Source LJ Smith Wiki-fandom

When I was a teenager I started reading L.J. Smith’s Vampire Diaries. I absolutely fell in love with them. I had been reading books such as Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High. When I picked up the Vampire Diaries, it was darker and grittier. It was a complete surprise to me when I saw that L.J. Smith had written more books. I was absolutely stoked. It was the same darkness as the Vampire Diaries but about witches. When it became a show around the same time as the Vampire Diaries I was stoked but apprehensive. The people who put out the TV series The Vampire Diaries was putting on The Secret Circle so wondered if they were going to mess this up too.

Of course they did. Again they left out characters and altered some of the appearances of others. This time even names were changed. In this series (TV) they didn’t even touch on the books. For some reason the show was a flop whereas The Vampire Diaries took off. It even gave birth to a spin off which produced a spin off. Go figure.

So I didn’t know until writing this article that there are three more books in the series. I had actually thought it was just a trilogy. The original three books were all published in 1992. The original books are The Initiation, The Captive and The Power. The last three books were published in 2012 and 2013, after the show had premiered. These books are titled The Divide, The Hunt and The Temptation. These three were written by Aubrey Clark but published under the name L.J. Smith.

Source BookFrom.Net

The books had the original characters as follows- Cassie Blake, Adam Conant, Diana Meade, Faye Chamberlain, Nick Armstrong, Melanie Glaser, Chris and Doug Henderson, Suzan Whittier, Deborah Armstrong, Laurel Quincey and Sean Dulany. In the TV series there is only Cassie, Adam, Nick, Faye and they changed Melanie to Melissa. Everyone else was not included. In the book they needed 12 people to complete then coven. In the TV series it was more like they were solitary practitioners who all stuck together. Portia from the books was also taken out and she was the first witch hunter that Cassie came in contact with and would be the bane of her existence in the books.

In the books, the story takes place in New Salem in New England. The TV series takes place in Chance Harbor Washington. Even the parents names were changed and I don’t recall seeing the grandparents in the show. The grandparents and parents weren’t a huge part of the trilogy except Cassie’s grandmother, but they were definitely part of it.

In both the books and the show, they had to defend against the witch hunters. They way the witch hunters was drastically changed. Even the opening scene where Cassie meets Adam initially is not even there. The witch hunters in the show are very militant. The witch hunters in the books are much more old school, like burning at the stake old school.

Source Rashid Darden

As I have pointed out there are some major differences between the show and the books. For that reason, I couldn’t stand the show. I will continue to read the original books. I may read the second half of the series. I will be re-reading the first three books (such a hardship) and reviewing them for you. Are you interested in me reading and reviewing the second three books? Let me know in the comments below. Til next week…