The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #1: Origins

By: L. J. Smith, Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

Set during the Civil War, against a backdrop of grand estates, unimaginable riches, and deadly secrets, three teenagers in Mystic Falls, Virginia, enter a torrid love triangle that will span eternity.

Brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore are inseparable, until they meet Katherine, a stunning, mysterious woman who turns their world upside down. Siblings turned rivals, the Salvatores compete for Katherine's affection, only to discover that her sumptuous silk dresses and glittering gems hide a terrible secret: Katherine is a vampire. And she is intent on turning them into vampires so they can live together - forever.

©2010 Alloy Entertainment and L.J. Smith. Key Artwork © 2010 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers

Loved it

This book is the 8th book in the Vampire Diaries series but the 1st told from Stefan's viewpoint. I wasn't crazy about the narrator. He spoke in sort of a breathless and rushed tone throughout the book.

This book is more like what you saw in the TV series where the previous books were considerably different. It's jarring to go from the TV series to the early books to this book since there are so many differences. Still, I love the series and will continue listening.

Good

These were a little boring to me bc I had read the other books before I read this series.

extremely disappointed

I struggled to finish this book loved the series extremely disappointed in the book and I can't exchange it so disappointed I don't even want it in my library

Slow starting, but decent

I am an big fan of the series, so I wanted to read these books as they more closely follow the tv series rather than LJ Smith's original books. The story line is much like the show; but the story is kind of boring at the beginning. Slow to get started and even the exciting parts are not detailed enough for a book. Once I turned the narration speed to 1.75x the narration was much better. I have continued on to the next book as it was good enough, but I would not deem it as a great book as it doesn't have enough quality writing to be great.

1st TVD Book read or listened to

I absofreakinlutely love the series along with the spin-off The Orginals..this is the first book related to the series I have read or listened to and I really enjoyed it..I do however wish they would have had different peoples voices for the characters but the narrator did a good job..need to see which one I should acquire next.

Love it. Awesome. Never been a fan of Vampires.

I really enjoyed this story. Never liked Vampire movies but really really liked this story.

loved it

It took me awhile to get used to it then ended up completely loving it

...

Need to have more than one reader especially when a girl is talking or a different character not the same voice should be speaking the whole book

Wish I had read the reviews

What did you like best about The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #1: Origins? What did you like least?

I wish I had known that this was based on the TV series. I love the TV series, don't get me wrong, but that's not what I was looking for. I was looking for more books by L.J. Smith in the Vampire Diaries series. I kinda feel deceived by Audible for listing them as L.J. Smith.

For the fans of the TV show

This is a nice listening for everyone who loves the tv show, not the novels. L. J. Smith's work is always very good: there are interesting characters and situations, descriptions are apt without being overwhelming, and the pacing is the right one for a vampire story.
The narration though is not a great one: the performer is almost always using the same tone, his portrayal of female characters is sometimes comical (Stefan's fiancee for instance) and overall he doesn't create the same sense of foreboding and despair that Rebecca Mozo provides in her performance of the main novels.
It's OK if you love the tv show, but for the original series reader it's rather disappointing (though not seriously so).

thrilling read

I started reading Twilight and got addicted to it and was told to check out The Vampire Diaries ( TVD to the hardcore fans) I was a little bit unsure about it to start with as i started on the wrong book so was confused with the charactor backgrounds but when I started to listen to Stefan's Diaries i was immediatly submurged into the world of the Lovely Salvatore brothers and there bond that should have seen them through until there deaths but for the love of a women. I became so involved in the charactors that i have now got all 16books on my kindle and have loved reading them all.

hope you find them as thrilling as i did and difficult to put down.