Holly's Reading Hollow: REVIEW: Becoming More by Bayli Lane

Official Synopsis:

At first it was all freedom, fun, and games for Lilly Fairfield. Being a freshman in college was supposed to create some of the best memories of her life, especially with her best friend, Lauren, and longtime boyfriend, Sander, by her side.

But the excitement begins to slip away when the people closest to her start to change. They begin moving in a direction Lilly doesn’t want to go, forcing Lilly to be faced with a decision. Should she fight for her relationships with both Sander and Lauren or move on to something different? Something unknown. Someone like…

Colton Davenport. Colton isn’t Lilly’s typical type. He's shockingly sexy with his colorful tattoos, shiny silver lip ring, and ear gauges. His smile alone leaves her breathless. Then again, she hasn’t had a specific type other than Sander. When she meets Colton she feels an automatic attraction that stuns her into utter stillness. She can’t look away, doesn’t want to look away.

Lilly must decide between a life with Sander, a life she always thought she wanted, and an unknown path with Colton.

Will Lilly make the right choices for her future, Becoming More?

**This book is a New Adult Romance - intended for a mature audience.**

Pages: 261 (Kindle Edition)

Published by: Bayli Lane (August 12th, 2013)

Genre: NA contemporary romance

My rating for Becoming More:

DISCLAIMER:

This is a biased-free and spoiler-free review. These thoughts are my own and after reading them, you might share the same thoughts or 100% disagree with me. I have not been paid or compensated in any way to write this review.

Also, if you are someone who does not like to read books with the following content, this book is not for you: sex, drugs, alcohol, language.

~

I really liked the characters in Becoming More. Despite what a b**** Lauren turned out to be, I really liked her character because in the beginning she started off as the outgoing friend, but she was a lot more dimensional than most outgoing BFF side characters I read. I loved Clarissa and Colton; they're such good friends for Lilly! I would love to see Clarissa have her own story where she finds love. :)

Lilly was annoying at some later points in the book, but I still thought her actions were realistic and "reasonable" despite how irrational her thought-process was. A huge theme of the novel is denial and trying to save what you have always known: in a relationship and in life. I've seen reviews that say Lilly was stupid and naive, but when I put myself in her shoes, really thought about how I would handle her situations as the book progressed, I too would think of excuses that would explain the current events. Lilly wasn't making excuses merely to make excuses for the ones she loved; she just didn't want to make a rash decision when it came to her relationships. Relationships are fragile things and I know I would be hesitant to write off my boyfriend and best friend within a matter of days based off of some of the choices they made. It's a hard thing to decide how much you can help your friend before saying "enough is enough." For most of the book, Lilly in her heart knew what her decision was, but I think she was wrapped up in the routine of things so by the time she finally admitted to herself that enough was enough, it was too late.

There wasn't a hardcore explanation for why Sander and Lauren changed so drastically, but what I gathered was that the possibilities of college life and the thought of being able to do whatever they wanted influenced them to the point where they went over the edge. I know a lot of the aspects of this story were instances that happened to Bayli Lane's friends so if the characters of Sander and Lauren were inspired by the stories, I can only wonder what other factors were involved in their change of behavior. There were some really amazing scenes too. The one I refer to as the cherry scene for example:

"Okay, I lied... This is my way of asking you to come to my band's gig tomorrow. Please. Please with a cherry on top?"

I liked the pace of the story and how we got to see Lilly try to solve her struggles throughout the course of the novel. All relationship issues take time to solve, and new relationships take time to bud and blossom, so I was really pleased to see things progress in increments!

"Our love shines like the brightest stars in the sky."

There was a lot of action description in this book. I personally do not like it when books describe a character's every movement (made up example: I hear a knock come from the door. I walk to the door. I open the door and there stands Sander.) so that wasn't something I enjoyed about the book. I know Bayli and her editor were on a time crunch to wrap up editing, but I think a third or fourth pair of eyes would have really helped catch all the errors I ended up catching throughout the book. I really like Bayli's stories, but for her next book, I would suggest having a few beta readers to catch and tie up any faults. :)