The Host by Stephenie Meyer

"Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves--Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love."

I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book at all. I've read all three of the books from Meyer's Twilight series and enjoyed them for the most part. The Host is a science fiction novel. I'm not crazy about science fiction to begin with, so I almost didn't pick this book up.

The characters of Wanderer and Melanie are strong and much of the book deals with conflict and learning to live together in one body. Wanderer learns to cope with human emotions and the humans learn to trust the alien "soul". The story gave me lots to think about and I hated to see it end. In the final analysis, I think I liked this book better than the Twilight books.