LJ Smith Books in Order
Explore L.J. Smith books in order, from The Vampire Diaries to Night World, with quick summaries, series background, and easy suggestions on where to start.
Last updated: June 8, 2026
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Publication Order
42 books
The Night of the Solstice
by LJ Smith
1987
A talking fox leads four California siblings into Wildworld, a parallel realm of sorcerers, legends, and old magic. With the winter solstice closing in, they have to rescue Morgana Shee before evil crosses over.
Heart of Valor
by LJ Smith
1990
When a California earthquake hints that the barrier between worlds is breaking again, the Hodges-Bradley children are pulled back into danger. This time the enemy has more power and a trap ready.
Dark Reunion
by LJ Smith
1991
Elena's friends are left to fight on after terrible losses shake the group. As a new evil rises over Fell's Church, Bonnie must lead a desperate stand against darkness.
The Awakening
by LJ Smith
1991
Elena Gilbert is used to getting what she wants until the mysterious Stefan Salvatore arrives in Fell's Church. Their romance awakens an older, darker danger, and Damon's arrival makes it far worse.
The Fury
by LJ Smith
1991
Elena is changed forever, and the battle with Damon turns more violent and strange. Love, jealousy, and supernatural power spiral together as Fell's Church edges toward catastrophe.
The Struggle
by LJ Smith
1991
Elena knows Stefan's secret, but loving him only draws her deeper into danger. As Damon's attacks grow bolder, the fight for Elena's heart becomes a fight for survival.
The Captive
by LJ Smith
1992
Cassie is intoxicated by the Circle's power and torn by her growing feelings for Adam. As rival desires and jealousies flare, love and magic start pushing the coven toward disaster.
The Initiation
by LJ Smith
1992
When Cassie moves to New Salem, she is drawn into a beautiful, unsettling group of teens who practice magic. Becoming the twelfth member of their Circle gives her power, but also opens the door to old dangers.
The Power
by LJ Smith
1992
The Circle's magic is finally loose, and Cassie must face what it can do in the wrong hands. Ancient evil, buried secrets, and her bond with Adam all come crashing together in New Salem.
The Chase
by LJ Smith
1994
Julian is still hunting Jenny and her friends through twisted games built from their deepest fears. Escaping him means staying together, but every new test is designed to split them apart.
The Hunter
by LJ Smith
1994
Jenny buys a strange game to surprise her boyfriend, then discovers it is a doorway into living nightmares. The beautiful, eerie Julian wants more than to win. He wants Jenny herself.
The Kill
by LJ Smith
1994
The final game forces Jenny and her friends into one last fight with Julian, where the stakes are no longer hidden. To end it, she has to outplay the Shadow Man on his own ground.
The Strange Power
by LJ Smith
1994
Kaitlyn's drawings come true, and the gift has made her an outsider all her life. A scholarship to the Zetes Institute seems like a chance to belong, until she learns what the experiments there really want from her.
The Passion
by LJ Smith
1995
Gabriel has turned against Kaitlyn's group, and Mr. Zetes is closing in. To stop him, Kaitlyn risks everything on a reckless plan that forces her back into the heart of the Institute.
The Possessed
by LJ Smith
1995
Kaitlyn and the other psychics are on the run from the Zetes Institute, tied together by a dangerous mental link. As they search for safety, Gabriel's growing power threatens the group from within.
Dark Angel
by LJ Smith
1996
After nearly drowning, Gillian is visited by a beautiful unseen guardian who promises her everything she wants. The help comes with strange demands, and the price keeps rising.
Daughters of Darkness
by LJ Smith
1996
Three vampire sisters arrive in a quiet town carrying secrets, enemies, and trouble. As Mary-Lynnette and her brother get tangled up with them, attraction and danger grow together.
Secret Vampire
by LJ Smith
1996
Poppy is dying, and her best friend James offers her one impossible way to live. His secret opens the door to the Night World, where love and survival come at a heavy cost.
