Saturday, September 17, 2011

Review: The Secret Circle, Book 1 by L.J. Smith

“The Circle's Power has Lured Her Home. Cassie must confront a shattering challenge: an ordeal that could cost her life or gain her more than she's ever imagined...
Charmed by the Secret Circle, she's initiated into the mysterious "in crowd," a coven of young witches whose power has controlled New Salem for three hundred years.
Hopelessly in love with the coven leader's boyfriend, Cassie risks falling prey to dark powers in order to have him. But if she does, her endless love could destroy the coven, New Salem, and her!
...And She Will Emerge the Leader or Perish!”

With the premier of The Secret Circle being this past week, I knew that I should hurry and read the books beforehand. I have to say I really enjoyed them.  In fact I haven’t read a really good witch series since the Harry Potter books and these were published at least five years prior.  

When Cassie Blake’s mom drops the new that they’re not going to return to her home in California, she's devastated.  After she sees her grandmother’s house in New Salem that they’ll be living in, she gets infuriated.  Just before school starts she finally gets used to the idea and gets excited but on the first day she has a terrible encounter with Faye, who, and her club, for some reason gets away with all of her nonsense.  When Cassie sticks up for a girl Faye is bullying she decides to make Cassie her personal humiliator.  As the pranks get worse and worse her mother gets sicker so Cassie can’t even talk to her about her problems.  Finally, when she thinks that Faye might actually kill her, Dianna, the beautiful girl from down the street, saves and befriends her.  But Dianna is in the club too.  Is she really good?  Can Cassie really be friends with all of these “Club People”?      

This was a very nicely written, young adult novel. As the book get deeper, we also find Cassie progressing as she not only realizes her own potential but accepts it and chooses to thrive. Each and every character is richly developed, especially Fay. And if you've seen the show yet on the CW, you know that they hit that character spot on.  Needless to say, The Secret Circle was a very quick and thrilling read.


I rate this book:

L.J. Smith is the author of several best selling books including The Vampire Diaries that has also been adapted into a CW TV show.  To learn more visit ljsmith.net

2 comments:

Liz Schulte's Blog said...

I was such a big LJ Smith fan in junior high. I read them all Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, Dark Visions, and The Forbidden Game. I didn't watch the show because I was concerned about how much they would change, but i am glad you enjoyed it.

Jordan Butcher said...

Megan was the one who did this review so I haven't read the book myself, but from everything she told me they switched up the details quite a bit. So I understand the hesitation!