Wake

Gemma is a star swimmer at her school on the fast track to the Olympics in a few years. She works hard and  devotes herself to her sport during the day and goes leisure swimming at night in the bay despite her sister Harper's warning that it's dangerous. The boy next door Alex is seen through new eyes and she falls for him as he falls for her. Everything is just about perfect until three very beautiful and creepy girls come into Gemma's life. Penn, Lexie, and Thea are eerily beautiful and rumors surround them everywhere they go. They take an interest in Gemma, but their dark nature and demanding attitudes put Gemma off until they force her to drink from a flask and throw her into the ocean wrapped in a golden shawl. Afterwards, Gemma feels weird and becomes faster, stronger, and more beautiful over night. She needs to find out what those girls did to her and how she has changed.

I was not a fan of Amanda Hocking's Trylle series, so I was a little hesitant to start this series. The writing improved. Even when I saw the flaws in the book, the writing kept me interested and focused on the story. Some of the characters are pretty well developed. Gemma is a great character for the most part. She's driven and smart, but her relationship with Alex seems a little too perfect. I love Harper, Gemma's older sister. She became a mother to Gemma at a young age because their mom suffered brain damage after an accident. I related more to her and liked her more because of her selflessness and ability to put her father and Gemma's needs before her own, even at the expense of her own childhood. The siren aspect is interesting and not entirely expected. They proved to be more violent and gory then expected. There are also many flaws with them.

Penn, Lexie, and Thea are mythological creatures who foolishly pissed off gods and have to suffer the consequences for eternity. Unfortunately, they are flat villain characters with no redeeming qualities. They have no facets and are simply evil, selfish, manipulative beings. I grew bored with them through the course of the book. They also have an extra stage of transformation beyond their finned form and I found it to be quite ridiculous. I get that both forms are present in mythology, but choose one or the other. Gemma is super annoying and selfish at times. She acted as one much younger than 16. Most of the plot points are pretty predicatable. The dialog is often stiff and unnatural. There are some huge passages of introspective inner dialog that could be shortened a lot and it just serves to spoon feed the reader motivations of the characters. Some of the writing is ham handed, but the main characters are much improved.

I had some major problems with this book, but it proved to be more enjoyable than her previous series. I will be continuing the series.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins