Ok, confession time.  Not only do I love young adult fiction, but I also love vampires.  So when the YA series, Twilight, came across my radar, I am not too proud to admit my heart went both pitter and patter.  I ordered the entire series, sight unseen.

Like many a young adult and old adult reader alike, I devoured these books - plowed right through them without shame.  So I'm also not going to get on my moral high horse without admitting that I lolled about in the mud and muck for a good long while before I saddled up.

That said? The Twilight series made me deeply, profoundly concerned for the young women out there who may mistake the relationships at the center of this tale for bonafide "true love".

For those of you who may not know, Twilight follows the star-crossed relationship between Edward, a broody Victorian-born vampire who chooses to abstain from his bloodlusty desires, and Bella, an accident prone, scowly non-vampiric teen girl.  The crux of their intimate dilemma is this: Bella would love to give up her human existence and live in tortured damnation as a vampire so as to never get older than her eternally 19-year-old boyfriend, whom she worries will no longer desire her once she sprouts crow’s feet.  Edward is staunchly opposed to this plan, lest it bespoil her fragile, virginal, and cringing femininity, which is, as far as I can tell, her sole endearing feature...