BOOK REVIEW: Night World Vol 1-3 by L. J . Smith

I've just finished reading volumes 1-3 of Night World by L. J. Smith. Each book is divided into three stories and as you read on, you realised that slowly they all link up. The general concept of the story is that there is a secret society called "The Night World" which consists of witches, vampires, werewolves and shape shifters who live alongside humans secretly. The two main Night World laws are that humans are never to find out that it exists and never fall in love with a human.

SPOILER ALERT!!

Volume One 

Secret Vampire

Daughters of Darkness

Enchantress

 
Volume one was probably my least favourite, but that's probably because most of the stories were introductions to the Night World so there wasn't enough depth in the story lines. For example, Secret Vampire didn't have much to it in my eyes. I found it took me a very long time to get into it. James breaks the NW law and turns Poppy into a vampire and Ash takes Poppy to expose her to an elder, and then we find out it was all a big joke and he wasn't going to do anything. Major anti-climax!

I know that a lot of people didn't really like the fact that there are so many short stories and to an extent, I felt the same because as soon as I was getting into a story, it ended. Daughters of Darkness is an example of that because I really wanted to know more about Rowan, Kestral and Jade and I don't think L. J. Smith had enough time to build on some of the characters. Although I understand that with the sheer amount of characters that we are introduced to in the NW series, it would be near impossible to expand on each one. But in terms of the Redfern sisters, I wish I could have known more. In that way, I don't think I had enough time to connect with the characters because of the length of each story. And if at all I did manage to connect, it was suddenly cut off because the story is so short.

By the time I got to Enchantress, I was actually glad to be introduced to witches and not vampires. I wanted to know more about these magical people and I had had enough of vampires for now. But as I read on, I wasn't too impressed with the story and I didn't like how it ended. These witch elders, like grandma Harman are, I'm sure, supposed to be pretty clever and wise hence they are "elders". How could Blaise have just switched the potion to watered-down ice tea without any of them noticing? Would none of them want to check it? Especially as Blaise fetched it. Blaise. The bad girl. The troublemaker. I think the most reasonable answer to this would be that they probably knew what had happened, but wanted to let Thea go with Eric. Otherwise these witch elders are just plain stupid! Any thoughts?

On a positive note, once I managed to get into the rhythm of Secret Vampire, I did enjoy it and I was able to read the rest of the books consistently. I did like the whole concept of the soulmate principle and I was looking forward to seeing how that would develop as I read on.

Volume Two

Dark Angel

The Chosen

Soulmate

Dark Angel was by far my least favourite story of all. I didn't like the whole concept of Angel being in Gillian's head. It seriously creeped me out! And in a way, L. J. Smith did what she was supposed to, because I was actually scared. She conveyed the dark angel character well. But that doesn't change the fact that I didn't enjoy it. I really disliked the way the story started and I felt it took way too long to understand what on Earth was going on. One minute Gillian's going home and suddenly she's dead and all these weird lights and tunnels and meadows. Honestly, I just did not enjoy it.

On a better note, The Chosen and Soulmate were a thumbs up! I really liked Rashel as a character, and I felt like I got to know her a lot more than some of the other characters. It was also a nice change to have a vampire hunter introduced to the story and then to have her fall in love with a ruthless vampire was brilliant. I think the reason I really liked Soulmate was because of Thierry. To have a vampire Lord fall in love with a human was great because he wasn't just any old vampire... he was a Lord! And then to have Maya enter the story, the very first vampire. Although it was based around the strength of the soulmate principle, there was more depth to the story, and more action which is always a plus! The end of Soulmate also bought a lot of the previous characters together, which started to reel in the different stories and give them all more meaning.

Volume Three

Huntress

Black Dawn

Witchlight

Volume Three is definitely my favourite out of the three. Huntress was brilliant and I loved the action in it. It made the story a lot more exciting (also like The Chosen). I also think that the introduction of the prophecies and the Wild Powers was really important to the storyline because it gave the story a lot more to focus on aside from the ongoing (and now very repetitive) soulmate principle saga. There were so many little stories here and there, vaguely linked by characters and the main story was dying for something to bring it all together. After reading 6 or so odd stories mainly about the soulmate principle, I was beginning to wonder what on earth the point of this was? By the fourth story I felt like it was getting quite repetitive. "Yes, I understand they are soulmates and they love each other deeply etc etc, but so what?" was ringing in my head. INCOMING: Wild Powers. End of the world. Yes! Beef it up! The story was finally expanding, and I was so grateful.

Black Dawn was another great story in my opinion as the reader gets an insight into an actual secret Night World place. It's different to the usual night world person meets human and BANG soulmate principle happens storyline. And then we've got the whole Prince of vamps introduced and then more about the Wild Powers. It finally felt like there was a backbone coming to light.

Lastly, we are FINALLY introduced to shapeshifters properly in Witchlight . I was really wondering whether or not the even existed by this point. Witchlight was brilliant in my opinion because Keller again, felt like a similar character to Jez and Rashel who I really took a liking to. Oh and thumbs up to L. J. Lewis for introducing a Dragon into the storyline! Really didn't expect that, but it was really great! I think it was about time that some serious things started happening and Volume Three definitely made sure that happened.  

So overall, even though I didn't start the series with great thoughts, I truly enjoyed Volumes Two and Three (minus Dark Angel) and I am looking forward to reading the last book Night World: Strange Fate which is out in April 2011!

I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys vampire action and love stories. Hope you enjoyed this l-o-n-g review! (In my defence, I am talking about 3 volumes and 9 different stories!)

Peace and Love
Miss. S
(Circle Daybreaker)
xoxo