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“I could not escape from you. My soul favors you endlessly.””

— Margaret Atwood

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The Vampire Diaries: The Dark Reunion - A book review

L. J. Smith

I have finally finished the first four books in the book series! This one was great. It started off really creepy, but it kinda turned into your average supernatural teen novel, which I don’t necessarily mind. What I do mind is the sheer amount of typos? Was this book not edited? I started writing down typos, but gave up quickly because there were so many of them. Some of the typos that occurred multiple times were ri ght, tobe, chouse, of instead of if as in Of anyone, he should be able to do it and mm instead of him. Mm instead of him happened twice on the same page. But my personal favorite is Damon saying Are you frightened me. Instead of are you frightened/afraid of me.

But the story was fun, a lot less romance, probably because Elena is a little bit dead.

So, the plot. It’s been six months since Elena’s death and it’s Meredith’s 18th birthday. Caroline is planning a party, a surprise party. Because Meredith really looks like the type of person who loves surprises. Bonnie’s not really sure that’s a great idea, but Caroline convinces her. Bonnie says they should invite Vicki.

Bonnie goes home and dreams about Elena. They’re sitting down in a park having a picnic. Elena gives her a crust less cucumber and mayo sandwich and I just need to add that that sounds absolutely disgusting, this should’ve been the first sign that something is off. Elena goes on about how important hair is, and then adds blood is important too. Then everything starts changing. Elena’s sandwich turns into dirt, Bonnie’s into a dead mouse. Elena starts rotting and twisting in abnormal ways. Then Elena starts screaming, saying He’s twisting things, changing them. I’m not as strong as he is… Bonnie, understandably, starts freaking out. Just as she’s about to wake up, Elena tells her she needs to perform a spell with the two ingredients she’s told her. Bonnie then wakes up.

Bonnie somehow tricks Meredith into coming to Caroline’s house and the girls are all like Surprise!! And Meredith just wants to die. Caroline, Bonnie, Meredith, Sue and Vicki end up talking about Elena and death. Vicki then says how they never know how much time they have left and that any of them could die tonight. Totally not foreshadowing. They decide to try and contact Elena. Caroline tells Vicki to get the Ouija board out of the closet.

Vicki leaves and a few moments later they hear screaming from the hallway. They run out to check what’s going on and Vicki says something tried to grab her from inside the closet, they just chalked it up to nerves. Idiots. They then successfully manage to speak to Elena, who tells them they’re all in danger. Everyone in Fell’s Church. She tells them to run away, because He is in the house. Then something sent the Ouija board flying across the room and the lights went out.

I’m still pretty sure the He is Klaus. I mean no other vampire is strong enough to pull the shit this mysterious He has been pulling throughout the book.

Caroline leads them downstairs to the living room. Bonnie finds it unnerving how chill Caroline is, but assumes it’s because Caroline has no imagination. She says we’re scared of the darkness because of all the creepy shit we imagine in it, but Caroline simply doesn’t imagine anything and therefore has nothing to be afraid of. I thought this was suspicious at first, but it turned out to be a red herring.

The atmosphere was actually tense and creepy, but then the author absolutely destroyed it by hitting us with a Tinkle, tinkle. Maybe I’m just immature but it made me giggle, completely ruining the mood. I just imagined Klaus tinkling in the corner of the living room.

Caroline stopped holding Bonnie’s hand to go find the door, but never returned to get them. Sue and Vicki also disappeared a bit before that. Now, it was just Bonnie and Meredith. A big, sweaty, meaty hand grabbed Bonnie’s and she screamed, holding tightly onto Mer.

They somehow managed to find the stairs and went upstairs to find the other two girls. The upstairs looked as if it was struck by a meteor. Vicki was erratic, screaming that He did this and that she’s next. As Meredith and Bonnie got closer to the now destroyed balcony they noticed a body on the lawn below them. Sue’s body.

One thing I really wanna know is why them? Why Sue and Vicki in particular. Poor Vicki just keeps getting attacked by vampires. But, wouldn’t Meredith and Bonnie be more interesting to Klaus? Elena killed Katherine and as far as I understand, Klaus liked Katherine. But Elena’s dead, so there’s not much he can do about that. (He is technically tormenting her in the spirit realm, but he’s not doing much) Stefan and Damon would be the obvious next choice, they helped Elena, then we have Mer and Bonnie. Oh, Matt, too.

Bonnie and Meredith were technically friends with Sue and Vicki, but they weren’t really close. Sue was Caroline’s friend and Vicki was there because they felt bad for her, and Bonnie didn’t want Meredith to think that Caroline is using Sue as Elena’s replacement. I think they were nothing more than collateral damage.

The cops come, and we find out that Caroline was just in the front yard, too scared to come in and get them. Nothing happened to her. They question the girls and I’m pretty sure Vicki gets sent to a psychiatrist. Obviously, Vicki isn’t doing too well. This poor girl just can’t catch a break.

The cops came to the conclusion that there was no foul play. The lights just went out and the girls panicked, leading to one of them accidentally falling to her death. And Vicki is well, Vicki. She has a history of erratic behavior and horrible mental health. To put it simply, cops think she’s just crazy and paranoid.

The next day they just go back to school as if nothing happened. Well, Bonnie and Meredith do, Vicki isn’t doing well and is at this point either at home or talking to a professional. If my kid witnessed a death, accidental or violent, I don’t think I’d send them back to school the morning after? I feel like this warrants at least one day off. But whatever.

Bonnie runs into Tyler who’s definitely not being suspicious or anything. He mocks them for being scared and says Sue wouldn’t have died if they weren’t screaming in the living room the entire time. But they have never told anyone they were in the living room, maybe the cops, but it was never released to the general public. That’s when Bonnie realizes something, Tyler’s hand feels the same as the hand that grabbed her that night.

They decide to perform a spell to get in contact with Stefan and ask for his help. The spell Elena was talking about, and the two ingredients they need is Stefan’s hair and his blood. So obviously, they send Matt to gather the ingredients. Matt is once again, doing their dirty work. When am I getting my own Matt, universe?

I kinda thought the blood was gonna be a bit of an issue. Stefan has light hair, Damon has black hair, so it should be fairly easy to make sure you’re only taking Stefan’s hair. But blood? How are you meant to figure out whose blood is smeared on the walls? However, this isn’t an issue for Matt, apparently he’s a blood connoisseur and easily finds Stefan’s blood.

Bonnie successfully contacts Stefan, who went back to Italy. With Damon. Stefan immediately packs his stuff and heads back to Fell’s Church, surprisingly Damon comes with him. At first he says it was because Matt fucked up and took some of his hair as well. But later we find out that wasn’t the case, Damon wanted to come along and help, but was too embarrassed to admit it. lol.

They arrive quickly and the five of them immediately head to Stefan’s old house. The place Mrs. Flowers owns. She is still a little weird. Somehow she knew they were hiding in the boarding house and she brought them grape juice and cookies. I think she’s at least aware of the supernatural, but she doesn’t seem evil. I think she may be one of my favorite characters, she seems really sweet.

Vicki’s condition has been getting worse and worse with every day. She looks horrible, she’s losing weight and is having nightmares every single night. She doesn’t even leave her room, let alone her house. Can’t blame her, I don’t think I’d be doing too well either if I were her.

Stefan wanted to check Sue’s body to see if his theory that the perpetrator is a vampire checks out. However, when they arrived they realized that the marks on her body don’t match those a vampire would leave. No bite marks, but there’s a cut on her chest. It looks like a cut a vampire would make on themselves to let a human drink their blood. But as far as they know, Sue wasn’t a vampire.

Slightly off topic, but I’m checking my notes to make sure I don’t forget anything because it’s been a month since I’ve finished this book and one of the notes just says: Damon is so insecure. I have absolutely no idea what I was talking about, nor why it follows a note that just says Are Matt and Bonnie gonna kiss? I love when I write down a super short, vague note and completely forget what I was talking about. 😁👍

Again slightly off topic, but why don’t Damon and Stefan speak to one another in Italian? They were born in Italy, spent their whole human lives in Italy, probably most of their vampire lives as well. Bonnie says they both spoke English with an accent when they first arrived, so why on Earth would they speak English when it’s just the two of them. Obviously, a whole dialogue in Italian wouldn’t make sense if the whole book is in English, but you could at least mention the conversation is in Italian, but write it in English. It just doesn’t make sense? I suppose you could argue that we’re just supposed to assume they’re talking in Italian, like that’s a given she doesn’t even need to mention it. Although I highly doubt that’s the case.

Oh right, the plot. My bad. Anyway, Stefan has an idea. He doesn’t want to tell anyone what the idea is because innocent people might get hurt if he’s wrong. I don’t see how that would happen if the only people who know are Bonnie, Meredith and Matt. It’s not like they’re known for their bravery and willingness to physically attack without thinking first, but okay.

Stefan says he needs to learn more about the history of Fell’s Church and needs the records to do so, so he goes to the library to read Honoria Fell’s diary. Now, I suppose that a diary from someone who lived in the historical period you’re researching is wonderful and gives you a perspective on how some people thought and what they believed in back then, but it’s still a diary. It’s historically accurate, obviously, but it’s still likely to be at least a bit subjective. Nevertheless, he finds the information he needs.

We don’t really find out much about the history of the town or Stefan’s theory. However, I think that the founding families of Fell’s Church performed some sort of ritual and sacrificed someone in order to found the town. Founding families were the Fells, the Forbes, the Smallwoods and the Gilberts. I think that they might be trying to do this again. But since the Gilberts and the Fells are all dead now, it’s just the Smallwoods and the Forbes. I think that the ritual has something to do with Klaus. So Tyler and Caroline are acting weird because they’re planning something.

Spoiler alert: I was right, kinda, but also wrong.

Matt has a bit of an existential crisis. He gets super cynical and is all like bleghh who cares nothing matters we could never fix the world bleh bleh bleh. But Stefan gives him a I’m-14-and-this-is-deep speech about how it’s important to try no matter what, and how it’s better to die knowing you did all you could then to live with the regret of never even trying to help. Immediately Matt’s whole worldview shifts and he’s like Yeah! Let’s fight! If teenage boys are this easily influenced no wonder men like Andrew Tate are so successful, Jesus Christ.

While Stefan and Matt were in the library looking for Honoria Fell’s journal, Bonnie and Mer were watching Vicki. Then Mer fell asleep and Bonnie felt like she’s about to fall asleep too so she decided to get out of the house to get some fresh air, walk over and check on Vicki. But she doesn’t have a key to get back in. Uh oh. I thought Klaus was gonna show up and Bonnie wouldn’t be able to get back into the house, but nope. Another red herring.

However, someone does show up. Damon. This is when we get the lovely Are you frightened me? Quote from Damon. Thank you editor, for all the wonderful typos in this book. I wonder if this book wasn’t edited or if there were so many mistakes in the original manuscript that they just couldn’t fix all of them. Anyway, Damon leans in and kisses Bonnie. Stefan and Matt show up and get all paternalistic with Bonnie. It’s unclear if she kissed him or if she was compelled. I believe she kissed him, but she let Stefan and Matt believe Damon compelled her.

The Scooby Gang concocted a plan to capture and kill the killer. After graduation, in September. We still don’t know what the plan is. Also it’s June now. Doesn’t matter though, the next chapter begins with their graduation ceremony.

Bonnie and Meredith start fake arguing. Meredith is “mad” at Bonnie for celebrating when Elena is dead and will never have the chance to graduate. She calls Bonnie a whore for dating Matt, Elena’s ex. Bonnie slaps her in response. Meredith adds, very loudly, that she’ll go to the cemetery at night to put flowers on Elena’s grave. I think she’s trying to see if someone is gonna take the bait and follow her there. But who? I mean, it has to be Tyler, right?

Bonnie walks over to Matt and confirms my theory that this was orchestrated to bait someone. She says, And don’t you think you should put your arm around me? Just to show you’re on my side and there’s no chance you’re going to show up at Elena’s grave tonight with Meredith.

For a moment I actually thought Bonnie and Matt got together, to be fair they did have chemistry. Unfortunately Matt is forever loyal to Elena, I’d be surprised if he manages to get a girlfriend any time soon.

