Review: Lullaby by Amanda Hocking

Gemma had to disappear with Penn, Lexi and Thea after a night of incredible violence on the island. She can still barely come to terms with her new affinity with the ocean – and the siren powers that go with it. Now she’s been transformed, Gemma has no choice but to leave all she loves behind. She swears she won’t lose her humanity, but the call of the sea is maddening and compulsive.
Harper won’t give up on her missing sister. The search draws her closer than she’d like to bohemian Daniel, but she could really use his help. They’d almost given up, until a small news item tells of a horrific murder in a nearby beach town, and Harper thinks she’s found the deadly group. But can Gemma’s curse be reversed – and what if she doesn’t want to come home?

In my review of Wake a few weeks ago I concluded that whilst I wan't blown away, I just knew that Lullaby would be much better, and I was absolutely right. Maybe it was this cover, which is really pretty (I love the dark, stormy blue sea and the red dress - so dramatic) which made me want to read Lullaby so much or maybe it's just because I wanted to see what happened to the characters (especially Daniel and Harper), but after finishing Wake all I wanted to do was read Lullaby.

I can honestly say that though it still wasn't AMAZING, Lullaby was noticeably better than Wake, maybe because the plot has finally been set up and so the pacing was so much more dramatic. On one end we have Gemma, who is now a siren and is having to battle her siren-y urge to kill people and on the other we have Harper, perfectly organised Harper who has had her perfectly planned life turned upside down. I did still enjoy reading Harper's POV much more, but Gemma was far more bearable in this book and her story did have me terrified for her.

There were characters in this book that I didn't pay much attention to in Wake but that were totally awesome, I loved Marcy with her dry humour and her open mind, she is the chaos to Harper's organised life and I loved that. Daniel remains my favorite character by far - he is such a sweetheart, but he's tough, fearless, protective and absolutely perfect for Harper. The chemistry between Alex and Gemma is more there in this book, in the few scenes where they are together, and I'm actually starting to really root for this couple as well.

Hocking manages to weave in these romantic, relationship defining scenes with the tension and the darker scenes. I love this take on siren mythology, it's the darker more terrifying side of mermaids that we just don't see enough in YA these days. (I know they aren't mermaids but hear me out here)

The ending was absolutely perfect and has me waiting impatiently to read Tidal, my heart was breaking by the last page but there was also this feeling of hope as I realised that we still have two books to go yet, anything can happen. Also, Penn's last lines in the book were extremely terrifying, I can't wait to see how THAT plays out!

Overall, Lullaby was a great second book and a definite improvement from Wake. I can't wait to read Tidal now! I hope this series just keeps getting better!