Nightfall (The Vampire Diaries - The Return

I have only read the complete vampire diaries series so far, and given that the author had these years of hiatus, seems that she didnt have time to proof read or edit it correctly.
The series was never a literary masterpiece but it had that addictive nature that is in other books as well. That characteristic is gone in Nightfall, i couldnt care less about what happened to the characters.
I have to say that there is potential in this book but badly exploited and developed, plus Elena`s sudden new powers seem taken from a magical girl anime (btw i totally agree with the reviewer commenting that lj smith devoured all of the sailor moon seasons during her writing break). The final showdown is not ammusing, and Damon`s (spoiler alert) sudden humannes has killed his character forever. I did like the idea of the author letting us into Damon`s mind, but now i would have preferred not crossing those boundaries cause his thoughts are stupid and too clitche; better to leave us with the mystery of Damon`s true personality. Caroline was not THAT killed in this book, it could be interpreted that she is a nice (very deep inside) and immature girl who made a terrible mistake by letting in the kitsune and be seduced by them (she was never a smart one). The dialogue between Elena and Stephan is so bad, the "lovely love" thing is irritating at its best. And the suddenly "White Powers" term is too forcefully inserted as if we already know the characters know about it, and Mrs Flowers having these powers was a also badly inserted in the plot. LJ Smith could have given more depth and time to the story in the 5 hundred and more words of the novel so as to build real suspense and mystery and horror, instead of giving horror with gory scenes that only a bad writer would give so as to transmit fear to the readers. Night World fans, i hope your strange fate novel wont be that dissapointing, though i believe so, sorry.
The only thing good i have to say about this book is 1) bringing kitsune into scene wasnt a bad idea 2) the chasing of Elena by Damon was pretty good until they get into that heavenly place and Elena`s Wings of whatnot appear.. (i dont wanna remember that scene cause it was horrible) 3) the powers of the kitsune of the globe thingie and making the girls act in that pain selfinflicting way wasnt a bad idea as well. AS you may notice, i point that the author has good ideas (ie. theres potential), but all badly developed.
If you are a reader who knows about quality reading but still enjoys light reading every now and then like these kind of books, AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS. a waste of money and time. This is light AND bad reading.
ps any typos in here is because my keyboard isnt working well, sorry.

First of all, The Vampire Diaries were never my favorite (I'm more of a Secret Circle/Forbidden Games girl) but I still liked them back in the day. With this in mind, I give it a mixed review. It took nearly half the book to get my attention. I found it a little long and overly drawn out in the beginning half. However, I did like the antagonists and the tension between characters later on. It just could have been condensed. I will tune to the CW and see how the series pans out on TV. I'll still read anything LJ Smith writes, especially after being a fan for over 15 yrs.

I read the original Vampire DIaries in high school and loved them. I was very excited to find out that there would be a fifth book.
It started out a little slow, but very interesting. Once it got into a full blown plot I was hooked. I loved how we finally get to see another side to the hard-as-rock Damon and the ever-so-fragile Elena.

Can't wait for the next one.

I read the original Vampire DIaries in high school and loved them. I was very excited to find out that there would be a fifth book.
It started out a little slow, but very interesting. Once it got into a full blown plot I was hooked. I loved how we finally get to see another side to the hard-as-rock Damon and the ever-so-fragile Elena.

Can't wait for the next one.

Hello Buffy meets Angel, meets Supernatural, meets the Ring. I loved loved loved loved the first three books, they were so well written and really created such wonderful characters. Enter 4th book, a little over the top, a lot hard to believe, but I was willing to forgive because I loved the first three. Enter 5th book, gag,gag,gag. I read two chapters skipped to the back and read Elena's Diary entry, got the whole gist of the book and would like my money back please. Let me just say she should have quit while she was ahead. I hear that the CW is in the works to make this a show, just don't let the writers borrow any of her ideas from the last two books or the series will bomb! Yeah I'm a little peeved, she took three books that could have been classic and ruined them by writing those last two bombs!