To no one’s surprise, the person who took the bait and followed Meredith to the graveyard was Tyler. Wow, who would’ve guessed. At first Tyler and Meredith only talked. They talked about Elena and how she’s the light in the darkness. Then he said there’s always more in the darkness. To which Mer replied with Sooner or later the sun will come up. But Tyler then said But the moon comes up first. Am I overthinking it or is this another hint at him being a werewolf?

He asked her if she sees a huge white orb that’s in front of his family tomb. Then added once the moon is up you’ll see better. As if the white orb, that’s totally not supposed to represent a moon, wasn’t enough. Tyler then tells her he knows about vampires, but he isn’t one. I think that was their theory? That Tyler was a vampire and that he was the one who killed Sue? He did. He was there that night with Klaus. In order for his werewolf curse to manifest he needed to kill someone and taste his blood. Which explains the cut on her chest.

The moon comes out and Tyler transforms into a werewolf. Okay but I remember pointing out they (Bonnie and Mer) often joke about Tyler’s teeth and animalistic behavior and wondered if it’s a hint. They brought it up again now!! Saying how they used to joke about it. I suppose it’s not really funny now.

Also nevermind, apparently he didn’t kill her. How the fuck is he transforming now then? This makes no sense. I think that the author wanted this to be a mystery, but instead of crafting a well planned mystery she just decided to confuse the readers instead. The vampire apparently wanted to kill Bonnie and Meredith, but he’s instead targeting the other two girls.

Finally, the rest of the group emerges from the shadows and beats the shit out of Tyler. They tie him up and take him to the crypt to question him. He doesn’t want to talk because he’s scared of Klaus. But then Stefan threatens to sever his limbs and he starts talking. We find out that the only thing that can hurt Him is ash wood. From now on I’ll just call him Klaus because this was basically a confirmation that this is indeed him. I may sound like a hypocrite because I don’t like Damon since he’s a killer who has no remorse, but hehe I’m so excited Klaus is my favorite.

Apparently while they were with Tyler, Klaus went after Vicki. Which again, makes no sense, even Tyler said Klaus didn’t care about Sue and Vicki, he just wanted Bonnie and Mer. So why even bother going after the other two girls? Why did he forget Caroline? None of this makes any sense. The only explanation I can think of is him wanting to get rid of eye witnesses, but then again, why would he care about that, he’s like millennia old.

Also, at this point we’re only 58% through the book.

They rush to get to Vicki’s house, leaving Tyler in the crypt. Unfortunately when they get there Vicki’s already dead. Her blood coating the floor and the walls of her bedroom. Vicki was such an unnecessary character, the only purpose she served was to be tortured by vampires, poor girl.

Apparently Damon was supposed to watch over her and Stefan starts yelling at him, calling him selfish. Stefan thought that Damon couldn’t be arsed to save Vicki. Damon for whatever reason refused to explain what happened, and just went Fuck you >:( I’ll just leave since you hate me so much!!! And ran away. God I really hate the miscommunication trope. Literally all Damon had to do was say that Klaus was the killer and that would’ve solved the issue. Stefan would’ve known that there was no way Damon alone could’ve saved Vicki from him. But nooo, he just has to be dramatic. Man you’re a grown ass vampire, not a teenager.

Meredith and Matt went back home, but Bonnie stayed with Stefan to talk to him about something. I thought she was gonna talk to him about channeling Elena and all the visions/dreams she’s had about her. Which technically wasn’t wrong, they talked about that too, but Bonnie wanted to offer Stefan her blood. He, of course, refused. Because why would you want to be strong while facing the most powerful vampire on earth. Yeah, I think a few bunnies and a dove will suffice.

Stefan told Bonnie that she can reach out to him while she’s channeling Bonnie and drag him into the dream, so he can speak to Elena. Elena officially confirms that the vampire is Klaus, which we already knew, and tells them to find Klaus’ victim (one that survived, obviously) and speak to them. To which Stefan said he’s going to “Europe” to look for someone who was attacked by Klaus. Not like one person in particular, but just aimlessly wander Europe until he finds someone. My brother in Christ, you are European, you know how big Europe is. I know you’re a vampire, but I think the person would die of old age before you manage to find them.

Bonnie realized that Klaus doesn’t have an accent and knows about music from the 50s which must mean he’s been in the US for quite some time. Because you couldn’t possibly learn to speak a language without an accent in less than 50 years, or listen to 50s music in 90s. That would be impossible. She then theorizes that Klaus must’ve been the vampire who attacked Meredith’s grandpa.

Also, I could’ve sworn Meredith said her grandpa died and was buried, so how is he now in a mental institution? Anyway, they visit her grandpa and he’s in a catatonic state, but calm, until Stefan tries to speak to him, then he starts screaming Vampire and White ash wood. The nurse asks them to leave.

Stefan receives a package from Klaus. There’s a note attached to it. Klaus has Caroline and wants Stefan to come and talk to him. Alone, if Stefan brings back up Caroline will be killed. Stefan is once again trying to put all the blame on himself. The rest of the group wants to help, if not by coming with him at least by giving him blood. He refuses and says he’ll kill them if they even try to come help him. I don’t know if this was meant to show how brave and honorable Stefan is, but all it does is make him look like an annoying asshole. He speaks so much about a cause being greater than him as a single individual, but when it comes to it he refuses to compromise his “morals” for the greater good. Not even sure it counts because Stefan refuses to drink without consent and I’m pretty sure they consent. But, whatever.

Of course, they won’t actually let him face Klaus by himself, especially since he’s so weak, (weaker than usual btw) so they follow him. Stefan thankfully remembered to bring the white ash wood stake with him, so at least he came prepared. I think this is supposed to be like the big boss battle of the book, but we have about 20% left in the book.

The rest of them are hiding in the bushes, and I would really love to know how Klaus can’t hear them. He’s a vampire, an extremely strong one, and he can’t hear their heartbeats? How is that even possible? Anyway, Matt is strategizing to which Bonnie thinks: No wonder he’s a quarterback. I would’ve just rushed in, yelling. This isn’t important for the plot. I just thought it was really relatable and had to share it.

Tyler attacks Stefan from above, but Bonnie warns him right on time. A fight ensues, Bonnie beats the shit out of Tyler, but not before he could seriously hurt Meredith. Bonnie left Matt to take care of Meredith and went over to help Stefan, but froze in the middle of the field. I have no idea what she was trying to do honestly, she’s not even good at magic like Bonnie in the TV show.

I think that because throughout the book Bonnie kept insisting she isn’t useless, dumb or a coward this was supposed to be her big moment, where she proves them all wrong.

Thankfully, Damon showed up and attacked Klaus. Stefan was on the ground, Damon got quickly beaten up by Klaus, Meredith and Matt are humans and in no condition to help, it’s just Klaus and Bonnie now. I thought she was gonna summon her ancestors to help her beat Klaus, but instead she summoned Elena and the spirits of soldiers. The spirits dragged Klaus away while Elena healed everyone.

Elena then said her goodbyes because she now has to move on. As in permanently. I was at this point wondering how they’re gonna bring her back, because there is no way there are 9 more books without Elena. But instead Elena became a white light, then was resurrected. And the book ends there.

Honestly, it would’ve been better if Bonnie had performed some ritual instead. Necromancy would’ve made more sense. Instead Elena just came back to life. Does this mean her corpse is now missing? Is this another body? How exactly does this work? Feels like L. J. Smith wrote herself into a corner and had no idea how to resolve this so she decided a random miracle was the best solution.

I think this one was my least favorite one so far. It was entertaining, sure, but so much of it just didn’t make sense, there were so many mistakes and it just felt rushed? I still enjoyed it, but I think I’ll need to take a little break from this series before I can continue.

Rating: ⛤⛤⛤

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The Vampire Diaries: The Fury - A book review

L. J. Smith

Alright, we’re back. I haven’t had time to read for a while. But now that the exam season is over I can continue. I think I got through this book quicker than the others. It’s definitely not better than the second one, but this one had a lot more action than the previous two.

We start the book with a scene that takes place at the very end of the first chapter. So like, a reverse flashback. Is there a word for the opposite of a flashback? A flashforward? Okay, I googled it, and yes, it’s called a flash-forward. Anyway, as I was saying. We see Elena, Stefan and Damon together in the forest. Elena is saying how they’re all together, connected. So, essentially the same thing Katherine used to say.

Seriously, what are these men doing to them, why are both Katherine and Elena obsessed with the both of them. Actually, the real question is what is Damon doing to them. Stefan was always there first, then Damon came along and the girls were like “Yeah, I’d like two boyfriends, actually.” Am I just doing relationships wrong? Am I supposed to be starting my own harem, too?

Now, chapter one begins. Elena’s still obsessed with Him aka Damon. For a second I was worried that we’re gonna have some fated mates, omegaverse moment because we got this line: His mind had summoned her here, battering her with shock waves of rage and pain. She had come to help him because she belonged to him. At this point I was really hoping this is just some weird, temporary side-effect of becoming a vampire. And technically, I was right. Sort of.

Stefan and Damon are fighting and Elena attacks Stefan. At first he fights back, but then he realizes who the attacker is. She bites him a couple of times and he kinda just lets her. But when she was about to kill him, Damon stopped her. He says he wants to be the one to kill his brother, but I think this was supposed to be the beginning of his redemption arc.

Speaking of Damon’s redemption arc, I don’t think it was good enough. I can’t say much more without spoiling the end of the book, but I’ll talk about it a bit more when we get there.

Elena then goes from wanting to kill Stefan to wanting them to all work together. And now we get that scene from the flash-forward. Damon is questioning her, trying to figure out who killed her, but Stefan is sure Damon killed her. Elena has no memory of Stefan, or at least of her feelings for Stefan. Parts of her memory are blank because Stefan was somehow involved. I was wondering how long this was gonna last, sort of hoping it might be actually impacting the plot, but I assumed it was most likely gonna be fixed once she completely transforms into a vampire.

At this point I was theorizing trying to figure out who could’ve killed her. Katherine seemed like the most obvious choice. I was, however, wondering if it’s even a vampire. Or maybe one of the original vampires, but I have no idea if the concept of original vampires even exists in the book universe.

Elena has no recollection of her feelings for Stefan, but feels some weird sort of pull towards Damon. So, logically, she tells Damon she loves him and wants to go somewhere with him, just the two of them. She’s really speedrunning all of her relationships, huh. Stefan is a better person than me, because if my girlfriend tried to kill me and then told my brother she loves him I’d fight him for sure.

Somehow, Elena manages to convince Stefan and Damon to work together. No idea how, they were literally trying to murder one another like five minutes ago. Pretty privilege, man.

Damon is acting super weird, he’s worried about Elena and trying to keep her safe. I have no idea why Damon suddenly cares. Maybe when a person gets turned into a vampire, a bond is formed between them and their sire? I mean, Damon isn’t exactly the empathetic type and they barely know each other. It can’t be because she looks like Katherine because he himself has said Elena is nothing like Katherine. Is it really just the thrill of the chase? Or am I just reading too much into something that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously?

I would like to take this opportunity to once again say Matt is my favorite character in the entire series. I wish the TV show Matt was like this. Sure, Matt can be a bit of a doormat, which is infuriating, but he’s kinda like a puppy, you can’t even be mad at him. You ever meet someone in real life, who’s an absolute sweetheart, but they let people walk all over them? So you want to baby them and protect them, but at the same time you want to beat some sense into them? That’s Matt in a nutshell.

The reason I’m talking about Matt is because Elena needs to feed on a human in order to survive. She doesn’t want to accidentally kill someone. Or well, Damon and Stefan don’t want her to. (Mostly Stefan). So, they need to find someone who’s willing to let her feed on them. Who else loves Elena so much they’d risk their life to save hers other than Matt. Honestly, I’d say Matt loves Elena more than Stefan and Damon combined. Matt is absolutely terrified, but he is still very much willing to let Elena drink his blood.

After that Damon takes Elena to Alaric’s house. Elena wants to drink his blood, but Damon tells her not to because “there’s something fishy about him”. Alaric is acting weird, his eyes are glossy like he’s not even there. Obviously, he’s being controlled by Damon. Damon puts her to sleep in the attic and tells her Alaric won’t remember her being there, and then leaves.

