Original Publication: 1991

The first book introduces the reader to Elena Gilbert, a popular and beautiful high school student in the small town of Falls Church, Virginia, and her friends Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt, along with Caroline, Elena’s old friend who now is her competition. As their senior year begins, Elena pursues the mysterious new guy in town, Stefan Salvatore. Stefan’s resistance is met with Elena’s determination, and she eventually discovers his secret: that Stefan is a centuries-old vampire. As Elena and Stefan fall in love, strange attacks begin to happen in the town while a dark and seductive stranger appears to Elena. He is eventually revealed to be Stefan’s older brother, Damon. In Renaissance Italy, the brothers both fell in love with a young vampire named Katherine, who later committed suicide after the two brothers turned against each other. They fought for her love and she decided to choose them both as lovers and exchanged blood with them. Fueled with rage, the brothers killed each other but woke up as vampires. The Awakening ends with Elena seeking out Damon whom she believes to be the prime suspect for Stefan’s disappearance after the townspeople begin to suspect the latter to be behind the recent murder of the school’s social studies teacher during the Halloween Haunted House, and the strange attacks.