Wake by Amanda Hocking

About the Book:

Pages: 309

 Series: Watersong #1

 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

 Release Date: August 7th 2012

 Source: St. Martin's Griffin

GoodReads Summary:

Gorgeous. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Lexi and Thea have caught everyone's attention—but it’s Gemma who’s attracted theirs. She’s the one they’ve chosen to be part of their group.

Gemma seems to have it all—she’s carefree, pretty, and falling in love with Alex, the boy next door. He’s always been just a friend, but this summer they’ve taken their relationship to the next level, and now there’s no going back. Then one night, Gemma’s ordinary life changes forever. She’s taking a late night swim under the stars when she finds Penn, Lexi and Thea partying on the cove. They invite her to join them, and the next morning she wakes up on the beach feeling groggy and sick, knowing something is different.

Suddenly Gemma is stronger, faster, and more beautiful than ever. But her new powers come with a terrifying price. And as she uncovers the truth, she’s is forced to choose between staying with those she loves—or entering a new world brimming with dark hungers and unimaginable secrets.

Review:

Gemma always loved the water. Swim team was fun and all but the real magic of swimming only appears when she's in the bay. Harper her control freak sister, knows that somethings wrong when Gemma starts hanging out with the beautiful yet utterly creepy, new girls Penn, Lexi, and Thea. Gemma herself can't really explain why these girls are so interested in her. Until she finds out and her whole world changes. In order to stay alive she has to leave her loved ones behind, but if she goes the lives of everyone around her are at risk.

I have to admit my expectations were set very high for this book after I finished, and loved, the Trylle trilogy. Okay, so to start out I'm going to go over my first impressions. (What I thought towards the beginning of the book.) Harper; I thought she was a total stick-in-the-mud-boring-as-paper kind of girl. She treated her sister like she was a naughty five year old! However, Gemma did act bratty at times. I also thought that Alex's character was a little too imperfect. Like the author couldn't show off any of his not nerdy talents?

But as I got further into the book another opinion started to form. Harper wasn't really a.... whatever I called her. She really just wanted to make up for their mothers absence. The mom! I almost forgot. Her story is so sad and it seems crazy when you put yourself in Gemma or Harper's shoes. They had a mom that acts younger than I do! By this point I had started to like Alex and Gemma. Lexi (the creepy new girl) also started to grow on me. She didn't seem as ominous as the other two girls did.

However, throughout the whole book I really liked one character..... Daniel! He was the most realistic character in my opinion. He didn't seem too imperfect or too bossy or too clueless. He seemed more aware of the world than Harper was! As I said, Alex grew on me too, so yeah, I ended up liking him a lot. 

Truth be told, the book did not really meet my expectation. The plot was very slow, and if you read Switched and thought it took a long time to get through that than prepare yourself. Additionally, the plot was really obvious. I completely new that Penn, Lexi, and Thea were mermaids, I could tell with out even reading the back! This book took longer to read than I thought it would because I sped through her other series.

I recommend this book to people who really appreciate Hocking's writing and just want a nice, slow paced, summer read. It's a great book to read at the beach! (get it?) I'm positive that this book will be popular upon its release. (It's coming out TOMORROW if you didn't notice.) So that's all folks. See you next time!