Amanda Hocking's Wake is starry-eyed teenager fodder

She's billed as the next Stephenie Meyer but Amanda Hocking's Wake comes vampire-free, though with a triple dose of drop-dead gorgeous mythical creatures in disguise

Wake Amanda Hocking

It's usually best to be leery of any writer crowned with the title "the next Stephanie Meyer" (by The Independent), though Wake comes vampire-free and with a triple dose of drop-dead gorgeous mythical creatures in disguise.

After the successes of the Trylle Trilogy and Hollowland, Amanda Hocking sticks to her comfort zone of urban fantasy, with Wake being the first book of her new Watersong series.

For those still wary of the Stephanie Meyer comparisons, Hocking's prose is less superfluous and her characters slightly more realistic as far as teenage fiction goes. Wake opens with the arrival of Penn, Thea and Lexi, an eye-catching trio who raise the ire of sisters Gemma and Harper because of their "creepy" presence. Despite her misgivings, Harper readily brushes them off as ordinary outsiders until they cast their spell over Gemma.

Wake ticks most of the right boxes when it comes to fulfilling expectations of its genre, being heavier on romance and action than actual paranormal activity. While that may work for Hocking's established fan-base of starry-eyed teenage girls, there is scarcely anything original to offer more jaded readers.