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:
This was one of the books of this year that I was most looking forward to. After reading the Trylle series earlier this year, I knew I wanted to read this book right away. Lucky for me, I have an amazing blogger friend Lindsay who gave me her ARC of it a little while back. I was really looking forward to this book because there aren't that many good mermaid books in YA books. I'm glad to say that I truly did enjoy this book, and that it's one of my favorite siren books out there.

Blue; the perfect color for the cover of this book. It uses the ocean for the majority of the cover and a bit of a rocky outcrop in the distance with a lighthouse on it. The sky is a simply gorgeous sunset of colors ranging from red to orange with clouds throughout, indicating a storm brewing. The large, full moon in the sky also gives the cover an eerie look due to all the mythology tied to full moons. Then there's the gorgeous typeset for the title added a nice, elegant touch to the cover, bringing it together nicely.

Gemma was a good character in the fact that she was well developed and I agreed with most of her decisions except for one (you'll have to figure out which decision that was by reading the book!) but other than that, she was an enjoyable character. Harper was a good character, too, but she wasn't very well explored. I'm sure in the next book she will get used more other than for a bit of narrating. The book was told from both the points of view of Harper and Gemma. The relationship between Gemma and Harper had the distinct fighting that often goes hand in hand with sisterly relationships. Both characters had a love interest, but I liked Harper's a lot more than Gemma's. Gemma's love interest was Alex, the boy next door that lacked a lot of personality. Harper's guy was Daniel, a cocky older guy who lived on a boat in the local harbor who would do anything for Harper. On the other end of the spectrum you had the sirens, who also were not all that explored, but I am really looking forward to reading more about them in later books. There was a whole range of secondary characters in the book as well, but even for the amount of them, they were all fairly well developed and were able to make you feel for them as much as the main characters could.

The writing was what made me want to read this book; I had enjoyed Amanda Hocking's writing in the Trylle trilogy and I knew that I would love it just as much in this book. It was the finesse that the author's writing style has that drew me in, but it was the extremely fast style of story that kept me interested.The plot was paced nicely with the only slow part at the beginning when all of the introductions happened. After that, it was smooth sailing with events immediately following each other. It was this speed that really contributed to the cliffhanger ending by making the book seem so short, leaving me wanting more right away.

This book was a great set up for the next book in the series, which I cannot wait to read when it comes out. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a mermaid book with some mythology or someone looking for a different style of paranormal book. I give Wake a 5/5.