Having read the original four books so long ago, it was interesting to see read a new addition to the series. While this book does basically pick up where the orignial series left off, I do not think you will be lost if you haven't read the previous books. The world of Fells Church (the town where the characters live) is slightly more modern than in the original series, and it is a bit more risque. STOP READING NOW IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE SPOILED Even though I liked the book, I think my biggest problem with it is that my favorite part of the original series was the love story between Elena and Stefan, and here the spend the majority of the book apart (although we do get some good Stelena scenes in there). Basically, this book is setting the stage for the next two books of what I refer to as the Delena Trilogy. If you are a fan of Delena, which I know many people are, you probably won't care for the first few chapters, but after that you will love it. Also if you are coming into the books after only having watched the tv show, be prepared for many many differences.

The Vampire Diaries is fast becoming one of my favorite book series, simply because I can't seem to get enough of it. I'm easily drawn into the world of vampires, demons and other otherworldly creatures in the town of Fell's Church and I actually like it that way.

Nightfall is an intriguing new addition to the series. Whereas the first four books dealt with the arrival of Stefan and Damon and what that meant for the town of Fell's Church, this book starts a brand new plot line altogether - about what happens after Elena's return to the world of the living.

I refuse to spoil the actual story so I'll leave it at this - I love how L.J. Smith weaves her mythology together in this one, especially since of my favorite cultures comes into play. There's elements of mystery, of the fantastical and of the real world brought together perfectly. I appreciated her descriptions and how they made the images come alive in my mind, which made the book just that much more gripping.

Elena was a brilliant character in parts of the book (especially when she had first returned) and I love that L.J. Smith has made her character so special after everything that's happened to her. But my favorite female character is Bonnie, if only because I feel like if I were going to be anyone in the series, it would be her - with her witchy skills and her childlike personality.

Damon is still my favorite male character (although I thought Matt stepped up his game a lot this time around!) I have a soft spot for Damon in the TV series, and the same follows for the book. It's his magnetic, sarcastic, ice cold bad boy personality that both attracts and repels me (which I know sounds crazy, but I'm hoping you know what I mean) -- and I like that in this particular book, we get a view of his vulnerability and his true feelings for Elena. I'm dying to know how it all ends for him and I'm crossing my fingers that it's a satisfactory ending.

Even though reading the book was such an emotional roller coaster for me with its ups, downs and twists, I really enjoyed it and I'm so psyched to move on to the next book in the series, Shadow Souls!

I absolutely enjoyed reading the first four books of "The Vampire Diaries". And I really WISH I could say the same for this new one.

But I can't.

This book is NOTHING at all like the previous "Diaries" books. It seemed like it was an ENTIRELY different book with new characters that happened to have the same names of characters in her last one. Everything was bizarre and unbelievable and things happened so fast that I didn't quite get what I was reading. I know the series isn't that believable to begin with since it does involve vampires but if vampires did exist, I'd imagine what happened in the first four books could happen. What happened in this one? Not so much.

Honestly, the bizarreness isn't a bad thing. I wouldn't have mind it were it a completely different book with characters I never heard of before. But Elena, Bonnie, Meredith, Matt, Stefan, Damon. These are characters I've been following since the first book. And now suddenly everything is weird.

Also, the year is supposed to be 1992. At least that's what year it was with the last book. I don't get how suddenly everyone has cell phones, and not just cell phones but phones that allow you to see who you are talking to. I know it's 2009 and technology is exploding these days but you can't just change things like that! It's such a small thing but really... some of the smallest things could be the biggest buggers.

I was also hoping something was going to happen between Bonnie and Damon (another reviewer mentioned this and I agree). Damon is not my favorite, Bonnie is, but in the fourth book I felt those two could/would get closer. And it was promising for a few pages! But it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

I'm not fond of the newest addition to "The Vampire Diaries", and I doubt I will continue to read the series... L.J. Smith should have ended it after the fourth one.

It's always exciting revisiting with familiar characters in new books. They remain the same as when you last saw them even though 17 years have passed between the writing of this book and the previous one. L.J. Smith stayed true to her characters and the same things we loved about them in the previous "trilogy" come alive again in Nightfall.

The secondary characters, Meredith, Bonnie and Matt, help the story up by behaving exactly as they always had before. While those characters remained the same, there were many other major differences between this book and the previous ones. Most obviously, Nightfall was much longer. Getting to spend more times with the characters you love is always a bonus, but it was necessary here to accommodate the grander plot. Nightfall was filled with confusing twists that I felt didn't really add to the plot. It was more complicated and involved that the previous Vampire Diaries books and unfortunately, that didn't make the book better or even as good as the older ones.

