I spent a summer in Long Island and during this summer, I came upon this series in a library in 1998-1999.
I began reading and became mesmerized by Stefan Salvatore dark past and how it would effect Elena. I couldn't stop reading and within two days, I was back at the library borrowing the second book.
These books were hard to come by around those times because they were mainly out of print.
Having read the Vampire Diaries as a child, I couldn't help but notice so many similarities that it had to Stephanie Meyer's trilogy. I decided never to read the twilight series because my sister told me all about it and I thought it was a knock off of LJ Smith's Vampire Diaries.
It's sad that the Twilight series rose to fame so rapidly within the short period of time that it had been released, while LJ Smith had to wait around 20 years for her Vampire Diaries to be known.
I really enjoyed reading the books....and it brings back a lot of childhood memories.
I don't really like that the series has turn into a TV show, which has completely changed the story line. Sometimes it's better for books to remain books so we, the readers, can perceive them the way that we had always imagined them to be as a child.
