Cover: The cover really did it for me, plus this is Amanda Hocking's book--the best-selling author of the Trylle trilogy.

WAKE is based on mermaid myth. Gemma and Harper are sisters who are totally opposite and yet complement each other. Harper is practical, straightforward, and a little overprotective of her little sister; Gemma is carefree, pretty, and totally in love with swimming. Everything's normal until three gorgeous girls show up. Penn, Lexi and Thea, caught everyone's attention, not just because of their beauty, but because something's eerie with them. The next thing Gemma knows, she's different. She'd become stronger, faster and more beautiful. Now she must face the decision of staying with the ones she loves or embracing her new powers in a world too dark to imagine.

The plot is good; we have the family issues, sisterly bonds and fights, developing love interest, one is complicated and the other is too innocent..:)..the unnaturally beautiful girls who showed out of nowhere, their sudden interest to our heroine, the mermaid thing. I say it's amazing how Hocking mixed all this things to arrive with WAKE.

What I love about WAKE is that we're given two perspectives, thatof Harper and that of Gemma. I actually first thought that it's just about Gemma, but as the story progress, we see a lot from Harper. We see the story unfold in 2 different ways. We're given insights into what happens on the other side. Plus, I love the romance. Gemma and the boy next door, Alex, is cute, but its Harper and Daniel's romance that greatly affect me. It's cute, funny, with enough tension and challenge for both of them.

Hocking's brought to life her characters with their depth and unique personality. In WAKE, the characters develop as the story goes on. The descriptions were vivid and mysterious enough to keep me going. Some readers might find the pacing a bit slow, but it is the first book in a series, so I believe that Hocking is giving the details we will need as the series progresses. The conversation meanwhile, is genuine and humorous.

WAKE, although a mermaid folktale, is more a tale of sisterly bond, that no matter what, a sister is a sister, it's a bond that can't be broken by differences, tastes, or myth. Creepy, beautiful with a different take on mermaid lore, WAKE ends in a cliffhanger that will make everyone crave for Lullaby---the next book in the series.