Elena returns as some part angel/spirit/human hybrid thing with vast but unreliable powers. The evil in the story comes in the form of a pair of werefox demon things that can possess (or control, maybe) people and trees. The story was just all over the place and at times it was almost impossible to follow.

The almost basic story lines of the previous Vampire Diaries novels were a part of what made those books great. Nightfall's major deviation from that formula was hard to get into. Whether the style change was used as a means to attract the younger generation or to mirror the television show, I'll never know. I felt alienated, especially having just recently read the four previous books.

Part of my disappointment lies with my expecting too much. The other part is that in trying so hard to create something "more", Nightfall actually ended up being "less." It was a decent read, but ultimately couldn't compare with the previous Vampire Diaries books.

GAK! Vomit! Yak!......Harper needs to fire the editor who handled this mess. After reading the first two in this series I was really looking forward to what was in store for these characters.

Elena Gilbert, now an angel earth bound in human form, must rise against 2 supernatural (or is it 3, I wasn't sure even after re-reading sections several times) forces terrorizing Fells Church for the sake of their own entertainment.

There is way too much bouncing back and forth in this book. I felt like i was reading an uncorrected ARC. This book could have easily been cut down to 350 pages and turned out to be a nice read. Instead I felt trapped like the characters in the Old Wood suffocating, wrapped in diabolical evil grammar.

586 pages later, a major disappointment.

L.J. Smiths books were extremely important to me as a kid--I really loved this series and the Secret Circle. Her writing had a lean grace that really resonated with me.

So why then are these "The Return" books so damn chock-full of more characters and plot points and ridiculous twists? At some point during reading this book I just became confused by why she was abandoning her former writing style where she focused on character development and instead focusing on creating the most gruesome images she could imagine? I began to wonder if the movie "SAW" was her inspiration, what with the scenes of self-mutilation.

The sense of realness and elegance that her characters have always possessed is just missing in this novel. Replaced by tacky glittering sparkle Japanese anime stuff. WTF are two twin Japanese foxes doing in Falls Church VA? It is just so totally out there and makes zero sense in the canon of these novels.

I really felt like LJ Smith had lost her confidence and was trying to basically write something that would look better as a movie script. Caroline scuttling around on the ceiling of her bedroom? Pulling weird sluggy things out of each others bodies? A murderous tree? Come on, give me a break. You don't NEED all this trash--the story and characters themselves are good enough!!!

I've been wanting a sequel to the Secret Circle for years but now I fear it--how horrible it might be.

Honestly, I was at first horrified that LJ Smith wouldn't be writing the rest of this series--but after what a disaster this book was---I think it was the right decision.

The book is excruciatingly painful to read. The over-the-top descriptions regarding Elena are hideous (satin skin, lapis lazuli eyes, golden hair, yes, we get it, she has blue eyes and blonde hair, no need to write all these obnoxious descriptions in almost every single page). Not to mention how the "HS queen" stereotype turned into a full-blown Mary-Sue. On steroids. Wings, floating, telepathy, single-handedly doing absolutely everything? Srsly? Repulsive in the least.

Stefan turned from an interesting character in the previous 4 books (and this comes from someone that read the other books a week ago, well after mastering the TV series, AND that is Team Damon), to a drooling idiot with his "lovely love" shenanigan.

Damon... I'm still not invested at all. I guess I got spoiled with getting used to the FANTASTIC Damon from the TV series.

The whole kitsunes and trees and rest of the supernatural things going on are just... confusing, to say the least. Too many plots inside plots to follow properly.

And the technology massive plot-hole. This takes place in 1992, there's no such thing as mobile phones (well, there were, but they were GIGANTIC brick walls that ONLY ubberly rich businessmen possessed, least of all, video conferences), or computers (such as the ones described in the book) or internet... I cannot grasp how someone (writer, editor, corrector) could miss that.

I'm gonna try listening to the rest of the series, I just hope they are not as disgusting as this installment.

