Books 23 & 24 The Vampire Diaries by L.J Smith

Hello Followers, Horror Junkies and the Curious!

I would like to say that what drove me to read books 23 and 24 was the fact that I love the TV show of the Vampire Diaries (and of course Ian Somerhalder, right Dawn!??!). So we are near the end of the first season of the show and I was wondering how the show followed the book. Yes...does NOT AT ALL pretty much sum it up?!

Well ok I can't say not at all, but it's pretty darn close. The book has the same characters, Stephan, Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, Matt, Tyler, Damon, and a new character called Meredith.

The first book is called "The Awakening", where Stephan and Elena are introduced. Now, in the first story Elena drove me freaking crazy! She is portrayed in the book as a stuck up snotty teenager, that is driven to have every boy in the school. Personnally I wanted to beat the snot out of her.."oh Stephan isn't looking at me, I think I'm going to go home and cry" UGH!

For those of us who watch the show, Stephan is a serious vampire who choses to feed on animals instead of people. In the book he drinks both from humans and from animals, but he doesn't want to drink to the death for either of them. This was definitely an interesting twist in the story.

Elena finally meets with Stephan they get together, in a somewhat serious relationship. Elena reminds Stephan of Katherine, his one true love from 15th century Italy (yes they are 500 + years old). Everything is progressing rather well in their relationship until Damon, Stephan's older brother-who is also a vampire-shows up wanting a piece of Eleana as well.

The second book "The Stuggle" carries on the story from the first book.So there is teenage angst, vampires fighting, along with humans fighting etc. etc. etc. What really took me for a loop was the fact that Damon can turn into a crow! Now when watching the shows, I kinda figured Damon was the crow..but wasn't totally sure on the issue, well now I am!

The books lent a bit of hints to the back story to the show. Like the crow issue, there are other things that Damon and Stephan can or can't do, but I won't spoil it for anyone. I was a tad disapointed in the lack of bloody guy wrenching scenes...but hey, the book is a young adult novel. We wouldn't want to warp any young minds, right?

Both books were enjoyable and I will probably pick up the 3rd and 4th books after Kelley Armstrongs "The Reckoning".