Title: Night World Vol. 1 (Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Spellbinder)

Author: L.J. Smith

Publisher: Simon Pulse 2008

Genre: Vampires

Pages: 752

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Vampires; 2011 - Show It Who's Boss

How I Got It: I own it!

Vampires, werewolves, witches, shapeshifters -- they live among us without our knowledge. Night World is their secret society, a secret society with very strict rules. And falling in love breaks all the laws of the Night World.

In Secret Vampire, Poppy thought the summer would last forever. Then she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now Poppy's only hope for survival is James, her friend and secret love. A vampire in the Night World, James can make Poppy immortal. But first they both must risk everything to go against the laws of Night World.

Fugitives from Night World, three vampire sisters leave their isolated home to live among humans in Daughters of Darkness. Their brother, Ash, is sent to bring the girls back, but he falls in love with their beautiful friend.

Two witch cousins fight over their high school crush. It's a battle between black magic and white magic in Spellbinder.

I was a bit hesitant going into this series.  I love the Twilight saga, but am a bit done with the sparkly vampires genre.  Thankfully this series is a bit more series vampires than sparkly vampires.  This definitely reminded me of L.J. Smith's other series The Vampire Diaries.  Now I wasn't a huge fan of that series.  Amazingly enough, I love the television series better than the book series.  I was happily surprised by this series.

Secret Vampire -- A good classic boys meets girl story although this boy is a vampire and this girl is dying.  I loved the characters of James and Phillip.  They were likable and believable.  I thought that at times Poppy was incredibly childish acting.  Especially so when we compare her to her brother's behavior.  It made me wonder about the difference in maturity levels between her and James.  Thankfully she did seem to grow up at the story progressed.  The timeline was just a bit rushed for my tastes.

Daughters of Darkness -- Definitely my favorite from this volume.   I love the reintroduction of bad boy Ash.  We see him as the lethal vampire in Secret Vampire, and here we get to see his true nature.  I also loved the interactions between Ash and his sisters.  They were a treat, especially Kestrel.  I hope to read more about her in future volumes.  My problem with this story lies in the ending.  It's just so unbelievable.  I thought that soulmates would do anything to be together.  Instead, Mary-Lynnette is content to let Ash leave and when he says he'll come back next year, she's completely noncomittal.  Doesn't sound like a true love...

Spellbinder -- I always love a good story involving witches.  And this one was great with supernatural entities, romance, and jealousy.  All around I liked the story.  My only issue was with Blaise.  If I was Thea, I would have gotten seriously pissed at her and left her in the dust.  At least in the end she atoned for her crimes against Thea.

Night World

1. Volume 1: Secret Vampire/Daughters of Darkness/Spellbinder
2. Volume 2: Dark Angel/Chosen/Soulmate
3. Volume 3: Huntress/Black Dawn/Witchlight