Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10941 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

Fangtastic
I bought this book after reading the Twilight series and it was very similar but different. It had everything Twilight didn't and I loved it. The character Stefan is similar to Edward but still very different, the same with Elena, she is popular, a little shallow and nothing like Bella except for when she feels that undying love for Stefan. For Twilight fans I would definitely reccomend this. It was a thouroughly enjoyable read.

Could have been great...
Now, I've read L.J.Smith's Nightworld series and I found those books absolutely amazing, some of the best teen vampire books ever written and so typically, I was expecting the same type of goodness from this book which is a new edition of the seperate books 'Awakening' and 'Struggle' so it's a two-in-one combo... anyway back to the point, the book wasn't what I was expecting, in other words it didn't really do anything for me.

From the beginning the storyline was hard to get into and some parts of the book seemed patchy as if Smith forgot what she was writing about. There were some interesting parts in the book and Elena the main character is very interesting and not your usual protagonist as she's got a personality that you can identify with. Well, anyway Elena begins to fall for the new student at her high school the italian Stefano, who is the most good-looking guy at school but there is something strange about him... he's a vampire but not just any vampire, a vampire with a dark and tragic past and the deeper Elena falls for him the more danger she's in.

The reason I gave the book 3 stars and not one was because I felt the book had some good ideas although they weren't very well developed there was still a hint of something exciting in the background and well I gave another star out of loyalty to dear Ms. Smith who is quite wonderful.

Oh, and there are quite a few grammatical and spelling errors throughout the book which is at times very irratating because it is quite hard to understand what is actually written. But an ok-ish book nonetheless, worth reading if your a Smith fan and got nothing else to do.

Pure Vintage Smith
I have a habit of dropping into the middle of L J Smith series (Huntress; The Chase; The Struggle). It's a testament to how well she writes that you can immediately pick up what's going on, and love the whole series.

The Vampire Diaries vampires are different to the Night World vampires in a number of respects - they can only brave daylight when wearing a protective ring; they can't have families; they need permission to cross the threshold of a house. But they share many similarities - the ability to feed on animal blood (if they choose to...), and they're drop dead gorgeous. Especially Damon. But I'll come to that.

Essentially, the VD are the story of two brothers, both transformed into vampires as a result of jealousy for the same woman, who find history repeating itself when they end up falling for blonde ice queen Elena. Stefan is the good brother, sensitive and protective; Damon is the bad boy who's out for his own ends. Lovely as Stefan is, LJ writes far more seductive villains that heroes (and then cheats her heroines of them - except Gabriel in Dark Visions). This omnibus of the first two Diaries contains the best scenes of the series, in my opinion - such as ball room dream, and Elena's night time stand-off with Damon in her own home.

To give any more of the plot away would spoil it, but I disagree with the other reviewers - I don't think this book will leave you disappointed!