4.8.2025 | Tuesday

The Becoming

Item: The Becoming
Rating: 5
Author: Kim

category: Book Reviews
tag(s): adult
0 Comments

title: The Becoming
author: Nora Roberts
series: The Dragon Heart Legacy #2
published: 11.23.2021
publisher: St. Martin's Press
genre(s): fantasy
pages: 434
source: bought
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating:

| series rating:

the blurb

The world of magick and the world of man have long been estranged from one another. But some can walk between the two--including Breen Siobhan Kelly. She has just returned to Talamh, with her friend, Marco, who's dazzled and disoriented by this realm--a place filled with dragons and faeries and mermaids (but no WiFi, to his chagrin). In Talamh, Breen is not the ordinary young schoolteacher he knew her as. Here she is learning to embrace the powers of her true identity. Marco is welcomed kindly by her people--and by Keegan, leader of the Fey. Keegan has trained Breen as a warrior, and his yearning for her has grown along with his admiration of her strength and skills.
But one member of Breen's bloodline is not there to embrace her. Her grandfather, the outcast god Odran, plots to destroy Talamh--and now all must unite to defeat his dark forces. There will be losses and sorrows, betrayal and bloodshed. But through it, Breen Siobhan Kelly will take the next step on the journey to becoming all that she was born to be.

a few notes

POV: 3rd person
setting: Talamh, Ireland
keywords/phrases: family, magic, self-discovery, betrayal
tropes: high stakes, hero’s journey, medieval-adjacent, evil villain, mentor, magical creatures, training sequence
spice: 1/5 🔥
language:1/5 🤬

public reading: safe
cover notes: meh
mood reading: in the mood for sweeping epic stories with a rich setting and world-building.
bonus points: the creation of hero who isn’t suddenly battle-perfect

my review

I just love the world-building in this series, from the setting to the magic systems to the characters. I also love the emotional depth of the stories, and that the sole focus of that depth wasn’t on the romance. I know that romance is something that readers have come to expect with Nora Roberts novels, but the fact that it isn’t given the priority is something I’ve come to love about her fantasy novels, that her characters are so multidimensional with stories that involve more than romance. For me, it’s the relationships that truly make this story for me, whether those of friendship, of family, and of romance.

I adore Breen as a protagonist, love her story as she changes and grows and finds her strength. She is so determined to learn, to become stronger in all the skills she needs to battle and defeat Odran, but she never forgets to care for the people around her. I also love her determination to be true to herself, to never compromise again and who and what she is… for anyone. That’s something that’s often difficult to do in reality, so I love the empowerment of that in her character.

There’s much to love in this book, from a cast of great characters to the gorgeous setting, from the rich magic mythology to the twisted storyline, from the slow moments to the action and betrayal.

About Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the youngest of five children. After a school career that included some time in Catholic school and the discipline of nuns, she married young and settled in Keedysville, Maryland.
She worked briefly as a legal secretary. “I could type fast but couldn’t spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever,” she says now. After her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along. A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate.
Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories. During the now-famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981.
Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.
Through the years, Nora has always been surrounded by men. Not only was she the youngest in her family, but she was also the only girl. She has raised two sons. Having spent her life surrounded by men, Ms. Roberts has a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming.
Nora is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Recently The New Yorker called her “America’s favorite novelist.”