could not as it costs an arm and a leg… which is why I was so thankful to my brother for handing me down his old HTC phone that has an ebook reader, though the screen and the text was quite small, I welcome it as now I can have my book with me anytime and I can get to read a lot more often.
I was able to read the first Twilight book in its original book form, a soft-bound version gifted to me by the hubby many Valentine’s ago…Breaking Dawn is the fourth and final installment in the Twilight Saga series and as a brief backgrounder, the Twilight Saga is a series of books written by Stephanie Meyer that details the love that forms between vampire Edward Cullen and human Bella Swann with a little bit of a love triangle thrown in the form of wolf-turning Jacob Black. This book takes off from the ending of Eclipse (the third book) wherein wedding invitations to Edward and Bella’s wedding had already been sent and Jacob started running away when he received his...to escape the aching wounds of his broken heart.
The book is divided into three parts: The Wedding, The Transformation and The War. The first part (THE WEDDING) starts in Bella’s perspective…and how she has been adjusting to the idea of being engaged to Edward and being his woman. She starts by relaying her insecurities one day while driving her brand-new Mercedes Guardian, the car that had been Edward’s compromise with her when her truck suddenly stopped running. Little did she know that Edward would get her something that’s not just bullet-proof but missile proof complete with body armor and actually designed for Middle East diplomats, arms dealers and drug lords. But that is just the car for her while she had not yet ‘turned’. He promised to get her a new one when she becomes one of them. For now, while she is still fragile and quite accident-prone she had to contend with the stares that come her way while driving the highly unusual car.
On the night before the wedding, Bella had fitful nightmares of the Volturi coming in to kill a vampire-child (presumably hers) which she rushes in to save until she sees the pile of dead bodies where the vampire child sits atop – with all her friends and families there. She wakes up gasping and it took her awhile to realize she was back in her own bedroom. Then Alice arrives to get her ready for the BIG DAY. Thanks to Alice and Rosalie, Bella was the perfect picture of the beautiful blushing bride as she made her way down to the garden to the awaiting crowd of family and friends present to witness her wedding to Edward Cullen. The wedding and succeeding reception went smoothly as planned by Alice.
But before the wedding was over, a surprise gift arrived with Jacob making a visit to the wedding and Bella was ecstatic that her best friend/man had finally arrived. But things once again turned sour when Jacob learned that Bella intends to have a ‘real honeymoon’ with Edward before turning into a vampire. He was furious with rage and they almost killed each other right there and then. But in a way Edward seemed to agree with Jacob and it was only thru Bella’s insistence that she experience everything while still a human that Edward acquiesced to her wishes. After the reception was over and they said their goodbyes, the two got into Edward’s car and drove off to the airport.
Their secret honeymoon rendezvous turned out to be at Isle Esme, an island off Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Carlisle’s gift to her wife, and they offered the island to them for their honeymoon. The night went well way beyond what Bella and Edward expected it would as they spent the night together for the first time – fire and ice existing together without destroying each other. But the next morning, Bella awoke to an obviously worried Edward, asking her if she was hurt and at first she wondered if she did anything wrong and realized why upon seeing the many purplish bruises all over her body. So Edward thought that despite the satisfaction they both felt that night, he would not touch her again until she had been changed. And so for the rest of their stay at Isle Esme, Edward let Bella do numerous outdoor activities that would ensure she would be dead-tired by the time they return home and so she would just be nodding off to sleep and not think of ‘other things to do.’
One day, Bella awoke to realize that all the sleeplessness, fatigue, constant hunger and now the nausea that she had experienced all point to one thing – she is pregnant! At the same time that she made her realization, Alice suddenly called to ask if everything was OK…as if she had a vision that something was wrong. Edward remained immobile, unmoving, unable to comprehend what has been happening so it was Bella who answered the phone and talked to Carlisle. They were able to confirm (without a pregnancy kit test) that Bella was indeed pregnant and so Edward quickly made arrangements to take them home. Edward assured that he and Carlisle would take care of her…that they would take the baby out before it started to hurt her. But that angered and worried Bella all the more, wondering how they could think of killing her baby, their baby. So when Edward left to bring their bags to the boat, she made a phone call to Rosalie to ask her help.
