Y. graduate's books successfully walk fine line

It's the yearning.

In an American culture drenched in sexually charged ads, movies, music and books, the Twilight series of romance novels by Stephenie Meyer are surprise hits, subverting expectations and hearkening to a more innocent time.

Yes, the ingredients seem ripe for steaminess a la "Gossip Girl" — Bella, the central character, a typical high school prom-going girl; Edward, the gorgeous hunk who turns out to be a vampire; and Bella's close friend, Jacob, a strikingly handsome werewolf in cutoffs.

But Meyer, 35, is a devout Mormon. So there's no smoking and no drinking in the books. And no sex either.

That, however, doesn't mean the characters — or their readers — aren't thinking about it.

"Twilight," published in 2005 and the first novel in the series, "is the sexiest book that I've ever read," says Iris Yipp, co-owner of The Magic Tree Book Store in Oak Park, Ill. "It's all this young love, this yearning. Yearning can be so ... ah!"

Becky Anderson, the co-owner of the Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville and Downers Grove, Ill., says, "Stephenie just knows how to combine the right amount of danger and passion, and not go over the top. She teases you — the passion and all that stepping-to-the-edge-of-the-cliff-but-not-flying-off."

In an echo of the marketing campaign for author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, the fourth and final book in Meyer's series, "Breaking Dawn," went on sale at 12:01 a.m. last Saturday throughout the nation. Many booksellers, including Barnes & Noble, Borders and the two Anderson's shops, hosted presale parties.

Published over an 11-year period, the Potter series became an international sensation, and many fans literally grew up with Rowling's characters as they aged from 11 years to 18. Meyer's vampire series offers a natural crossover point for fantasy fiction readers in their high school years, and the Twilight books are among the latest to be dubbed "the next Harry Potter." But, as with all the other challengers so far, the comparison to Potter falls woefully short in terms of sales.

Little, Brown is printing 3.5 million copies of "Breaking Dawn," raising the number of Twilight books in print to 10.7 million.

By contrast, the first two books in the "Inheritance Cycle" by Christopher Paolini have 12.5 million copies in print. The third, "Brisingr," is to be released on Sept. 20 (and, yes, Anderson's will have a midnight release party for that volume). A fourth is also planned.