Book Review: Midnight By LJ Smith

Name: Midnight
Author: L.J Smith
Publishers: Hodder Children's Books

Summary: With the help of charming and devious Damon, Elena rescued her vampire love, Stefan, from the depths of the Dark Dimension. But neither brother returned unscathed.
Stefan is weak from his long imprisonment and needs more blood than Elena alone can give him, while a strange magic has turned Damon into a human. Savage and desperate, Damon will do anything to become a vampire again, even travel back to hell. But what will happen when he accidentally takes Bonnie with him?
Stefan and Elena hurry to rescue their innocent friend from the Dark Dimension, leaving Matt and Meredith to save their hometown from the dangerous spirits that have taken hold of Fell's Church. One by one, children are succumbing to demonic designs. But Matt and Meredith soon discover that the source of the evil is darker and closer than they ever could have imagined. .

Midnight is the seventh book in the Vampire Diaries series by LJ Smith.
Unfortunately, it took a while for this novel to get going, which saddened me as I was hooked on the previous book, Shadow Souls.Shadow Souls ended with such a cliffhanger as Damon Salvatore became human, so I was eager for Midnight's release.

I expected Midnight to be a feisty novel but it was quite hard going and at many points I nearly stopped reading it altogether. I don't feel that Damon's emotion was portrayed well at the beginning of the book but, in persevering with it, I did see a lot of improvement. The downside is I wasn't hooked on the novel until nearer the end.

There was lots of new information in this chapter of the series, for example finding out that Meredith's a hunter slayer.How does this fair with Elena, who has a Vampire boyfriend and a lover? What I also liked was the pairings in Damon and Bonnie, when she ended up returning to the dark dimension with him. Damon never wanted her to follow him, as he worried for her safety.
He cared really, nick-naming Bonnie his 'little redbird'.

Matt and Meredith were thrown together in a bid to save Fells Church from the evil kitsune twins who played a huge part in Shadow Souls, only to find out that an unlikely old lady was really the key to the pure evil goings on in the Church. The ever prominent love triangle between Damon, Elena and Stefan was a huge highlight of the book. Even though I consider myself a Damon fan, I did feel so sorry for Stefan when he realised how strong Damon and Elena's love was. But did he realise when it's too late?

I've really enjoy the Vampire Diaries series. Even though this particular novel was tough going, it got there in the end. I'm definitely going to read some more of LJ Smith's work. It's a sad feeling that she'll no longer write any more of the Vampire Diaries series.