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Chameleon: The Awakening (The Forest People Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Maggie Lynch (Author), Maggie Faire (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 40 ratings

Book 1 of 4: The Forest People

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Camryn Painter is a 16-year-old freak of nature. Or possibly the savior of a civilization that isn't supposed to exist. She's a human chameleon... one who transforms into the image of whoever sees. Escaping from a medical research facility, Camryn discovers a magical forest world. Not that she's welcome. Her new home is filled with faeries and beasts set on destroying her. Striking a tribal alliance between what she once believed were mythical beings is her only chance of survival... if she can just control her power and figure out who to trust.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It was a delightful story that I read in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. The main character is a teenage girl who has a great deal to learn about herself in a very short period of time. Mainly that she has a destiny. But first she has to learn who she is... If you love fantasy, dragons, magic, redwood trees, the interconnectedness of all life and more read this book.
--Jody at Jan's Paperbacks Bookstore, Aloha, Oregon

From the Back Cover

No identity. That's what it's like to be a human chameleon, and sixteen-year-old Camryn Painter wonders if she'll ever figure out who the real Camryn is--or should be. Just looking at someone else will cause her body to change into that person. Her parents called it her gift. She calls it her curse.

Then Ohar, a man with impossibly good looks and an ethereal manner offers her a way to claim her birthright by joining the Mazikeen as part of the Forest People. He says she is "the chosen" of the Forest People. The prophecy indicates her powers are beyond any others and she will save their world.

Camryn had always loved the Redwoods at her back door. The stories her mother spun of its inhabitants kept her entertained for much of her childhood. The problem is the stories are real. The forest people are real, human yet not human. They are faery and beasts, evil and angels, mutations of humans and animals over thousands of years. Then there's Dagger, a young man who distrusts the Mazikeen and Ohar, but admits to being a thief and only interested in his own pleasure. All of them want the Chameleon for their own agenda.

With the help of Ohar and Dagger, Camryn learns to control her identity so that she can walk among more than one world. Yet the more Camryn learns, the more she suspects there are too many secrets -- dangerous secrets. There are no easy answers, and every decision she makes puts someone's life in danger.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CXDXMX4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Windtree Press (May 21, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 21, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4078 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 289 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.3 40 ratings

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About the authors

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Maggie Lynch
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Maggie Lynch is the author of 27+ published books, as well as numerous short stories and non-fiction articles. Her fiction tells stories of people making heroic choices one messy moment at a time.
After careers in counseling, the software industry, academia, and worldwide educational consulting, Maggie chose to make her joy of writing a full-time job. She writes books where love and justice prevail in the end. Her fiction spans women's fiction, suspense, fantasy and science fiction. Her non-fiction focuses on guiding authors to business success in their career through planning, distributing, and marketing their completed work.
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Maggie Jaimeson
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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Maggie Lynch is the author of 26+ published books, as well as numerous short stories and non-fiction articles. Her fiction tells stories of men and women making heroic choices one messy moment at a time.
After careers in counseling, the software industry, academia, and worldwide educational consulting, Maggie chose to make her joy of writing a full-time job. She writes books where love and justice prevail in the end. Her fiction spans romance, suspense, fantasy and science fiction. Her non-fiction focuses on guiding authors to business success in their career through planning, distributing, and marketing their completed works.
See more on the author's page

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4.3 out of 5

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bryan

awesome first book in a series

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2015

Verified Purchase

I just finished reading this book. I got it last year on a lark. i put it off reading for most of the year as im not yet comfy reading an ebook, its hard to put the paper books away for the digitial convience.
I am kicking my butt for that.it was amazing, I really like world concept and characters alot. picking up the next books when I get paid on friday.

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

Refreshingly different. Enjoyed the direction the Author took with the main character

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Kindle Customer

Stay tuned.......go.with the flow of the story narrative unfolds.....😁

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

I definitely liked the setting where the adventures happen e.g. Rogue river and the forest people. I 😄 can't wait for the next one in this series to become available......thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2018

Camryn is not your typical teenager since she turns into anyone she looks at. Her adoptive parents try to support her but are killed before Camryn understands what she is. Having nowhere to go, she ends up in a medical research facility where the doctors don’t seem to be intend on helping her. She escapes and makes her way to the forest where she meets several of the forest people and they all know who she is. Each have their opinions about and agenda for the fate of the forest people. Who is she to trust or believe? First impressions are not always correct.

This is the first book I’ve read/listened to by this author and I would listen to another. It’s a lovely story incorporating fae magic, fantastical creatures and other realms.

This is the first book I’ve listened to by this narrator and I would listen to another. She did well giving each character a voice. She brought out all the emotion in the story.

There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence or swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review

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Hall Ways

Intriguing premise and great series starter

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2019

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW. 3.5 STARS. To begin, my apologies for likely butchering the spelling of every proper noun in this book. They are as creative as the story itself and add to the mystical feeling of the parallel world of the Forest People.