The next morning Elena’s back to normal, sort of. She now remembers Stefan and is feeling incredibly guilty about, not just attacking him, but all the things she’s said to Damon. But before she can apologize to Stefan and set things straight, she needs to get out of Alaric’s house first. Luckily for her, Alaric is occupied and doesn’t notice her. He’s talking to a couple of men. I can’t remember who exactly, but I think it was the principal, the mayor, chief of police and other men in power. We find out Alaric was invited to Fell’s Church to help them solve the vampire problem.

Today is a memorial service in Elena’s honor, they never found her body so they assumed she must be dead. A couple of people gave speeches, not really relevant. But then Meredith gets up on the podium and says something that wasn’t correct. It was silly, but she said they used to practice together every Thursday, but Elena is confused because she knows they used to do it every Wednesday. This was enough to make Elena think Meredith is sending her a message. Meredith somehow knows, or hopes, Elena is not dead.

Then, Bonnie tries giving a speech, but starts crying and a reverend has to help her go back to her seat. As soon as she sits down, she gets a precognition and something starts speaking through her. She’s just repeating that someone is not what they seem. I have no idea if this is going to be relevant in book four or if this was actually about one of the characters in this one, but it just wasn’t relevant enough for me to notice. I suppose this could be about Damon, or Meredith, maybe even Alaric.

Elena’s been observing this from a distance, along with Damon and Stefan. Then, the memorial was cut short when a group of dogs appeared. At first, the dogs were just standing there, if their bellies weren’t expanding as they breathed, they would’ve looked like an exhibition of taxidermized pets. Then, they attacked. Stefan ran to help the people, but Damon stayed back. Elena urged him to go down and help, but he refused to. It was only when Elena said she’ll go herself that he decided to go and help. But by then the firefighters showed up and scared them away using water hoses.

We get a little glimpse of Elena’s feelings. She loves Stefan, she wants to be with Stefan. But she cares about Damon and it’s confusing her. I just really hope she won’t break up with Stefan to be with Damon, then break up with Damon to go back to Stefan. I genuinely don’t think Elena and Damon have any chemistry. They barely know each other.

Elena decides to go and visit Meredith, but first she stops by her old house. She sees aunt Judith and Robert talking in the bedroom. Judith says they shouldn’t get married, at least not so soon. She’s worried about Margaret and how she’d react. Margaret already lost her parents, now Elena, and Judith is worried Margaret is gonna feel like she’s losing her too. Robert doesn’t agree, they get into an argument and Robert storms off. Judith looks through the window and sees Elena. Understandably, she freaks out. Damon appears out of nowhere and gets Elena away from the window.

Damon tells her she should eat and Elena says she’s not hungry yet, and has to go to Meredith’s anyway. She gets to her house and Meredith is a bit shocked, but not as much as you would expect. Maybe I’m just dramatic but if my dead friend was climbing through my window I don’t think I’d be calm and collected. They chat for a bit, but then the doorbell interrupts them. It’s Bonnie. Bonnie reacts in a bit more natural way. She’s so excited and she’s hugging Elena and squealing.

They talk a bit about what happened during the memorial service and what Bonnie had said. It felt like Elena was insinuating that Bonnie was talking about Meredith.

After Elena explains everything she asks Bonnie if she can use her divination skills to ask this, Other Power, questions. They get a candle and a bowl of water. All they really get out of this is “They’ll be able to defeat the Other Power if they work together, but not without a sacrifice.” Then, Elena asks Bonnie if she can read her palm. Bonnie says her life line is cut short and Elena says it must be because she died in order to turn into a vampire. Bonnie says Yeah, that must be it. In a totally normal, definitely not suspicious way. 100% not foreshadowing.

The girls create a list of main suspects, and the top three are Alaric, Mrs. Flowers (Stefan’s landlady) and Robert. I still think it’s Katherine. They come up with a plan to follow those three and figure out if any of them is acting suspicious. Then, Elena gets a little hungry and in a totally not creepy way starts stroking Bonnie’s wrist. She runs away and jumps out the window. Shockingly, Damon is already there. This guy is like a guard dog I swear. Then the three of them (Stefan appeared too) go hunting.

I’m gonna be honest, I really thought something was off about Robert. I think it’s because he reminds me of Ted from Buffy. For those of you who haven’t seen Buffy, Ted starts dating Buffy’s mom, he’s way too nice in the beginning and then starts acting aggressive towards Buffy. Later, we find out Ted was a robot. The original Ted cloned himself after his wife left him, but the robot Ted murdered multiple women, he was programmed to be misogynistic and abusive for whatever reason.

Stefan goes back to school and finds out there’s a Snow Dance on Friday the 13th. Because of course it's Friday the 13th. What I don’t understand is why they’d even host a public event again. Not a single event passed without at least one person dying. You’d think they’d cancel them until they figure out what’s going on.

Stefan, Bonnie and Meredith were supposed to meet up after class, but instead they saw Meredith sneaking around with Alaric. Totally not suspicious at all.

We get a diary entry summing up the whole week of stalking the suspects. Mrs. Flowers is an oddball, but I don’t think she’s evil. She might be like a witch or just someone who knows about vampires, but that’s it. Alaric is a vampire hunter, we already knew that. Meredith is being sneaky, but I don’t think she’s evil. Maybe she’s been working with Alaric, but I definitely don’t think she’s got anything to do with the Other Power. Robert on the other hand… I don’t know what to think about him. He doesn’t seem smart enough to be the Other Power.

Then, it’s Friday the 13th. The rest of the book takes place in just one day. They’re all planning to go to the party, but Caroline asked Stefan to meet up with her before the dance because she wants to apologize. This definitely doesn’t sound like a trap. I mean Caroline is known for being humble and admitting when she’s wrong.

Meredith asks Damon, Bonnie, Matt and Elena to follow her to the roof, then she says she needs to introduce them to someone - Alaric. Of course, Damon instantly attacks Alaric, because Alaric reached for his gun. Meredith scolds Alaric and says she told him not to bring that here and calls him an idiot. Understandable. Somehow she gets them all to work together. She explains she spent the past week trying to convince Alaric it’s safe and that they won’t hurt him. Apparently, Meredith’s grandpa was attacked by a vampire when she was a kid and Alaric came to investigate and she recognized him.

They tell Alaric Stefan is with Caroline and Alaric panics. He’s been hypnotizing the kids Stefan attacked in order to help them remember what happened and Caroline remembered seeing Stefan. So the six of them all get in cars and go save Stefan. Stefan was on the floor and a couple of men, including Mr. Forbes and Mr. Smallwood, surrounded him. Damon shapeshifted into a wolf and started attacking them. Slightly off topic, but damn, how powerful is Damon? Most vampires aren’t strong enough to shapeshift at all, let alone into two different animals.

Alaric managed to calm them down and convince them it probably wasn’t Stefan who attacked the kids. He said the attacks were probably animal, pointing at the wolf who just attacked them. The men obviously fell for it. I feel like most people would rather accept that it was something as common as animal attacks rather than considering that a human could even do any of it.

I can’t believe that Alaric is so nice in the books. I could’ve sworn he was an asshole. Maybe I just don’t like him because Matthew Davis is a creep.

This part of the book is a bit blurry so forgive me if I don’t remember everything perfectly. But they got Stefan to a safe place and asked Bonnie to let the entity take over her so they can ask questions. Bonnie reluctantly agrees. Elena asks where they can find it and where they can find the Other Power. All Bonnie says is Come and see.

They follow Bonnie to the graveyard all the way to the old church. Bonnie walks into the church and doesn’t move or say anything. She just stares at the tomb of Honoria and Thomas Fell, the founders of Fell’s Church. That’s when Elena realizes they need to go inside the tomb. Damon and Stefan lift the lid and reveal the hidden catacombs. Down there they run into a spirit, Honoria Fell. She tells Bonnie she was psychic too, she was the protector of the town. She was awoken by an evil, hateful entity and she’s been trying to help the gang ever since.

She tells Elena that the entity hates her, but it hated Stefan before it ever hated Elena. It’s been playing with him and torturing him for a long time. This was when my theory that Katherine is behind this was basically confirmed. Honoria then asks Bonnie if she wants to keep her powers. Bonnie says yes and Honoria disappears.

A white tiger jumps out of nowhere and attacks them. Damon turns into a wolf and tries to fight it. Stefan and Elena attempt to help and the rest go back to save the people at the dance. But, the three of them aren’t strong enough to take her down.

We go back and forth between the catacombs and the party. The only thing that really happens at the party is that animals attack them. So I’ll be focusing on Elena, Damon, Stefan and Katherine.

Katherine has them tied to a wall. Side note, why is there so much gore in a book with a 12+ rating?? Katherine acts like a spoiled child. Everything from the way she speaks to her mannerisms reminds me of a toddler. But like an evil toddler. She’s kinda like Drusilla from Buffy. (Although I really love Drusilla's character, she was done way better)

She gives Damon a choice. He can kill, or let her kill, Stefan and Elena and come with her, or she kills all three of them. I highly doubt he’ll join her. I mean she did say she loved Stefan more, and Damon was basically a consolation prize, that’s gotta hurt his ego a bit. Not to mention she lied to them and betrayed them. Also, I think he does like Elena.

Damon, understandably, tells her to go to hell. And Katherine just goes insane. Her face becomes all deformed, barely human. She grows talons and just starts slashing at Damon. Elena somehow breaks free and attacks Katherine. She snatches her locket, which was keeping her safe from the sun and Katherine bursts into flames. I’m so surprised Katherine actually died. I expected her to be similar to the show version of Katherine, but I guess not.

Elena is weak and dying. Stefan is holding her in his arms. She tells him she loves him and asks him to promise he’ll take care of Damon. Stefan says he loves her too and promises he will. Then, Elena passes away. I had to reread this part three times, I had no idea what was going on. But this was the sacrifice Bonnie was talking about. This is why Elena’s life line was cut short. She actually died.

The last chapter is some sort of epilogue. It’s a diary entry from Bonnie’s point of view. It’s been three days since Elena’s death. Everything is slowly going back to normal. People are pretending nothing supernatural happened and are coming up with excuses for everything. Meredith and Alaric are together, even though he’s in his 30s and she’s a minor. Disgusting. I knew Alaric was a creep. Robert and Judith are getting married in about two weeks. Bonnie decided she’s gonna give Elena’s diaries to the library so everyone can read the truth. If I were Elena and my best friend let everyone read my diary I’d probably come back to haunt her.

The book ends with Bonnie saying this:

I want people to know the truth about Elena. She wasn’t a saint. She wasn’t always sweet and good and honest and agreeable. But she was strong and loving and loyal to her friends, and in the end she did the most unselfish thing anybody could do. Meredith says it means she chose light over darkness. I want people to know that so they’ll always remember.

Spoiler alert for book four. I took a little sneak peak at the blurb of the next book and it says Elena comes back. So don’t worry! Elena’s death is temporary. Also, there are like nine more books, I don’t think they’d write nine more books without Elena.

Rating: ⛤⛤⛤

[coffeeandfaeries]

The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle - A book review

L. J. Smith

I have once again read this book in one sitting. I am for some reason REALLY into this series. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. But then again, I was obsessed with TVD (the show) as a teen so it makes sense. But the books somehow have more likable characters. Don’t get me wrong I think the cast did an amazing job, but I wish they didn’t change some characters, Elena and Bonnie in particular.

Even though Bonnie in the books can be a bit annoying because she’s often way too nice, I like her better than the TV Show version of her. I feel like Bonnie in the show was often rude and stubborn. I can understand why they changed Elena, to a certain extent. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted the main character to be a bit more “palatable”, but instead they made her into this whiny, useless character. If I recall correctly, Rebekah actually points that out. Although, Elena on the show was unbelievably self-centered. I don’t know a lot of people who genuinely liked her character.

I do have to warn you, I will be comparing the books to the show pretty often. I’m also team Stefan. Well, in the books at least. I definitely preferred Damon on the show. So if that bothers you, you probably shouldn’t waste your time reading thirteen reviews.

