Wake by Amanda Hocking

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Tor (16 Aug 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1447205723
• ISBN-13: 978-1447205722
• 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.

Cover:  I love the vibrant blue of this cover.  I love that it's a relevant cover.

I've heard so many great things about Amanda Hocking.  How her books are such a success story, how successful she has been because of self publishing and the ebook.  So I've wanted to read some of her books for a while, having had this one and her Trylle trilogy on my shelf for over a year.  I finally picked this one up as part of a buddy read.

I had high hopes for this one.  I love mermaids/sirens etc, but had only read one other book about them.

I found this sooooo slow.  I struggled with it.  It's just over 300 pages.  Normally this would take me no more than 3 days to read.   It took me a week.  A sure sign that my enjoyment level was low.

I found the first 100 pages really repetitive.  It just seemed like 'ooh there's those 3 girls.  They give me the creeps.  Didn't there use to be four of them?'

Over, and over.  That made up a third of the book!

The event mentioned in the synopsis, Gemma waking up groggy and knowing something is different...yeah takes 100 pages to happen.  

Basically for me it had great premise, but it took to long to kick in.

Gemma... I never felt for her as a protagonist.

Harper, I really liked her character.  How she's basically taken the place of their mum.  Has a lot of responsibilty.

Daniel...ahh I loved him.  He was the highlight of the book for me.

Over all it wasn't a bad book.  I did enjoy the humour through out, and the basic plot was sound.  The main issue for me was pacing.

I would definitely continue the series, but it's not one I'm in a rush to.

3/5 stars.