"Sky and sea, keep harm from me. Earth and fire, bring my desire"

The Secret Circle Vol I : The InitiationThe Secret Circle Vol II : The CaptiveThe Secret Circle Vol III : The Powerby L. J. SmithI've been a victim of both horrible weather (40°C plus humidity and no air conditioning! Yeesh!) and the workforce (may I never have to live through another office move for as long as I live!) and so even though I have gone through a high number of books in the last 2 weeks, I have not had the chance to post about any of them.Now that I am taking the time to update and write, do you think I am going to tell you about one of the many exciting and entertaining and awful books I have gone through recently? Heck, no! I am going to write about a trilogy of books that I first read waaaay back in 1992. I was young, innocent and naive and wanted nothing more than to discover that I had secret magikal powers that would allow me to be a sorceress. That never happened of course, and although I am no longer young and slightly less innocent and naive than I once was, I still harbour the secret hope that one day...In the meantime, I live vicariously through fiction. And this particular trilogy by L. J. Smith is still on my bookshelf and is re-read probably about every two years since I first bought them off the shelf in WaldenBooks in Plattsburgh, NY. (Which, it seems, is now a Borders, in a building all on its own and no longer in the Champlain (South? North?) mall, which I actually think is shut down now... sigh.) I remember when I found this series and my breath caught in my chest and I was honestly mesmerized and enchanted right there in the back of the store. Once I started reading the books, on the dock over the water near our trailer, I was even more enchanted. Oh, how I longed to be Cassie and be the New Girl who moved to New Salem, Massachusetts and suddenly discovered that she came from a long line of witches and suddenly found herself part of a coven of teenage witches, not all of whom were exactly nice. Not only was she a witch, she was the most powerful one who ends up being the hero in the end.I was a shy, depressed teen and never really fit in with everyone else, so these books were my favourite escape from the world. I discovered two other L. J. Smith novels as well (The Night of the Solstice and Heart of Valor), which were slightly similar, in that they dealt with magick and sorcery, but they weren't from the same series. And truth be told, Smith is much more known for her Vampire series, The Vampire Diaries (a series of four (?) books about teen vampires) but I was never a big vampire fan when I was growing up. For me, it was really all about the witchcraft. I am happy to report that HarperCollins Canada seems to be re-releasing the Vampire Diaries in an omnibus format. The first two novels are out in your local bookstore if you feel you need a teen vamp fix.The Secret Circle books still hold some sort of power over me. I am enchanted each time I pick up the books, over and over again. I still chant the words in the title above under my breath when things get tough and especially if I am looking out over water. There is just something so comforting about them. It's silly I know, but sometimes the little girl dreams you had stick with you and they are always hidden there behind your heart as you grow older. When grown up things are too serious and stressful it's nice to take those dreams out for a bit and hold them in your hand and look at them through eyes that might be a little more jaded than they once were. But for that moment, you are that 15-year old girl again, sitting on the dock and looking out over the water wishing with all your heart that earth and fire will bring your desire.