Like many other LJ Smith fans, I enjoyed the original Vampire Diaries series when I was a preteen, and my paperback copies of the books are worn from being read and reread. My taste and expectations in writing have changed but I still get these books out and read them when I'm feeling nostalgic. When I saw this book in the hands of a young patient, I was excited to see that this well-written series was being revived to give "Twilight" a run for its money. However, other than character names, this book has little in common with the previous books in the series. It is, to put it succinctly, a mess. What were once three-dimensional, human characters are now cookie-cutter stereotypes. Their actions make little sense, and the dialogue makes even less. The plot is forced and seems cobbled together from anime, Celtic mythology, and anything else that could be tossed into the pot and stirred around. I was extremely disappointed with this book, especially considering that I felt that the author and this series could be so much better. It seems like this book was just churned out to make the series more current and to capitalize on the recent vampire love story craze, with little thought of continuity or logic.

Review:
While reading this novel i went on goodreads and read some of the other reviewers thoughts and was SHOCKED. A lot of people did not like this novel. On goodreads the rating for this book overall was almost a 4, but still a 3. A lot of people's reasons for not liking this edition to the series is because of the fact that this edition is completely different than the first four that most of them grew up reading and loving. It is much darker than the first four and little off track. It is very heavy and lengthy and also scary in contrast to the 16 chapter long, light, easy to read earlier editions.

I personally liked this edition better than the first three, my favorite still stays as the fourth edition. I think i really started liking this book in the beginning, because with the others i always had to force myself to get through the first four chapters. I dont know why, but i find that in almost every book the first four chapters are alway very slow, only because you have to make them slow in order to slowly have the reader get used to it and learn the plot and characters and understand the novel before throwing them into the good stuff. This novel was not like that at all. It was action packed at the very beginning. I couldnt get through the first four chapters faster than i had, they had me hooked!! Now, there were a couple chapters here and there that were a little slow, but the rest of them made up for it. Another thing that made it a little hard to read was that if you have been reading this series, then you're used to reading 16 chapter long books. This book is 39 chapters, and 14 pages shy of 600, so it is very long and a little hard to get used to.

This fifth edition is also different from the first four, because of its darkess. In this novel L.J. Smith introduces a new paranormal, and a very scary one at that. I can handle vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. but this one scared the bejesus out of me. If you read or have read this novel you might understand why, it reminds me a little of a certain japanese horror film starring Sarah Michelle Geller, but only a little. Im a scaredy cat so i was scared to go into the dark while reading this lol, but i loved that about it. Also the characters act a little differently, but i think its mainly because they are growing up. L.J. Smith wrote this edition 18 years after the last edition so i just think she grew as an author in that time period.

Another thing those reviewers were saying was that it was confusing and a lot of them just ended up putting down the novel and never finishing it. I think the confusion was necessary, because *SPOILER* there were people being possessed and nobody knew about it at first, especially seeing who the first two peole who were possessed were. Nobody ever knew they were possessed, because they acted like that normally. Of course there is going to be confusion, because the possession causes confusion to the reader, because you're used to that character acting a certain way and now they arent. The other characters were confused the entire time, because they have never dealt with this paranormal and didnt know what to do. They didnt know the signs and didnt know what it was in the first place. Especially when it is stronger than the vampires and they both arent even there to try to help you, yea there is going to be some confusion *END OF SPOILER* So yea, it was necessary. I liked it, bottom line.

Overall:
I think this book was definitely different than the rest, but still amazing. L.J. Smith knows how to write amazing stories and thats a fact, in my book anyways. It is much darker than the earlier books, but if you are old enough to handle that then you're fine. I recommend this to all L.J. Smith's fans and people who love YA, but are looking for a little more of a grown up YA.

This book is jumbled, ridiculous, incomprehensible, and just plain disappointing. It's a SCI-FI book that uses anime as a reference.

The last book of the series left off with Elena naked and human. In this book L.J. Smith decided that didn't work with her plot so she made Elena not able to speak with a child-like mind that is "pure". To "know a person" new Elena must kiss a person so she can "recognize them" (like a prairie dog). Who wouldn't like to be compared to a rodent? Elena is no longer the girl we knew, she is now SAINT Elena, with Sailor Moonish powers and wings (trust me you don't want to know). The only characters that are even similar to what they used to be are Matt and Bonnie. Caroline is now the main villain, who is being controlled by devious, incestous, and sadistic Japanese twins. Caroline will stop at nothing to get back at Elena's clique. Stefan is kidnapped for most of the book and Damon is just a sleazy, disgusting, moral less jerk. (I believe someone previously put frat boy in their reviews and that was pretty accurate).

