I loved the book; the story was great as were the characters! I particularly liked the mythology in the story. There were lots of great twists and turns, definitely a few things I didn't see coming. The Estilorians were fascinating and I can't wait to learn more about them. There were some great action too.

Amber was so easy to relate to and I really liked her. I loved seeing her come out of her shell and kicking some butt! Her sisters Olivia & Skye are great characters too and I can't wait to read more about them. Then there is Gabriel who I adored! But what can I say I am a sucker for the best friend. He was so cute and there were some great moments between him and Amber. There was no shortage of swoony moments, which I will admit were my favorite parts! There are a lot of other secondary characters that I want to learn more about, especially James & Caleb.

I am loving the series so far and I can't wait to read the rest! I definitely recommend it.

I loved Gabriel and really liked Amber. It was an interesting story with a slower plot that didn't feel boring to me. There were a LOT of details that bogged the story down. At first I tried to remember them as I thought they would be important, but once I realized they were not I let them slide. The Estilorian culture had too many layers with specific jobs for me to track comfortably, but that didn't dampen my enjoyment of the story.

Raine Thomas does a phenomenal job with Becoming. I began following her on Twitter and visited her website to find out more about her books. After hearing some rave reviews I bought Becoming. I was not disappointed.

You meet Amber and learn that she is a very complex person having bounced around foster homes all her young life. She finally lands a stable life with Mrs. B and the hotness that is known as Gabriel. We also get a peek at some strange 'incidents' that happen to Amber, but Raine does a great job of teasing without telling too much. Just enough to keep you flipping through the pages, eager to know more.

When Amber and Gabriel take a trip to Alaska we finally begin to get some answers, but not without more questions of course. Slowly the puzzle that is Amber begins to come together only to have the picture on the box cover change.

Raine pulls us (rather willingly) into her fantastic world of Estilorians. A race of beings that possess great power, but are not without faults of their own. The complexity of this new world was fascinating and, being the fantasy geek I am, totally drew me in.

Amber is fiercely independent and a strong heroine. Gabriel is completely swoon worthy and Amber's pillar of support. We meet Skye and Olivia who, even though they are very much like Amber (wink, wink, no spoilers here) are each adorably unique in their own way.

Becoming is a fantastic coming of age, finding yourself, sort of story with classic romance mixed in. The kind of romance that makes you sigh with envy because of the purity of it. I loved every minute of this book and would recommend it to any young reader as well as us...ehem...mature readers who enjoy a romantic tale with classic chivalry and strong young women you can identify with.

Did it rock my world? Yes'm, I give Becoming a 7.8 on my Richter scale.

The story is split into two parts - the first part was excellent. It focused in the real world and had just the right balance of action to description with an interesting plot around two great characters (and a few strong but not grating stereotypes). If that had kept up it would have been 5 stars. The second part is definitely not as strong. Despite a huge increase in descriptive detail, there are still lots of questions on the world and vision. Time would have been better spent giving an overview of the where in the story than to dwell on clothing and musculature of the new characters. But there is enough to move the story along and though you have to make some leaps it is still fun. The path came a little easily to the main character, but I enjoyed the story and her so don't begrudge that.

A solid, fun sci-fi young adult book. If you enjoy the genera definitely a great read.

I actually really enjoyed this book. The history of Amber's past and who she is was a really nice change in the paranormal genre. Although, as always, the first part was fairly slow moving. Eventually once we began to put the puzzle pieces together it all started to become more interesting.

Amber has grown up as a foster child her entire life. Every 3 years she has these "Incidents" where she begins to shake uncontrollably and nearly kills everyone around her. Because of this, she would be removed from her foster placements and on to the next. Finally she ended up in a home with a boy named Gabriel. At first I honestly didn't know what to think of him. As things progressed he became a huge part of Ambers life.

I love that this book was written in the POV of everyone. It wasn't soley based on one character and this was a really awesome change. To be in all characters heads was fantastic.

The story begins to unfold as Amber and Gabe go on a trip to Alaska where she ends up learning the truth about her surges and who she truly is. It was fascinating to say the least. How her and sisters came to be and how truly important the 3 of them really are. We learn that where they come from, feelings and emotions are not something that is used and bringing these half-human girls into their world introduces them to these emotions.

I wonder how that will turn out ;)

http://chocolatedump.blogspot.com/2012/04/becoming-daughters-of-saraquel-book-one.html

My high school best friend wrote this YA trilogy! Am super proud of her; just started reading the first one.

Rating Clarifivation: 4.5
I loved all of the books in this series and consumed all 3 in about 3 days. The world built by the author was unique and the characters were charming. The only reason I didn't give this a 5 star rating is because there was no concepts that lingered with me after they were finished. That being said, they are a fun, easy read and I will be snatching the 5th book by this author as soon as it is published.