Yes. I’ve decided to finish this series. Even though L. J. Smith got fired after writing seven books. She wrote books 1-7, then an anonymous ghost writer wrote books 8-10, and Aubrey Clark wrote the last 3 books. L. J. Smith was hired to write The Vampire Diaries, unfortunately she didn’t realize what contract she was signing. If I recall correctly, she didn’t understand what “work for hire” meant. So, while the books were copyrighted to her, she didn’t actually own the books, she couldn’t publish anything without the approval of Alloy Entertainment. She wanted Elena to end up with Damon, Alloy didn’t. So they fired her and got somebody else to write the books. While I don’t like Damon personally, at least so far, maybe she’ll give him a redemption arc, I can’t imagine how horrible it would feel to spend years working on a book series just for that to be taken away. All because someone didn’t like my story.

Anyway, time to start talking about this book. Four hundred words into the review and I’m finally starting to talk about the actual book.

As we remember from the previous book, Elena is shouting Damon’s name trying to get his attention. One thing I gotta say is I do respect Elena’s cockiness, like nothing says teenager in love than acting like you have nine lives. She’s threatening Damon, acting like she could overpower him in any way. Ma’am, he could kill you before you even have the time to react.

Damon is still trying to win her over, he’s comparing her to Katherine. Saying she’s already powerful even as a human and how she would be unstoppable if she was a vampire. Honestly, I do agree with him. Vampire Elena would be amazing. I’m pretty sure Elena will become a vampire pretty soon. I know she didn’t become a vampire in the show until the fourth season. I wonder if she’d be more excited to be a vampire in the book. Another thing that hasn’t been discussed in the books yet is the “switch” vampires in the show have. For those who don’t know, vampires have some sort of switch in their head that, when flipped, turns off their empathy and emotions in general. Essentially turns them into a monster. However, I have noticed that vampires in the book have slightly different powers, like being able to turn into an animal and control the weather. So there is a pretty good chance the “switch” doesn’t exist in the books. If that’s the case then I have no idea how Damon is going to get a redemption arc. Especially since he was a bad person even before he became a vampire.

While Damon was trying to talk her into leaving Stefan and joining him he said this: You’re the girl who has everything else, but there’s always been something just out of your reach, something you need desperately, but can’t have. So… She’s just spoiled? Damn, first world problems. All jokes aside, he’s not wrong. Nothing ever satisfies Elena, she said so herself. The moment she gets something, or someone, she is already bored of it. The only reason she wanted Stefan so badly was because he wasn’t paying attention to her. For the first time in her life she didn’t immediately get something she wanted. I feel like the fact everything is so easy for her is partially the reason she always wants more. She’s never had to work for anything, it always just falls into her lap.

Also, throughout this entire encounter, and a couple of times in the past, Damon has been trying to use his powers to compel her, but it’s not working. She’s successfully resisted them almost every time. I know that she hasn’t been drinking vervain and doesn’t have it on her anywhere. So how is she doing this? It wasn’t explained in this book, but I think she is just strong-willed. I don’t think there’s anything more to it, but I did find it interesting nonetheless.

This book came out in 1991, A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire came out in 1996. Therefore Winter is coming is originally from TVD. G. R. R. Martin apparently was inspired by 15th century Scotland. So I like to think that Damon met the characters from GoT and they decided to steal the phrase from him. Or perhaps G. R. R. Martin is a big fan of the vampire diaries and just really wanted to use the phrase in one of his books.

Damon told Elena that she should give up and join her because Stefan is dead anyway To which she said: If Stefan was dead, she would know. How? Literally how. Did I miss the chapter in which Elena discovered her psychic gifts?

Elena starts running, looking for Stefan. But then she stops, lays down on the ground, covered in snow and says she has no reason to look for Stefan because Stefan will look for her. She falls asleep and Meredith and Bonnie find her, passed out, covered with snow. They take her home, Elena is still in a delirious state, saying she needs to go back and look for Stefan. Understandably, Aunt Judith, Robert (her fiancé), Meredith and Bonnie are against it, and decide they need to stay with her to make sure she doesn’t try to run away in the middle of the night.

But Elena is relentless, she is not going to give up on Stefan. So she asks Bonnie to use her abilities to find Stefan. Bonnie lights a candle and tells Elena and Meredith to focus on Stefan and not say anything, no matter what. Bonnie was channeling Stefan, he’s in water, it’s cold and he’s thirsty and tired. At one point Bonnie says Stefan feels like he should just end his life. And, of course, Elena screams No, breaking the one and only rule Bonnie had. Bonnie is willing to put her life out on a line for Elena, who doesn’t care about anyone other than Stefan.

Then a voice starts speaking through Bonnie, saying to stay away from the Wickery Bridge. The girls assume this is Stefan speaking through her and drive straight to the graveyard. Idiots. How have they not noticed by now that whenever Bonnie channels a message it’s never a positive one and something bad happens every time?

They go to the bridge and Bonnie just feels like something is off. We also find out that Matt followed them, because he knew Elena wouldn’t be able to give up. Honestly, Matt is such a sweetheart I really like him. Sure, he’s a bit of a simp and Elena doesn’t deserve him, but he’s just adorable. Call me boring, but I’d take a guy like Matt over a Stefan or a Damon any day.

Bonnie tells Matt what she saw, he doesn’t really believe her but he helps them find Stefan anyway. He realizes it sounds like he is in a well and drives them to the abandoned well on an abandoned farm. They find Stefan in there, and he looks ROUGH. They take him home insisting he goes to a hospital. Obviously taking a vampire to a hospital would raise some eyebrows so Elena and Stefan are against it. Bonnie, Matt and Meredith keep insisting so Elena compromises. She tells them to go get Bonnie’s sister Mary, who is a nurse, and if Mary says he needs a doctor they’ll take him. This gives Elena the time (and privacy) to give Stefan some of her blood, not a lot, but enough to recover.

I just would like to add one of my favorite quotes from the book, just straight up copy-paste this from my notes. Any additional commentary is unnecessary.

Maybe you think I’m terrible for loving him, considering what he is. He can be violent, and I know there are some things in his past that he’s ashamed of. But he could never be violent toward me, and the past is over. He has so much guilt and he hurts so much inside. I want to heal him. Ok Bob the Builder.

They go back to school and there’s a new European History teacher. Alaric K. Saltzmann, and he is way too friendly. Immediately he’s like “Yeah, let’s all sit in a circle, talk about our feelings, yadda yadda yadda”. He asks Bonnie about the night when she found Mr. Tanner’s body, and, understandably, she gets very upset while talking and starts sobbing. He apologizes and invites them over to his house. Then says attendance makes up for 50% of the final grade. Yeah, totally not creepy. Imagine your child coming home and telling you that they have to go to a teacher’s house that night or they’ll fail history. I’d be calling the cops on the spot.

I assume that because Alaric is a vampire hunter in the show he will be a vampire hunter in the books too. So the only non-creepy reason I can find for a grown ass man to invite a bunch of students to his home, is to check if any of them are vampires. But, uh, spoiler alert, no that didn’t happen. We didn’t really even get to see Alaric during the house party scene.

But anyway, we’re not even there yet, there’s one more thing that happened while they were in school that I just have to talk about. I have no idea if this is a US thing, or a 90s-00s thing, or, most likely, a media thing, but do people actually care about being popular in High School? Maybe I don’t get it because I wasn’t popular in High School, but I can’t understand breaking up with your partner because they’re not “cool” enough and are “ruining your reputation”. You’re a senior, chances are, you are never going to see the other students again after you leave for college. So who cares? Sure you’re not gonna be popular, but you still have friends? Like this quote in particular: It might be better if we didn’t see each other for a while. If they think we’re not together, they’ll leave you alone. Fam, you’re a 500 year old vampire, how do you still have the mentality of a child. I can understand breaking up with someone because they are a suspected murderer, but you know he isn’t. You have met the killer. To be fair, it’s not even Elena’s idea. Stefan is concerned about her public image more so than her.

I know that Stefan was just trying to be considerate because he didn’t want Elena to “suffer” because of him. But Elena wasn’t even being bullied, people were just a bit awkward around her because they think she’s dating a killer. I don’t necessarily blame them, and I do know that we, people in general I mean, love drama and making a big deal out of everything.

Elena‘s aunt Judith really doesn’t like Stefan, and I get it, I wouldn’t want my niece dating a guy who I believe is a killer either. But then again, the cops talked to him and he’s been cleared of all accusations. Also, aunt Judith is referred to as an “older woman”. How old is she exactly? I thought she was in her early 30s. According to the TVD wiki she’s middle aged, older than aunt Jenna in the show. So I’m guessing mid to late 40s?

On top of the issues Elena has with Damon and aunt Judith, Stefan has been acting like an idiot too. He’s extremely weak, weaker than ever and he’s refusing to drink from Elena. Your brother is on the loose, harassing your girlfriend and her friends, and murdering everyone else. If I were you I’d take any blood I can get, especially if it’s gonna help me protect my loved ones, or you know, not get murdered. It doesn’t even matter that Elena’s been keeping Damon’s visits a secret from Stefan, he still knows Damon is in Fell’s Church.

Stefan’s main concern is not being able to stop once he starts drinking from her. So why let him drink straight from the source? When you donate blood you give about 500ml (17oz). Which means she could easily give him a bottle of her blood. Like don’t let him drink straight from you, just fill a cup or something. Problem solved. Author’s need to start writing me as a character in all of their books, I would make the character’s lives so much easier.

Finally, we get to Alaric’s house party. Again, a really weird move from a teacher, but okay. Everyone is pretty awkward around Elena and Stefan, except for Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt, of course. They talk about how strange it was that he had planned a party, but made it look spontaneous. I’m glad they realize this is strange. Elena then goes to get a snack and oh my, who would’ve guessed it! She runs into Damon. Damon immediately starts acting like a weirdo, taking a bite out of some garlic bread Elena had in her mouth, almost kissing her. Stefan gets all cocky trying to threaten Damon. Stefan, sweetie, a child could beat you up now, stay in your lane. Elena drags Stefan out, but on their way out someone slips a piece of paper into Elena’s purse.

It’s a piece of paper from Elena’s diary, and it reads: I want to touch him. More than any boy I’ve ever known. And I know he wants it, too, but he’s holding back on me. I mean yeah that’s pretty personal, but a teenager being attracted to their boyfriend isn’t exactly weird. A bit embarrassing, maybe, but like this isn’t really a good threat. Why this part in particular? Especially since Stefan is dating her, if they weren’t together and the word that Elena was thirsting over a random classmate came out it would be embarrassing. But I’m pretty sure Stefan already knows Elena’s into him.

It’s pretty obvious now that Caroline has the diary. I thought at first that Damon had it, that he was gonna change her diary entries and make it seem like she actually hates Stefan. Then let Stefan “find” the diary and read it. But uh, that doesn’t sound like something Damon would do, it’s kinda childish.

Once Stefan and Elena get home (Stefan’s home) we get a bit of an info-dump, which I don’t necessarily mind because it was all in dialogue. If your boyfriend was a vampire you’d probably have some questions too, so him talking about vampire lore for an hour wouldn’t really be unnatural. The reason I’m mentioning this is because this is the first time vervain was mentioned in the books. It protects humans from succumbing to vampire’s powers.

The next day they find another note, tacked to the office bulletin board. It said: I feel as if someone has hurt him terribly in the past and he’s never gotten over it. But I also think there’s something he’s afraid of, some secret he’s afraid I’ll find out. Seriously, why are these parts of her diary chosen? Again, this is a pretty normal thing to say “Someone hurt my partner in the past, I wonder what happened”. My assumption is that it’s Caroline taunting her. The notes aren’t meant to be humiliating, they’re just supposed to make Elena realize someone has her diary and is planning on using it against her.

I think Vickie turned. Or perhaps she’s being controled by Damon. Nobody has seen her since the night she was attacked. Now she’s back in school, in the middle of the cafeteria, taking her clothes off. She also keeps freaking out whenever she sees Elena and says: You’re the one of them! I saw you! You’re evil! Is Katherine back? Was the gentle girl just a persona she put on?

After the whole Vickie fiasco, Elena tells Bonnie and Meredith to stay away from Damon, and to not invite him in under any circumstance. Bonnie tells Elena she kissed Damon, because of course she did. Then she says the weirdest, yet somehow the most Bonnie thing ever. Killers are sort of romantic. Imagine you’re dying with his hands around your throat. He’d strangle the life out of you, and the last thing you’d see would be his face. Someone keep an eye on Bonnie so she doesn’t fulfill her grandma’s prophecy.