For much of CHAMELEON: THE AWAKENING, chapters alternate between the Forest worlds and the modern world. In the former, the world is fantastical with magical settings and creatures, mysterious powers and forces, and layers of dimensions within which inhabitants roam. In the latter, the world is modern and realistic, dominated by Camryn, a teenager who better fits the magical world than the modern one – only she doesn’t realize it.

The prologue is excellent, and Rachel Jacobs perfectly narrates the rich descriptions, and builds the world for readers. Her hushed tones in the voicing of both Naconni and Thea sets the stage for a reverent love that binds them despite the codes that forbid their union within their two different societies.

“How can I keep something in my mind I don’t
understand and have never seen?”
“Faith. Faith is what you have when there is nothing else.”

The next chapter shifts readers into the contemporary world and introduces us to main character Camryn, fifteen, in full teenager drama and angst – again, deftly narrated by Rachel Jacobs. Though at first it seems this suburban setting is a normal one, it quickly slips into fantasy here, too, as Camryn’s unique abilities and powers come into focus.

“There was something different about him.”

The story continues to unfold by alternating chapters between the world outside of the forest and the world within, and these separate world stories seem a little disconnected and disjointed. But as the story progresses, there is more and more overlap as characters are crossing boundaries and worlds are colliding. Much of the collision of characters results in predictable outcomes and treads the line on cliché, but it still entertains.

“The Boha’a lean toward the dark, but not too far. They are not truly evil; just as the light is not all good, the dark is not all bad.”

There are a lot of tribes in the Forest, and the downside of reading with your ears instead of your eyes is that it is difficult to keep them straight, and it’s not clear who is good and who isn’t. Author Maggie Lynch intentionally muddies those good/evil waters so that readers are kept on their toes and must make some decisions for themselves.

There are some holes and inconsistencies in the plot and too many places where readers are given information without explanation and expected to accept it without question. Nonetheless, CHAMELEON is a good start to an intriguing premise for a series, and I am hopeful that Lynch will clean-up and tighten-up the story in the next installment, CHAMELEON: THE CHOOSING, which I won’t hesitate to read with my ears. This fantastical world is definitely worth revisiting, and I feel invested in Camryn now.

ABOUT THE NARRATION: As mentioned already, Rachel Jacobs does an excellent job voicing her characters whether male or female, tribal or modern, human, human-like, or creature. She does have a couple of mispronunciations and misinterpretations of how scenes should have been read (for example, Camryn, who speaks like any teenager does, suddenly slips into a different pattern when she meets her father for the first time). Overall, Jacobs succeeds as a narrator, is easy to listen to, and does a great job telling a story. I did bump the speed to 1.3x to get the pace more aligned with my preference (kudos to the Authors Direct platform for allowing such small increments).

Thank you to the author and to Audiobookworm Productions for providing me an audio download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. This full review and more special features on Hall Ways blog kristinehallways.blogspot.com.

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2013

Right so I finally finished Chameleon now and I wasn't all that impressed with it.

Chameleon tells the story of Camryn aka Wybune, who is the child of a Mazikeen and a Quatcho. Her mother died in childbirth and her father has been imprisoned for years. Camryn grew up with adoptive parents in the Agnoses (real) world. When her adoptive parents die, she's taken to a place called Starlight Center (some kind of asylum) where she's held until the day she's visited by Ohar, the Prince of Mazikeen, who's been sent by his mother to take Camryn back to the Forest People. But on their way they meet Dagger, a Boha'a Thief, who reveals that Ohar keeps more secrets then he's willing to tell.

First of all the story could use some serious editiorial changes, because at times it felt like the author rambled on and I had to re-read several pages to really understand what was going on. It was also incredibly fast paced, now I don't mind this, if the story is good, but it just felt like everything in the story happened to fast, without any real explanation as to why it happened and for what purpose.

The characters weren't all that great either. Camryn isn't very fun to read, even though she's the main character, she shows no true personality and she shifts from being overly formal when she speaks to using teenage slang. It's confusing. Ohar, well I just don't like him period. And Dagger comes over as incredibly bi-polar, one minute he's nice and good and the next he's arrogant, mean and rude. It's like he can't decide who he really is (Camryn is the same in that aspect, to be honest).

So with all that said. It's wasn't the worst book I've read, it had a few good points (however small they were), so I decided on giving it 2 stars in the end. Because I just couldn't justify giving it more then that.

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Top reviews from other countries

RiverR

Culturally Rich Woodland Fantasy

Reviewed in Canada on February 6, 2019

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I listened to the audiobook for this title. It was a gripping visit to the enchanted worlds of deep forest people, rich in culture, wisdom and contrasts of clans. Chameleon, Book One, The Awakening displays such fantastic depths in a great body of work and characters who constantly challenge each other. Camryn grows up in our world but, in shock, finds herself incarcerated for science. She is forced to run and choose between even more difficult fates once she can determine who and what she might be able to trust among those with strange ways and beliefs lived in the forest. I'm so impressed with all the dimensions the author takes the trouble to delve deeply into. I can't wait to hear the next in this series. I want these books in all their versions!

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Chameleon: The Awakening (The Forest People Book 1) Kindle Edition

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