‘Twilight’ series finale coming

On June 20, Katherine Lerch and a few friends threw a birthday party for Edward Cullen.

“We went to Party City and bought streamers, balloons, hats and noisemakers,” says Lerch, a 17-year-old from Oak Ridge, N.J.

“We baked cookies in the shape of characters and decorated them and printed photos of (Edward) and posted them all over the kitchen and baked a cake and put 107 candles on it and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.”

Fans of “The Twilight Saga” novels by Stephenie Meyer will understand the thirst that drove Lerch and her friends to celebrate the imaginary birthday of a fictional character – a vampire, no less.

Most are holding their breath waiting for the release of the fourth and last book in the series, “Breaking Dawn,” at midnight Friday.

The film version of the first novel, “Twilight,” is scheduled for release Dec. 12 – news that was trumpeted on the cover of a recent Entertainment Weekly as the second coming of Harry Potter.

The series chronicles the angst-ridden love triangle of a teenage girl, Bella, her boyfriend Edward (the vampire) and another suitor, her friend Jacob (the werewolf.)

As if teen romances weren’t complicated enough.

But it is those complications – the awkward first steps of true love and the uncertainty of who you are – that appeal to many of the books’ readers and make the characters so real.

“Mothers love it,” says Margot Sage-El, the owner of Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, N.J.

“The character (Bella) is very smart, and there are a lot of references to book classics, like Jane Austen. The whole tone of the book is smart.”

Young readers say they’re drawn to the material by Meyer’s ability to capture the everyday struggles of being a teenager.

In the series, 17-year-old Bella moves from her mother’s home in Phoenix to her father’s home in Forks, Wash., where she quickly finds friends and settles in to school. Edward is initially angry and remote, but Bella finds herself drawn to him.

In time she comes to understand Edward is a vampire, but learns he is part of a group that abstains from drinking human blood. Still, there are challenges – not the least of which is Bella’s growing desire throughout the series to have a physical relationship, something Edward opposes for fear his strength or his venom-laced teeth might kill her.

“I think (readers) relate to the relationships, about how the main characters really have to decide on what they really want, if the love they share is really what they need and care about,” says Sequoia Sherrills, 18, a high school senior from Newark, N.J.

“Twilight” had an initial printing of 75,000 copies. For “Breaking Dawn,” publisher Little, Brown and Co. has ordered more than 3 million. Booksellers expect sales to be strong; the title is No. 1 on Amazon.com’s preorder list.

In a measure of the book’s true grasp on the imagination – and the cash register – bookstores are giving it the Harry Potter treatment.

Little, Brown required booksellers to sign affidavits promising not to sell copies early or crack open the boxes until midnight on the official release date, according to Chris Khoudja, children’s book buyer at The Bookworm in Bernardsville, N.J.

Costume parties, readings and midnight sales will mark the book’s release at bookstores across the country.

While the books appeal to a mostly female, largely teen crowd, that hasn’t stopped women of all ages from adopting them and the characters as their own.

Law student Sigalle Barness, 27, was bitten by the bug about a month ago when she picked up “Twilight” at the urging of a co-worker. She sped through “New Moon” and “Eclipse,” books two and three, and now finds herself waiting for Friday night.

She, too, is intrigued by the relationship between Bella and Edward.

“First and foremost, it’s the connections and the chemistry between the two main characters,” Barness says. “More specifically, it’s about being able to relate to wanting something that’s above or beyond what’s normal in life instead of this monotony everyday routine.”

For others, it is the simple joy of going gaga over a boy who doesn’t exist, but who you really wish did.

“(Edward’s) the best person ever created,” says Lerch, the birthday party hostess. “He’s perfect.”