There is an evil in Fell's Church, Virginia that is causing tween girls to act promiscous. These girls even try to have sex with every male around (including their own fathers and brothers). There are also giant insects that look like jellyfish with large mouths that are trying to possess people. These possessed people act crazy and hurt themselves (like I need to read about self-mutilation and destruction.)

This book is disappointing mainly due to bad character and plot execution. These characters are not the same characters from the previous books even though it is only a week later. Caroline is one of the villians and does a 180 from the character that seemed to start redeeming herself at the end of the last book. The other villians are the kitsune twins who can control dimensions. Evil Japanese twins that are incestuous, sadistic, and absolutely ridiculous (cartoonish is accurate).

And how does Japanese mythology and Fell's Church, Virginia go together? How does anyone think this plot is not absolutely insane? The previous Vampire Diary books at least had character and plot development. These characters have devolved into flat one dimensional and unbelievable characters.

Did L.J. Smith really need to make the vampires not able to have sex and let us know that Stefan went as far as a vampire could go with Caroline? Or that Bonnie's a maiden and Elena was far from pure? Or how about that Damon is actually scared of Meredith? Come on, this book is absolute drivel.

Let me state that I am an L.J. Smith fan who has been reading her for years, but this book was so bad I wanted to throw it out. If I wanted a SCI-FI book I would have bought one. I loved the previous Vampire Diaries books.

And so this book just gets more unbelievable and ridiculous with each page. It was pure torture reading it. If I wanted gratuitous violence and disgusting behavior I could watch a SAW movie...

I too wished I had never read it because I feel it tarnishes the other books. My favorite series is the Night World and this was my second favorite. These were the books that got me to read L.J. Smith's books. So please, Ms. Smith re-read your books and use the same writing style. Your writing style and characterization is what made me want to read (and re-read) your books. I am sure others were drawn to this as well, please do not disappoint your loyal fan base with poorly executed books.

Wow, this was really nostalgic for me. I read the earlier part of this series like fifteen years ago. And I definitely feel like the writing is, well, that I've outgrown it a little bit. At the same time, it felt so much like returning to old and dear friends I haven't gotten to see in a long time. I couldn't put it down.

I'm a little disappointed with the ending, I have to say. One of the main things I'd really enjoyed in the old books, particularly the 4th book, was the interaction between Bonnie and Damon. I love their dynamic and really want to see it further explored. Frankly I'm completely bored by Damon's and everyone else's obsession with Elena. He is so much more interesting when interacting with Bonnie. And the end of this book led me to believe that I have a lot more boring Damon obsessing over Elena to look forward to. I'm hoping not.

The twists and turns of the first four novels were interesting, but with Nightfall I finally lost patience with each plot revelation being "taken back." Elena becomes a vampire but then she is killed but then she's resurrected (I still don't understand how or why) but then she becomes a Spirit / Person but then she's back to being human but then she's horribly injured but then she is magically restored to health but then she's back to being some sort of angel we really don't comprehend. Elena seems to be whatever is convenient at any given time. Likewise, Elena makes a life changing breakthrough with Damon but then his memory of it is taken away. L.J. Smith is just spinning her wheels. We could desperately use some consistency here.

I couldn't keep up with the malach, the tree things, the creeping vines, the kitsune twins, the demonic possessions, the magic keys, the references to the Salem witches, bargains with the Devil, and I forget what else. The point of view kept jumping from character to character and there was simply no focus.

The Vampire Diary characters have always been a little flat (Elena = the charming one, Stefan = the honorable one, Damon = the dark misunderstood one, etc.), but I have grown to love them anyway. However, this novel pushed it a little too far. The scenes with Elena and Stefan were so sickeningly sweet (Little Lovey Love? Really? I don't even talk to my pets that way.)I found myself skimming through those parts.

The Elena / Stefan / Damon triangle is what made the first four books such page turners, and I found the Elena / Matt tension as well as the Bonnie / Damon tension to be distracting. I will continue reading this series, but with different expectations. These characters will always have a place in my imagination ...

