Review: Becoming by Raine Thomas

Every three years, Amber Hopkins explodes. Okay, not a blown-to-smithereens explosion, but whatever it is always hurts like hell and leaves her life a shambles. She’s already worked her way through five foster placements, and she’s doing whatever she can to avoid getting blasted into a sixth.

As her eighteenth birthday approaches and she feels the strange and powerful energy building, disaster looms. When the inevitable explosion occurs, her life gets its biggest shakeup yet. She’ll not only learn how her fellow foster and best friend, Gabriel, really feels about her, but she’ll discover that she isn’t really without family.

To top it all off, she’ll finally find out why she’s having the power surges: she isn’t entirely human.

Amber must Become, transitioning to another plane of existence and risking the loss of the most important relationship she’s ever had. Her choice will impact the future of an entire race of beings, and will pit her against an enemy that will prey upon her doubt to try and take her very life.

Kind of makes the explosions now seem like a cakewalk

    Amber is your anything but average teenager. A foster child with crazy 'surges' every 3 years her life is anything but normal. Luckily she is in a good home, and her best friend is fabulous! But life isn't what it seems for Amber, and within a week of graduating she finds out she isn't who she thinks she is.
     Before I even started Becoming, I knew I would love the book. After finishing I was not disappointed. Raine Thomas did a brilliant job introducing a new world and concept in her novel. Becoming introduces the reader to the world of the Estilorians and let me tell you it is intense. With a war looming, powers booming, you will be on your toes while reading! Not the characters, but YOU will be up on your toes!
     The romance aspect was short and sweet in build-up. The romance was a huge aspect, but the part where boy meets girl and the relationship builds is quite different. Gabriel and Amber are already best friends, so the coming together of their relationship was short. Yet it was crucial to the story. Once you read Becoming you will understand what I mean. Besides the romance and plot, the characters were so well created.
     Each character was well defined, and the first person character switches really helped create depth in everyone. I'm not going to reveal exactly who everyone is; that would just ruin all the fun! Overall the novel is fast paced, and too the point. There is the right amount of detail where you feel the book is never ending, and it's not too little where you crave for more. The Epilogue was a solid ending. Very closed and finished, yet still open ended.
     If you want something new, fast paced, and  unexpected you bust check out Becoming by Raine Thomas. It has the romance, the adventure, the sci-fi, and a great plot which keeps everything awesome together. This is one book, readers will not regret! I would give this book a rating of 4.5/5. Becoming can be found in e-book format on Amazon, Smashwords, and B&N, and you can also order a print copy off of Amazon.
   
~Fishy >O