Warning some spoilers ahead:

This is book number five of The Vampire Diaries series, entitled The Return vol 1. Nightfall. Published in 2009, several years after the original books were written, this is kind of a spin-off of the original "vampire love story" that was the topic of the first four books. At first i thought these books where nothing more than a money making ploy dues to the success of the TV series (which i have still never seen). But as it turns out this was actually a very well written addition to the series, i'm excited to see how the next book goes, i won't have to wait long, i bought it today and will start it just as soon as i finish the Immortals series.

If i had to sum up this book in one word, my word of choice would have to be creative! I'm not going to go as far as to claim that the storyline is completely original, but i will say that i've personally never read anything like it. Smith takes a little known (to me anyway) Japanese legend and brings it to life in the much tortured town of Fells Church. But prior to the entrance of the Kitsune (Japanese fox-spirits) is the amazing return of Elena from the afterlife. It wasn't really explained why or how she returned other than that she died to young and sacrificed herself to save others resulting in her spirit never really moving on. She returns to the world as a human but also possess special magic-like powers making her blood incredibly potent to vampires. Her powers slowly fade making her more normal but not quite your average human. These powers are what attracted the Kitsune's to Fells Church and also what helps to eject them from the town. Aside from all the interesting twists and turns this story takes, my favorite part of this book is Damon's character. I had the beginnings of a small crush on him at the end of book four, but the way that he grows and changes in this book just pushed my small crush right over the edge! His dialog (usually personal thoughts) is outright hilarious at some points, especially a few whole pages when some drama unfolds surrounding a certain undergarment! This new insight into the mind of Damen makes him into the perfect combination of dark and light, not to mention a much more interesting character. His parts alone make this book well worth the read. The addition of the Kitsune twins into the storyline made this book intensely dramatic. The twins are out to destroy the town one person at a time in every way possible. They are able to possess the people of Fells Church causing them to participate in some very odd behavior. The drama is intense right up to the end, where the reader is left with a crazy cliffhanger practically forcing you to read the following book to see what happens next!