Book two (The TRANSFORMATION) was written in Jacob’s perspective and at the time he was already back at Forks/La Push. Jacob had been a bit worried since four out of ten members of their pack had already imprinted, the last one being Paul, and with her sister Rachel, no less. But he had a deeper one to worry about – wondering how Bella would ‘fake’ her death and be ‘one of them’. It had been four weeks since they got married and he had been going out of his mind wondering if it had been done. Then, they got some summons from Sam, the head of their pack and they all phased into wolves to meet in the forest. Once there, Seth reported to them what he overheard from Billy and Charlie’s conversation. That Bella and Edward had come home for a week now but he can’t come to see her as she had contracted a rare communicable disease. They knew then it was their ploy to make Charlie believe that she had died and they would hold a funeral service when Bella can control her ‘newborn’ urges and not kill all the mourners on site. Sam made the decision not to attack The Cullens without provocation since Bella made the decision of her own free will. Jacob was unhappy about it and walked away from the pack.
Jacob reached the Cullen house and Carlisle met him at the door. Jacob saw Bella was thin, emaciated, in fact as if someone or something was sucking her dry. She was sick but not with any kind of sickness one could imagine – she was pregnant with a baby bloodsucker killing her from the inside. It was taking her life to feed its own. Jacob learned that they (Edward and Carlisle) wanted to take the baby out, but Bella asked for Rosalie’s help and she had defended her staunchly so they could not get near Bella without going through her first. Jacob tried to convince Bella that she did not have to die, that all her heartaches would amount to nothing if her life ends just like this. But Bella was positive that everything would work out well in the end. Jacob even tried to feed Bella the line of trying again with another baby but with someone else, if having a baby was what she truly wanted. But no Bella did not want that…it was this particular baby that she wants the one she now has with Edward and she does not believe them at all that it might kill her in the process. Jake decides to leave and walk away, saying he doesn’t want to stay to watch Bella die.
Jacob met up with his pack of wolves and after a disagreement with Sam decided to claim the right to being alpha as it was rightfully his – Jacob was born to lead, after all and not follow the lead of someone else. Jacob decided that he won’t wrestle the leadership away from Sam but he will stand between the pack and the Cullens. He will protect Bella at all costs, no matter what creature is growing inside her belly. Jake left and ran as fast he can to the Cullens to warn them…but soon afterwards, he heard Seth join him an they make perimeter runs around the house while the Cullens took defensive positions inside the house. In the morning, while Jacob slept (and Seth was on perimeter run) Leah arrived and declared that she too had broken away from Sam’s pack not just because she wanted to protect her brother Seth but also because she wanted to get away from Sam (she was Sam’s girl before he imprinted on someone else).
Jacob suggested that Bella may need to drink blood as the baby inside seems clearly to be a bloodsucker so Bella started drinking blood in a cup thru a straw. She gets better but in effect the baby inside her gets stronger with the blood and she gets cracked ribs as a result but Bella insisted she was fine and demanded more blood to feed the baby. Though Jacob wanted to leave as he doesn’t want to see Bella slowly dying, he felt pulled to her by a still unknown force. Then, while the others were still out of the house ‘hunting’ Bella suddenly let out a huge shriek as the baby starts to break more of her bones, including her spine. Edward had no choice then but to take the baby out with Jacob’s help as Rosalie wasn’t at all impervious to all the blood. With his teeth, Edward tore the placenta to bring the baby out and Bella had a glimpse of her pretty child before her heart went still. Edward tried to inject his venom into Bella’s heart and started biting her in many places all over her body to force the venom in but she remained unresponsive. Jacob thought that Bella was dead and his anger at her dying was transferred to the creature that she gave birth to and which now Jacob must kill. But as he approached the child being held by Rosalie, he ‘imprints’ on her – making Renesmee now the center of his universe, and also protecting her against any moves that the wolf pack may decide to make against Edward and Bella’s spawn.
Book three (THE WAR) returns to Bella’s perspective as it was all about Bella becoming a vampire. This was also where the movie decided to cut itself into two parts. The chapter started with Bella’s thoughts on dying, how it felt so good to just slip away into the darkness but she needs to hold on – for Edward, for Jacob, for Renesmee. She felt a sudden hot fire raging from her heart (where Edward plunged the venom) and blazing across her veins. Then suddenly, Bella’s heart started to beat a new tune, she had been reborn.
Bella opened her eyes and she was amazed at how she could see every little detail, everything was sharply in focus, like seeing with new eyes. She and Edward went out to hunt first as they knew she would be ‘thirsty’. In the woods, Bella felt thrilled at the speed and clarity by which she travelled thru the trees. She was much faster and stronger than Edward and he tried his best to keep up with her but failed, it was almost as if she was flying. They hunted deer, elks, even a lion but what truly amazed Edward was how easily she stopped to hunt and run from human blood instead of going near it. When she was sated she asked to see Renesmee and so they go home to see her. But before Bella can get near Renesmee, Jacob wanted to test Bella first, to know if she can stay away from Jacob’s scent and she passed with flying colors. Bella moved to take Renesmee in her arms and the others were amazed that Bella was in perfect control of herself, not acting like a newborn at all.