Spellbinder
by LJ Smith
1996
Thea is a witch with a talent for bending other people to her will, until she meets Eric Ross. One bad spell turns a game of desire into something darker and much harder to control.
Black Dawn
by LJ Smith
1997
Maggie is pulled into the Night World while searching for answers about her missing brother. What she finds is a hidden realm of old power, fragile alliances, and danger that feels bigger than one life.
Huntress
by LJ Smith
1997
Jez Redfern is a fierce vampire bounty hunter with mixed blood and divided loyalties. When a job puts her on the trail of someone she cannot simply destroy, the Night World's rules get personal.
Soulmate
by LJ Smith
1997
Hannah starts receiving messages that warn her danger is near, and they lead her toward an old love story that is not finished. This one blends reincarnation, witchcraft, and Night World history.
The Chosen
by LJ Smith
1997
Rashel has spent years hunting vampires after one destroyed her family. Meeting Quinn, a vampire who may be her soulmate, forces her to question everything she thought she knew.
Witchlight
by LJ Smith
1998
Keller, a deadly panther shapeshifter, is sent to protect one Wild Power and seize another. Then love throws her off balance, just as the Night World's long-feared crisis starts to move.
Nightfall
by LJ Smith
2009
Elena returns to Fell's Church after death, but home no longer feels safe. As Stefan and Damon circle each other again, sly and dangerous spirits begin turning the town inside out.
Origins
by LJ Smith
2010
In 1864, Stefan Salvatore falls for the dazzling Katherine Pierce, not knowing her beauty hides a deadly secret. His forbidden love pulls Damon into the same orbit and starts a rivalry that will last for generations.
Shadow Souls
by LJ Smith
2010
To save Damon, Elena must cross into the terrifying Dark Dimension, where nothing follows human rules. What starts as a rescue turns into a nightmare journey through a warped world of power and desire.
Bloodlust
by LJ Smith
2011
Newly turned and on the run, Stefan and Damon head to New Orleans looking for a way to survive. Stefan fights his hunger and guilt while Damon leans into vampire life and old resentments.
Midnight
by LJ Smith
2011
Back from the Dark Dimension, Elena and her friends face the final fallout of the kitsune threat. The danger in Fell's Church reaches a breaking point, and her bond with Stefan and Damon is tested one last time.
Moonsong
by LJ Smith
2011
Elena and her friends are pulled deeper into a new supernatural threat as old loyalties shift. With danger spreading through Fell's Church, trust, desire, and survival become harder to separate.
Phantom
by LJ Smith
2011
Fell's Church is still haunted by the past, and Elena cannot stop feeling Damon's presence. A new evil begins circling the town, and grief quickly becomes another kind of trap.
The Craving
by LJ Smith
2011
In New Orleans, Stefan tries to hold on to his humanity while Damon is pulled deeper into blood and danger. Their search for Katherine, and for a future, turns into another brutal test of brotherhood.
The Ripper
by LJ Smith
2011
In 1888 London, Stefan hopes for a quiet life until Jack the Ripper's murders spread panic through the city. Forced back into the hunt, he fears the darkness he escaped may still live in him, or in Damon.
Destiny Rising
by LJ Smith
2012
The fight that began in The Hunters comes to a head as Elena, her friends, and uneasy allies push back against powerful enemies. What is left of Fell's Church depends on who can still stand together.
The Asylum
by LJ Smith
2012
A cunning vampire from Katherine's past frames Damon for a string of grisly London murders. Stefan and Damon must work together, despite everything between them, to uncover the truth and survive Samuel's revenge.
The Compelled
by LJ Smith
2012
Stefan and Damon join forces with a hidden coven of witches to stop Samuel once and for all. If they fail, his plan to control both humans and vampires could bring all of London under his power.
The Divide
by LJ Smith
2012
Life in New Salem briefly feels normal, until tragedy leaves the Circle exposed and an unseen enemy closes in. Friendships crack, loyalties shift, and Cassie learns how costly power can be.
