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

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Elena is your typical beautiful popular girl. Everyone kept referring to her as the "ice princess" but I never really saw it. She's mostly selfish, childish, and only is interested in Stefan because he's new, hot and she gets whatever she wants. (She even has a boyfriend in the beginning of the book, but dumps him because "it doesn't feel right" and Stefan is hot) We're supposed to feel sorry for her because her parents died a few years earlier, but that never really seems important, except to give Elena a reason to say "you're not my mother" to her aunt towards the end of book two. She also for some reason spent the summer in Paris, but that's really never explained-I guess it's there to make her seem rich and snotty?? Maybe she gets better by the second book, but she's pretty annoying throughout. She also never tells her friends anything so half the time they have no true reason for being there, other than to prove Elena is popular. I felt like there was more action in this book, compared to the first one. It made me more engrossed with the story and I was very excited for all the twists.

Elena is our spoiled, popular, idiotic MC.... and I hate her, she gets everything she ever wants! She has no compassion and is completely self absorbed - how is this different than any other teenage girl you ask? She is the embodiment of all that times ten!! I HATE her!!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. 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. 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...

Stefan: desperate for the power to destroy Damon, and protect Elena, he gives in to his thirst for human blood. From the first chapter, this book is intense and captures your attention. It is written in third person, but it also contains diary entries that belong to Elena and capture her deepest thoughts that she doesn't dare share with anyone else. Stephen Salvatoreis the new transfer student at Mystic Falls and with his good looks, reserved attitude, and secretive nature everyone there seems to fall under his spell, that is of course until the sexy steadfast Damon Salvatore comes to steal Stephen's fame. However, though they appear to be the normal fighting brothers underneath the service lies something no one in Mystic Falls is prepared for, will only destruction and chaos from these to dangerously handsome brothers or will it be them who saves the day. This omnibus carries the first two books of Smith's tetralogy - "The Awakening" and "The Struggle". I would give the first one two stars, the second one four. The first one was namely too much of a sugary teenage romance - I'm probably too old to read young adult stuff anymore.

It all happens as the result of a fight which in turn means Elena drives off angry... This is our big glimpse at the 'other power' and it is a good 'glimpse'. Elena's there thinking "The power fills the whole sky" and there I am picturing a massive thing covering all of the sky, just wow. The New Name for the next Vampire Diaries Trilogy is..." Ye Olde Blog by L.J. September 25, 2010 . Retrieved April 27, 2013. For those of you who haven't read the book: Elena has now found out about Stefan and Damon's secret./ More strange thins are beginning to happen and after the death of Mr. Tanner many people see Stefan as the reason behind everything, but was it him that caused it all? And I love L.J. Smith, guys.... I do! I've read her Nightworld series many, many times... and her Dark Visions has one of my favourite love interests of all time..... Gabriel *swoons* :D. So hating these bothered me, A LOT, and not just because I love the show!!

L J Smith (creator of The Vampire Diaries books) Fired From Writing the Rest of the Series" . Retrieved April 27, 2013. Alone, it would have probably gotten a 2.5 star.... up until that ending!!! I did not see that coming. Props for that! So an extra 1/2 star shall be added. To my disappointment, the writing is just not as good as I came to expect from L.J. Smith. The characters are not fully developed and more often than not unlikeable. The romance also is not written very well. It is very hard to believe in passion between Elena and Stefan. The narration in "The Awakening" is too choppy; multiple POVs are sometimes confusing and distracting. "The Struggle" however is significantly better written, the ending really pulled off the entire second book for me. The thing I really hated about this one, and the few vampire novels I've read, is that the guy is tortured by his past, he's a victim, and claims he only wants to protect the girl and pushes her away. The girl in turn believes she can save him with her love, tries to change him/help him, and believes she's not whole without him, her world would end if she left, blah blah blah. This is not romantic-it's a pattern for a bad relationship. Maybe I'm just too cynical. 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.

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. Stefan ignores Elena, the two barely say anything to each other, but once Stefan saves Elena on Halloween (after he snubbed her at the dance) she tells him she loves him. The two start "dating" and sharing blood (the equivalent of sex for these books) and by Thanksgiving Stefan proposes and they're engaged!!! Ok, read that again, it's not even been a month, she's in high school, and they're engaged?? What the crap??? Stefan is handsome, brooding and your typical tortured vampire. He's haunted by his past love, who he and his evil brother Damon fought over, and centuries later he's still not over it all-until of course, he meets Elena. There was nothing to lead them up to there romance. Elena thought of him as a challenge and for Stefan, Elena just reminded him of a girl he use to love...

Maybe if I had read these as a young teen, I would have enjoyed them. I just don't think Vampire Diaries has adult appeal. One good thing about reading this series is that I have even more appreciation for today's young adult literature. These books are the perfect example of why I didn't read YA when I was a teen! Stefan - the mysterious new guy in school. The guy that tries to stay away from the girl he really wants because he's a danger to her. A little bit of Twilight vibes, but we can get past that. Because there is one thing that Twilight didn't have, that you can find reading The Vampire Diaries... This was so extremely different from the Vampire Diaries Show and not really in a good way. Elena was not very likeable and she was blonde?!?!?! Weird. She is strong and Katherine is weak?!?! Katherine is dead??? (I believe stefan and Damon believed her to be dead for a while in the beginning of the show, but she most certainly did not choose to kill her own self for their sakes) Stefan wasn't as nice as he is in the show. His darker side definitely was more prominent.

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. The series was originally published in 1991–1992 and it revolves around Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert as the two main protagonists. The first three novels in the original series ( The Awakening, The Struggle, and The Fury) all feature Stefan and Elena as the narrators of the series, while the last book in the original series, Dark Reunion, is from Bonnie McCullough's viewpoint.