Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

As many people know, I am a huge twilight fan and have followed both the book series and the new films.

With my ever growing collection of twilight paraphernalia, I was intrigued by the audio books as something I thought would be worth owning as a fan. I have had very limited experience with Audio Books before having only ever listened to one previously that I had on my iPod.

I brought the first book in the series "twilight" from WHSmiths online and paid £14.99 for it. I thought this was reasonable considering an album would cost you around the same amount and this audio book has a lot more content than 12 songs.

The box that contains the 11 CD audio book is roughly the size of a usual CD case, just a tiny bit bigger and of course a lot deeper at around 2 ½ inches. The box is made of a robust cardboard that has a sturdy and shiny black plastic coated and has the same cover art as the actual book.

When opening the audio book for the first time I was impressed by how neat and contained the little package was, considering it does have 11 CD's I was expecting it to be a bit more dishevelled in presentation but instead each CD has a sleeve with a simple, but elegant black and white pattern and clearly indicates what number CD it is.

There is an inlay that has details on the audio book and the credits for the production team. I haven't read through this myself and I can't say I was interested enough to read the entire small print etc.

I know I have reviewed the book before, but for the sake of those who are not familiar with the story or for those who only listen to books rather than read, I will just repeat myself briefly (please feel free to skip a paragraph if you know the story)

Bella Swan is a 17 year old girl who has moved to the small town of Forks in Washington to live with her father. In this dreary and rainy town she meets and falls in love with fellow student Edward Cullen. Edward and his family have a pretty big secret; they are vampires, who do not drink human blood and try to be "good". Due to the unusual and blossoming romance Bella is in on the secret but it leads her to be in danger when a group of not so friendly vampires visit.

The audio book is unabridged and runs for approximately 13 hours. Over the 11 CD's this is quite well spaced out. You don't have to change disk every ten minutes and you get at least an hour each disk so you can relax without having to sort out the next one while you listen.

The lady who reads the books is named Ilyana Kadushin" she has a very pleasant voice, being American she has an American accent, but this is how Bella is supposed to be, so it suits the reading.

Ilyana has good tone and an almost soothing voice but portrays the right amount of emotion and distinction between the characters that it is very simple to follow and to get just as gripped listening and I found I got reading the book myself.

There are a few aspects of her voice/accent that grate a little. Initially the way she pronounced "Volvo" for example, as "Valvo" with a heavy teen American type twang was a little frustrating but I found after the first disk I was very used to her and her voice so it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all.

Each section/track of the CD's are broken down into roughly 4 minute sections, so should you forget where you were or not be paying attention for a few minutes, it's very simple to get back to a part you remember without having to skip through large sections or re-listen to bits you did hear before you reach the part you were looking for.

Overall I am very impressed with the audio books in this series. They are read well and easy to understand. Of course I think the story is great but it's the ease of listening and using the audio book that I like. When I fancy re-reading one of my favourite books, but don't have the time or have another book on the go, I can pop in twilight in my car and listen away to my favourite story.

The box it all comes in is also perfect size for carrying with you or popping in a glove box, the also sit nicely on a shelf displaying the now famous cover art and look pretty snazzy.

I'm very pleased with this audio book and I'm proud to have it in my very small collection of audio books.

Thanks for reading :)