The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters Books in Order
Part ofLJ Smith Books in OrderSee The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters books in order by L.J. Smith, with short summaries, series background, and notes on how this trilogy follows on.
Last updated: June 8, 2026
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Publication Order
3 books
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.
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.
Series background & context
The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters picks up after the earlier later-series chaos and pushes the story back into active pursuit mode. The title fits. These books are about tracking threats, surviving what comes after loss, and figuring out who is hunting whom in a town that never stays safe for long.
Elena is still the emotional center, but the mood at the start is darker and more unsettled. Grief hangs over the trilogy, especially where Damon is concerned, and that feeling of unfinished business drives a lot of the plot. The books do not stay small for long, though. A fresh supernatural enemy arrives, and the danger spreads beyond one haunted house or one bad decision.
What makes this branch a little different is the way it widens the circle around the core cast. New allies and new factions start to matter more, including hunters and werewolves who pull the story into a more open conflict. Fell's Church is still important, but it feels less like a sealed gothic stage and more like a battleground where several kinds of creatures now have a stake.
That shift gives the trilogy a faster, more action-driven rhythm. The love triangle is still there, and Elena's bond with Stefan and Damon still shapes the emotional stakes, but the books are just as interested in pursuit, ambush, uneasy alliances, and the cost of letting old enemies grow stronger.
If you like the Vampire Diaries books when they get bigger, stranger, and more overtly supernatural, this is the run for you. It still has romance and longing, but it moves with the energy of a chase story, where the next attack is always close and the past never stays buried.
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