Bella realized that Renesmee’s powers are the opposite of Edward’s in that she can project her thoughts into someone else’s mind by touching. Then, Jacob interrupted and wanted to take Renesmee from Bella’s arms and that’s when realized the unmistakable fact that Jacob had imprinted on her daughter. Bella was fuming mad and even moreso when she learned that he nicknamed her Nessie, from the Loch Ness Monster. In the aftermath, it was Seth who suffered some broken bones for which Bella apologized. Bella did see one good thing about Jacob’s imprinting though in that it made Renesmee untouchable to the pack and made their link with the Cullens stronger. Then, Alice and the others arrived from hunting and they entered bearing a gift for Bella. They gave her a key, for her nineteenth birthday and Edward proceeded to get another key present from his own pocket and Bella immediately knew that it was a key to an ‘after’ car, maybe a sports vehicle. Alice proceeded to push her outside so she could see her gift, only Edward went with them and once near, Alice blindfolded her to reveal a pretty stone cottage nestled deep into the woods, like in fairytales …and she absolutely loved it!
The next day, Jacob went to see Charlie, phased in front of him and told him that Bella is well and may not be the daughter he used to have. He also told her about Renesmee and he was kinda glad to be a grandfather. At first, Bella and the rest of the Cullens were mad at him for putting Charlie in danger . Charlie arrives at the Cullen home and was surprised to see Bella, still quite beautiful and unlike the sick and dying person Jacob pictured her to be. Then, Charlie saw Renesmee and knew it was the child Jacob said they will be adopting, Edward’s niece. He looked at Renesmee’s eyes and saw his own chocolate brown ones reflected and gasped thinking this may indeed be his own granddaughter and started counting months but can’t fathom to understand it all. Charlie just nodded took a step back and said that he did not really want to know everything but he also do not want any more lies. Edward advised him to go along with the ‘public story’ in order to protect Bella and Renesmee. Charlie seemed to have been beholden by Renesmee at such a short time and promised to visit again tomorrow to spend more time with the child.
Soon, the routine of Bella’s new life settled with Charlie visiting them often with Sue Clearwater helping him in this new world of make-believe. She spends her days with her adorable daughter and passionate nights with Edward. Renesmee said her first word ‘Momma’ after a week and started walking some three weeks later. At three months, she was already a big one year old or even like a two-year-old toddler. She can speak with flawless grammar, run, dance and even read. But amid her quick developments, Bella and the others were also getting apprehensive at how fast she has grown so that by their calculations, she would be an adult at four years old. Carlisle and Edward fast-track their research but they couldn’t seem to find much data on half-vampires like her.
The family wanted to travel to Brazil, to search for children like her that existed according to Ticuna legends. But Bella did not want to be away from Charlie until the holidays…and she had to go visit the Volturi alone. She had to heed Aro’s note in the wedding gift they sent to them, that he can’t wait to see the new Mrs. Cullen in person. But Bella knew that they must not come to Forks, they must not know about Renesmee. So she has to go to them, and Edward could not go with her, it was not safe as he had long wanted Edward’s and Alice’s capabilities. He may also get to read about Renesmee in Edward’s thoughts so Bella must go by herself, being unreadable by anyone even Edward and Aro.
But these plans did not materialize when one day while Jacob and Bella were teaching Renesmee to hunt animals; Irina saw them from a cliff. She thought Renesmee was an ‘immortal child’ and immediately informed the Volturi. Suddenly, Alice saw something in the future and shattered a crystal vase she was holding in her hand. Everyone was frozen until Alice said that the Volturi are coming to destroy Renesmee and the Cullens for doing something that had been outlawed. The Cullens began to plan what to do – deciding to invite their friends to come in and stand as witnesses to what Renesmee truly was. In the morning, however, they realized thru a note Alice left with Sam (that was torn from a page of Bella’s book) that she had left them. Maybe she saw something in the future that was not acceptable which was why she decided to abandon her family.
But the Cullens, rather than wallow in misery and think about the effect of Alice’s departure decided to heed Alice’s advice to track as many witnesses as possible. Rose and Emmet shall hunt for nomads, Carlisle and Esme to go together while Edward and Bella shall stay in the house to accept the visitors that they will be sending home. But before they start work, Bella asked to go home first and find the book that Alice wrote on and in there she found another note – a name and address in Seattle and instructions to destroy it after reading. Bella just made it appear to Edward that she burned the book out of her anger at Alice. But Bella knew that Alice chose her so Edward could not see thru the lie and read her thoughts.
