Chameleon (Ripple Book 2) - Cidney Swanson

Title: Chameleon (Ripple Book 2)
Author: Cidney Swanson
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: 2011
Formats: Paperback/Ebook

"Chameleon" is a Young Adult Urban Fantasy novel that follows on from "Rippler" which I previously reviewed here. As a little warning, I want to mention that whilst I have tried to remove spoilers, due to this being a sequel there are still some present in this review that are related to the previous novel, "Rippler".

The story continues to follows the life of Sam, the girl from the previous novel who discovered she had the ability to turn invisible, or ripple as it is called in the book. However, her life has been made even more complicated by her discovery of a secretive group of rather sinister people who are interested in tracking her down. Therefore, under the cover of a school trip to France, Sam, her friend Will, and his sister travel together to meet the mysterious Sir Walter who has been sending them information for an as yet unknown reason. Whilst in France they discover the true secret of rippling and face even more dangers that they were expecting.

I found that the story builds really well on the plot introduced in the previous novel. I really enjoyed the way in which Swanson has interspersed the novel with exerts from a journal that Sam has uncovered, which enables the reader to learn more about the villains in the series. In addition, I was engrossed as the novel delved into rippling to enable the reader to understand more about its history and the range of abilities it actually covers.

One other thing I noted was that this story moves along at a much faster pace than its predecessor. After the initial elements to recap the previous novel, the novel quickly delves into the action, mystery and suspense to the point that I found it very difficult to put the novel down once I had started reading. The way that the stakes have been raised in the story has really benefited this novel.

I don't think there was much growth within the characters but they did at least act in line with how Swanson had developed them in the previous novel. This meant that the novel could concentrate on story progression and the reader would still be able to understand the actions and thoughts of the characters without any real issue. I do have to admit that I still find Will to be a little bit bland and I still can't understand why Sam seems to be so much in love with him, but then again they are teenagers so maybe as a man in his thirties, I am just not meant to understand.

Overall, I feel that Swanson has created a book here that is more entertaining, enjoyable and faster paced that its predecessor. The character development carried out in the first novel enables the author to get straight into the meat of the story which she develops very well. If you have read the first novel and enjoyed that then I really have to recommend that you go out and pick this one up as well as you won't be disappointed.

Available at:
Amazon
Amazon UK