Reviews

The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein

kittypoo's review against another edition

3.0

Odd changes to vampire lore along with passion leading to fade to black made this a confusing read. Can't imagine her ever being a successful bounty hunter.

wealie's review against another edition

4.0

A solid 3.5 stars, with a good narrator.

A pretty good opening novel to a series, Anna is an interesting character, independent, free thinking and intelligent, without sacrificing her feminity or becoming cliched. The big bad was a little obvious and Anna taking so much at face value didn't gel with the way she was written. A nice if not particularly demanding story, worth a listen on audible. The fact the rest of the novels and novellas are also on audible with the same narrator is an incentive to continue on.

nerdywerewolf's review against another edition

4.0

A very quick and fun read...as wonderful as it was the first time. I can't wait to finish rereading the next two so I can find out what happens next!!

mistressop's review against another edition

2.0

i love the readers voice.. it's a little husky nice


updated
-this book is so uncomfortable. it never hits it's groovy bad ass moment you kinda feel just uncomfortable with the intimacy

mzzmia's review against another edition

4.0

This was my second time reading this book and I'm glad that my initial rating still stands.

suzrae73's review against another edition

3.0

For the first book in a series this one was actually really good and kept me reading!! It definitely did not suffer first-book-itis! Anna Strong is a Bounty Hunter living in San Diego, her and her partner are going after a target, but the target turns on them and Anna ends up a vampire. Now she has to come to terms with being a vampire and she seems to be a natural. She is being mentored by the doctor who "saved" her life after the attack, but all is not what it seems with the good doctor....

Definitely recommend this series and am looking forward to the next book in the series!

beckylej's review against another edition

3.0

Anna Strong was on a routine job tracking down a guy planning on jumping his bail. But then things went bad. Anna was brutally attacked and violated. Even worse, she awakens to find that she’s become a vampire. Avery, a doctor and fellow vampire, takes her under his wing, and soon becomes more than just a mentor, but is he everything he seems? Anna knows that Avery and others are hiding secrets from her. The question is, which of her new “friends” is really her enemy? As she learns the ropes and is initiated into this new world, her loyalties to her past are tested and pushed to the limit. Now she’s on a different kind of mission, hunting the man who made her this way, and deciding which side of the line between light and dark she belongs on. Stein’s debut is the first in a series and thankfully just the beginning of Anna’s story. Although things wrap up very neatly in the end, there are several loose ends and plenty more to learn about Anna. I’ll be interested to see how her character continues to develop as the series moves forward.

chelseaj91's review against another edition

3.0

2.5 Stars!!

Anna Strong is a bounty hunter—tough, confident, at the top of her game. But when she is attacked one night in a parking lot, her life is inexorably changed. She awakens in the hospital to find she has become a vampire and her world is now the unsettling world of the undead. With her mentor, the vampire doctor who treats her, she strives to make sense of it all. But then her home is burned to the ground, and her best friend is kidnapped. Anna suddenly finds herself alone on a quest to save not only her friend, but herself as well...

I read this book several years ago and while I still enjoyed it, I don't remember a)having as much trouble getting into it and b)getting as annoyed with the book as I did.

I liked Anna, don't get me wrong. She was tough and even with all the new stuff thrown at her, she held her own. I also liked the fact that despite Avery's insistence that she let go of her mortal attachments, she never fully bought into that line.

I hated the line of "you realized you were a participant and not a victim". Whether or not her body responded to what happened with Donaldson, she was still a victim! She was attacked and raped and she WAS A VICTIM. She might have been tough and strong and everything, but that doesn't change anything. Just because her body responded to the attack and the vampire lust stuff, doesn't mean she was a willing participant.

Avery got my guard up from the beginning. He was a little too willing, and a little too helpful. And I really hated how he kept trying to push Anna to give up all her old attachments. Yes, as a vampire and an immortal being who was going to be around for a long time, she might have wanted to consider starting to let things go eventually. But, not only should she have been allowed to do it in her own time, there were also several members of Avery's group that had human/mortal attachments, so why was it so important that she suddenly give up everything?

I did feel like a couple of the characters were just...there. Like Max was there and the reason he wasn't around all the time was explained really well, but Anna kind of, well, not necessarily forgot, but he definitely seemed to slip her mind a lot more as things were moving forward. And why in the world was Michael even mentioned if he was never going to make an appearance? There was definitely some backstory to who he was but at the same time, it felt like she could have chosen literally anyone else to be her supposed ride home.

marciay's review against another edition

3.0

I like the main character in this book and I'm intrigued by the vampire world that Stein created. I'm looking forward to the second book in this series.

mountainblue's review against another edition

1.0

This is my first reread of the Becoming and it was a disaster, i could bearly get through reading it this time. It took me months to get to 60% but i really can't stomach anymore of this boring heroine, her insanely dull monologues and stream of consciousness and lack basic intelligence, extremely flat and lifeless dialogue and a plot that's even more dead than the vampires in this story. I can't believe i enjoyed this book once upone a time, but I guess it's a sign of my growth and change as a reader and that's not a bad thing.