The Becoming

Anna Strong, Vampire, Book 1

By: Jeanne C. Stein

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Anna Strong is trained for anything - until she's attacked one night, only to awaken in a dark world that exists between the living and the dead. Here, Anna struggles with her love for the two men who inhabit the realms of each: Max, a human DEA agent, and Avery, a Night Watcher who joins Anna in pursuit of the vampire who changed her life. 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.

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©2006 Jeanne C. Stein (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Pearlman uses subtly different voices for Avery, Anna, and Anna’s partner, David, whose kidnapping propels Anna into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. While Anna’s wry humor could be more strongly expressed, Pearlman’s delivery of the book’s suspense keeps listeners engaged. Pearlman’s even handling of dialogue, description, and Anna’s internal musings make for a fast-paced paranormal adventure." (AudioFile)

Slow.....

The Becoming: Anna Strong
I got this book during the 4.95 sale. I had just finished off the entire Mercy Thompson Series followed by the Alpha and Omega Series (in less than a week, I highly recommend them) and I needed something new to listen to. I went prowling for something new and came across this title.

The idea for this book sounded interesting, so did the characters but compared to the books I had just finished this come across as slow and boring most of the time. It wasn’t until the last 45 minutes of the recording that I was actually interested in what was happening.

This book is written in a present tense first person and I’m not overly fond of that style. The narrator seemed too even to really add any life to the text either. She wasn’t bad, just not up to the bar set by say Lorelei King, Tavia Gilbert or Holter Graham (the last few narrators I’ve really enjoyed).

I am not sure if I’ll get book two or not right now – I might because I’m interested in finding out a few things that we find out in the last say hour of the book, but I’m not overly tempted either to rush out and get it.

Rating: NOT G-Rated. Some others have stated this book is G rated, it is not – the sex is not in your face but there is enough there to give this at least a PG or PG13 rating in my book. Nothing is graphically spelled out, but there is enough there to know what has happened/is happening, including but not limited to rape.

All and all it was ‘okay’ nothing I would recommend very highly – Maybe it gets better in book 2 – not sure I’m willing to find out right now though. Try Jeaniene Frost – Night Huntress (much more entertaining imho)

Possible Spoilers below:
The Story itself sounded so cool – strong female bounty hunter gets turned into vampire during a brutal attack/rape (not overly graphically, enough so you know what’s happening/happened but not a blow by blow so to speak).

She wakes up in the hospital and it’s not until she gets home later that day that she finds out what she is becoming. Now at this point, I don’t know about anyone else, but I would certainly have a ton of questions of the guy that tells me what I’m becoming. Abilities, limits, etc and if he isn’t going to tell me, well I’m going to do some exploring on my own. How does my new “family” work – she isn’t supposed to be stupid, she was a bounty hunter and good at her job. You don’t get good at that type of job by making stupid mistakes. And certainly you trust your partner more than this lady does.
I did see the ‘bad’ guy from a mile away, I was really hoping that it would be a case of all the signs are point here, but it’s really.. but it was who you think it is from the get go. No surprise there at all.

Good Story, Great Narrator.

If you like the Parnormal Fantasy Genre (which I do), then you will like this book.

This is the first book in a series. And I am planning on buying the next book as soon as I am done with this review.

Had trouble getting interested in this one

I just about gave up on this book, but glad I made it through to the end. The beginning of the story seemed very boring to me, with her becoming a vampire and Avery trying to guide her way. Was too instructional and just slow going. I was ready to call it quits on the whole book, but thought, since it's not a very long book, I'd keep listening. Things tended to pick up with some serious mystery starting to happen. I found myself wondering who the bad guy really was, and who the heck was the helpful voice in her head. Her boyfriend is another mystery, just what does he know? Some questions are answered and some remain open for the next book or two. At any rate, the main problem is resolved, and I might go on with the next in the series. Verdict is still "out" on that.

A great vampire story

I've read alot of Vampire books and I am in love with this story. The book keeps you interested. Yes it can be predictable at times but a great listen. I've downloaded all the other books to keep going

Decent series, HORRID Narator!!

The series is good enough to interest me to continue reading, although, as some have mentioned, the heroin can be annoying in her ignorance. I REFUSE to spend my money on any more books narated by Dina Pearlman. Absolutely no voice inflection to distinguish characters and every sentence ends with a downward note. You cannot tell when Anna is talking to herself or talking to others. She made the book so aweful that I could hardly finish listening, but I don't spend my credits lightly and I felt I had to bear it out. Read this book, don't listen to it.

There are Good Things and Bad Things

I rated this book with 4 stars, but I would have preferred 3 1/2.
I'm going to get the next book. This one wasn't great enough to keep me listening all weekend, but I'm hoping it will improve. I liked this book enough to finish (and lately, that's saying something). I didn't even speed it in to double time to hurry it along.
Pros:
I like the supporting characters and I want to know more about David, Max, & Casper.
The book was fairly entertaining.
The sex was G-rated (I'm really tired of the graphic sex so that's a good thing).
Cons:
The narrator wasn't the best I've heard, but since I just finished "The Help", I don't suppose anyone could stand up to those standards.
I thought Anna was kinda dumb. Granted, she is a new vampire, but *spoiler alert!!!* coming next.......
She's a vamp in handcuffs and it doesn't occur to her to try to break them? Duh.

Loved Anna Strong!

Terrific first book of this series and I totally look forward to the next books. I loved it---the main character is more complex than most of the heroines in some other vampire series and she takes care of business when necessary which I found quite refreshing!

I was really surprised at some of the plot twists and I won't reveal my ultimate dismay at who the villian turned out to be.

Very good writing except for the G-rated, "cut to the waves crashing on the beach" type of sex. I only hope the rest of the series is a teensy bit more explicit! This is the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

Oh, and I really want to know who casper is!

And despite some other reviewers, I really liked the narrator, Dina Pearlman. Her voice has a perfect throaty tone for both male and female, and she handles the emotional content very well.

Aggressively ok

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book is fine- which is the problem. It is an essentially mediocre urban fantasy novel in the currently-trendy vampire/kick-ass female protagonist subgenre.

The protagonist is fine to listen to, but nothing really sets her apart as particularly compelling to follow and the plot does also suffer from the tendency for her problems to magically resolve themselves. Not quite Deus-ex-Machina level (well, except for one instance), but the type of situation - sadly prevalent in this sub-genre - in which a weaker protagonist magically vanquishes the (much stronger) opponent of the moment...because she just sort of wanted it badly.

Would you be willing to try another book from Jeanne C. Stein? Why or why not?

I might continue reading/listening to see if the series to see if there is anything interesting that builds after the introductory book. There are almost ten books in the series, so that should give Stein enough room to reveal a multi-layered environment. Although, one narrative tic that makes me wonder if this will ever happen is that the protagonist evidenced almost no curiosity about being dragged from a normal life into a supernatural word that she claimed not to have known about at all.

Did Dina Pearlman do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Pearlman was adequate. She did differentiate the characters, but I have certainly listened to more gifted performers.

One particularly irritating aspect of her performance is her tendency to emphasize the word

Shocked at first

Anna's attack shocked my her ability to overcome it was unnatural but once I got past that I became a lover of the book.

fun

It was a fun/fast read. However, I couldn't help myself thinking, "girl the bad guy is right IN FRONT OF you! open your eyes!" Yeah, the villain was kind of predictable..

I've read the 2nd book a while ago and was glad to have the chance to read(listen) to the first book. If you are looking for another tough heroine urban fantasy, this is good fun. I will think about getting the third book after I've read ton of other books I have to read first.