Older fans of Harry Potter have found their next big thing! Young adults and adults who are young at heart have discovered the magic and thrill of Stephenie Meyer and her new book The Host has just hit the stores, providing everything that her readers have grown to love! This is a stand alone story (and possibly a new series?), but it is no less enthralling as we wait for the fourth installment in the Twilight/ New Moon/ Eclipse series.

First, for the uninitiated, Ms. Meyer has made her mark with a captivating saga about a teenage heroine named Bella who is in love with a vampire named Edward. Star-crossed? Just wait. There's a love triangle that develops with Bella's friend Jacob who becomes Edward's rival. Jacob also happens to be a werewolf.

So the question everyone wants to know is, can Stephenie Meyer pull off
the same magic with new characters and a new scenario? Absolutely!

This time the action centers on the fact that aliens have taken over the world. This particular variety of alien is a parasite or a symbiote, depending on your perspective. The humans definitely think that they are under a body snatcher form of attack, although the book is told from the point of view of an alien named Wanderer so the reader is going to find himself or herself swayed by her opinions. Wanderer has lived in many other worlds (and bodies) before coming to earth, and shares her perspective with the reader in this first person narrative. The problem she faces on Earth is a bit different, however. Her host - a young woman named Melanie - loses control of her muscles, but retains her identity, emotions, and memories in what Wanderer now thinks of as HER brain. This power struggle is the core conflict of the book, and what happens to Melanie, Wanderer, and the human race as a whole is an engrossing read.

And to keep things interesting, once again there's a love triangle - or a love quadrilateral to be more precise. Melanie continues to have feelings for another human named Jared; and living in Melanie's body, Wanderer has inherited Melanie's physical attraction for, and emotionally charged memories of, Jared; yet, nonetheless, with her own mind and spirit, Wanderer begins to be drawn to a fourth character. Ah, modern love! Perhaps this was enough for Little, Brown to market the book as a Adult Fiction title rather than Young Adult genre, but kids, while it does get steamy and a bit emotionally complicated, your parents don't need to worry about the PG-13 rating.

If you miss J. K. Rowling, and haven't yet met Stephenie Meyer, do yourself a favor and try The Host! And then go back and read Twilight and the rest!