The Hunt
by LJ Smith
2012
Cassie's enemies are getting bolder, and danger is no longer coming from just outside the Circle. With Scarlett pushing her way closer, New Salem becomes a place where family and betrayal are hard to tell apart.
The Temptation
by LJ Smith
2013
With the Circle overtaken by dark forces, Cassie stands almost alone. To save her friends, she may have to use the very magic that could corrupt her for good.
Unseen
by LJ Smith
2013
Elena's blood has become a target, and a powerful Old One named Solomon closes in on Fell's Church. At the same time, Damon discovers a terrifying new kind of vampire that breaks the old rules.
Unspoken
by LJ Smith
2013
After Stefan is seemingly killed, Elena and Damon face a scientist creating engineered vampires built to replace the old kind. The race to stop him becomes personal, desperate, and far bigger than one town.
Unmasked
by LJ Smith
2014
Elena is dying, and the Guardians offer her one impossible bargain: go back to the beginning and change everything. To save herself and the people she loves, she has to face the Salvatore brothers all over again.
Where should I start?
If you want classic vampire romance: The Awakening → The Struggle → The Fury → Dark Reunion
If you want witches and coastal New England: The Initiation → The Captive → The Power
If you want interconnected paranormal standalones: Secret Vampire → Daughters of Darkness → Spellbinder → Dark Angel
If you want psychic suspense: The Strange Power → The Possessed → The Passion
If you want a dark game-book hook: The Hunter → The Chase → The Kill
Author bio
L.J. Smith was born Lisa Jane Smith in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on September 4, 1958, and grew up in Villa Park in Southern California. She was the kind of kid who knew early what she wanted to do. She later said the spark came when a teacher praised a poem she had written in the first years of school, and from then on stories were part of the plan.
She kept that plan.
Smith studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned a degree in experimental psychology, and later completed teaching credentials in elementary and special education at San Francisco State University. Before writing full time, she taught kindergarten and special education. That background fits her books in a quiet way. Even when the danger gets wild, the feelings are easy to follow, and her teen characters usually sound like teens with real wants and fears.
Her first published novel was The Night of the Solstice in 1987, followed by Heart of Valor in 1990. Then came the books that made her a major part of 1990s YA supernatural fiction. The Vampire Diaries opened with The Awakening in 1991. Soon after came The Secret Circle, The Forbidden Game, and Dark Visions.
Then came Night World.
That series showed a lot of what readers still come to Smith for: hidden supernatural rules, dangerous romance, fast-moving plots, and the feeling that love can be both a weakness and a kind of strange power. Across books like Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Witchlight, she built a world of vampires, witches, shapeshifters, and werewolves living beside humans, all tied together by secrecy and the idea of destined soulmates.
Her stories often return to the same tensions. A small town or close-knit group. A girl who is pulled into a larger hidden world. A dark, magnetic outsider. A choice between safety and transformation. Even when the setup changes, whether it is witches in The Secret Circle, psychics on the run in Dark Visions, or Jenny facing Julian in The Forbidden Game, Smith liked stories where desire and danger arrive hand in hand.
She took a long publishing break starting in the late 1990s, then returned in the late 2000s as her earlier books found new readers. Reissues brought The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, and Night World back into bookstores, and television adaptations gave her work another wave of attention. Her books and the screen versions are not the same thing, but the pull of her original ideas is easy to see.
For many years Smith lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and wrote from California. On an older version of her site, she joked about living with a dog, three cats, and about ten thousand books, which tells you something about the scale of the reading life she built around herself.
She kept writing through setbacks, long gaps, and illness. Smith died on March 8, 2025, in California, but her books still feel lively, strange, and very easy to hand to the next reader. If you like paranormal stories with sharp feelings, secret worlds, and a strong taste for romance in the middle of trouble, her work is still a very good place to start.
Edited by
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