The Vampire Diaries Series: The Struggle by L.J. Smith

Okay, so I'm getting "my facts straight" and acknowledging the fact that TVD was published BEFORE TWILIGHT. I am well aware of this fact...now that so many have been able to point it out to me! Sorry...sheesh! I'm not a professional blogger by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know that we can have differing opinions on books, movies, and the like without being tacky. My point is that so many books now ARE, INDEED following a "Twilight Formula" and even though TVD was published before Twilight, it is still very similar to the other stuff that is being shoved down teen readers' throats. TVD is okay in my opinion. Not great, but okay. If you love it, then AWESOME! I'm sure I love books (*clears throat*, Sookie Stackhouse Series) that many of you find repulsive or stupid, but that doesn't mean we can't co-exist in the blogging world, now can it?! So now that my "facts are straight", we can move forward in peace! LOL!


My last post on the first book in this series, The Awakening, wasn't one of my most positive reviews to date, and this post over the second novel, The Struggle, may be a smidgen better but not much. Damon takes a bigger role in this novel, but he's still the "evil vampire" and Stefan is the "good vampire." Maybe readers who do not need rhyme or reason as to why Elena is falling for both of them will enjoy this installment, but I for one couldn't get over the fact that no one explained to me that fact. Why if she hated Damon in the first book would she all of the sudden change her preferences in the second? I was confused by the lustful dreams on Elena's part, and the hatred that her former best friend Caroline has for her. I guess this is figured out in the third and fourth books, but I do not have enough endurance to read the others.

The love triangle seems forced, and again I'm blaming the author for trying to follow the Stephenie Meyer vampire formula. (FYI...TVD was published before TWILIGHT! So L.J. Smith is not a copy cat. Everyone else is! lol!) She should patent it or something! For example, while strolling through the teen section at Barnes & Noble, I attempted to count the vampire books on the shelves...I stopped at 23. TWENTY THREE! I know that Twilight is a money making machine, but really, this has to stop at some point, doesn't it? Many of the twenty three that I actually picked up and read the back of followed the same predictable plot line of girl in love with beautiful boy who turns out to be immortal, or a vampire. Either way it is old news in my book. This second installment in the Vampire Diaries is no different, and I'm not even going to bother buying the third or fourth. I'm not sure how long my vampire hiatus will last, but I am officially sick of this realm of literature...don't get me wrong, I will always love the Twilight Saga, but I'm off of the new vampire stuff. Corny. Stupid. Predictable. (My OPINION...FEEL FREE TO HAVE A DIFFERING OPINION!)