Remember how we talked about vervain a couple of paragraphs ago? Well apparently there’s no vervain in Fell’s Church, at least not during winter. So, Stefan and Matt get in Matt’s car and go on a road trip down south to get some vervain. Honestly, Matt is unbelievable, imagine your ex girlfriend’s new boyfriend comes to you and tells you they need your car so they can go “south” (doesn’t even give you an actual location) to get some weeds for your ex. And you just agree, as long as you can go with them. I’d tell him to go to a flower shop and fuck off from me. But Matt is simply built different. Matt and Stefan are slowly becoming friends. Stefan even said that Elena and Matt are his only friends, the only two people who make him feel comfortable and accepted. I hope their friendship doesn’t get ruined.

For whatever reason, L. J. Smith switches from one POV to another without any warning. There isn’t even a divider, she just starts a new paragraph from another person’s POV. Which makes it difficult to write a cohesive review. How am I meant to do that if we go from two guys in a car to Elena’s dream sequence without a warning?

While Matt and Damon were on the road trip, Elena and Bonnie were planning a sleepover. Not for fun, Elena is worried that now that Bonnie and Damon had kissed, she might become a target. So she thought Bonnie would be safer if Elena was there with her. I’m not sure what Elena could exactly do to protect Bonnie, but alright.

Elena keeps dreaming the same dream again and again. The exact same scene from the beginning of the book is described now, 46% into the book. Almost word for word. Elena and Damon are in the same room and he asks her if she wants to dance. She doesn’t reply, she just laughs and walks away, knowing he’ll follow her. She’s not running, she’s teasing him. He’s trying to get her to forget about Stefan. The first time this happened she remembered him and then woke up. This time Damon managed to bite her, she woke up, screaming, while Damon in his crow form was attacking her. Bonnie’s dad beat him with a broom. King shit.

Damon compelled her to open the window and let him in. But the thing is, she invited Damon into Bonnie’s house in the last book, during the ritual. I can’t remember if I mentioned it in the previous review, but Bonnie taught Elena a ritual she can perform to see who she will marry. You’re supposed to light a candle, put one plate, one fork and one knife on a kitchen table. Then you hold a chair, and when the clock strikes twelve, pull the chair out and say “Come in”. She didn’t realize Damon was there and when she said it, she accidentally invited him in. So… Why did Damon need to compel her to open the window? He can control the weather and shapeshift, but he can’t use his powers to unlock a door?

She asked Bonnie’s dad to take her and Bonnie back to her house. Poor man thought she was suffering from some sort of emotional breakdown so he obliged.

Stefan came back with vervain and gave some of it to her, kept the rest so he could extract oil from the flowers. He notices something is wrong with Elena but she’s still refusing to tell him what’s been going on. He doesn’t even know she lost her diary and someone’s been using it to taunt her. I know Elena thinks she’s protecting Stefan by lying to him about Damon, but if I were him I’d be pretty pissed. She’s putting herself and everyone else in danger. Also, why hasn’t she asked Stefan to tell Bonnie and Meredith his secret? Wouldn’t they be safer if they knew what’s actually going on? They already believe Bonnie is psychic, why wouldn’t they believe in vampires too?

The next morning Elena tells Matt someone’s been sending her parts of diary and she thinks it’s Damon. Bonnie, Matt and Meredith all say that it just doesn’t sound like something a guy would do. It sounds too petty, and Damon doesn’t look like a guy who would be that petty. So they all come to the same conclusion, the only person who would do that is Caroline.

Elena leaves the cafeteria and accidentally overhears Tyler and Caroline talking in one of the empty classrooms. They are planning to use Elena’s diary as proof that Stefan is the killer. They want to announce this during the Founder’s Day parade. To humiliate Elena in front of everyone and get Stefan arrested. In her diary, Elena said that she had lost her ribbon near the Wickery Bridge and Stefan found it. Apparently this is proof that he’s a killer. Like stalker? Maybe. But killer? That’s a bit of a stretch. Seniors get to read poetry during the parade, Caroline was one of the seniors chosen for this and she plans to pull out Elena’s diary instead.

Caroline is taking this “being popular in school” thing a bit too seriously. Girl, no one's gonna care you were popular in like six months. What is wrong with you?

Elena, Bonnie and Meredith break into Caroline’s house one night in order to retrieve Elena’s diary. They ransack the house and find Caroline’s diary, but Elena’s is nowhere to be seen. The Forbes’ come home early and the girls need to leave the house quickly. Elena somehow gets stuck. I genuinely have no idea how she managed that. So she tries to get out through a window and guess who’s already there? Damon! Who would’ve guessed. He, once again, tries to talk her into becoming a vampire and “ruling” the darkness with him. She says she’d rather die than join him and tries to jump off the roof. He catches her and tries to make a deal. He’ll get her diary back and in return Elena has to spend time with him and let him drink her blood. She, of course, says no. Damon tells her to think about it and leaves.

Nothing important happens for a bit, but there is one diary entry I wanted to talk about. (Elena got a new diary).

And there are little things that shouldn’t matter, but they bother me. Like why Stefan still wears Katherine’s ring around his neck, even though he loves me. In his defense, she did die. Breaking up with someone and losing them isn’t the same. That doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t love you, or that he loves Katherine more. But she’s not an ex, she’s his deceased lover. This really is a tricky situation. On one hand dating again can be difficult after losing your significant other, and even feel like you’re betraying them. So just getting rid of the only thing you have left of them can be hard, and honestly unnecessary. On the other hand, however, being 17 and dating someone who lost their partner can be just as hard. Being insecure, not just in general, but also in your relationship can make you feel like you have to “compete” with the deceased person. Grown adults sometimes can’t handle dating someone who lost their previous partner, let alone teenager. Grief is complicated. I don’t think either of them are bad people, they’re handling it to the best of their abilities.

Alrighty, let’s get back to the plot. Vickie is back! And doing worse than ever. Vickie attacked Tyler, tried to bite him. Alaric said: Don’t hurt her! Be careful! It’s epilepsy, we just need to get her lying down! Epilepsy? Really? Does epilepsy make people strip naked, sexually harass other students and try to drink their blood? I’m no doctor, but that doesn’t sound like epilepsy to me. Maybe this Alaric isn’t a vampire hunter, or he doesn’t want the other students to freak out. If you don’t know what epilepsy is, maybe you’d fall for it.

For whatever reason aunt Judith hosts a rehearsal Thanksgiving party every year to make sure everything goes well on Thanksgiving day. Personally, I’ve never seen anyone practice hosting a holiday dinner, is that a common thing? Anyway, it was time to sit down and eat when Judith announced they have a guest this year. Yeah, you guessed it right, it’s Damon again. This man does not give up. The fact that Elena hasn’t tried to kill him is quite impressive. Could never be me. So, now Damon has access to Elena’s house as well. As if that wasn’t enough Bonnie got briefly “possessed” during the dinner. A voice spoke through her, telling Elena that Death is coming for her. Funny how this only happens when Damon is there. Not suspicious at all. Poor Bonnie.

Damon leaves and aunt Judith pulls Elena aside and says this: Well, I just thought you might give him a chance, that’s all. I thought he was very pleasant. The kind of young man I like to see around here. Can’t blame her honestly. Narcissistic abusers are remarkably good at charming people. Much easier to abuse your partner when their close friends and relatives are on your side. They can be incredibly charming and charismatic. It’s not that they can’t help themselves, they just choose not to control themselves. They know exactly what they’re doing. Elena doesn’t really say anything to this. What could she say? There’s no way for her to prove that Damon is a killer and not Stefan, without outing them as vampires. Something tells me that aunt Judith doesn’t believe in vampires.

As I’ve said, Damon does not give up. After they’ve all went to bed he came back. But once he got to Elena’s room he couldn’t get in. Which leads to Elena being, once again, an idiot. She tells him that the reason he can’t get in is because the living room and her room are what’s left of the old house. Therefore someone needs to invite him in again. Why tell him this, he can just come back and ask to see the living room, it’s not like Elena in particular has to invite him.

The following day Elena goes to Stefan’s house to tell him they need to talk. Finally, she’s gonna tell him everything! Is what I thought was gonna happen, but nope. She only tells him about the diary, she continues to keep Damon a secret. Honestly, I’m starting to think she’s not lying just to keep Stefan safe, I feel like she likes running into Damon. I mean, she does talk often about how attracted she is to Damon.

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. (and by we I mean me) Stefan finally feeds from Elena. Technically, he did drink her blood when she dragged him out of that well, but that was just a couple of drops. This time he drank straight from her neck. Also, the whole drinking blood thing is kinda like sex to vampires. The way the author writes these scenes feels weirdly erotic. It’s kinda uncomfortable to read. And!! He told her I love you for the first time. Then, he did something so incredibly stupid. He proposed. Proposed. She’s 17, she’s not even out of high school yet. Not only did he propose, but he proposed with Katherine’s ring. Lord. I think that may have been done so that Elena is wearing a ring once she turns into a vampire.

Elena then says my favorite quote in the entire book. I’ve learned my lesson; I’ll never keep things from him again. Elena, darling, you are STILL keeping things from him. What are you talking about? I don’t think she knows what “I’ve learned my lesson” means, because she most certainly did not.

We’re getting near the end of the book. It’s the day of the Founder’s Day parade. The girls were hoping Caroline will leave the book unattended while she’s in costume. Unfortunately, Caroline isn’t stupid, she found a way to carry the diary with her. At this point I thought they would go to Damon to ask for help. Honestly, if I were Elena I’d fake being ill. Dramatically fall over and pretend to faint. Everyone would be paying attention to me, and then Stefan could offer to take me home. Caroline could still decide to go through with her plan, but the main reason she’s doing it is to humiliate Elena. Can’t humiliate her if she isn’t there.

They fail to get the diary and proceed with the parade, bracing themselves for the inevitable humiliation. Caroline’s turn to speak comes and she gives a little speech. Saying that she would rather read something about what’s happening in Fell’s Church now, not a hundred or two hundred years ago. She then pulls out the diary and freezes. Someone switched Elena’s diary with Caroline’s. Now she looks like an idiot. Was it Damon? Yeah it was. Elena asked why he had done it and he replied: For my own purposes. To which she said: I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s the reason at all. She really thinks she’s hot enough to make a cruel vampire feel empathy or compassion. I respect the confidence.

Elena’s aunt comes over and tells her she should be nicer to Damon. Damon takes control of her aunt and Elena has a horrible argument with Judith/Damon. She runs to Matt and asks if she can borrow his car, saying she just wants to be alone right now. She drives straight to the old graveyard. She parks the car and while she was hysterically laughing/crying she feels Damon’s presence. She tries to get across the river, because Damon can’t cross running water. Something goes wrong and she crashes Matt’s car and drowns.

Bonnie, Meredith and Stefan find her and pull her corpse out of the water. The next bit was so confusing and I couldn’t tell if Elena was dead or not because Bonnie kept referring to her as a “wax doll”. For a bit I thought there was an actual doll in the river and Damon took Elena, but no she was actually dead. The darkness comes once again and Stefan tells them to run. He shouts that he’ll leave Elena under the Willow trees. Bonnie realizes that the reason Stefan is telling them this because he will not be there when they come back for Elena.

Since Elena didn’t say anything about Damon to Stefan, he doesn’t know that that night when Damon broke in, she drank his blood and he drank hers. He didn’t know that she died with Damon’s blood in her system.

Stefan is going after Damon. He’s planning on killing himself. He’s fed on Tyler, Caroline and their friends. He has to be stronger if he wants to take on Damon. He doesn’t care about getting caught because he doesn’t plan on living long enough to get caught. But what’s gonna happen once he realizes Elena is not dead? Is he gonna use his new strength to compel the people of the town?

While Stefan and Damon were fighting, trying to kill one another. Elena was waking up. Elena woke up. Hungry and tired. She could hear voices, someone screaming somewhere far away. She got up to follow them, when she remembered “him”. Oh yes, it was coming back now. She remembered him. He was the one who understood her, who loved her. He was the one she wanted to be with forever. And I had a slight feeling she’s not talking about Stefan.

Her next sentence confirmed my suspicions: He was there, with his black, fathomless eyes, and his secret smile. And he needed her help. She would help him. Stefan’s eyes are hazel. Is this because she died with Damon’s blood in her system in particular? Maybe that forms some kind of bond between them. God, as long as this book doesn’t have fated mates I’m good.

