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Brightling Becoming
Kissing Amanda
This book contains R rated material and is not intended for people under age eighteen.
I was staring at the ground when she spoke, and I felt my body respond and draw toward her as if each of my cells wished to reach across the space between us and join hers. What was she asking me? I lifted my head and my eyes found hers. I licked my lips, hoping, yearning, needing a kiss.
“May I carry your books?”
When Kate Portal realized she had a knack for picking partners with rough edges, she decided to stay single. But when captivating, smooth Amanda Knight approaches her, Kate is inexplicably drawn to her. Even when Kate fears she is losing her mind just as her mother had, she is unable to turn Amanda away.
And when Amanda tells her they are soul mates as well as Brightlings – beings with supernatural powers that battle the evil Darklings; a battle that has gone on for centuries – Kate has to decide if she will return to the boring life of a student or embrace the supernatural and continue kissing Amanda.
Gripping and provocative, Kissing Amanda is a fast-paced, romantic fantasy that will keep you in its grip until the final page and beyond.
I was staring at the ground when she spoke, and I felt my body respond and draw toward her as if each of my cells wished to reach across the space between us and join hers. What was she asking me? I lifted my head and my eyes found hers. I licked my lips, hoping, yearning, needing a kiss.
“May I carry your books?”
When Kate Portal realized she had a knack for picking partners with rough edges, she decided to stay single. But when captivating, smooth Amanda Knight approaches her, Kate is inexplicably drawn to her. Even when Kate fears she is losing her mind just as her mother had, she is unable to turn Amanda away.
And when Amanda tells her they are soul mates as well as Brightlings – beings with supernatural powers that battle the evil Darklings; a battle that has gone on for centuries – Kate has to decide if she will return to the boring life of a student or embrace the supernatural and continue kissing Amanda.
Gripping and provocative, Kissing Amanda is a fast-paced, romantic fantasy that will keep you in its grip until the final page and beyond.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 28, 2013
10 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
E.A. Fry
11 books4 followersElizabeth Fry
The observer in me has always been fascinated with the things I don’t see with my eyes. I decided to make a living from it. I write fantasy fiction that allows others to see the great colorful movies that stream constantly across the eye of my mind. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Elizabeth Fry graduated college from University of Missouri in St. Louis with a degree in Secondary Education in English. Following graduation, she joined the teaching field as a teacher for students in At-Risk situations.
Her current book of short stories, The Beastliness of Beauty - A Collection of Pieces and Parts, includes stories ranging from a mythical file room that keeps track of each person's emotional life to the trauma suffered by a small child who witnesses her father's death.
Kissing Amanda, Book One of the Brightling Becoming series, is a fantasy/romance about two lesbians who meet in college, fall in love and fight against the Darklings for the good of mankind.
Elizabeth currently lives in Troy, Missouri, with her partner, Amanda.
Elizabeth is the youngest of nine children, and was born in Chicago, Illinois, during the blizzard of 1966, and, as a result, adores snow. She jokes that her family puts the "funk" in dysfunction, and she loves hanging out with them. Writing from a young age, her siblings and Mother were not only her first audience, but her first characters. At nine, she created a comic strip starring her older brother and herself to convince her mother being babysat by the family dog would be a more acceptable alternative than her big brother. The comic strip was a dismal failure as her mother continued to go to work. Despite being left in the precarious care of her siblings, she counts them, her three daughters, and the entire gang's passel of children as her best and closest friends. This gang, if found, will likely be gyrating and dancing erratically while attempting to harmonize to great music. Do not attempt to stop them -- just join in.
The observer in me has always been fascinated with the things I don’t see with my eyes. I decided to make a living from it. I write fantasy fiction that allows others to see the great colorful movies that stream constantly across the eye of my mind. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Elizabeth Fry graduated college from University of Missouri in St. Louis with a degree in Secondary Education in English. Following graduation, she joined the teaching field as a teacher for students in At-Risk situations.
Her current book of short stories, The Beastliness of Beauty - A Collection of Pieces and Parts, includes stories ranging from a mythical file room that keeps track of each person's emotional life to the trauma suffered by a small child who witnesses her father's death.
Kissing Amanda, Book One of the Brightling Becoming series, is a fantasy/romance about two lesbians who meet in college, fall in love and fight against the Darklings for the good of mankind.
Elizabeth currently lives in Troy, Missouri, with her partner, Amanda.