I immediately loved The Vampire Diaries series when I picked up the first one.
I read through the first four in four days, each one I HAD to know what happened next. When I got this book I was so excited to see what was going to happen, and unfortunately read about Elena, the demons, and all that. I enjoyed the book, but I expected it to be so much more than it was. I loved the Damon stories, but not the "Wings" and Elena beginning out as a child that kisses, floats around naked and can't speak or think. Although I did enjoy the book, it wasn't the great comeback for the series you should be expecting.
If you know that going into the book, you shouldn't be disappointed.

I was a little uncertain upon picking up Nightfall, the first book in L.J. Smith's continuation of her wildly popular Vampire Diaries series aptly called The Vampire Diaries: The Return. I had enjoyed the first three volumes of the original series, but book four left me completely cold and, in my opinion, jumped the shark in tremendous fashion.

However, I'm a sucker for a bad boy in black, and had heard that this new series cast its focus on Damon Salvatore rather than his too-good-to-be-interesting brother Stefan. So, I gave it a try.

In the interest of full disclosure, I thought the first quarter of the book was just horrible. I almost put it down. But then the book took a pleasantly surprising turn. The result is a book that is probably better than all of the previous Vampire Diaries novels that came before it, and much scarier than anything else I've read by Smith.

Nightfall picks up about one week after the conclusion of Vampire Diaries book 4. Elena is a spirit newly returned to Earth after sacrificing herself to save Damon and Stefan. She's not a vampire, and not a human, either. What she is is a being charged with white magic, childlike, innocent and full of blood irresistably intoxicating and powerful to any vampire. Stefan and Elena have been reunited, and plan to make a new life together away from Fell's Church.

However, the rest of the Scooby gang is back, too, and the book quickly reverts back to the structure established in the fourth novel. Like that book, the action and plot drama in Nightfall reminded me quite a bit of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- the "gang" all working together to solve a mystery threatening the town, with the help of a witch, a couple of vampires and a heroine recently back from the dead.

I will say, though, I thought Smith's "big bad" in this novel was unique and interesting, and Nightfall is full of some genuinely scary imagery and ideas. I loved the evolution of Damon throughout the novel, too. As a character, his journey of falling in love with Elena is so much more believable and genuine than the relationship between Stefan and Elena. Elena is a more interesting character, too -- she's come a long way from the self-centered and stuck-up girl we met in the first book. Smith also tries to further develop Bonnie, Elena's Celtic witch friend, but she continues to annoy me. She's one of those scream-and-faint girls that continue to pop up in horror novels. I keep waiting for her to have a defining moment that makes me like her -- maybe in the next book, Shadow Souls.

Overall, if you enjoyed Vampire Diaries, you should take a chance on this new series. It's a meaty 600+ pages, but is NOT an omnibus edition of several shorter books, just one long text. The book does leave readers with something of a cliffhanger ending, however, which I'm looking forward to sorting out when Shadow Souls comes out next month.

This story is a lot darker than the previous book in the series, but still an enjoyable journey. All the characters are growing into themselves. It's like a discovery journey and then evil comes to join in on the fun.
Fell's Church is just the center of Power now and everyone seems to want a piece of the action. No body is safe anymore.

After reading the previous four books, I was really impressed by the novels of LJ Smith. Original mythologies? Check. Irresistible characters? Check. Captivating story? Check. So, considering the time Smith had taken of writing to come back with Nightfall, this is a very well written book.

SPOILER!
Although this book is quite laborious in comparison to the original series, the first novel (The Awakening) also takes a little while to warm up to. I was confused as it seemed there was too much going on in the beginning, where the story twisted too deeply for me to catch on with the events occurring. However, as I went on, I couldn't put it down. The tension Smith creates after Stefan leaves and Damon is being controlled is very effective. I am yet to finish the book, but there is no shortage of other characters, such as Meredith, Bonnie, Matt and Mrs. Flowers. They, and new minor characters, are integrated well into the story.

Of course I have to bring a comparison to New Moon in here. Although I am also an avid Twilight saga and Jacob fan, he does not come well into the novel quick enough after Edward leaves. First time I read it, skipped half the book. Second time, skipped a third of the book. This novel (and series too!), unlike New Moon, can stand strongly without Stefan (as much as I love him), and highlights the character strength of Elena and the weakness of Bella. If you love vampires stories, you won't be disappointed!

