Blog Tour + Review: "The Chameleon Effect" by Joe Arden

Congratulations to award-winning audiobook narrator Joe Arden on the release of "The Chameleon Effect," his debut solo novel.

For the past eight years, Will O'Connell has been working to make it big in Hollywood, without much success. His latest frustration is the number of roles calling for "authentic" accents that are only open to actors from overseas, which doesn't seem fair to him when British and Australian actors are cast as Americans all the time. He has a talent for accents, so his sister-in-law jokingly suggests that Will try pretending to be Irish at his next audition to see what happens. He decides that he has nothing to lose, but first has to tweak his resume and name, going from Will to "Liam" O'Connell overnight. Shockingly, "Liam" books the first role for which he auditions, and suddenly his career is on the rise. Unfortunately, it's not long before he starts to realize the unanticipated problems with his plan, especially after he meets costume designer Raven Locke at his first wardrobe fitting. He's instantly captivated by Raven and she seems to return his interest, but the problem is that she's met "Liam," not Will. If he tells her the truth, it will blow his cover at work, but if he doesn't, their entire relationship will be based on a lie. Can he figure out a way to be real with Raven without jeopardizing his fledgling career?

 

This was such a fun story! I usually prefer dual-POV narration, but IMO the single-POV narration by Liam was really well done here, and we still got snippets of Raven's thoughts through the TikToks cleverly inserted throughout the story. In addition, I loved the chemistry and flirty, witty banter between Liam and Raven. They really made a great couple and I was rooting for them the whole way.

I highly recommend "The Chameleon Effect" for all contemporary romance and romantic comedy fans. It's an impressive solo debut for Joe Arden and I look forward to whatever he comes up with next.

 

*Review copy provided by the author via Wordsmith Publicity. All opinions expressed are my own.

 

 

About "The Chameleon Effect"

Lights. Camera. Action…

I've got everything it takes to make it in Tinseltown: confidence, charisma, and a killer chin. Now all I need is a chance.

But Los Angeles is full of hot, young hunks, and talent might not be enough to separate me from the cookie-cutter crowd.

Well, you know what they say: fake it till you make it.

So I devise a wild scheme to get noticed. Pretend I’m someone I'm not—goodbye Will O’Connell of Cincinnati and hello Liam O’Connell of Dublin.

‘Liam’ and his talent with accents is enough to get my foot in the door, but I never anticipated meeting the woman who has me more worried about keeping my foot out of my mouth.

Enter Raven Locke, the dark-haired bombshell who puts the ‘tude in tattooed.

On set, she's the costumer tasked with fitting my pants, but all I can think about is how to get into hers.

As my -- I mean, Liam’s -- budding career begins to heat up, so do our feelings.

While Raven pursues her passion for fashion; I chase her heart.

Our picture-perfect screenplay seems sure to send us riding off onto Sunset Boulevard… Until Raven finds out that Comedy and Tragedy aren’t the only masks I'm wearing. Our romance might be destined for the cutting room floor, unless I can salvage our story with a plot twist she won't see coming.

*This first-person, male-POV rom-com has it all: lots of heat, plenty of heart, and a Hollywood-worthy HEA.