The Secret Circle series by L.J. Smith was always my favorite series of hers so when I decided to read it again I was worried that it would be awful and ruin my fond memories. While I did find it to be less good than I remembered I still quite enjoyed the characters and story even if the writing style was not exactly to my liking. ( )

It’s a little difficult to rate this trilogy when there’s so much nostalgia built in to my rereading. I read these in real time in the fall of 1992 as they came out one by one (& you had to go to the bookstore to get them). I can still see 15 year old me reading one as I babysat on a Saturday night after the kids (ages 4, 2, and 1) were in bed. I loved everything about these books including the magic and romance and friendship. This was pre-internet searching, and for years I wondered what a chalcedony rose was. Along with some sacred Christopher Pike’s, this trilogy remains on my bookshelf as a toast to teenage me. ( )

Cassie struggles with the secrets she's keeping and the fact that Faye is using them to blackmail her into throwing her lot in with the darker side of the coven. The evil magic unleashed may be causing more deaths and the group should really do a better job investigating, but mostly they're pretty preoccupied with teen love triangles, dances, and seducing pizza delivery boys with their skanky magic, so... ( )

More of a 3.5 star read. A bit young for me but managed to keep my attention. ( )

The Secret Circle series picks up a bit in its second book, The Captive. The plot thickens, some surprising back story is revealed and Cassie is slightly less irritating. But just slightly.

Halloween has come to New Salem and that means the Club is both going to the high school dance and hanging around in the cemetery. Black John's crystal skull is still wreaking havoc, as is Faye. While Faye is supposed to be the mean girl, and basically Cassie's arch nemesis, I like her. She sees that Cassie is weak and is exploiting that in her own favor. While not a nice move, perhaps Faye will be the catalyst Cassie needs to finally grow a pair and take charge of her life.

The Cassie/Adam forbidden love angle still makes me want to gouge my eyes out, but except for Faye's threats to reveal all to Diana, mentions are mostly kept to a minimum. The Captive seems to focus a good deal on Nick and I'm hoping he and Cassie come together in the final book as opposed to her and Adam.

The Club has a lot of drama to deal with at the moment, between Faye's quest for power and the mounting unsolved deaths. Cassie should be involved with dealing with these things, but she's always more concerned with her love life and how it will effect her friendship with Diana. Cassie missed her many opportunities for honesty in The Initiation and her guilt is overwhelmingly grating. It's gotten to the point where I officially hate Cassie. She remains angsty and useless. Thankfully, I really want to know how the story turns out because Cassie is enough to make we want to throw the book against the wall and never open it again. ( )