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

From back cover:

My rating: 4 out of 5
Where the book came from: borrowed from a neighbor

"Elena: the golden girl, the leader, the one who can have any boy she wants.

Stefan: brooding and mysterious, he seems to be the only one who can resist Elena, even as he struggles to protect her from the horrors that haunt his past.

Damon: sexy, dangerous, and driven by an urge for revenge against Stefan, the brother who betrayed him. Determined to have Elena, he'd kill to possess her.

Collected here in one volume for the first time, volumes one and two of The Vampire Diaries, the tale of two vampire brothers and the beautiful girl torn between them."

My thoughts:
I finished the second story in the series, "The Struggle" yesterday but didn't have a chance to record any thoughts. I'm not quite sure how to go about doing so without giving spoilers to readers who plan to read the books but haven't read them yet. That said, if you dislike spoilers this is a review to skip.

I can see why these stories would appeal to young adult readers, and high school girls in particular, who are able to consider meeting the man they will spend their life with in high school. Not the most realistic, but a common fantasy. (At this point I feel like I need to mention that I actually did marry my high school boyfriend, but not until after we had broken up and had a bunch of life experiences on our own. We got back together towards the end of college.) Elena seems so dead set on being with Stefan forever even knowing that he is a vampire and his forever is different than hers. She does not seem to entertain thoughts of becoming like him, just marrying him and living happily ever after. I feel pretty confident in my prediction of who is the third power in Fell's Church, but that may be because it was made too obvious. I do have some questions about Stefan's landlady and her behavior.

As I was reading a continued distraction for me is the difference in how the characters are described in the book versus the TV series. It shouldn't matter, but it is distracting. I was caught off guard by the ending without revealing how the story ended.