The Becoming needs a little more work to become either a fantasy or a paranormal romance. As it stands, the novel by Jeanne C. Stein sits in the middle ground with not enough erotic content to please paranormal readers and not well-developed enough characters and world-building for the fantasy crowd.

Anna Strong is a bounty hunter. She's the brains to her 6-foot, 6-inch ex-Bronco football player partner, David. David is the muscle. The only problem with that arrangement is that one night David trips and injures his head when they're apprehending a probable flight-risk -- and the accountant that no one thought was dangerous attacks Anna, raping her and ripping her throat out, then leaving her for dead. Anna awakens with no memory of the event in a hospital only to discover that attack turned her vampire. In less than 300 pages, Anna is attacked, kidnapped, her home is set on fire, her partner's attacked, she's crossed the Mexican Border under dangerous circumstances several times....

Coming from the fantasy reader's perspective the book is just not done. The issue is -- Stein's narration is mostly devoid of emotional impact. The narrative is more firmly established into "place" than "person." The "travelogue" style of narration is interesting, but all it creates are paper tigers of the characters.

Further, quite a lot happens in this one short book. Stein's introduced a vampiric society, a group of cops called "revengers" who kill vampires, a "guardian vampire" for Anna. While the pacing is fast, the narrative skims the surface.

Another editorial pass might have solved some of these issues and given the readers a better developed world with people we could connect with. Several errors, including using "palette" for "palate," could have been eliminated.