Elizabeth is the youngest of nine children, and was born in Chicago, Illinois, during the blizzard of 1966, and, as a result, adores snow. She jokes that her family puts the "funk" in dysfunction, and she loves hanging out with them. Writing from a young age, her siblings and Mother were not only her first audience, but her first characters. At nine, she created a comic strip starring her older brother and herself to convince her mother being babysat by the family dog would be a more acceptable alternative than her big brother. The comic strip was a dismal failure as her mother continued to go to work. Despite being left in the precarious care of her siblings, she counts them, her three daughters, and the entire gang's passel of children as her best and closest friends. This gang, if found, will likely be gyrating and dancing erratically while attempting to harmonize to great music. Do not attempt to stop them -- just join in.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 29, 2014
I am a touch puzzled by the outpouring of five-star-ratings for "Kissing Amanda", as it is not a good book.
The premise is fairly simple, and fun when executed well: two people, bound together by fate/destiny/whatever, find themselves battling the forces of Evil. The main character goes on a journey of life, love, and contemplates happiness while growing as a person and into an adult. In this particular case, and happily, the main characters are helped in their quest against the Baddies by their supernatural natures, which frankly should be pretty awesome.
This book comes unstuck however, in how jerky the development of nearly everything is. The plot and relationships both suffer severely from the uneven pacing. It's like everything sticks endlessly on a minor certain point while the resolution to more important conceits move bewilderingly quickly. The novel never really unfolds the two characters and their relationship, leaving it feeling half-baked.
On that note, the author clearly wishes to leave the audience invested in the mystery, and therefore makes Amanda frustratingly poor at explaining anything. This backfires seriously; Amanda often appears to deliberately leave her supposed true love, (who happens to be also a powerful yet ignorant ally) only just enough information to totally piss her off, without developing anything useful for either her or the reader.
I truly did want to like this book; it should have been a fun, easy read suitable for teens and pandering to a desire for fluff. Instead it is blocky and difficult.
I cannot recommend this book.
The premise is fairly simple, and fun when executed well: two people, bound together by fate/destiny/whatever, find themselves battling the forces of Evil. The main character goes on a journey of life, love, and contemplates happiness while growing as a person and into an adult. In this particular case, and happily, the main characters are helped in their quest against the Baddies by their supernatural natures, which frankly should be pretty awesome.
This book comes unstuck however, in how jerky the development of nearly everything is. The plot and relationships both suffer severely from the uneven pacing. It's like everything sticks endlessly on a minor certain point while the resolution to more important conceits move bewilderingly quickly. The novel never really unfolds the two characters and their relationship, leaving it feeling half-baked.
On that note, the author clearly wishes to leave the audience invested in the mystery, and therefore makes Amanda frustratingly poor at explaining anything. This backfires seriously; Amanda often appears to deliberately leave her supposed true love, (who happens to be also a powerful yet ignorant ally) only just enough information to totally piss her off, without developing anything useful for either her or the reader.
I truly did want to like this book; it should have been a fun, easy read suitable for teens and pandering to a desire for fluff. Instead it is blocky and difficult.
I cannot recommend this book.
February 16, 2014
2.5 stars, but I feel it's worthy of rounding up rather than down.
I wanted to love this book. I really did. Don't get me wrong I did like it and there were aspects of Kissing Amanda that I truly enjoyed, but I just found it lacking in certain spots. The premise of 2 people being soulmates and finding each other is nearly always lovely to read about. Add in the fact that they are both supernatural beings, but one does not know what she is and she soon must face off against an evil she just learned exists and you can color me intrigued.
The two main characters of Kissing Amanda are Kate and Amanda. Kate is the Brightling who doesn't even know what a Brightling is and Amanda knows who and what she is and had come to finally link with her soulmate and start battling the evil that is the Darklings. While there are things I enjoy about these two characters separately, I do not buy them as a couple let alone a couple that is destined to be together. They just didn't mesh for me. I felt no real chemistry other than what I was told they felt or what they verbalized to each other. It was weird. Especially, considering that they are a lesbian couple, and while literature is expanding to include gay/lesbian couples as main characters, I simply felt there could have been so much more to them and their relationship to make it feel more believable. The other characters while only present for short periods of time thus far, needed fleshed out more for my taste in reading, but they were interesting enough to make me want more, which says a lot.
