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.
Source: Reviewer Purchase
I started a poll for my UtopYA reads back in April. Becoming was voted 2nd to read and I've been eying it for the last year and a half. I don't know why it didn't read it sooner! I've been on a contemporary kick lately and it's so nice to come back to the fantasy/paranormal realm. And what a realm it was! It started off like most of the ones that I've read. Girl is human but has weird stuff happen to her yada yada yada. You get the drill. I loved the relationship between Amber and Gabriel from the start. I always read about the bad boys, but you can't beat a southern gentleman. Yum yum lol. Amber cracks me up. I would totally hang out with her!
When it comes to fantasy, I get confused super quick. Don't know why, but I do. This book was so easy on my brain! It was so beautifully written that I understood everything. This world of Estilorians is by far one of the best world building stories that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It was alluring, fast paced and adventurous. This story is everything that I look for in my YA books, or should I say books in general. I'm mentally kicking myself for not picking it up sooner. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series. I'm sure it will be just as enticing as Becoming.
Oh, and I was just putting my post together and saw this on Raine's website. Estilorian Central where you can read up on each Estilorian class and what they look like. How frickin cool is that? Raine, you are a genius. I love it!
Raine Thomas is the author of the exciting and original series of YA fantasy/romance novels about the Estilorian plane. She became truly passionate about writing when one of her stories took an Honorable Mention in a fourth-grade writing competition (who would have thought a story about a dancing spider would garner so much attention?). Carrying that passion with her, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a focus in Creative Writing from Georgia State University, then her master’s degree in Humanities from Central Michigan University.
