Secret Circle Books In Order

Publication Order of The Secret Circle Books

The “Secret Circle” series is a paranormal romance series of novel by LJ Smith. Lisa Jane Smith who writes professionally as LJ Smith is a world renowned author of young adult fiction. One of her best known series it “The Vampire Diaries” that went on to become a popular and highly successful TV series by the same name. Smith’s novels in “The Night World” and “The Vampire Diaries” series have been award-winning titles and several time New York bestsellers over the years. Prior to becoming a full time author, Smith was an elementary teacher until 1989 when she quit to fulfill her lifelong dreams. She had always wanted to be a young adult author right from when she was young. By the time she was in high she had started working on “The Night of Solstice” and “Heart of Valor”, which she published when she was in college. The novels did poorly on the stands as they were not labeled young adult as Smith had suggested. It was not until an Alloy Entertainment editor commissioned the first novel of the “Vampire Diaries” that her career took off. Since then, she has published the “WildWorlds”, “Dark Visions”, “The Forbidden Games”, “The Secret Circle”, and “The Night World series”.

The “Secret Circle” series of novels follows Cassie Blake the lead character on her journey to joining the Circle. The Circle is a coven of eleven teenage witches who unleash dark forces on their town by accident. It is not only the paranormal that Cassie has to worry about as she is soon in a love triangle that threatens to unravel the sisterhood of the Circle. The series was originally intended to be a trilogy when it was first published in 1992, but later got omnibuses in 2008 and was revived with more titles since 2012. LJ only wrote the trilogy as she left Alloy Entertainment, which then commissioned Aubrey Clark that wrote the final three titles in the series in 2012 and 2013. When we are first introduced to Cassie Blake, she has just moved to Salem with her mother, where she soon learns that she is a witch. She eventually gets admitted into a coven of witches where the teenage witches learn about the old ways of witching. It is not long before they discover that magic attracts dark forces and comes with a price. The series was opted for a TV series in 2010 by CW the same channel that had aired the “Vampire Diaries”. The series had Vampire Diaries executive producer and co-creator Kevin Williamson in the team that launched the series in 2011. The CW canceled the series in 2012 leading to fan outrage, petitions, and campaigns asking the network to reinstate it. Some fans went as far as asking the network to release the series as home video or sell it to another network.

The series has six strong lead characters who make an appearance in all the novels of the series. Cassie Blake is the lead and is a strong willed character who starts out as a naïve young girl that turns into a strong willed girl that takes control of her destiny and the coven over the course of the series. Diana who is one of Cassie’s best friends is a lovely and strong character though a little naïve. She seems to trust just about anyone despite her trust being betrayed time and again. Adam who is Cassie’s love interest is a trustworthy and strong person that is always putting other people’s needs ahead of his own. He is the person that everyone would call if they were in need of help. That he is also little mysterious making him even more desirable. Nick is a temperamental and mysterious character who grows over the course of the series to become very much interested in the activities of the coven. His mystery makes him quite the intriguing person in the coven and leads to something of a love triangle between him Adam and Cassie. Given his mystique he seems to have a greater draw for the girls of the coven as nobody knows his true feelings. The seemingly odd one out member of the coven is a nasty and bitchy girl named Faye, who is always causing trouble for everyone and in particular for Cassie. But despite her nasty behavior she is not a character that one can hate as she is just motivated by selfish reason rather than being malicious or wanting to make her colleagues feel horrible.

“The Initiation” is the first thrilling title in “The Secret Circle” series of novels by LJ Smith. Cassie has just joined one of the most popular cliques in town and finds her new power and strength more addictive than anything she had ever experienced. Two members of her new coven are consumed by the desire to exploit the power of the coven and Cassie, who is caught in the cross fire turns to Adam the boyfriend to one of them only to find herself in a love triangle. Unable to help herself she uses magic to capture the heart of the man she had come to love and in doing so, she has upset a delicate balance of power. She has unleashed a dark force that no one in the coven had ever experienced or anticipated. Unfortunately, one person has a very good idea of just who is responsible for the unleashing of the dark fury. Faye is blackmailing Cassie with outing her secret if she does not become her personal errand girl. Things only get worse for Cassie and the Circle when Faye somehow gets herself elected the leader of the Coven.

In “The Captive” Faye finds herself losing power and blackmails Cassie into helping her in her quest to regain it. Cassie is forced to hurt some people she cares so much for, even as she has to deal with the loss of a family member. New information about the coven comes to light when Cassie’s grandmother that had once been a member herself brings to their attention some techniques they may use to fight the dark forces. Faye really comes into her own in the novel as she terrorizes Cassie. Cassie is caught between the proverbial hard place and a rock, as she has to make a choice between supporting Faye who wants to oust Diana or otherwise hurt Diana by letting Faye let out information that she had been seeing Adam behind her back.