Vampire Diaries Complete Collection

by L.J. Smith

The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire, romance and horror series of novels created and written by L. J. Smith. The story centers on Elena Gilbert, a young, beautiful high school girl who finds herself eventually torn between two Italian brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore, who are centuries old vampires.

Genres: Fantasy

4235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Smith was born in Villa Park, Orange County, California. In interviews, she has said she realized she wanted to be a writer sometime between kindergarten and first grade, “when a teacher praised a horrible poem I’d written”, and began writing in earnest in elementary school. Smith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1987, followed by teaching credentials in Elementary education and Special education from San Francisco State University.

She taught kindergarten and special education for several years before becoming a full-time writer. Her first book, The Night of the Solstice, was published by MacMillan in 1987, followed by, Heart of Valor in 1990, and the 4-volume Vampire Diaries series in 1991-2. Three trilogies followed: The Secret Circle (1992), The Forbidden Game (1994), and Dark Visions (1995). The first installment of her popular Night World series was published in 1996, followed by eight more over the next two years. In 1998, Smith began a decade-long hiatus from writing, returning in 2008 with a new Web site and a series of new short stories. The Vampire Diaries series was reissued in 2007, followed by re-printings of The Secret Circle trilogy and Night World series in 2008/2009. The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor was also reissued in 2008. Three new Vampire Diaries installments were published in 2009 and 2010.

Smith lived in the San Francisco Bay area “with one dog, three cats, and about ten thousand books.”

She passed away on March 8th, 2025, after a lengthy illness.

Reviews

[Tay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this series, I watched the show first and read the books right after. While the books and the show adaptation are very different I loved them both!

[K.D. Brinegar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched the series and knew I had to read the books.

They are easier to read, as they are written for a younger reader, but I thoroughly enjoyed the books. I devoured them quickly and loved seeing the story unfold through words.

I am excited to pass these down to my own daughter, as they are clean and the story builds.

[Jeremy Pahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for these types of books 🤣. I'll take any recommendations!

[Rylie Sell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this series because I watched the show and I wanted to compare the two. They are two very different stories, very little to compare.

After reading all 13 books, in my opinion, some I loved and others I was so mad I didn't want to continue. I loved the show so much and all the characters that when they were so different in the books, I was not happy, but I can get past that. Something I really liked was that no matter what book you were reading the author always referenced something that had happened earlier so I could remember. I also really liked that after the 4th book, the story lines were like trilogies in the remaining books. I feel weird though because I learned that L.J. Smith didn't write any books after the 7th book, and that's when I really started liking the story. For the most part the other writers they got for the series did sound like the original, so I don't think I would have noticed if I didnt see who the author was of that particular book. In the end, being such a long series it was good overall.

I have issues with the last couple books because there were so many typos, I just feel like it was lazy editing and they were probably pushing the books out.

I liked the story overall, but I absolutely hated the ending. That REALLY bothers me since I haven't read a book that I didn't like the ending to. In this case the whole series seemed like it was going a certain way and in the end they completely changed it.

Overall it was a pretty good series, the good outweighed the bad. :)

[Marsha M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fifteen year old daughter and I were looking for books to read together this summer. We started with another author I know that had an adult and new adult version set of books, and my friend had suggested Vampire diaries because they were fun and there were a bunch of them. I was hesitant because I had zero interest in the show, and they were way before her time and she assured me that they were much different than the TV series. I am so glad we chose these books. I was able to get the box sets on Amazon for a good price (around $60). They box itself came in a bit damaged (on both) but the books themselves were in good condition so I can’t complain for the price I paid. These books were so much fun to read, and especially together with her. I liked that although they are vampires they dealt with real life teen issues like adolescent drinking, bullying, backstabbing friends, etc.

[Miriam Feuer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read like the first 3 or 4 after watching the show and this series is so strange the stuff going on we’re so weird the first book was fine but after I just didn’t like it I can’t believe I’m saying this but for once the book isn’t better then the show or movie

[Sophie Stapleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good books, sad the characters have different features in books than to the show

[Kaylah · Rating 5 out of 5]

forever a re-read

[Lotje Windels · Rating 2 out of 5]

the first three books were good but after those i started losing interest. i read till the 6th book and then i gave up because it was not getting better.