Soon local and foreign vampires arrive and the Cullen house becomes the headquarters and training ground for the vampires and the wolves. All of them soon become enamored and accepting of Renesmee as they can see that she is not the immortal vampire-child that the Volturi believe her to be. It was later realized that Bella has the powers of a shield and they decided to harness and develop that power, in case the Volturi decide to do battle against them. This they believe considering the Volturi’s history that they are not really after punishment, but rather acquisition. Alistair, in particular, thinks there are some gifted vampires of the Cullen family that Aro want to acquire, like Alice and Edward. Bella realized that this may be why Alice left, so that Aro would never be able to get his hands on her power. They all realized that the Volturi was just waiting for a pretext, a justification, but the decision had already been made long before Irina arrived.
In the end, the Cullens managed to gather about seventeen witnesses – (Irish) Siobhan, Liam and Maggie; (Egyptians) Amun, Kebi, Benjamin and Tia; (Amazons) Zafrina and Senna; (Romanians) Vladimir and Stefan; and (nomads) Charlotte, Peter, Garrett, Alistair, Mary and Randall. This is in addition to the Cullen (Carlisle, Esme, Emmet, Rosalie, Edward, Bella, and Renesmee) and Tanya’s family of eleven in all since they (Tanya, Kate, Eleazar and Carmen) insist on being counted as part of the family. This could very well be the largest friendly gathering of mature vampires in immortal history, apart from the Volturis.
One day, Bella decided to do Alice’s bidding on the pretext of bringing Renesmee over to visit Charlie but Bella immediately asked to be excused as she said she still had some errands to run, like Christmas shopping. Soon Bella reached the neighborhood given by Alice as the address of the mysterious Jenks and Bella met a short, balding man about fifty-five who was trembling when he welcomed her. Bella was glad that the stranger he met in the ghetto gave her an idea of what Jenks does for a living so she was able to realize what Alice’s last gift for her was – to acquire identity papers in case everything else failed, and they all lost – so that Jacob and Renesmee can run away. So Bella surmised that Alice may have seen that they probably could not win against the Volturis.
Bella and Renesmee got back to the Cullens’ house and told Edward that she bought Renesmee a golden heart locket at an antique store as a Christmas present. And so their days went on, with Edward, Bella, Renesmee and Jacob going to Charlie’s to spend the Christmas holidays. Bella gave Renesmee the locket at dawn while Edward provided her an MP3 player with most of Edward’s favorite songs. Jacob, on the other hand, gave her a Quilete braided bracelet that was similar to a promise ring. Edward ordered online a new fishing sonar system for Charlie. As they drove back home, Bella considered the things that still needs to be done… like a goodbye note for Charlie and a letter for Renesmee for her to read and know how much she was loved.
Then the Volturi’s finally arrived and they came with much pageantry, in a rigid formal formation, flowing thru the trees in their black/red cloaks stark against the white snow. The Volturi were not even surprised at the number of vampires standing with the Cullens, they clearly outnumber the Cullens at 32 as compared to only nineteen of them willing to fight and seven to bear witness. Then, they even had more vampires behind them, around forty witness to watch as the sentence is made against the Cullens. The advancing Volturi clan stopped about a hundred meters from where the Cullens were situated in the clearing. They were amazed at the sight of the wolves flanking both sides of the vampires - sixteen in all.
As they approached Carlisle spoke that it was never his intention to hurt anyone, the others are here just to bear witness that they committed no crime since the child is not immortal, not a vampire. Aro wanted the truth from Edward who approached him and he saw for himself everything he needed to know about Renesmee. He then turned back to the Volturi, telling them that this now changes everything since the justice they wanted to deliver no longer applies. Aro wanted to meet the child and so Bella approached with Renesmee and a few friends (Jacob and Emmet). Aro touched Renesmee and was intrigued with what he saw about the wolves. Aro then turned back and conferred with his brothers so Edward and the rest of them started to retreat back into their group. Caius was inistent citing Carlilse’s alliance with the wolves but Aro said they weren’t really werewolves but rather shape-shifters.
So Caius then called Irina who refused to make a claim against the Cullens for killing Laurent, so they decided to execute her for misinforming them about the immortal child. This had been their back-up plan all along, to destroy Irina and hope that her family would instantly react and start the fight. But Edward shouted to restrain Tanya and Kate and they were eventually able to hold them down and make them listen to reason. Then, Aro Talked next to witnesses Amun and Siobhan to determine if Renesmee can be a danger to anyone but both of them replied in the negative. But Aro refuses to believe this thinking that the uncertainty of Renesmee’s future is the one that is making her a danger for all of them.
