"The Dark Reunion" by L.J. Smith

My rating: 4 out 4
Where I acquired the book: borrowed from a friend

Synopsis from Amazon.com:
"The Final Conflict...The Last Deadly Kiss
Elena
Now she rises from the dead to recreate the powerful vampire trio.

Stefan
Summoned by Elena, he keeps a promise to her and fights the most terrifying evil he's ever faced.

Damon
Joining the brother he once called enemy, Damon battles this new horror with strength, cunning, and deadly charm. "


My thoughts:
SPOILER ALERT- if you haven't read this series and plan to you might want to skip my thoughts on this installment.

When the last story ended and Elena was dead and Stefan and Damon left town I kind of wondered what could possibly happen next. I didn't see how the series would go on without Elena, though I did like how Bonnie took over as the diary writer. I know this as fiction the author can do whatever she likes, but it feels like each of the stories adds a new level of bizarreness (if that is even a word) to the series. I was able to take Damon and Stefan as vampires, and although I was surprised when Katherine returned in the last book I was able to take that in stride as well. But then to add in werewolves and a vampire who is an Old One which sounds so much like Meyer's Cold Ones. I know Meyer's books were published a decade later so I am in no way saying these stories were influenced by them but I wonder if Meyer may have read and been influenced by these. Then Elena is able to speak from beyond the grave because she died too young and had too much living left to do, Fell's Church has a lot of psychic energy due to a lot of early deaths by Civil War soldiers and it is a magnet for the supernatural, and Tyler's family has a dormant werewolf gene that can be activated by killing. Things just kind of started to spin out of control to me, almost as if the author didn't want to let go of the series so she had to find some new way to captivate her readers. I almost wondered if she had originally planned to end it after the third book, since everything was wrapped up, and then due to publisher or reader urging decided to add on. Maybe not, perhaps this was always where she was going. Bringing someone back from the dead just felt like a cheap shot to get to keep going with the storyline though. I did enjoy the book, and the previous three, and it definitely kept me guessing. I need to borrow a copy of the last two books to see where it goes. Will Elena be the same as she was before now that she is back? What about Tyler, how will being a vampire change him? Since they all graduated what will become of them, will the last stories take place over the summer of at college? How in the world is Elena going to explain to Aunt Judith how she is alive again or does she plan to disappear and start over somewhere else?