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Becoming
Unabridged Cassette Audiobook 8 cassettes / 12 hours long.... Narrated by Anna fields
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 12, 2005
27 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Lanigan
88 books901 followersCatherine Lanigan is the bestselling author of over thirty published titles in both fiction and non-fiction, including the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, as well as over half a dozen anthologies, including “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living your Dream”, “Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul”, “Chocolate for a Woman’s Heart”, Chocolate for a Woman’s Spirit”. Ms. Lanigan’s novels have been translated into over a dozen languages including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese. Ms. Lanigan’s novels are also available on audio-cassette, CD and on electronic format. A prolific writer, she is always writing wonderful stories. She has several titles only available in ebook format on Amazon.com Several of her titles have been chosen for The Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs. Her novel, The Christmas Star, won the Gold Medal Award Top Pick from Romantic Times Magazine for December, 2002, and has also won Book of the Year Romance Gold Award from ForeWord Magazine as well as Book of the Year Romance from Reader’s Preference. In March, 2006 Divine Nudges: Tales of Angelic Intervention and the second in Lanigan’s Angel Watch series of books, was published by HCI, the Chicken Soup for the Soul publisher.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 5, 2010
I was a little wary of buying this book, since I hadn't liked ADMIT DESIRE by the same author. But since it was only 50 cents, I decided to take the chance. I'm glad that I did.
This is the story of a battered wife learning to start over. And while the book is labeled "contemporary romance", the romance aspect of it is only a very small portion of the book. In fact, the reader doesn't even get to meet the hero until page 250! For a 400 page book, that's not very much time for a romance.
And that's where the book lost one star. The romance felt very tacked on at the end. The character of the hero was only very briefly sketched. I never really felt like I knew him. Rather than showing us their relationship, the author decided to just tell us that they are in love, a mere five pages after they meet. Sorry, but I don't find it realistic just because you say it's so! I like to really see and feel the love between the two characters. I didn't here. I suspect that the author was working under a page restriction, and couldn't develop the romance the way she might have liked to. Once I got past my "as if they could be in love so quickly without even knowing each other at all" attitude, the struggles of the heroine to learn to trust again were well portrayed.
The rest of this book was very well done. The character of the heroine was well drawn. Her motivations and fears and the way her past had shaped her was shown through flashbacks and introspection by the heroine. I also liked that the author delved into the relationship of the heroine's parents, showing how their attitudes had shaped the heroine, and bringing healing to their relationship (with each other and with their daughter) as well.
The author also did a good job of showing what had shaped the abusive husband. Not that she ever excused his actions, but she showed how violence can be passed down from parent to child without ever being preachy about it. The husband was more than just a caricature; he was a person as well. It made the heroine's struggle to be free of him while still caring for him feel more real to me.
One minor complaint I had was that I felt that the heroine's son was too good to be true. This kid never complained, never got scared, never threw a tantrum...for an eight-year-old dragged away from everything he's ever known...well, I just found it a little hard to believe. Not that I don't believe there aren't great kids out there, but at least one moment of bad temper from this kid would have made him more realistic. After all, he's only human, and a child to boot. I would have had a hard time accepting leaving my home at eight years old to live in a crummy apartment and away from my grandparents and all my friends. But that's a minor complaint.
To sum it up, this was a good book for illustrating the pain domestic abuse and alcoholism wrecks on entire families, and an inspiration to women to get out of those situations. As a romance, it was a bit weak, so if you want your standard romance novel, this is not it. However, this was still a good read, and I do recommend it.
This is the story of a battered wife learning to start over. And while the book is labeled "contemporary romance", the romance aspect of it is only a very small portion of the book. In fact, the reader doesn't even get to meet the hero until page 250! For a 400 page book, that's not very much time for a romance.
And that's where the book lost one star. The romance felt very tacked on at the end. The character of the hero was only very briefly sketched. I never really felt like I knew him. Rather than showing us their relationship, the author decided to just tell us that they are in love, a mere five pages after they meet. Sorry, but I don't find it realistic just because you say it's so! I like to really see and feel the love between the two characters. I didn't here. I suspect that the author was working under a page restriction, and couldn't develop the romance the way she might have liked to. Once I got past my "as if they could be in love so quickly without even knowing each other at all" attitude, the struggles of the heroine to learn to trust again were well portrayed.
The rest of this book was very well done. The character of the heroine was well drawn. Her motivations and fears and the way her past had shaped her was shown through flashbacks and introspection by the heroine. I also liked that the author delved into the relationship of the heroine's parents, showing how their attitudes had shaped the heroine, and bringing healing to their relationship (with each other and with their daughter) as well.
The author also did a good job of showing what had shaped the abusive husband. Not that she ever excused his actions, but she showed how violence can be passed down from parent to child without ever being preachy about it. The husband was more than just a caricature; he was a person as well. It made the heroine's struggle to be free of him while still caring for him feel more real to me.
One minor complaint I had was that I felt that the heroine's son was too good to be true. This kid never complained, never got scared, never threw a tantrum...for an eight-year-old dragged away from everything he's ever known...well, I just found it a little hard to believe. Not that I don't believe there aren't great kids out there, but at least one moment of bad temper from this kid would have made him more realistic. After all, he's only human, and a child to boot. I would have had a hard time accepting leaving my home at eight years old to live in a crummy apartment and away from my grandparents and all my friends. But that's a minor complaint.
To sum it up, this was a good book for illustrating the pain domestic abuse and alcoholism wrecks on entire families, and an inspiration to women to get out of those situations. As a romance, it was a bit weak, so if you want your standard romance novel, this is not it. However, this was still a good read, and I do recommend it.
January 3, 2016
l admire Susan for being so strong and brave for walking away from her abusive marriage to protect her son Robbie. Becoming was such a great read l recommend this book highly.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews