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Throwback Thursday: The Nightworld Series

20140722_160206pamsthrowback

The Nightworld Series by L.J.Smith

This is a series of books originally published in the 90′s and more recently republished into bumper books with three stories per book:

20140722_160234How to describe these books?

They’re a series of 9 (10 is still un-published, 14 years on. Wiki has this to say on the matter: release date is currently unconfirmed,On January 22, 2012, in response to a fan’s question regarding the publication of Strange Fate, the concluding book in the Night World series, L.J. Smith stated on her website “Strange Fate will come out when I’m finished writing it. It is a very, very long book. I promise that I am working on it right now.”) small YA stories by L.J.Smith following the basic premise that Vampires (both types), witches, werewolves and shapeshifters live among us without our knowledge. They all make up a secret society known as the Night World which has two strictly enforced laws in place to prevent discovery:

1) Never allow humans to gain knowledge of the Night World’s existence and,
2) Never fall in love with a human.

Can you guess what these books are about? You guessed it, rule breakers!! But you cant blame them really; also within the Night World is something called the Soulmate Principle. This is the theory that everyone has a Soulmate, someone you are destined to be with forever and cannot live without. Usually this connection is discovered by accident, with a touch or even a kiss, possibly by drinking blood (vampires) etc resulting in sparks, jolts or even trips within each others consciousness depending on how strong the bond or how likely the person is to accept it, those more likely to accept it are less likely to require bells and flares, but they are always unequivocally drawn to each other.

Books one to six are about young women finding their forever guy, some need persuading, some are meeting for the first time, others have been reincarnated and some are so happy about it, they shine.
Book seven, eight and nine (as well as the absent ten) pick up a new element. Originally written under the shadow of the millennium, they focus on the prophecy that will help the world survive it:

One from the land of kings long forgotten;
One from the hearth which still holds the spark;
One from the Day World where two eyes are watching;
One from the twilight to be one with the dark.

Below is a synopsis of each book:

Secret Vampire

Poppy North, is looking forward to spending the summer with her best friend and secret love James Rasmussen. Unfortunately on the first day she’s diagnosed with a rare form of terminal cancer and given a short time to live. James, who also secretly loves Poppy cannot stand for her to die but he knows there’s no hope. Except one thing…he’s actually a vampire and he’s happy to risk his life by saving hers.

Daughters of Darkness

Rowan, Kestrel, and Jade Redfern, who happen to be vampire sisters, escape their smothering life on a secret island and move into a small town with their aunt. Except they find their aunt murdered when they arrive. They try to hide this which ignites the suspicions of Mary-Lynnette, the neighbouring girl who helped out the sisters aged aunt on a regular basis. To top things off, the sisters brother Ash turns up to either take them home or kill them. Having little love or patience for humans he is naturally shocked when he finds out Mary-Lynette is his soulmate. But the aunts killer isn’t through with them yet.

Enchantress (also published under the title Spellbinder)

Thea and Blaise Harman are witch cousins who were raised as sisters. There’s  one slight difference between them however: While Blaise likes to flirt with darker magic, Thea is firmly on the side of light. Blaise  likes to use her considerable skills to make all the boys love her. But at this new school, there’s one boy who wont do as she wants; Eric Ross. Thea healed him and he’s been smitten with her ever since. Worried that she will break Night World Law, Blaise attempts everything she can to lure Eric away, delving deeper into the darker magics than she has before. But in a desperate attempt to protect Eric from Blaise, Thea accidentally releases an angry spirit and their sisterly battle is revealed to the world when the spirit starts killing.

Dark Angel

After a near-death experience in a forest, Gillian Lennox is returned to her body by a being who called “Angel”. He comes back with her and helps her change her life, making her the most popular girl at school and uniting her with her long-time crush and, coincidentally her soulmate David Blackburn. But things start to go wrong and Gillian discovers a few startling truths about her Guardian Angel as well as herself.

