Title: The Becoming
Author: Jeanne C. Stein
Series: Anna Strong Chronicles #1
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Strong women, Urban fantasy, Vampires
Dates read: 1st – 8th March 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Ace Fantasy
Year: 2004
5th sentence, 74th page: I replace the receiver, frowning at both the implication and infelction of his tone.

My name is Anna Strong. I am a vampire. How I became one is the reason for this story. I tell it the way it happened. It may not be what you expect.

She’s a bounty hunter – tought beautiful, and trained for the unexpected. Until the night she’s attacked and left closer to death than she can imagine. She awakens to an indoctrination into a dark new world where vampires walk among us. But this time, a tight grip on a .38 won’t stop what she’s hunting for.

Existing between the worlds of the living and the dead, Anna is torn by her love for two very different men. Max, a DEA agent, all too human, and vulnerable. And Avery, a Night Watcher who’s joined Anna in pursuit of the rogue vampire who changed her life that terrifying night. Now, as her two worlds collide, fate plunges Anna into the ultimate battle between good and evil where survival is not just for the living…

I quite enjoyed this novel. It wasn’t one that made me stop in my tracks and need to just stick my nose as far into it as I could. But it was one that I enjoyed. After I got past the very first opening scenes – rape is just not something that I enjoy reading about. Even if it was brushed over pretty quickly. It just made for an uncomfortable beginning to the story. One that did make me pause in my reading for quite a while.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Stein’s writing and world building was her subtly different take on vampires. It’s nothing outrageous such as other vampire stories I’ve read. But their gradual change, their ability to walk in the sunlight. I kind of liked the differentiation. I also liked that most of the rules of her vampire world are still not quite explained in this story… it’s all written as Anna discovers who and what she is… and then you find out that she’s being lied to a fair bit.

I was expecting a bit of a twist toward the end of the story – there were a few too many hints at the secrets being hidden throughout. Yet, even when I found out what it was, I was kind of thrown. In the best way possible. I only had an inkling of the villain and the true story just before Anna herself realises. It made it so much more intriguing, sweeter and fun.

This is a great first story. It’s about becoming a vampire and being thrust into a new world. But it barely even scratches the surface of the life Anna is about to embark on. One that I’m looking forward to reading more about. One that I can’t wait to read more about… if I can just find where I put Blood Drive in my piles of books that I want to read.

Image source: Goodreads