The book ends with Elena shaking ice crystals out of her hair and stepping into the clearing in the woods where Damon and Stefan were fighting.

I’m having so much fun reading this series. Honestly, I enjoy it a lot more than the TV show. I’m really glad the books are quite short, about 250 to 300 pages. Since I take notes while I read, it does take quite a bit some time to finish a book, usually about 4h. Writing the actual review takes a couple of hours too, but it does mean I can finish everything in one day. With longer books, especially other YA Fantasies which can be between 600 and 900 pages, it takes a long ass time to write.

I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about a book series. Is it perfect? No, definitely not. But it’s so entertaining. The fact that I know and love these characters already definitely helps.

Fingers crossed that the other authors who took over the series won’t ruin it.

Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

[coffeeandfaeries]

The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening - A book review

L. J. Smith

I have finally decided to read the Vampire Diaries book series. I started reading this about ten years ago, but gave up after a couple of chapters after realizing it’s nothing like the tv show. Now that I’m no longer obsessed with TVD I can admit I kinda like the books better. So far at least.

Our protagonist is Elena Gilbert, the most popular and the most beautiful girl in school. I think she was meant to be the same in the tv show, but book Elena kinda gives me Regine George vibes. She’s more like Caroline in the show. She’s pretty, tall and blonde. And to quote her All the boys want her and all the girls want to be her. Her parents died 3 years prior, when she was a freshman and her younger sister, Margaret, was just one year old.

Her friend group is also a bit different, Bonnie is still there, but she’s a pale, ginger Scottish girl. Her other best friend, the one she’s closer with, is Meredith. Elena is for some reason always really mean to Bonnie who just takes it. If you’ve seen the show you know Bonnie is sweet, but doesn’t take shit from anyone. Well this Bonnie is super bubbly and a bit air-headed. I have no idea why the author made her so stupid. She thought the Spanish Inquisition was a rock band… Another thing that’s a bit weird about Bonnie is that she’s so morbid? She’s constantly swooning over the concept of death and fatal illnesses. For example, her grandmother told her she will die young. And what does she say about that? This. I’m going to be young and beautiful in my coffin. Don’t you think that’s romantic? No, Bonnie, no, it isn’t.

Caroline Forbes is also in the books, but she’s not exactly friends with Elena. They’re rivals. (There was a bit of rivalry between them in the show as well, but Caroline in the show was fiercely loyal to Elena). I feel like this quote from the book describes their relationship dynamic very well:

Elena was taken aback. She and Caroline had been friends since kindergarten, and they had always competed with each other good-naturedly. But lately something had happened to Caroline. She’d begun to take the rivalry more and more seriously. And now Elena was surprised at the bitterness in the other girl’s voice.

Oh and another little detail. Caroline in the books has auburn hair, not blonde.

Now onto the plot. Elena just came back home from France and has realized she wants to break up with her boyfriend Matt. Apparently she loves him the way a cousin would love him. That’s always a lovely thing to hear from your girlfriend

It’s the first week of senior year and there’s a hot, mysterious, new kid in school. Stefan Salvatore. Who just moved to the US from Italy. Obviously, Elena is interested. It doesn’t matter that she broke up with Matt about 20 minutes ago. She’s ready to move on. Unfortunately for her he’s not exactly interested.

Alright, I’m gonna take a little detour, because this is really bugging me. This is the quote from the book I’d like to talk about:

Stefan was glad the school day was almost over. He wanted to get out of these crowded rooms and corridors, just for a few minutes.

WHY IS HE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL.

I never understood why vampires in all of these stories spend their lives going through high school over and over again. In the books he is 520 years old. He most likely graduated high school over 100 times. Why would you do that? He was 18 when he was turned. Why not just go to college?? He could’ve gotten a Phd in every subject under the sun, but no, he’d rather take trigonometry 100 times. Makes sense. If I were a vampire I’d rather spend my time developing skills and learning new languages and not retaking the same history class over and over again, but you do you I guess.

Oh, and another thing. I don’t know how to feel about this Elena. It’s nice to have a protagonist who isn't frail and a people-pleaser, but she is always so mean to everyone around her. I was about 11% in when I said I find her annoying, but by the time I was done reading I just thought she was a bit cringe. You’ll see why…

After the classes are over we switch to Stefan’s POV. He’s having flashbacks of Katherine, Elena’s doppelganger, a girl he was in love with. Katherine was meek and gentle, a daughter of the King of Germany. She was often sick and looked like the slightest breeze would break her bones. The polar opposite of the Katherine in the tv show. A manipulative seductress who would do anything and kill anyone to save her own ass. TV show Katherine was a much more interesting character honestly, despite being evil.

Sorry, back to the plot. As I was saying, Elena wants Stefan more than anything, and she doesn’t like it when she doesn’t get what she wants. So, she walks up to him and tries to talk to him. Not only does he not respond he starts intensely staring at his desk, avoiding even looking at her. You’d think she’d take the hint and move on, it’s not like she’d struggle finding someone who does want to date her. But Elena isn’t used to being told no, or even worse, ignored.

Later she tried talking to him again, just for him to cut her off and say he doesn’t have the time. In front of the whole school. Girl, respect yourself. She then runs back home to cry, but goes to visit her parents instead when she realizes her aunt and sister are home. Meredith and Bonnie find her and try to cheer her up. Elena decides that she’s over him and she doesn’t care anymore. Fast forward about 2 minutes and the girls are making a blood pact swearing they’ll help Elena get Stefan no matter what.

On their way back home Bonnie freezes and stares at a gravestone. A voice that isn’t her own, but is coming from her mouth says: Elena, there’s someone out there waiting for you. Something seemed to move out in the darkness, the girls screamed and started running away. A few paragraphs later we find out Stefan was there with them that night. He too had felt that energy that scared the girls and made them run away. He wanted to know who or what the source was, but decided against it. It wasn’t explicitly stated who emitted that energy, but I’m pretty sure it was Damon.

The day after, Meredith and Elena go to Bonnie's house and her older sister, Mary, asks them where they were the night before. After they say they were down by the Wickery Bridge Mary tells them a body was found right next to the bridge. An old man was attacked, his throat ripped out. Somehow, the man survived, but he was in a coma.

Tyler Smallwood’s father believes the old man attacked himself. Good to know Tyler’s father isn’t smarter than his son. For those of you who don’t know Tyler is one of Elena’s classmates and comes from one of the founding families. Super rich and an even bigger asshole. In the TV show he’s a werewolf, I think he will be a werewolf here too, considering how often they talk about him being like an animal, or having animalistic, big, white teeth. Maybe it’s foreshadowing, maybe I’m reading a bit too much into it. I don’t know.

So we had a bit of a time skip, about 3 weeks and Caroline is acting weird, to quote Elena: In fact, I don’t know what Caroline is doing these days, and I don’t care. I never see her at lunch or after school anymore; she seems to have drawn away from her old crowd completely. I remember that Caroline started dating Damon in the show, I’m wondering if Caroline is withdrawing because she’s with Damon, because something happened to her, because she’s plotting or if this is just a red herring. (We do find out later why she’s been missing - she was following Stefan around).

Through Elena’s diary entries we find out she’s been spreading a rumor she’s dating some French guy or whatever. Doesn’t really matter, she just felt embarrassed that she was ignored by a guy. However, a more interesting thing we find out is that she’s been going crazy and overanalyzing every single instance her and Stefan make eye contact. And you might think, what’s so interesting about that? Nothing really, I just relate to it, that was absolutely me at 16 and I find it funny. This guy rejected her so many times, but when her friends tell her to move on she acts like they betrayed her.

Also, I quit watching TVD after about 6 or 7 seasons and I don’t really remember the lore on doppelgangers, but as far as I remember the girls were identical. In the books however, Elena and Katherine have slight differences in their physical looks. Elena’s hair was a shade or two paler than Katherine’s, and her eyebrows and lashes were darker. Katherine’s had been almost silvery. And she was taller than Katherine by a good handspan. So are they doppelgangers or does Elena just resemble her? Were the TV show versions of them supposed to be different, but we never noticed a difference because they were both played by Nina Dobreva? Or am I, once again, overanalyzing a book that wasn’t meant to be overanalyzed.

Alright, back to the plot. So, Caroline took Stefan to the Homecoming dance and, obviously, had to rub it in Elena’s face. Elena tried distracting herself by partying, dancing and flirting with anyone and everyone.

She ended up joining Tyler and his friends (Vickie and Dick), ditching Bonnie and Meredith, and the four of them went to the abandoned church in the cemetery, They tried opening a tomb but couldn’t. Elena leaned against it, it opened and she almost fell in. But when she turned around the slab was back in its place and no one believed her. She asked Tyler to take her back to the school dance. He said sure, but he wants to show her something first. He tries to rape her, I’m gonna skip that bit, and Stefan comes to her rescue. He offers to drive her home. She asks him why he hates her and he says he doesn't, she just reminds her of someone he knew, someone who passed away. They kiss and start dating.

The next morning she tells him she loves him. Average high school relationship.

One of my personal favorite quotes from this book: After a week of being with Stefan, she still felt a thrill of excitement just saying his name. Love how she’s saying “still” as if they’ve been married for over three decades. Yeah of course you’re gonna be excited, you literally just met him. On the bright side, Elena does feel like a teenager. I’ve definitely had high school boyfriends who dropped the L bomb after less than a week of being together.

About 62% into the book we see Damon for the first time. We’re not told it’s Damon, but it’s pretty obvious. Elena, Bonnie and Meredith were in the school gym after classes, making decorations for the Halloween party when the lights suddenly went out. Bonnie and Meredith left the gym to go look for the janitor and Elena was left alone. Then a man appears and starts saying some mysterious, kinda cringy shit. He leans in to kiss her, but she just turns around and says she has to leave and that he should go and look for whoever he’s looking for. He says some cringy shit like Ooh I already have, Elena and disappears.

During the Halloween party the history teacher gets murdered, his throat ripped out. I think this happened in the show as well, but I can’t remember. Although, I vaguely remember Elena dressing up as a nurse, covered in fake blood? In the books she wore a custom made dress inspired by a dress from the Renaissance period. Venetian silk. Just like Katherine used to. Anyway the teacher is dead and everyone thinks Stefan must be the killer because he was the last person to see him alive. They also bickered in class which is apparently a motive for murder according to the students. Tyler in particular. I can’t help but notice both him and his father would make fantastic detectives. Tyler was also in a werewolf costume, a bit on the nose isn’t it, L. J. Smith?

Elena runs after Stefan, finding him on a roof with blood smeared on his face and a dead dove in his hands. Understandably, she freaks out and falls off the building. Stefan saves her and she asks him to talk to her.

Through a flashback we learn that Damon and Stefan were both in love with Katherine and told her she has to choose. She says she will. Later that night she sneaks into each of their rooms making them think she chose them. They both drink her blood. Finally she admits she wants to be with the both of them. To no one’s surprise neither Stefan nor Damon want to be in a throuple with their brother. And Katherine runs away, sobbing. The audacity. I suppose she’s just as manipulative as the Katherine from the show.

The chapter ends with Stefan saying he and Damon killed her. Again, to no one’s surprise they didn’t actually kill her, Stefan just loves blaming himself for everything.

Katherine decided to take her daylight ring off and let the Sun burn her to ash. The boys fight over her ring and end up stabbing each other to death. So while Stefan does say he killed Katherine with his pride and jealousy, he technically only killed Damon, with a sword. But that was deserved, Damon stabbed him first.

Elena kisses him and holds him as she tells him she loves him. They say they will be together forever. They just need to deal with this whole “angry mob is after Stefan” thing.

Stefan runs into Damon who reveals why he’s here. He came for Elena. We also learn a bit more about vampires from Damon. Human blood and life force make vampires stronger and give them powers. There are certain powers “old powers” that you can only get from drinking from a human until they die. Vampires can also shapeshift into other creatures, mostly animals.

Damon then demonstrates his power, what Stefan could be if he switched to drinking from humans. He threatens him and the chapter ends with Damon drinking Stefan’s blood.

Also I love the fact that Damon thinks that being able to physically overpower another vampire is gonna help him win Elena over. My brother in Christ, have you tried just speaking to women without being creepy.

