Review – The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion by L. J. Smith (4/5 stars)

This book is the second Omnibus in the Vampire Diaries series. I have also heard that these are the final two books in the original Vampire Diaries that Smith wrote in the 90’s. This was a satisfying conclusion to the series.

In the first book (the Fury) Elena has been changed into a vampire. As she struggles to deal with her change, strange things are happening in town. Peoples pets are attacking them and darkness threatens to take over. Can Elena get Stefan and Damon to work together to help stop the forces against them. In the second book (Dark Reunion) dark forces are again converging on the town and Elena needs to work with her friends to stop yet another threat to her home.

These books are much more traditional vampire books than the Twilight series; there is also a lot more fighting in these. I am hard-pressed to discuss these books much without given things away. Suffice to say that if you liked the first couple books in the series, these books won’t disappoint. They are non-stop action, with the love triangle between Damon, Stefan, and Elena causing lots of tension. The side characters are well developed too. I enjoyed these books and couldn’t put them down; a very quick read.

Everything is nicely wrapped up at the end of Dark Reunion; I don’t plan on reading the latest book released in this series because I have heard it’s not all the great and not part of the original series. As for reading more of Smith’s work, I probably won’t do that either. Her writing is good, but it is not all that creative and it is typical to a lot of other young adult series that are out there. If you liked House of Night, Evernight, or the Vampire Academy you will probably like this series; this series has more in common with those series than it does with Twilight.