Chameleon (The Ripple Trilogy Book 2)

Cidney Swanson Website

Book Details: Written by Cidney Swanson. Publication September 1st, 2011. 297 Pages. You can purchase a hard copy or digital copy at Amazon.

Synopsis of Chameleon: Chameleon begins in the journal of Helga, discussing her brother, Hans’s, assignment to kill Samantha and her mother when she was a little girl. Rippler ends with Sam meeting both Helga and Hans and discovering that Hans was the man that killed her mother. Sam goes back to tell Will and Mick, spooking Mick in to packing up and trying to leave town. Mick ends up totaling her car in the process of leaving and promises she will stay to help Samantha figure out why Hans and Helga are after her. 

Awaiting their school trip to France during winter break, Will and Sam go back to Helga’s lab where Sam narrowly escaped at the end of Rippler. Will and Sam are in search for more of Hellmans’ journals, who is the leader of a secret organization killing people with the Rippler gene and also father to Hans and Helga. What they find instead is one of Helga’s journals discussing all of her fathers’ experiments. Barely making it out of the lab once again they are glad to be traveling to France to meet Sir Walter an individual they have been in correspondence with.  Sam, Will and Mick find out that Sir Walter also has the Rippler gene and is over 600 years old.  Sir Walter explains to them that when invisible or in the “chameleon” form you do not age or need to eat or sleep either. Sir Walter leads them around France showing them the sights while also informing them of Hellmans’ plans.

Helga knows about their trip to France and sends on of her lackeys to kidnap Sam.  Sam is taking a cab ride back to the hotel by herself when she is grabbed and taken invisibly to an underground tunnel in France. Ivanovich and Deuxieme are one in the same person with split personalities, he has orders from Helga to take samples of Sam’s blood for further observation. Sam is so worked up that she cannot ripple to get away until finally knocking out Deuxieme and escaping back to her friends.  Gwyn, Samantha’s best friend who is also in France on the school trip sees Sam all beaten up and demands answers before she calls the Police. Sam decides it is time to show Gywn what is going on and why she was kidnapped.  Everything calms down a few days later and Sir Walter decides to take Samantha and Will to his original home which is now in ruins. While there, Helga appears with Ivanovich ready to steal away with Sam. Shots are fired and people die.  Will and Mick stay in France under the protection of Sir Walter while Sam travels home to be with her family.

My Thoughts: Love this series so far. Sir Walter is my new favorite character, I love when a book has a character from a different time period! It adds history to the plot and I love when books discuss different time periods. Sam is still pining for Will throughout the whole book until she finally kisses him to help her ripple and asks him why he kissed her back. They declare their love for each other right before Sam has to fly back to the states. Very disappointing. There is so much going on is this series it reaches across time and continents to give you a very interesting and enjoyable plot. I am really enjoying this series and cant wait for the next one!!