Book excerpt: "This is a really, really good book. Anna is a great character, Stein's plotting is adventurous and original, and I think my readers would have a great time with THE BECOMING. Best of all, Stein is writing a sequel." --New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris "With plot twists, engaging characters and smart writing, this first installment in a new supernatural series has all the marks of a hit. Anna Strong lives up to her name: equally tenacious and vulnerable. She's a heroine with the charm, savvy and intelligence that fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Kim Harrison will be happy to root for. If this debut novel is any indication, Stein has a fine career ahead of her." --Publishers Weekly My name is Anna Strong. I was thirty on my last birthday, and I will be thirty when you read this. In fact, physically I will never be older than thirty no matter how many mortal years I have on this earth. I am a vampire. How I became one and the reason for my existence is the reason for this story. I tell it the way it happened so you will learn the truth as I did. It may not be what you expect . . . Anna Strong is a bounty hunter--tough, confident, at the top of her game. But when she is attacked one night in a parking lot, her life is inexorably changed. She awakens in the hospital to find she has become a vampire and her world is now the unsettling world of the undead. With her mentor, the vampire doctor who treats her, she strives to make sense of it all. But then her home is burned to the ground, and her best friend is kidnapped. Anna suddenly finds herself alone on a quest to save not only her friend, but herself as well . . .