Elena dreamt that Stefan read her diary and got mad at her over something written in it. She lost her diary. I’m assuming Damon was the one to steal it. I’m guessing he won’t try to just win Elena over, he’s probably gonna try and make Stefan believe she somehow betrayed him?

The next morning Elena goes to school and looks for Stefan, but can’t find him anywhere. She goes to class and asks Meredith if anyone has seen Stefan. Meredith then tells her that Stefan skipped town without telling anyone. Elena of course knows he isn’t guilty and wouldn’t just disappear like that.

So she runs out of the school shouting Damon’s name, and the book ends.

I’m gonna be honest with y’all,,, I really did enjoy reading this. I read it in one sitting. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been craving something silly and fun or what. Sure I had my issues with it, but at this point my standards for books are “No annoying alpha-male, overprotective love interests” and the book didn’t have enough romantic scenes for that to happen.

The one thing I really hated was that barely anything happened in this book. It was about 250 pages long, but there were like 3 important scenes and that’s it. At least it got me out of a reading slump so bonus points for that.

There are 13 books in total, if I recall correctly. The first four are all about 200 pages long so I’ll definitely read those, I hope the story will be interesting enough to finish all 13 tho, I hate DNFing books/series.

Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

[coffeeandfaeries]

The Inheritance Games - A book review

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This was the first book I read, not only after a two-month period of no reading but also after reading exclusively bad YA fantasy. So there is a pretty good chance this book isn't as "good" as I think it is. I could very well be biased because I had so much fun reading it.

The story follows a young girl (Don't think they ever give us the exact age and the American schooling system confuses me, but I believe she's 17) called Avery. Avery is technically not an orphan, because her father is alive, but because he's not in her life she might as well be an orphan. The first thing we learn is that her mother loved playing games. Her favorite one being I have a secret, she believed that everyone should have at least one secret at all times. That is, as Avery says until one of her secrets landed her in the hospital. After her mother's death, Avery lived with her sister, Libby, and her sister's abusive boyfriend Drake. Absolutely hate Drake, during one of the first interactions we see between him and Avery he calls her "jailbait". I know it's a difficult position to be in, especially after being basically brainwashed by an abusive, manipulative partner, and I empathize with Libby. However, as an older sister, there is no way in hell I would let a man like that live anywhere near my sister. Alright, back to the plot.

Libby goes to high school, has all As, has a full-time job, and lives in her car. In her spare time, she plays chess at a local park with a homeless man called Harry. This might seem like boring unnecessary information, but trust me, it will be very important later.

One day she gets pulled out of class and asked to go to the principal's office. Apparently, she got a 100 on a test, designed by the teacher to be so difficult that no one can pass it, most definitely not with a 100. She gets mad at them for assuming that she cheated and says she will retake the test right then and there. And she does.

Fast forward a few days later, she gets called to the principal's office again. Once again she passed the test with a 100, but that is no longer relevant because there is someone else in the office who wanted to see her. Here, we're introduced to a man called Grayson Hawthorne. Well, I say man, but he's about a year older than Avery, which makes him either 17 or 16.

What is it with YA novels, and books in general, and young protagonists. Why is every romance novel about teenagers and children. I understand that technically YA books are aimed at 13 to 16-year-olds, but would it kill the authors to at least make the characters legally adults? It feels so weird and uncomfortable reading a romance novel, especially if it has sex scenes when the people involved are 16.

Sorry, back to the book. Grayson then tells her that she's been named in his grandfather's will and will need to be present for the will's reading. I know this isn't exactly relevant to the story yet, but Grayson gives me major Redditor vibes. He's not unlikeable, don't get me wrong, but he sounds like a kid who just stumbled upon a thesaurus and is trying really hard to sound smart. And we know that's not because the author didn't know how to make an actual smart character because Grayson gets made fun of for it by other characters.

Naturally, this freaks Avery out completely. Even if she doesn't get a lot of money, anything would help her now since she is, you know, living in her car. But money aside, she is very confused as to why a random man she has never met would even include her in his will. She assumes it had something to do with her mother, especially since that woman was full of secrets.

Obviously, she gets on that plane and heads to Texas. We find out that the man who has passed away, Tobias Hawthorne, who I will be referring to as either Tobias or Grandpa from now on, was not only rich but the 9th richest person in the world and the richest person in the state of Texas. His net worth was $46,200,000,000. 46.2 billion dollars. Man, when is it my turn to be included in a billionaire's will :/

I keep going off on a tangent, my bad. So she gets to this enormous house, the Hawthorne House, which is so big they might as well start calling it a castle. Here she meets Alise, the lawyer, Zara and Skye Tobias' daughters, and Tobias' four grandsons — Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander. (I can't imagine Nash as anyone other than Nash Grier, which is so funny considering that this Nash is supposed to have a heavy southern, Texan accent)

Nash is the oldest brother, he's a cowboy nomad. Never stays in one place for a long time. He's a sweetheart who's always ready to help and protect, but that's because he has a serious savior complex. I wouldn't say he believes the world would stop spinning if it weren't for him, but he can sometimes treat people as projects, which can be very dehumanizing. Another thing we find out, Nash and Alise used to be engaged.

Grayson is the second oldest brother. A major pain in the ass. Doesn't trust anyone and like all rich kids, believes the world revolves around him. He walks around as the human embodiment of the "Uhm, well actually 🤓☝️" meme. He thinks he's the smartest person in the room at all times. Because we don't get to see him all that much he doesn't really develop as a character, but there are two more books in this trilogy so he might get more "screen time" later.

Jameson. He's uh special. Definitely my favorite, but oh boy. So damaged. He's the same age as Avery. The troublemaker of the family. His mother said, and I quote:

We'd look away for a second, he'd disappear into the walls. And every time we found him, I'd pick him up and cuddle him tight and know, to the depths of my soul, that all he wanted was to get lost again.

He hid behind this jokester, clown persona. To him, everything was a game. Nothing was meant to be taken seriously. But, this is so obviously just a front. Yes, he is immature and competitive, but it's not all he cares about. The boys have an emotionally neglectful and absent mother, they never knew who their fathers are, and on top of that, both Jameson and Grayson watched a girl they loved die. They obviously both need therapy.

Finally, we have Xander. The youngest of the four brothers. We don't get to see him very often in this book, but the next one will focus heavily on Xander. He's very similar to Jameson in the sense that he too treats life like it's a game. The main difference between him and Jameson is that he acts way more childish despite being the more mature brother. There were a few moments where I felt like the character was supposed to be 6, not 15/16, but in an endearing way. For example, when Avery asked him why he doesn't hate her he replied:

If you notice, I have kept the blueberry confections for myself and gave you, he shuddered, the lemon-flavored scones. Such is the depth of my loathing for you personally and on principle.

He later goes on to say that he has no reason to hate her since none of this was her fault.

Nash never cared about the inheritance or the "game", Grayson was mad at Avery and believed she had somehow manipulated Tobias, Jameson wanted to win, and Xander pretended to play along. Later we learn that Xander knew a lot more than he initially let on.

After the reading of the will, the five of them got letters from Tobias. Nash, Grayson, and Jameson all got the exact same letter.

Better the devil you know than the one you don't—or is it?

Power corrupts.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

All that glitters is not gold.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes.

There but for the grace of God go I. Don't judge.

— Tobias Tattersall Hawthorne

But Avery's letter just said I'm sorry. The first time we got to see her letter, what I assumed that meant was that he is sorry for dragging her into this mess. It felt like she was just a means to an end. But Avery thought he left her the inheritance as an apology. She believed it just had to have something to do with her mother and one of her many secrets.

Jameson and Avery end up working together to solve this riddle. Quickly they realize that every sentence in the letters the boys received is a proverb. Except for Don't judge. Which they then realize is the first half of Don't judge a book by its cover

They search Tobias' libraries until they find a book whose cover doesn't match the book. Which just happens to be Faustus. The devil. It was never clarified if the Proverbs were referencing the book or if that was just a coincidence. This book made me question every single little thing. Every time they found something or said anything I was wondering if it had a second, hidden meaning that might help us solve the riddle.

As they're searching for clues and deciphering the riddles, we get to see the subplots. Libby went home to get their stuff and was assaulted by Drake, she then broke up with him and Alise (the attorney) filed for a restraining order in Libby's name.

Avery starts going to this private school that Jameson and Xander attend. Thankfully, we didn't get a bullying side plot since most of the kids in the school just ignored Avery. She could tell they were staring at her and they whispered sometimes, but none of them were mean to her. Except for Thea. Thea is the daughter of Zara's second husband. So not exactly related to the Hawthornes, but they're technically cousins. She is a sneaky little bitch. She walks up to Avery on her first day of school and tries to scare her away, under the guise of helping her. She then tells Avery to be careful because the last time a girl spent a lot of time in the Hawthorne House she died.

Skye, the mother of the four boys, was acting weird and suspicious. She made a couple of passive-aggressive remarks, and I believe this is the second time we hear about a girl called Emily. (I think this is the second time? She doesn't know much about Emily, all she knows is that she was involved with the brothers in some way and that she had died) Skye tells Avery that Jameson is special, but to not believe that she is in any way special to him. That both she and Emily were just an escape for him, just a game.

Okay, enough of that let's get back to the mystery. Jameson, Grayson, and Avery realized that the next clue is in the Red Will. Which is just a copy of the will written in red ink. They use some kind of rolling paper to find hidden text on the will. The words that show up are Westbrook. Davenport. Winchester. Blackwood. Which happen to be the middle names of the Hawthornes.

Skye tells them that those aren't the last names of their fathers and that she doesn't know what they mean because Tobias had chosen them.

Jameson and Avery (separately) were the first to find out that those aren't just their middle names, but after the locations surrounding the property i.e. The Black Wood - Blackwood; a brook, on the west side of the property - Westbrook.

They searched Westbrook first I believe, on the bridge they found a number, 8. Jameson and Avery talk, and Jameson tells her that he watched Emily die. Some time later they searched The Black Wood. Unfortunately, before they found anything someone tried to shoot them. They missed and shot one of the trees, but the debris hit Avery and she had a chunk of wood stuck in her, just below her collarbone.

They take her to the house of one of the families that work for the Hawthornes. There we learn that Rebecca, a girl Avery goes to school with, is the granddaughter of the help. And also Emily's sister.

Jameson helps Avery clean herself up and they kiss. He then breaks the kiss to talk about the "game" and, understandably, Avery gets mad at him and he leaves. As she was leaving the bathroom she runs into Rebecca and they chat. She asks about Emily and finds out she had some kind of heart disease. But also that Emily liked both Grayson and Jameson and didn't want to choose between them. The boys treated it like a game and apparently cared more about winning than they did about Emily. She then asks how she dies and all that Rebecca says is that Grayson told her it was her heart.

So now two brothers were in some way involved in Emily's death. We already know they were also both dating her. Honestly Queen shit, she had two hot guys wrapped around her finger. I assumed that they believed that her death was their fault because she did something stupid and they didn't/couldn't stop her. I was pretty sure neither of them has murdered her. I was just hoping she didn't commit suicide.

Eventually, they find out it was Drake who tried to kill Avery. Imagine shooting twice and managing to miss both times. This dude is a loser, can't do anything right. They arrest him, but he's trying to frame Libby and claim it was her idea. The authorities investigate and come to the conclusion that he's full of shit.

During some kind of charity event Avery and Xander hang out alone and he tells her that he used to date Thea. After she's like ew she's your cousin, he explains that they were fake dating. Thea used to be best friends with Emily but had a crush on Rebecca. Emily was against them dating, because she was jealous and wanted to be both Thea and Rebecca's favorite. (rip but Emily sounds like a spoiled brat) Xander also tells her that Emily found out about Thea and Rebecca, and had Jameson break up with her on the same night. The night she died.

Xander then tells her that Grayson and Jameson will be waiting for her in a helicopter if she wants to join them in the search for the last number, so far they have 8, 1, 1.

She joins them and they learn that the last number is 0. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what the correct combination is, Avery excitedly says that it has to be 18. 10. 18th of October—her birthday. The boys get mad and say that can't be the right answer because that isn't just her birthday, it's also the day Emily died.

