ISBN-10: 0441014569Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: December 2006
293 pgs
My name is Anna Strong. I was thirty on my last birthday, and I will be thirty when you read this. In fact, physically I will never be older than thirty no matter how many mortal years I have on this earth. I am vampire. How I became, and what is the nature of my existence, is the reason for this story. I tell it the way it happened so you will learn the truth as I did. It may not be what you expect. ~ Foreword from The Becoming
Anna Strong is a bounty hunter; in other words she is known as a bail enforcement agent. Together with her work partner, David, they are to look for a man who called himself John Donaldson who had skipped out on his bail bond. Unfortunately, the race turned out badly when David is hurt during the search and Anna ends up being attacked by Donaldson unexpectedly when she went out to look for David and Donaldson as she is getting too impatient waiting for David to bring Donaldson while waiting in the car.
The next thing she knew she is lying in the hospital bed with an attractive doctor by her side. Dr Grant Avery is concerned of her overall well being, but that is because he knew she had been turned into a vampire, and in fact he is one of them actually. When Anna came to know about it, she is shocked but she overcame this and took it quite well under the guidance of Dr Avery. With her newly telepathic skills and night vision, Anna vows to find Donaldson for revenge not only for personal reason but he is a threat to others as well.
During this time, Anna is also attracted by Dr Avery despite she is into a relationship with Max, who is mortal and a DEA agent. Their relationship is rather discreet due to his deep undercover operation, and most of the times there is no telling when she will hear from him until he gets in touch with her.
And when her house is burnt to ashes and David has gone missing, naturally her first thought goes to Donaldson but it turns out there is someone behind who is out to get her. To add on to this intrigue, there is also someone whom she dubs 'Casper' who has been helping her in several dangerous situations through telepathic ways, and she will do anything to find out everything by all means.
The Becoming is Jeanne C. Stein's first installment of the Anna Strong series, featuring this heroine from a first person POV. Having read several vampire novels in the past, I find the plot to this story original but most of all it breaks away from the traditional belief of vampires (for example, they have telepathic ability and they are not really afraid of sunlight due to long-term immunity et cetera.) There are more surprises and intrigue as compared to the action scenes in this story; and I quite enjoyed reading Anna Strong being a strong and fearless heroine. I have the rest of the installments in my pile and I definitely look forward to reading them in the near future.
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Oh no... don't get me started on another series please... LOL :p
Great review, Melody. I like the sound of the story and how will I be able to resist another vampire tale?
Hi Alice! Do start on this series, hehe. I know you won't resist these! :P
Lol. I'm with Alice! The last thing I need is another vampire series in my TBR pile...
Wonderful review as alwasy :)
Jen - Come on! I know you wanna read it... ;)
Julia - Thank you! :)
I follow Jeanne Steine's blog (because I am a fan of Mario Acevedo who also writes for that particular blog), but I haven't actually read any of her books. You do make her series sound good!
Wendy - I'll have to check out Mario Acevedo! :)
As Alice said, "oh, no"! ha,ha.. I love reading series and you know I like vampires so I'll have to keep this one on my radar. Thank you for the great review Melody!
Doh another vampire series I would like to read. I hadn't heard of this before and it's refreshing to hear it stands out from some of the others that are out there.