Title: Introductions (The Academy #1)
Author: C.L. Stone
Date Published: December 2012
ISBN: 9781481814911
Publisher: Arcato Publishing
Pages: 280
Summary
With an agoraphobic
mother and a barely-there father, Sang abhors the isolation keeping her
in the shadows. The only thing Sang craves is a fresh start and to be
accepted as ordinary by her peers, because for her being different meant
being cast out alone.
When her family moves to a new school district, Sang infiltrates a group of boys nearly perfect in every way. Grateful for an influence outside of her parents’ negativity, she quickly bonds with the boys, hoping to blend in and learn from them what it means to have a natural relationship with friends.
Only the boys have secrets of their own and they’ll do anything to keep her safe from the knowledge of the mysterious Academy that they've sworn allegiance to. Bit by bit, Sang discovers that her friends are far from the normalcy she expected. Will her loyalty change when she's forced to remain in the dark, or will she accept that she's traded one house of secrets for another?
Meet Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North in a story about differences and loyalty, truth and mystery, friendships and heart-throbbing intimacy.
The Academy, ever vigilant.
When her family moves to a new school district, Sang infiltrates a group of boys nearly perfect in every way. Grateful for an influence outside of her parents’ negativity, she quickly bonds with the boys, hoping to blend in and learn from them what it means to have a natural relationship with friends.
Only the boys have secrets of their own and they’ll do anything to keep her safe from the knowledge of the mysterious Academy that they've sworn allegiance to. Bit by bit, Sang discovers that her friends are far from the normalcy she expected. Will her loyalty change when she's forced to remain in the dark, or will she accept that she's traded one house of secrets for another?
Meet Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North in a story about differences and loyalty, truth and mystery, friendships and heart-throbbing intimacy.
The Academy, ever vigilant.
Rating & Review
Okay, so you've read the blurb for the book. You know that it's about this girl named Sang who has this mom with this issue, her dad is never there, she's alone - almost completely isolated and then she meets these dudes.
I know, I know. You already know all of that ... I'm just trying to waste a little time before I jump into this because I really have no idea where I'm going to start or where this will end up, for that matter. I have such mixed feelings about this one and I just can't quite put my finger on why.
I'm going to try to not give anything away about the book but there are some things that I have to discuss because they really bother me and it's not like it's some secret. But at the same time, I can't really give that much away because I really ... have NO FREAKING CLUE as to what in the world is going on in this book. Hopefully I can put some of that into words today. Fingers crossed. Cross yours too ... I'll probably need it.
So right off the bat, there is this really weird child abuse going on in Sang's home. I'm talking ... WEIRD. SHIT. I had to actually put the book down because it really bothered me. That and I had to do a little checking up on the author to see if they looked and sounded like they were just bat-shit crazy because this abuse is just ... messed up. So horrible. And it seemed like a lot to take in for a young adult novel. Now that could be because I'm a mom and I just couldn't imagine that kind of thing happening to our boys, let alone by my hands or maybe it's because I want our kiddos to stay innocent and free from these types of horrors. Who knows, but there it is.
Moving on ... then the boys in the novel come into play. And there are quite a few. I mean, it started off as one dude hanging around her and then it was three and before you know it ... Holy Lord ... there are nine dudes climbing out of this hot guy clown car. Well, there wasn't really a clown car ... I'm trying to give you a visual ... these hot guys just kept coming out of no where. Now, I have no problem with that. If I were a single, high school girl and all of these amazingly built, sweet, smart, hot guys kept wanting to hang out with me ... AWESOME. But it felt like it was a bit much. Especially with the hair brushing, cuddling and clothes.
I really had no idea where the story was going to go from one chapter to the next. It had some surprisingly awesome twists and turns that I loved. But. And this is a big ol' badonkadonk: I had no clue as to what the motivation behind the story was. Why was this story being told? Why did all of this matter? I mean, the abuse mattered ... that needed to stop ... but why were the guys fawning all over her? Why is this girl so damn important?!?!?
I'll leave you to answer those questions after you've finished this one. I must admit ... I finished this book and immediately bought the second in the series. Then the third. And the fourth. I was pretty ashamed of myself ... I had absolutely no self control when it came to reading this series. I just had to have the next one. Dude, I would have sold a kid on ebay to read the next in the series. Thank goodness it didn't come to that! As it stands, I have to wait for the next book in the series because I read all of them. You know how when you eat your favorite dessert and you gobble it up so fast that you don't know where it went and you wish that you could have that first bite back again? Yeah. This book is one of those.
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