Who loves reading YA? Who doesn’t know what YA is? For those of you in the latter group, it means books for “Young Adults,” otherwise known as TEENS.

Don’t click away just yet. Lots of YA books have crossed over to the adult market! Just think of The Hunger Games trilogy or the Twilight series… ack, even I think Twilight is click-away material! What about Harry Potter? Ta-da… only a monster wouldn’t love Harry Potter. (You know who you are.)

Over the past few weeks I read The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I and The Secret Circle: The Captive Part II and The Power, by L.J. Smith. Originally published in 1992 as three separate books, these books were repackaged in 2008 as two books.

“Snazzy*” covers! (I’ve only seen the first cover, as I read both books on my e-reader and that manly face above was just a black screen on my library copy.)

I decided to read these books when I was browsing the Internet, and discovered that two of my favourite television shows (The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle – both for teens, and yet so appealing to adult women) were based on books written by the same author. Who is this magical author and how did both of her stories get picked up by the CW?

I am not going to answer these questions. But here’s an interesting juicy tidbit of gossip: L.J. Smith only wrote The Vampire Diaries series up to Midnight, and did not write any of The Stefan Diaries (a spinoff series). Alloy Entertainment (who owns half the copyright) has hired an anonymous ghostwriter to keep writing the series.  Who would be satisfied being an anonymous ghostwriter**?

Back to the books! They are about a girl, Cassie, who moves to New Salem with her mother from California, only to discover that she is part of a coven of witches that date back to the original witches of Salem.

Here are the Amazon book descriptions for both books:

The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I:
The circle’s power has lured her home.

Forced to move from sunny California to gloomy New England, Cassie longs for her old life. Even so, she feels a strange kinship to a terrifying group of teens who seem to rule her school. Initiated into the coven of witches that’s controlled New Salem for hundreds of years, she’s drawn into the Secret Circle, a thrill that’s both intoxicating and deadly. But when she falls for the mysterious and intriguing Adam, Cassie must choose whether to resist temptation or risk dark forces to get what she wants—even if it means that one wrong move could ultimately destroy her.

The Secret Circle: The Captive Part II and The Power:
Cassie has joined the most alluring—and deadly—in-crowd imaginable. But power comes with a price, and it’s more dangerous than she knows. Torn between the dueling desires of the two leaders of the Secret Circle, she must ultimately choose between saving all of New Salem, and her own dangerous love for the bewitching Adam, which threatens to tear the circle apart. In the ultimate battle between good and evil, will Cassie’s supernatural powers be strong enough to lead the coven out of danger? Or will she foil prey to the dark forces within?

. . . will she sacrifice her love for the circle to survive?

For the most part, I enjoyed reading these books. Cassie is a relatable character and she’s easy to root for from start to finish. She has a bit of trouble standing up for herself at first, but it’s predictable behaviour for any new kid at school.

At the beginning of the books, there are quite a few student deaths at the school. It’s clear this is a serious subject but in the plot it’s not really treated as such. Most of the members of the circle know what’s behind these deaths but brush them off after the funerals, turning their attention to more important subjects, like the school Halloween dance. And one of the girls who is killed is the little sister of two members of the circle! The plot focuses more on finding a way to stop more people from being killed, which is obviously necessary to move things along, but it’s a little unrealistic.

There is a love triangle between Cassie, Adam and his girlfriend Diana, who has taken Cassie under her wing. I wish that Cassie and Adam’s relationship had more time to develop. It seems like they had a connection, did some illicit kissing and then immediately decided their love was forbidden. I also found some of the wording on the subject of love to be quite cheesy.

The most interesting parts of these books focused on history: the history of the Salem witches and the history of the families in the circle. Some of the circle member’s parents are alive and some were killed in a freak hurricane in 1976. Some of the circle members also had “crones” (Grandmothers) in their families, which provided some insight into the family trees as well as some comic relief.

These books were interesting enough. There was one mention of a beeper which really dated them and amused me to no end. I’m not sure why the publisher wouldn’t correct this in the 2008 printing! I would recommend these books as easy reads for teens or really easy reads for adult women who find teen dramas entertaining. For that, I am giving these books four smileys out of five potential big smileys .

Books: The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I and The Secret Circle: The Captive Part II and The Power

Review: _

*By the way, if I write “snazzy” in quotes like this, does it make it cool, or is it just plain nerdy with or without the quotes?

**While typing this I realized that I have done some anonymous ghostwriting in the past. Now I understand. The things we do for money!