From Goodreads: 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.

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This is a very well written novel that takes place in two planes, or worlds, if you will.  The beginning half of the novel centers around Amber and her life on the human plane as she gets ready for graduation and taking the next steps in her life.  Thomas fleshes out her characters, Amber and Gabriel, during this time, making the reader fall in love with them as we get to know them on a deep level.  Having grown up together in foster care, watching them thrive and fall in love was extremely gratifying, and I really enjoyed their characters.  I especially love Gabriel. He’s a great male lead and Thomas does such a great job making him believable and real, just like she does with Amber. I loved both leads very much, though Gabe steals the show, in my opinion.

Now, whereas this novel begins on the human plane, it ends of the Estilorian plane, giving equal time to both “worlds,” though they’re not technically separate worlds, from what I understand.  It’s more like equal existences in an alternate reality, if I understand correctly.  But, regardless, the world building is epic! I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Estilorian place, and while I don’t necessarily understand everything about the plane because I’m not really scientific, I’ve believe I have good enough sense of it all based on what Thomas reveals through Ini-herit and the other characters during the transition period of the novel, and from the prequel, The Prophecy, as well.

The ending of Becoming was a little rough for me as I was convinced that Thomas was going to do something drastic to the characters, and I nearly threw the book across the room in tears.  However, rest assured, Thomas doesn’t do anything to the plot that isn’t needed, though that probably don’t assuage potential reader fears… just know the end it perfect.

I’m very excited to read the next novel in this series because I liked Amber’s sisters, but didn’t feel I learned enough about them individually as this novel focuses mainly on Amber.  But, I believe Thomas has written this series to follow a different sister in each novel while still flowing in sequence, which is awesome! I first was introduced to this type of serial style by Brigid Kemmerer’s Elemental series, which follows a different brother in each book, yet spurring on the overall plot, and it’s an epic way to tell a story. Amber’s had her turn, and while we’ll still learn about her in the next segment, the focus will move to Olivia, which makes me really excited because she intrigues me. Four stars.

I purchased this novel from Amazon.