The Return: Nightfall (The Vampire Diaries) (Paperback)

Ok, but L.J. Smith has lost some of her magic Having loved and been captivated by books 1-4 of the original series which I recently read (the tv series seriously paling in comparison) I was very excited to read book 5. However, despite the book being a page turner, I can't help but feel that L.J. Smith has lost some of her magic. The storyline and new ideas feel a bit forced, like she's just tried to come up with something for the sake of it, and it gets a touch on the ridiculous side. The baddies don't have any real link to the characters like they did in the earlier books - they're just there to cause havoc apparently. Her writing style doesn't seem as fluid as it used to be either. I did enjoy it in the sense that it kept me reading on, but this book is nowhere near as good as the earlier ones - so I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you're a die hard fan!

Vampire Diaries Vampire Diaries is a decent book but should have been read prior to reading the Twighlight Saga as this was much better. Still an ok read but almost the same sort of story towards the beginning - although it does have some major differences towards the middle of the series.

Can I have my money back please Amazon? After reading Books 1 and 2 I immediately ordered 3 and 4, plus The Return trilogy. I wish I'd stopped at Book 4. What on earth is going on in Nightfall? Why has Elena gone from being perfectly able to speak and recognise her friends, to someone who can't even read, write or speak and needs to snog everyone in order to remember them? Right from the beginning I found the writing hard to read and somewhat jumbled. The storyline is not clear, and the characters are even less defined that in previous books (bearing in mind this was a weak point for the first 4 books). Very poor writing, and has completely ruined the series for me now. My advice would be to not bother with this trilogy. Read Twilight instead, completely different league.

Excellent story! This is a really good book. It was really well written that I could not put it down and finished it in 3 days. I would recommend this to any supernatural romance reader!

Hard Work I am not a huge fan of the Vampire Diaries books, I found them very juvenile with no character development, but liking Damon's character & also loving the Vampire Diaries TV series wanted to read the new book. It was bizarre to say the least - Elena changed from being fine at end of Book 4 to being a child in Book 5. The book was not very visual, even with strecthing my imagination I had a hard time visualising exactly what the author was trying to put across. The characters ran from one disaster to another, appearing slightly dumb as they did so. There was a bizarre chapter in an imaginery house, & young girls acting provocatively which was just stomach churning. Bonnie, Meredith & Matt appear to be saints, who will do anything for their friend who consistently lets them down! Stefan has become this spineless simpering idiot, who with every usage of the phrase 'lovely love' made me gag & close my eyes in horror. It was like a bizarre series of events randomly thrown together. Again no character development which was seriously needed. And people with teenagers should be warned, that I wouldn't suggest anyone under 16 reading this book - which is also interesting because it is not grown up enough for adults, but has too many mature themes for young teens. However people will want to read this book, as it is a continuation of a series that many people are fond of and Damon is still a good character that I find interesting. I guess it is worth a read for fans of the original books, but be warned - it is very strange & bizarre!! The TV series has much better character development & much better storylines, so perhaps best just to watch that.