The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle: Book 2 (The Vampire Diaries: The Return)

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If I had been rating only "The Awakening", I probably would have given it a 2 star review. I did not enjoy it. There was so much story building and the character were no likeable at all. I like Damon, at least he's consistent as the "bad guy" in the book. His character is very sexy and very mysterious. This book is the 2nd in the vampire diaries series, and starts immediately where ‘The Awakening’ left off. It is essential to have read the first book to be able to read this one. Do not read this thinking that being familiar with the television series will be enough information. Many of the characters are different, and some of them don’t even exist in the show.

Okay, you ignored my advice and are going to read them anyway? That’s cool. Read them while lounging at the pool (preferably with some sort of rum drink in hand to counteract the awful you are about to experience); Of the 3 leads, the only one who I pictured as the actor from the show is Damon. Ian Somerhalder sounds like a perfect description of Damon, except way older. Elena actually referred to Damon as a boy more than once, whereas Ian Somerhalder is clearly not a boy. But still, I didn't really picture Paul Wesley as Stefan, and definitely didn't picture Nina Dobrev as Elena. In spite of all this criticism, however, I have to give credit L.J. Smith for creating characters and mythology that were later shamelessly "borrowed" by Stephenie Meyer. The similarities between "Vampire Diaries" and "Twilight" are undeniable. Human-vampire romance set in high school, blood lust, angst, "vegetarian" vampires - all was first written by L.J. Smith. Stefan's Diaries #4: The Ripper due for release 8th November, 2011". Archived from the original on 2014-03-03.Stefan: desperate for the power to destroy Damon, and protect Elena, he gives in to his thirst for human blood. Vampire Diaries" are the earlier books written by L.J. Smith and, unfortunately, it shows. I enjoyed her later trilogies "Dark Visions" and "The Forbidden Games" very much and therefore had very high hopes for "Vampire Diaries." and if you know who Paul Denton is I’ll freaking marry you (apologies in advance for providing my current spouse with any unwanted brother-husbands). I found myself taking a while to finish this, I don't know why. I assumed I would be heavily engaged with this read. I did like it, just, I don't even know. I gave this four stars because, well, I like the characters, so I may be bias, I just don't know how I feel about the story in this book.

Well, short answer, no, he hasn't... Directly. I feel really sorry for Stefan in this book because Damon is the one (or the one suspected) behind everything. Stefan doesn't know this so he's slowly getting weaker because of his guilt. In the second book, Elena is a touch more palatable, but that might have been because the story as a whole got marginally better, leaving less time (but still ample, believe me) for Elena to wax poetic about the unexplainable love for Stefan that seemingly flourished after one kiss. Stefan spends half the book ignoring her ( yes, for a good reason, but still) then when he does finally talk to her...BANG! They are together and "in love"???

This will not be a book for everyone. People who enjoy Twilight-esque books will probably be into this. When Stefan gets trapped in the well, again we all presume because of Damon but in fact he didn't. Throughout the book Damon is viewed as the 'bad guy' when in reality he hasn't done anything that he's been accused of (apart from killing Tanner which he freely admits). In 2020 I finally got around to watching the show on Netflix (instant). Also recording a podcast about it.

We all knew Elena's death was waiting for her at the bridge and I was kind of thinking, "This is it, your death is here. It's going to happen." And then at the same time I was thinking, "Unless you turn your car around this instant you're going to become a vampire. Which you probably don't want." But does Elena listen? Well no, because she's in a book, but that's not the point. She crosses the bridge anyway, and when I say 'crosses' I mean she drives straight off the bridge. I recently noticed the Vampire Diaries books sitting on my shelf, forgotten, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to read it in October, because of the whole spooky vibe. So there it is now - even thought the wheel didn't choose it, I did, because it deserved the attention! This felt a little bit too much like a vamped out version of “Mean Girls”, and I didn’t really get into the story or care about any of the characters at all. They’re all so selfish, juvenile, and petty, and okay, I get that it’s a young adult series, but it felt really immature and teen angsty to me, waaay more so than Twilight. Bella at least is an identifiable, lovable heroine with insecurities, awkwardness, and compassion, but Elena in Vampire Diaries is the rich, spoiled, perfect, popular, blonde, reigning queen of the school, who only seems to want aloof, brooding, mysterious, new guy in school Stefan just to prove that she can have whoever and whatever she wants. And there wasn’t enough (any) relationship building between Elena and Stefan to make me really give a hoot about them; so when dark, dangerous Damon comes to wreak total havoc, I was just glad that it finally spiced things up a bit, ‘cause I was honestly rather bored with the story.The Stefan's Diaries are six novels based on the TV series, attributed to Lisa Jane Smith but actually ghostwritten. They tell Stefan and Damon's past since Katherine's arrival. As they were written during the series broadcast, some things differ, such as the story of the original Vampires. I was soooo excited when this went on sale and I finally bought it. I absolutely love the show, it’s my comfort show and I can watch the first 6/7 seasons over and over. I wish we saw more chapters with Bonnie and Meredith. Even though best friends, it didn't feel like they were too involved in the story. We didn't get to know them properly and it has already been two books. I really hope book three will let us meet these two characters better.

I do believe that there were some good points about this book. For instance, I thought that the storyline, once stripped off all the schoolgirl gossips, petty scheming and stupidity was actually pretty descent. I thought the storyline was quiet original, especially considering the time frame when this book was written. The only downside with the storyline is that in The Awakening, L.J. Smith was still focusing too much on the high school part of the series, with teenage girl bitch fights and gossip, and she only seemed to realize she was actually writing a paranormal romance story at the beginning of The Struggle. So, in all honesty, The Struggle is a far better book than The Awakening. These teen vampire books have been out for more than a decade, but have only recently been merged into two single volumes, rather than the original four.

So I've read the first one "The Awakening and The Struggle" and I have to say that I was kind of disappointed. But the story did get better - once the author stopped concentrating on the Homecoming Queen's dating plan and remembered that she wasn't writing an after-school special but a romantic horror story. Because the horror part was really well written. It was even rather scary in some places. I suspect that the next two books in the tetralogy will be better. Vampire Diaries book series nominated for 2010 Kids' Choice Award". Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Damon, on the other hand, is actually interesting. He's unpredictable. He may do some good things, but he's still definitely evil. There's a lot of potential there for a sexy doomed attraction between him and Elena, but so far I don't think it has been well executed, unfortunately. Once again, Elena's feelings are just explicitly stated rather than shown through scene. It's weird because I thought that the mutual attraction in Smith's The Forbidden Game series was actually shown well, so I don't know what's going on here...