Monday, October 3, 2011

Review & Guest Post: Chameleon by Cidney Swanson

Review and Guest Post of 

Chameleon by Cidney Swanson
*Rippler Series #2*
Published September 6th 2011 by Williams Press

Sixteen-year-old Samantha Ruiz has a lot on her mind. The crush who kissed her but changed his mind. The BFF who thinks Sam is in an abusive relationship. The geneticist who wanted Sam dead but now wants her ALIVE. And of course, Sam’s still dealing with a tendency to disappear into thin air.


When Sam learns of her nemesis Helmann’s Nazi-like plan to establish a Thousand-Year Reign, she’s determined to fight him. Along with Will and Mickie, Sam flees to France to meet Sir Walter—their best hope for stopping Helmann’s brave new world.
But Sam isn’t any safer in France. Someone is following her. Someone invisible. Sam will have to figure out how to hide from an enemy she can’t even see.

Guest Post by Cidney Swanson : 

Truth and Beauty


A few weeks ago in a dark movie theater watching the last Harry Potter movie, I remembered why I love to write. I wasn’t one of those who made it for the midnight viewings. I’d promised my niece that we would watch it together. (We’re both very bookish and deeply devoted to all things JK Rowling.) The promise was hard to keep; she didn't come to visit ‘til July 18th. But a couple of days after the premiere (and taking advantage of cheaper matinee pricing) we marched down to the local Cinemark.

I knew I’d be sad. I’d read a tweet by Cheryl Klein (continuity editor on later HP’s) where she compared her night at the premiere to watching your best friends getting beaten up for two hours. So, yeah, I knew it would probably be a tear-jerker. For some people.

But I wasn’t prepared.

Like many readers, I feel an intense connection to Severus Snape every time I read through the second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But I seriously wasn’t prepared for the effect that his story would have on me when presented on a really, really big screen.

From the moment Alan Rickman first walked on the screen, and without his having uttered any words, you could feel Snape's inner turmoil. It was painful, hearing him deliver that initial warning about not sheltering Harry Potter. If you’ve seen it, surely you felt what I’m talking about. How conflicted Snape was as he made those demands of all of the Hogwarts students? I got shivers.

And then the pensieve scene. Oh, I so did not see my reaction coming. I shook with tears.  And, of course, tried to do so quietly so as not to disturb other people near me. But I couldn’t stop. I think the tears started the moment I heard young Severus’ voice. So small, so earnest. So obviously over-the-top in love with Lily, his one friend in all the wide world.

And Snape’s anguish when he comes to Dumbledore knowing Lily’s been killed? “They put their trust in the wrong person, just like someone else I know.” Which brings us to the on-screen moment when Snape weeps over the dead body of his best friend, his compass-star, his one true love.

That was the moment when I leaned into my husband, took his hand, and whispered, “I want to tell stories like this—the kind that make you ache because of their beauty and truth.” He squeezed my hand back. I think he might have been crying a little, too.

Cidney Swanson is the author of RIPPLER, Book One in the Ripple Series available here: http://amzn.to/YAread on sale this month for .99!



Review : 5x5

This continues Rippler and if you haven't read that well, what the heck are you waiting for? Really great!! Chameleon finds us right after the other book left us off and boy howdy are Sam and Will stuck in some trouble... It's adventurous, exciting, and angsty *just a tad* but who doesn't like some of that? The story line just keeps getting better Love where it is going and once again .... CAN NOT WAIT for MORE!!! Great Job Cidney Great Job!!


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