After over a decade and not expecting this new trilogy, I was overjoyed to hear that The Vampire Diaries were coming back but from the perspective of Damon. Then I went and bought the book and what a HUGE disappointment it was. Smith completely changed all the characters. Who are they? They're not even the same anymore. I understand that Elena is not the Elena we met in the first book, the selfish, the world revolves around me girl. She grew up after everything that happened. But this Elena Gilbert we're talking about, not some wimpy whiney girl. She gets what she wants. And all these supernatural wannabe creatures she created it's too much. Go back to the basics. We don't need all that stuff for the story. I wanted so bad for this trilogy to be good, but after this first book I decided not to read the next two. *Spoiler Alert* Apparently, she falls in love with Damon during the next book and doesn't know which brother to choose. Is she just pulling elements from Twilight because it's what's selling? Are you Team Stefan or Team Damon? The first book is just a complete disaster. Honestly, I hope she follows in the footsteps of Katherine and kills herself for the sake of the brothers, but do it forreals.

This is the only book in the Vampire Diaries Series that I didn't like. To me it felt forced, as though she tried to extend a series 10 years later and couldn't quite connect with the story. Some chapters were good, and others I had to make myself read. Don't let this put you off reading the series though, the next book in the series picks back up with energy and the flare is back.

Although it is nice to see my favorite characters again after 15 years, I wish they could have grown up with most of the fan base and perhaps the 5th book could have been written as an adult book rather than another YA novel. Most of the fans of the Vampire Diaries series are adults now and writing as an adult who was a kid when the series was at the height of its popularity, I have to say that I wish the characters would have ATLEAST been in their mid 20's at this point and had progressed more in their lives. Maybe Elena and Stefan actually being married or Bonnie as a PhD student or something etc. I know the series have been re-released with updated covers to attract a new and younger audience and this might be the reason Smith continued the series pretty much exactly as it left off in the last book, but as a long time fan I expected this book to be more grown-up friendly.

Also L.J. if you read these reviews at all - PLEASE drop Stefan's pet name for Elena. The whole "lovely love" thing has got to go! I seriously cringed every time I read it.

This book is great and captured my attention the second i picked it up. The stunning Elena Gilbert is brought back from being dead to face a new danger. With the help of her loyal friends: Matt, Meredith, and Bonnie, she finds a way to bring back the love of her life, Stefan. Really a great book and has a lot of witchcraft involved. You have to read the first four books to understand what was going on even if you watch the TV show, they are completely different. If you like teen romance and vampire this is the book for you. And The Vampire Diaries series is way better than twilight, this series has more action and adventure. Twilight is mostly about the love triangle but this focuses on the love triangle a little less and more on the enemy. Some things are really far fetched but it is a fiction book. Overall great book, really loved it. Hope you find my review to be helpful! :)

Like many other readers here, I first read The Vampire Diaries series as a teenager, and really enjoyed it. Although I am in my 20s now, I was excited to see a continuation of the story, and see what happened next to the characters I had loved so much. However, I ended up completely disappointed by this book.

The biggest problem I had was the characters and setting in this book just didn't seem like they fit with how they were portrayed in the first four books. This book supposedly picks up right where book four ended, but the characters are completely different, and the magical and horror elements are pretty different from those featured in the older books. Also, this book just seemed overly long, like the writer attempted to stuff too much into one book. I think it would have worked better as two books - especially since this is a series, there's no reason not to divide it into more books if it works better this way.

I do realize it's been a long time since the original Vampire Diaries, and I respect that the writing style of an author can change with time. But rather than continuing a series that readers loved so much, and taking the characters in a direction that just doesn't fit with the original books, why did the author not create new characters and a new world and write a new series that fits with her current writing style? Had she put her talents to that, I think a lot of her older fans would have been a lot less disappointed. I ended up giving up on fully reading this book about halfway through and skimmed through the rest, hoping it would look more promising, but it didn't. I may try again when I've gotten over the disappointment of the book being so different from the rest of the series, but I would encourage those who truly loved the earlier books to avoid this one. They will likely end up disappointed as well.