A few months ago my daughter discover the Twilight books and fell into the world of the Cullen Vampires (she is now a huge fan of this series of Books). One of the interesting things about the Twilight series is that there are actually more books than most people realize. There are the four main books which everyone seems to know about, the ones that the movies were based on (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) but there are also three lesser know books – Life and Death, Midnight Sun and The Short Second life of Bree Tanner.

After reading and rereading the main 4 books we were still wanting more of this Vampire world that Stephenie Meyer created so we tried Life and Death and loved it and then we tried this one – The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner. Now this one was a bit different than all the others but still very interesting. There is a small character in the main books – a young newborn who does not want to fight and is the one that the Cullen’s offer sanctuary to (unfortunately she ends up being killed), that is Bree Tanner and this book is the story of her life after she is turned into a vampire. It is very different to the other books in the series because it goes more into the imagined life of a vampire, and a vampire that is not living the Cullen’s way of life (ie still hunting humans for blood).

Okay honest thoughts – it is not as good as the main books and Life and Death but that is because it is not about the main characters that we have grown to love (we love the Cullen family and honestly would love some books about the other members of the Cullen family). The end does link in to the main series but it is really written about Bree Tanner, her struggle to survive while living in a cruel vampire coven. It is not the happy, good vampires of the Cullen family this is vampires that have been turned with the intention of creating an army, so they are blood thirsty and they do not consider human life. I did miss the sweet Cullen vampires but I also found this an interesting read, because that young vampire the one who did not want to fight and who managed to win over the Cullen’s has always intrigued me so I did enjoy reading her story. I also thought that by giving a backstory to the newborn army you got to understand that they were just young vampires without guidance and really they were the tools of Victoria. So in that way I actually liked the fact that the author choose to add this side story because it does flesh out that part of the story.

Personally I thought the author did a brilliant job of bringing the world of these newborns to life the way she did. I think it is well written and it adds something extra to the main story. I liked the fact that within the newborn army she touches on the fact that there are different characters, some are just mean but some are actually just trying to figure this all out and are scared. As with all her books the author does manage to make her vampires human (well the nice ones do end up feeling human to the readers). It is a well written story, you get to sympathize and understand Bree and feel sad when she dies.

If your kids have discover and loved the main Twilight books then I would suggest giving this one a go. It is a great “add-on” to the main series. Both my daughter and I recommend this for all other Twilight readers.

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