So far, it seems like Emily's death is a big part of the riddle. Grayson and Jameson both believe that this entire thing is their fault. Obviously, it was all about them. How they should've chosen family over a girl, if they had none of this would've happened. Avery, however, disagrees, she believes it has to be a coincidence. A few chapters ago we found out that Tobias lost his son, Toby, and hasn't been the same since. 20 years have passed since Toby's death, and it was right after it that Tobias changed the will and decided to plan this game. So there is no way this had anything to do with Emily, she wasn't even born yet at that point. But Jameson and Grayson won't listen to her, they're done playing.

Avery doesn't give up, she continues searching for clues. Soon she realizes that 1810 is everywhere around the house. This part was a bit confusing, but there was some sort of safe behind Tobias' portrait, and when she typed the password in, it opened and there was a glass pane inside with a poem engraved in it.

Top of the clock

Meet me at high

Tell the late day hello

Wish the morning good-bye

A twist and a flip

What do you see?

Take them two at a time

And come find me

Since Jameson and Grayson didn't want to speak to her, let alone help her she had to figure this one by herself. Thankfully, Xander came to help her. He took her to the Great Room. She rotated one of the glass panes of a glass window and exactly at noon, it showed them which floorboard they had to remove. The secret passage took them to the tunnel. Xander and Avery went down the stairs into the tunnel, after a few minutes of searching they find a big door, in order to go through however, they needed to unlock it and the "key" was Avery's face (facial recognition), unfortunately in order to go through the second door they needed handprints. Of all four brothers.

Xander goes back to get his brothers and Avery stays behind. Rebecca then shows up and starts rambling. This girl is obviously mentally ill and needs help. I can't even be mad at her it's just so sad. She keeps going on and on about how she never does anything that Emily wouldn't want her to. Then apologized and said she had to do "it" because that's what Emily would've wanted. She had to do it because Emily would've hated Avery. Obviously, Avery gets scared thinking Rebecca might try to kill her. However, Rebecca then says that she knows she should've told the authorities it was Skye who sent Drake to kill Avery. At that moment Grayson, Nash, and Xander show up. Grayson says he will handle it. They then wait for Jameson who finally shows up like 30 minutes later.

They unlock the door and all there is in the room is a box with Avery's full name on it. They realize it's an anagram for a very risky gamble. She opens the box and inside is a package of sugar.

We see a flashback of little Avery stacking packets of sugar. An older man asks her what her name is and if she can spell out her full name. (In an endearing, did you learn to write way, and not in an interrogative way) She says yes and does it.

Avery realizes that the old man was Tobias Hawthorne. Then it hits her, she was nothing but a cute little girl with a silly little name. She wasn't special, there was no secret reason she inherited the money. Tobias left her the inheritance, and all he has left to his grandsons is her.

In the Epilogue, we find out that Xander's letter was different from the ones his brothers got. His letter just says:

Alexander, Well done. Tobias Hawthorne

Before Tobias passed he told him he needs to make sure his brothers play. And when their game is done, yours will begin.

He placed the paper in water, and around the signature words appeared. Spelling out Find Tobias Hawthorne II

We then see Avery and Nan, Tobias' mother-in-law, listening to the piano and talking. Nan shows her a photograph of a man and says that was Toby. Avery's heart sinks to her stomach when she realizes she knows him. Toby was Harry, the homeless man she played chess with.

And the book ends there.

The book was an emotional rollercoaster. I'm still not sure if Avery actually was being used to bring Jameson and Grayson together and help them forgive one another, or if there's more to this story. I feel like with Tobias there are no coincidences. However, I may just be overthinking. At one point I was questioning everything and I'm glad none of my family members heard me yell out "Oh God what if Tobias and Toby are the same person. Maybe he's his own father?". So yeah, definitely overthinking a bit.

Avery has mentioned her mother has a secret about the day Avery was born. So there is no way this is the entire story, especially since there are two more books. Fingers crossed that we won't find out Avery is related to them. I actually would love to see some romance and that wouldn't be exactly possible if they were cousins or god forbid siblings.

Personally, I don't think Jameson and Grayson should be dating anyone, it's clear they're not over Emily. After all, it's only been a year since she died. But they're also still blaming themselves for her death.

Oh shit, I just realized I forgot to say what happened to her. So basically Jameson broke up with her, she ran over to Grayson and told him she wants to go cliff diving. Grayson hesitates but doesn't stop her. They jump and he goes to get towels. While he's gone, Jameson shows up. Emily smirks at him and he turns around to leave. She grabs her chest and falls down to her knees. Thinking she's teasing him, he turns around and walks away. But when Grayson comes back with the towels he finds her dead on the beach. Her heart gave out and she died.

This review is just all over the place, damnit.

I really love this book, I can't wait to finish the trilogy. Although I kinda do like the idea that perhaps Avery was just chosen randomly and there's nothing more to it, it just feels too simple. But as Occam's razor states, the simplest answer is most often the correct one.

Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤

[coffeeandfaeries]

Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae/The Reckoning - A book review

C. Peckham and S. Valenti

I’m gonna be honest, I’m liking this series less and less with each book. My memory is a bit fuzzy and I barely remember what happened in this one. I remember that in this book they finally took those mid-term exams, the so-called “Reckoning”. The thing that actually bothers me the most is that they definitely will get together with one of the heirs and the professor. Okay, I kinda do like the professor. I'll be honest and I think that he and Darcy are cute together. Not exactly a healthy relationship, but it’s fiction so I’ll let it slide.

Okay so I know I should’ve expected it because it’s a bully romance, but in my defense, I didn’t see that before I started reading the series. It’s kinda obvious that Darcy will end up with Orion and Tori will end up with Darius. At first I was like hell yeah they’re gonna kill the Heirs and take over the throne, but uhh that ain’t happening apparently.

Tori and Darius have a weird ass relationship, one moment they are torturing each other. He made her believe he was gonna kill her and she set his room on fire and stole his stuff. They keep fighting and undermining each other, and then all of a sudden he takes care of her when she gets drunk and blacks out.

He was sweet in that one chapter, I’ll give him that. But honestly, their relationship makes no sense to me at all. I don’t see why they should trust each other, and how are you supposed to date someone you can’t trust?

Either in this book, or the next one we learn about soulmates, and apparently every Fae has one, but it’s up to them to decide if they will be with their soulmate. If they decide they want each other they will not be able to stay away from each other, but if they decide against it, they will not be able to try again no matter how hard they try. I’m guessing that Darius and Orion are supposed to be their soulmates.

The writers kinda forgot to give the other male characters any personality so I’m pretty sure my guess is correct. On top of that Darius’ father has put some kind of spell on Orion and Darius that bonds them. Because of that bond, Orion can feel Darius’ pain and feels the need to protect him. Definitely hasn’t been done so that the four of them have a reason to be together without the other three heirs.

Max, Seth, and Caleb are once again almost completely forgotten. Caleb and Tori are having regular sex and Seth accidentally made Darcy his omega, so they get a bit of attention every now and then, but Max is so irrelevant they might as well kill him off. This time we got to see the story from Caleb’s POV a couple of times, but the only thing he thinks about is Tori, so it’s not like we learned anything about him anyway.

I have just realized that I have no idea what happened in Book 2 and what happened in Book 3, so I’m gonna make this the review about both of the books oh God.

So, not only is Tori regularly screwing Caleb, but Darcy has also decided to make the relationship with Orion official, obviously this is a secret. And while they’re fucking their literal enemies who want them dead, they’re also pulling harmless pranks as if that’s gonna scare the Heirs into submission. Yeah, you sure showed them when you spread the rumor that Caleb likes Pegasuses, gave Seth flies, and put griffin shit in Max’s suit. Technically I suppose you set Darius’ room on fire and made him doubt all his friendships, humiliated Caleb, ruined Seth’s reputation and drove his pack away, and made Max lose the game of whatever your magical sport is called, but all of that is so irrelevant, and most importantly TEMPORARY.

Thankfully, by the end of the second book the girls FINALLY got a hang of their powers and blasted the nymphs with some badass blue fire, scaring the heirs in the process, and passed the Reckoning proving their worth.

Now by the end of book 3, the girls, Darius and Orion get kidnapped by Mr Acrux (Darius’ dad) who uses the twins to summon the fifth element, which is (I think) darkness. While he did this the girls' Order emerged, and they were phoenixes. A rare order that was extinct for over a thousand years, making them unbelievably powerful since no fire (including dragon fire) can harm them, but they can easily kill dragons with their own fire, which is the only fire that can harm a dragon. (of course, they’re stronger than their enemy, how shocking)

Now this gives Darius, Orion, and the twins a reason to work together, since they now have a common enemy - Mr Acrux. Very predictable, yeah I know, but honestly I didn’t expect much from the book series that markets itself as “Hogwarts if Voldemort was the headmaster” and calls itself a “bully romance”. I wasn’t expecting a literary masterpiece. It’s entertaining, funny, and sexy. If I want something profound I’ll read classic literature.

Rating : ⛤⛤

[coffeeandfaeries]

Zodiac Academy: The Awakening - A book review

C. Peckham and S. Valenti

The first chapter started off fairly strong. We were immediately introduced to the main characters, their personalities, and their backgrounds. After the first chapter, which was from Darcy's POV we got to see the world from Tory's perspective.

It didn't take too long before we were introduced to Professor Orion, who is just an absolute piece of shit. The girls are taken to the academy and, of course, we find out they're insanely powerful. Thankfully, they don't know how to use magic, which puts them at the bottom of the food chain, literally. They're both food sources for two different vampires. At this academy, they find out that after the death of their parents (because, of course, they come from a royal family) four families took over, and their sons attend the aforementioned schools.

The twins don't want the throne, but the Heirs (Darius, Caleb, Seth, and Max) are continuing to torment them in hopes that the twins will give up and return to the mortal realm. They make two friends, but everyone else treats them like shit, including the teachers. At one point the Heirs try to gain their trust, and for some reason, the girls fall for it (MULTIPLE TIMES). Darius is probably the worst and is trying to murder (and for some reason have sex with) them. Caleb doesn't seem to care about the throne and it seems more like he's just pretending because that's what is expected of him (Or perhaps the authors forgot to give him a personality and hoped his good looks would make up for it). The other two heirs are honestly irrelevant. Finally, Orion is a dick, but for some reason, he seems like he's nicer than he seems, almost as if he's pretending to be an asshole. (Poorly written foreshadowing I guess?)

The book shows only the first couple of weeks of the semester, if I recall correctly after 3 months there's some Fae equivalent of midterms, to determine whether you're good enough to stay at the academy, but the book ends before that happened.

The Heirs are dicks and the girls don't trust them, but throughout the book, we can see them struggle because whenever the guys are "nice" to them they want to give them a second chance.

They make a deal on their day off, agreeing not to torment them so they can all relax for a night. Then someone get's attacked (a random female character) and both Darius and Orion disappear. During one of their classes with Orion, Darcy gets him assigned as some sort of mentor and he later claims her as a source. Darcy hates him and is mad at herself for being attracted to him.

The book describes classes as the girls try to learn to control their power and discover their Order. Finally, the girls realized they're left to their own devices and that no one is gonna protect them. They want the boys (Caleb and Orion in particular) but they know better (sometimes). I'm pretty sure they will be getting redemption arcs because so far they haven't treated them as poorly as Darius has. The girls unfortunately let their guards down around Max, who used his siren powers to learn about their greatest fears.

The book ends in a horrifying scene. During the school dance the twins get separated. Darcy is seduced by Seth who cuts her hair off and Darius and Max try to drown Tory. Orion saves her and punishes the boys. That's when they hear people scream and find out a professor has been murdered. The professor who dies was trying to help the twins throughout the book by sending them anonymous messages through "Faebook".

The writing is very juvenile, it sounds like a teenager just speaking, and there's no artistry. But as far as I can tell that was kind of on purpose. I don't mind it, it actually makes the book slightly easier to read. I kept my expectations pretty low so it was enjoyable. Sure, the plot is pretty basic and unoriginal, but it's entertaining nonetheless. The only thing I really hated were the detailed descriptions of the humiliation and harassment the Vega twins endured. In the authors' defense, I didn't read the description or tags so I had no idea this was tagged as "Dark fantasy bully romance" so that's on me.

Rating: ⛤⛤