The Chosen

When she was five years old a ruthless vampire killed Rashel Jordans mother and best friend Timmy and no one believed what she told them, but as she was shifted from place to place she taught herself to hunt and kill vampires, forever searching for the one that ruined her life. One night she meets her soul mate, John Quinn, a cold-hearted and very dangerous vampire.Upon touching him she gets the shock of her life. She flees but finds herself within his company once more when she goes undercover to find out where the missing girls are going. Quinn finds her again and helps her out

Soulmate

Hannah Snow has been having nightmares and keeps finding notes written in her own handwriting, warning her that she is in danger and will die before her seventeenth birthday. Worried about her sanity, she begins hypnosis with a newly qualified psychologist, Paul Winfield. Together they discover that Hannah has been leaving herself the notes in her sleep because her subconscious knows what’s coming. In an attempt to find out what, they accidentally find out Hannah has had hundreds of past lives and that she is what is called an Old Soul. And what her subconscious is trying to warn her about is the fact she never reaches her seventeenth birthday and it has something to do with her soulmate, Thierry Descoudres…

Huntress

Jezabel “Jez” Redfern’s life is turned upside down when she realises she’s not who she thought she was. Abandoning her gang of friends as well as her bestfriend and worst enemy Morgead Blackthorn she starts a new life helping out the group called Circle Daybreak, a collection on vampires witches, werewolves, shapeshifters and humans all living in peace. But one day she’s required to return to her old life because Morgead is in possession of some information Circle Daybreak needs and the only one likely to get it from him is Jez, because she’s his soulmate…

Black Dawn

Maggie accidentally stumbles upon an old Night World colony while trying to rescue her brother, where she meets a cold vampire prince called Delos Redfern. Having previously dreamed about him, she wont stop talking to him, much to his annoyance and despite telling her he wont help her, he saves her life repeatedly, telling her every time he wont do it again. But they are drawn to each other and they soon discover they’re soulmates. With Maggie’s help he discovers that there’s more going on within his kingdom than he thought and together they work to set it right.

Witchlight

Raksha Keller is a panther shapeshifter and together with her team she is charged with protecting a lost witch and the possible third wild power Iliana Harman. She is also the Witch Child, promised in a treaty marriage so that the shapeshifters side with the witches not he vampires, to the son of the first family of shapeshifters, Galen Drache – they guy Keller has just discovered is her soulmate.

Strange Fate (not yet published as of July 2014)

Originally going to be about a girl, Sarah who worked for Circle Daybreak with her soulmate Mal they were placed with the final wild power Kierlan Redfern to convince him to their side, only to discover he too was sarahs soulmate the story line currently seems to be as follows: Sarah Strange is a normal teenager with annoying siblings and a crush on two boys, Mal and Kierlan, who happen to be her best friends. But Sarah also has visions of a place where dragons darken the sky and feast on humans. When Sarah confides in Mal and Kierlan about her visions, she discovers her friends are not who they seem. They are part of the Night World. And they believe Sarah must help establish peace and harmony between humans and creatures of the Night World to stave off the apocalypse. And if Sarah’s visions are any indication of the danger, destruction, and devastation that the apocalypse will bring, there is no time to lose…(and apparently he is now Kierlan Drache, a relation to Galen?).

L.J.Smith has some short stories on her website about the battle of the millennium as the final battle is now set ‘after the millennium’ and she has also stated a plan to write a book about the world is Sarah’s visions.

Paein

(These books hold a dear place in my heart, they were perhaps the first supernatural books I ever read and I’m so gutted that the tenth isn’t yet out as well as pissed off that the author has changed the storyline [sorry, but it's true. it just wont be the same and now I sort of dread the end, because I'll have to read it and what if it isn't right??!!])

It’s hard to choose but, my favourites are :

Soulmate: Poor Hannah, poor Thierry. I didn’t love their pain, but the journey was interesting. Hannah was no one special, except that once, a long long time ago, she’d followed her heart and helped out a lost and scared guy.

Black Dawn: I think I like this one because it’s still ‘new’ to me. I probably read all the others about ten times before I got my hands on this one. But I identified with Maggie far more than any of the others and I loved how scathing Delos tried to be, but it just didn’t work with Maggie; only partially because she was his soulmate and he couldn’t resist, but also partially because this ordinary girl stood with what she believed in and it turned out that was pretty life changing.

Chosen, Huntress and Witchlight are also favourites, containing fierce females and the men that love them. (Witchlight. partially because Keller is a  big-cat shifter, and I totally wanna be one of those!! )

Ms4Tune

My favourites are:

Daughters of Darkness: I loved that they didnt actually like each other that much at all! and yet found themselves drawn to each other.

Chosen: Both Rashel and Quinn were kickarse people who thought they could do everything alone and probably could have but they learnt that it’s nice to have someone to rely on.

pamspaein pamsms4tune

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