This was so much better than I expected it to be! I read it in one sitting! I love the TV show but, Stefan is so much cooler in this than in the show. I wasn't a huge Stefan fan, but in the book he is just as awesomely romantic and smoldering as so many other YA vampires. The scenes, the plot, the twists - they were all very carefully put together. Elena's love choices are opening up, letting us wonder which brother she might choose. Making us choose sides (team Damon here!). This battle between the love and hate of the two brothers definitely seems interesting. I have to admit that the only reason why I bought the vampire diaries novels in the first place, is because I was hooked on the television series. Little did I know that the novels themselves would be rather disappointing. Stefan ignores Elena, the two barely say anything to each other, but once Stefan saves Elena on Halloween (after he snubbed her at the dance) she tells him she loves him. The two start "dating" and sharing blood (the equivalent of sex for these books) and by Thanksgiving Stefan proposes and they're engaged!!! Ok, read that again, it's not even been a month, she's in high school, and they're engaged?? What the crap???

Now, I can finally talk about the last couple of chapters. Yes, the scene where Elena drives her car of the bridge (accidently of course). Damon was pretty much evil. Not in a sexy and cool way, just plain evil. His relationship with Stefan is MUCH, MUCH worse than in the show. There had been too much fear, too many blows tonight. She could react no longer. She could only stare up at him with a kind of wonder." / "He laughed shortly, without humor, and saw her flinch. It made him hate himself more."

Some people have read it and compared it to Twilight, but I have to say that these books are NOTHING like Twilight except for the part where she's human and the brothers aren't. But that's about it. Damon is the only character that comes into play that I can understand. He was the one who lurked from afar and didn't try to disguise his obsession with love. His was purely lust. I think this is the first time I have ever rooted for the bad guy to get the girl. I want Elena to be with Damon, Stefan just isn't doing it for me I guess. Elena is your typical beautiful popular girl. Everyone kept referring to her as the "ice princess" but I never really saw it. She's mostly selfish, childish, and only is interested in Stefan because he's new, hot and she gets whatever she wants. (She even has a boyfriend in the beginning of the book, but dumps him because "it doesn't feel right" and Stefan is hot) We're supposed to feel sorry for her because her parents died a few years earlier, but that never really seems important, except to give Elena a reason to say "you're not my mother" to her aunt towards the end of book two. She also for some reason spent the summer in Paris, but that's really never explained-I guess it's there to make her seem rich and snotty?? Maybe she gets better by the second book, but she's pretty annoying throughout. She also never tells her friends anything so half the time they have no true reason for being there, other than to prove Elena is popular.

I do believe that there were some good points about this book. For instance, I thought that the storyline, once stripped off all the schoolgirl gossips, petty scheming and stupidity was actually pretty descent. I thought the storyline was quiet original, especially considering the time frame when this book was written. The only downside with the storyline is that in The Awakening, L.J. Smith was still focusing too much on the high school part of the series, with teenage girl bitch fights and gossip, and she only seemed to realize she was actually writing a paranormal romance story at the beginning of The Struggle. So, in all honesty, The Struggle is a far better book than The Awakening. Caroline is awful in the book as well. I adore her on the show, so it is just too weird for her to be so terrible. I don't know why this took me a month to read, it didn't feel that long, I guess it was because of classes...but I really enjoyed these 2 books! I'm familiar with the characters and the general storyline (Atleast from book 1) from watching a little of the show, but it's so different in the book omg. So I've read the first one "The Awakening and The Struggle" and I have to say that I was kind of disappointed.

Particularly in the first novel, "The Awakening", I found the main character - Elena - to be selfish, spoiled, and revolting. Perhaps it's because the popular, pretty girl foil is simply something that I can't related to, or perhaps it's because the idea of making my friends swear in blood that they won't stop until they 'get me' a boy is totally and completely absurd. and if you know who Paul Denton is I’ll freaking marry you (apologies in advance for providing my current spouse with any unwanted brother-husbands). In this book it's really the first time we get to hear about this 'other power' (which again is assumed to be Damon). A lot of us will have started piecing things together (as you do when you're the reader with more information [and all the POV's] than the characters) and I started to realise all is not as it first appeared.

If I had been rating only "The Awakening", I probably would have given it a 2 star review. I did not enjoy it. There was so much story building and the character were no likeable at all. I found myself taking a while to finish this, I don't know why. I assumed I would be heavily engaged with this read. I did like it, just, I don't even know. I gave this four stars because, well, I like the characters, so I may be bias, I just don't know how I feel about the story in this book. I loved reading this - it was an amazing experience and it reminded me of my high-school days, of those innocent happy memories. My teenage life didn't include vampires, but hey - it was still awesome! Well, short answer, no, he hasn't... Directly. I feel really sorry for Stefan in this book because Damon is the one (or the one suspected) behind everything. Stefan doesn't know this so he's slowly getting weaker because of his guilt. Okay, you ignored my advice and are going to read them anyway? That’s cool. Read them while lounging at the pool (preferably with some sort of rum drink in hand to counteract the awful you are about to experience);

Third, idk I just think watching the show first ruined the books because characters I liked from the show didn’t exist in the books and characters I liked in the books didn’t exist in the shows. I had posted this as a two but am changing it to a one .....muahaha... because I am not as nice as I used to be! Stefan, I had to come--' she began, and broke off short, because a flash of lightning lit the sky just as the figure in the corner whirled around. And then it was as if every foreboding and fear and nightmare she'd ever had were coming true all at once. It was beyond screaming at; it was beyond anything." I recently noticed the Vampire Diaries books sitting on my shelf, forgotten, and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to read it in October, because of the whole spooky vibe. So there it is now - even thought the wheel didn't choose it, I did, because it deserved the attention! L J Smith (creator of The Vampire Diaries books) Fired From Writing the Rest of the Series" . Retrieved April 27, 2013.