The action and supernatural elements were well done. I rather enjoyed reading about some of Kate's training on how she is to access her abilities. Of course then she is really put to the test by being confronted by a Darkling or two who know what they are doing. Darklings have the ability to take on a smoky form if they are very powerful Darklings. This added a creep factor that I greatly look forward to more of.
Now, I will admit I do have a bit of an issue with trilogy's because many times I feel a trilogy could formatted into just one book or maybe 2. The first book is always the getting the ball rolling for the main storyline and introducing your characters, which I get, but if not done well it can come off as rather boring to a reader who knows that they will get to the end merely to find out they have to wait for book 2. Kissing Amanda is not boring, but it definitely makes me happy knowing that I have book 2 waiting for me to read now rather than 2 months from now, because again, while I enjoyed the story/characters quite a bit, I do not know if I would have it in me to wait 2 months and for book 2 and then 3 after that.
Ultimately, Kissing Amanda was a fun read that I have no problem continuing further into the trilogy and definitely feel is worth reading, but for most readers I would suggest waiting until the whole set it out and picking them up together so you do not have to wait between books. I will be starting book two Missing Amanda very soon, so look for that review to come with additional thoughts on how the two books work together.
I wanted to love this book. I really did. Don't get me wrong I did like it and there were aspects of Kissing Amanda that I truly enjoyed, but I just found it lacking in certain spots. The premise of 2 people being soulmates and finding each other is nearly always lovely to read about. Add in the fact that they are both supernatural beings, but one does not know what she is and she soon must face off against an evil she just learned exists and you can color me intrigued.
The two main characters of Kissing Amanda are Kate and Amanda. Kate is the Brightling who doesn't even know what a Brightling is and Amanda knows who and what she is and had come to finally link with her soulmate and start battling the evil that is the Darklings. While there are things I enjoy about these two characters separately, I do not buy them as a couple let alone a couple that is destined to be together. They just didn't mesh for me. I felt no real chemistry other than what I was told they felt or what they verbalized to each other. It was weird. Especially, considering that they are a lesbian couple, and while literature is expanding to include gay/lesbian couples as main characters, I simply felt there could have been so much more to them and their relationship to make it feel more believable. The other characters while only present for short periods of time thus far, needed fleshed out more for my taste in reading, but they were interesting enough to make me want more, which says a lot.
The action and supernatural elements were well done. I rather enjoyed reading about some of Kate's training on how she is to access her abilities. Of course then she is really put to the test by being confronted by a Darkling or two who know what they are doing. Darklings have the ability to take on a smoky form if they are very powerful Darklings. This added a creep factor that I greatly look forward to more of.
Now, I will admit I do have a bit of an issue with trilogy's because many times I feel a trilogy could formatted into just one book or maybe 2. The first book is always the getting the ball rolling for the main storyline and introducing your characters, which I get, but if not done well it can come off as rather boring to a reader who knows that they will get to the end merely to find out they have to wait for book 2. Kissing Amanda is not boring, but it definitely makes me happy knowing that I have book 2 waiting for me to read now rather than 2 months from now, because again, while I enjoyed the story/characters quite a bit, I do not know if I would have it in me to wait 2 months and for book 2 and then 3 after that.
Ultimately, Kissing Amanda was a fun read that I have no problem continuing further into the trilogy and definitely feel is worth reading, but for most readers I would suggest waiting until the whole set it out and picking them up together so you do not have to wait between books. I will be starting book two Missing Amanda very soon, so look for that review to come with additional thoughts on how the two books work together.
March 7, 2015
I wanted to like this story, the main premise was interesting and at the start I liked both leads. As the book wore on though that got harder. Mostly because the premise set up that Amanda and Kate were 'soulmates' fated to love each other but the last two thirds of the book have them mistrusting each other all the time. Kate is constantly running from Amanda. Amanda doesn't trust Kate's instincts. I've never read a book where one of the leads calls the other one a bitch (and means it) so many times.
Also the whole Darklings/Brightlings plot was convoluted and by the end I didn't care what happened to them, which isn't good in a story that's the first part of the series. I won't be reading 'Missing Amanda' I'll be 'Skipping Amanda' instead.
Also the whole Darklings/Brightlings plot was convoluted and by the end I didn't care what happened to them, which isn't good in a story that's the first part of the series. I won't be reading 'Missing Amanda' I'll be 'Skipping Amanda' instead.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews