Below is the complete list of L. J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of The Vampire Diaries Books
Publication Order of The Vampire Diaries: The Return Books
Publication Order of The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation Books
Publication Order of The Vampire Diaries: Stefan’s Diaries Books
with Julie Plec
Publication Order of The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters Books
About The Vampire Diaries
L.J. Smith’s Vampire Diaries series follows Elena Gilbert and vampire brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore through a supernatural struggle involving love, rivalry, death, psychic power, and the dangerous history surrounding Fell’s Church. The books began as a compact young-adult horror-romance sequence in the early 1990s, then expanded many years later through several continuation trilogies. Because authorship and continuity change during that expansion, the series is best understood as a group of connected arcs rather than one completely uniform body of work.
The Awakening introduces Elena as the admired center of her school’s social world. Her confidence is unsettled by the arrival of Stefan, a secretive new student who resists her attention because he is a vampire. Stefan hopes to live without harming humans, but his return to Virginia also brings Damon, his older brother and longtime rival. Damon embraces the predatory freedom Stefan rejects, and both brothers remain shaped by their relationships with Katherine, the vampire whose influence divided them centuries earlier.
The original four novels develop continuously through The Struggle, The Fury, and Dark Reunion. What begins as a romantic rivalry broadens into a battle involving possession, psychic bonds, ancient vampires, and increasingly powerful enemies. Elena changes substantially across these books, moving beyond the social confidence that initially defines her as she confronts sacrifice, supernatural transformation, and the consequences of being connected to both brothers.
Bonnie McCullough, Meredith Sulez, and Matt Honeycutt become essential to the story rather than remaining ordinary school friends. Bonnie’s psychic abilities connect the group to forces they do not fully understand, while Meredith brings discipline and scepticism to situations dominated by fear. Their loyalty gives the series a broader emotional foundation, particularly when Elena is absent or unable to direct events herself.
Smith returned to Fell’s Church after a long publication gap with the Return trilogy: Nightfall, Shadow Souls, and Midnight. These books continue directly from Dark Reunion but differ noticeably in scale and atmosphere. The mythology becomes stranger and more expansive, introducing demonic possession, alternate dimensions, powerful supernatural beings, and journeys beyond the familiar boundaries of Fell’s Church. Damon also assumes greater importance, complicating Elena’s bond with Stefan and intensifying the emotional triangle at the center of the series.
The Hunters trilogy continues after Midnight through Phantom, Moonsong, and Destiny Rising. These novels carry Elena and her friends into college while introducing new threats and revisiting the consequences of earlier supernatural conflicts. Although published under Smith’s name, they were written by an uncredited continuation writer after the publisher replaced her. The Salvation trilogy—Unseen, Unspoken, and Unmasked—was written by Aubrey Clark and forms the concluding officially published arc.
This change matters because Smith personally wrote the original four novels and the three Return books. Readers interested specifically in her version of the characters may therefore regard Midnight as the end of her authored sequence, even though its storyline remains unresolved without later continuation material.
The six Stefan’s Diaries books belong to a separate branch. They were developed from the television adaptation and recount the Salvatore brothers’ earlier history using the show’s versions of the characters and mythology. They are not prequels to Smith’s original novel continuity, despite frequently being listed beside her books.
Publication order provides the clearest route through the main series because relationships, deaths, transformations, and revelations carry directly between installments. The television series shares names, characters, and the central romantic triangle, but it diverges substantially in family histories, supernatural rules, personalities, and plot. Smith’s novels remain their own increasingly elaborate mythology, beginning with a mysterious student in Fell’s Church and expanding into a conflict over whether love can redeem immortality or make its dangers impossible to escape.