The Volturi once again started talking in a huddle among themselves and while they were busy, Bella talked to Jacob and told him of the plan to run with Renesmee. Edward asked if this was what she had been hiding from him and she said not from him but from Aro, and that she had Alice’s help. Edward was pained but he understood and so as they waited for the Volturi’s decision, Bella kept her cloak/shield covering every member of their group. Soon they saw Jane look at them menacingly but none of them can feel anything that she was doing and they start to realize Bella’s power which made Jane shriek in anger. Then, it was Alec’s turn but just like Jane his power could not penetrate thru the shield. Then Aro spoke again and said that Caius votes to kill them all while Marcus said he sees no danger at all. Edward interrupted Aro’s decision-making and asked him if he thinks that there is no danger in the child’s future, no one would be harmed. And when Aro agreed, Edward called in Alice to approach.
Alice and Jasper came running thru the clearing and behind them were Kachiri, the other Amazon and two other individuals, one of whom had a heartbeat like Renesmee, also a half-vampire. They began to tell Aro about their story and in the end, he had to cast his vote that they are just like them and pose no danger at all to the vampires. They would try to find the man who created Nahuel, the new half-vampire as it seems this guy had created not just one but two more since Nahuel claimed to have two half-sisters just like him. Aro then turned to the guards and told them that there shall not be fighting today. The Volturi witnesses started leaving then until no one was left. Aro turned back to the group and apologized for what happened. They expressed hope of becoming friends again but Carlisle said only if they proved worthy of the friendship. Then, they all left but Bella did not release her shield just yet, in case this was a trick. But Alice said that it is truly over and everyone erupted into wild cheers. Only the Romanians were sad because they did not see the fight that they had hoped for. Bella held Renesmee close who asked if she gets to stay with her mom, and Bella replied, ‘forever’.
The group continued the celebration in the Cullen house and while talking about their successful endeavor, they were all sure that the Volturi’s would not simply let this incident pass. The Volturis would try to get them separately but Alice would hopefully see it and they would all gather together again and stand against them. Before the Amazons left, Zafrina insisted that they bring Renesmee to see her someday and Bella promised that she would. The Irish coven left next and finally, the Denalis Garrett with them as he is now totally enamored with Kate. The remaining guests were the Huilen and Nahuel, who stayed to get the full story from Carlisle and Edward. Edward shared that thanks to Alice, Aro found the excuse to not get into a fight that he knew they would surely lose. He had been particularly terrified of Bella and knew they would be on the losing end if a battle does commence.
Then Bella confronted Alice for faking that she left so that Edward would believe too and that was what Aro would see. They did not want Aro to see what Alice was searching for. After some time of fielding their questions Bella and Edward took Nessie home and as they walked, Bella discussed the strangeness of Nahuel’s stares. Edward told her that Nahuel was staring at her since all his life he considered himself evil for killing his mother and which is why he wondered why Bella is still alive. He sees in Bella the mother he should have had and in Edward the father he never had. Bella felt sad for him but Edward said he is at least happy now as he has forgiven himself for what he is.
Bella felt comfort now that they at least had forever together. Bella is thankful too by the fact that her father, Charlie now had Sue in his life, ironic really for the mom of wolves to be with the dad of a vampire. They carried Renesmee to her bed and when they were finally alone, Edward tried to kiss her but Bella pulled back and said she wanted to try something first. She pulled his face closer and concentrated hard, trying to push her shield away and Edward was clearly shocked as the flood of Bella’s memories washed over him. He asked how Bella was able to do it and she admitted practicing with Zafrina a few times. But then Bella got distracted by Edward’s kiss so the shield snapped back. Edward asked if she could try it again but she admitted she can’t do it if she’s distracted. But then again, they have an entire forever to practice. Forever and forever and forever.
I particularly liked the way this book ended as it seems pretty much like a Filipino story – with everyone happy and no loose ends whatsoever. Bella became the strong, independent vampire that she was meant to be and Jacob finding love in the most unexpected place – in Bella’s daughter. Well, at least he would not get to spend forever still pining away teary eyed at Bella in Edward’s arms (like Leah). I also liked the fact that no blood was shed, nobody had to die and the Volturi went home in peace albeit with their tails between their legs…in the end, love wins and Bella, Edward and Renesmee (with Jacob of course) and the rest of the Cullen clan live happily ever after. And also as another trivia, I liked the book cover depicting Bella’s transformation from a pawn into a queen, the strongest piece in the chess game. According to the author it also depicts the final battle with the Volturi as one of wits and strategy, instead of a physical battle.
