More on Breaking Dawn

Ok, I have to admit, I liked "Breaking Dawn" (sort of). But maybe that's just a holdover from how I felt about the rest of the series, since I read them all at once. I had been avoid reading the Twilight series for months and months because everyone warned me how addictive they were. Then, 2 weeks ago, my friend handed me the first two books when I dropped off her son after school. So much for the rest of that week.
Eclipse was definitely the best of the series. If it wasn't for the whole Volturi thing, I would have been happy to end with Jacob running off into the sunset in despair. It made a nice bitter-sweet ending.
I suppose what I liked about Breaking Dawn was that you get to have few things fleshed out that weren't addressed in earlier books. You learn Jasper's story and get to see more of how the wolf-pack interacts. And maybe I just liked finding out how everything turned out.
Having said that. . .Breaking Dawn almost felt like a really, really long epilogue. I like all the loose ends being tied up in epilogues, but I totally agree that Stephanie Meyer tied them up a little too neatly in this book. It would have been nice if Bella had had a little less self-control. I was hoping that Edward would have to tackle her remove her from situations that involved humans, but Bella had all the self-control she needed.
I was also a little disturbed by the Jacob-Renesmee thing. This series requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, but that was one of those things that just went too far.
So, I can say that I mildly liked this book, but I would have loved it if there had been more of the conflict and tension that the other books had. And you know, not ALL the loose ends need to be tied up. Life is messier than that. I could have done without the last line about them living blissfully ever after. I kept thinking, what about 10 years down the road when they're not quite so infatuated with each other? What about when Bella lets Edward read her mind when she's really mad at him for spending all night making the perfect CD playlist when she needs to talk to him? Stephanie Meyers is married, right? Does she really expect us to believe that everything will be perfect now that Bella's a vampire too? Half the fun of marriage is the kissing and making up after you get mad at each other. How boring it would be to sit and gaze into each other's eyes forever and ever.
Usually when I finish a book, I wish I could know more about what happened to the characters. With this book I realized that part of the fun of reading is imagining what the happily ever after is like, instead of having everything spelled out for you.