Yep. She'd posted most of the first one online (as a fanfic) and apparently so many people loved it and encouraged her to make it her own. From there it progressed to this.
They took the basic idea behind twilight and changed the names, settings and such to make a proper "alternate" story with erotic sense... also any editor not wanting a lawsuit would ensure that the references are gone... despite the horrible writing. Do look into it though.
Chu, if you had read both would see how similar the story is. (I read it to see what the fuss was) They take area, she was raised by her father, her mother is across country. Down to the details of her working at a hardware store. Its basically the same with whips and flogs instead of fangs.
I actually thought about it. I challenged myself, "think of a really terrible love story." And yet the only thing that came to mind was Twilight. As someone who's read the books and seen the movies, I can conclude that, at least for me, there is no worse love story than Twilight. Thank you for your time.
Read for yourself :-)