Nostalgia Lane: L.J. Smith’s YA Vampires

I don’t know how or where, but I’m going to find some insanely tall roof to whoop and holler HALLELUJAH off of!

On second thought, I’ll just do it here…safer that way.

I’ve been trying to find this series again for a long time. I originally read these young adult vampire books in the seventh grade. I do believe that I owe them for my paranormal roots, the Pandora’s box so to speak that got me jonesing off and on the next several years for anything that went bump in the romantic night. These were long before I read mainstream romances and, in and of themselves, they are not romances. There’s a love triangle, but these are classic, angsty and ancient vamps feuding over the attentions of one lovely young woman. Very young. High school young. You know, Bella of Twilight young. Ok, so they’re young adult romances.

And HOT DAMN I found them again!

To make it all blissfully brilliant, they’ve been reissued in two, two-book volumes. I say yes, please-gimme-right-now, even though I’d hoped for the original covers. I loved those for their campy, eighties/early nineties design and if I can find them online, all together I will probably purchase those, too, for old times sakes. I dunno though, the longer I look at these new covers, the more I like!

The books are ordered thusly:

The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury and Dark Reunion. Here are some blurbs, via the author’s website (I’ve whited out some parts that are a bit spoilerish for those that have not read these, highlight to read if you wish):

The Vampire Diaries, Volume I: The Awakening, HarperPaperbacks, 1991
The most haunting love triangle of all. Two vampire brothers, one good and one evil, are in love with the same beautiful girl. Stefan meets Elena, and falls for her instantly. But he swears never to approach her because of his dark secret. On the other hand, Elena has sworn to make Stefan hers or die.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume II: The Struggle, HarperPaperbacks, 1991
Damon is haunting Elena’s footsteps; coaxing and coercing her by turns. Stefan desperately tries to protect her from his brother. And Elena is having her blood drawn by two separate vampires. Meanwhile Caroline plots to expose Elena in front of the entire town. Can things get worse? They do, when Elena drives too fast over an unsafe bridge and drowns.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume III: The Fury, HarperPaperbacks, 1991
It’s happened. Elena wakens as a vampire. She belongs to Damon, now, and to his world. The town mourns her as dead while she haunts the Old Wood by night. But by the time she remembers that Stefan is her true love, a new and powerful enemy appears. This is the last battle; and the only way Elena can win it is to sacrifice herself.

The Vampire Diaries, Volume IV: Dark Reunion, HarperPaperbacks, 1991
As a psychic, Bonnie has dreams of Elena in the Other World. But the dreams quickly turn frightening. There is a terrible new enemy stalking Fell’s Church, killing young girls. Elena’s friends call for Stefan and get both him and Damon—but whose side is Damon on? The ending is the most surprising yet for Elena!

I get so damn giddy sometimes when looking back on past reads and this series is no exception. To make it all even foaming-at-the-mouth giddier, there’s to be a fifth installment published “soonish” according to the author and it’s all about Damon this time.

Has anyone else read this series? If so, what did you think of it? Can you remember waaayy back to the first book in your adolescent years that got you hooked on reading a certain genre or on reading in general?