The Academy: Introductions (Book 1, Ghost Bird Series) by C.L. Stone

Every once in a while, I come across a book I truly cannot put down, Introductions was just such a book. There was not one dull moment from the first page to the last. A simple desire to prove her mother's warnings that the world is out to kidnap, rape, and/or murder her drives Sang Sorenson out of her house late one night and into the pouring rain. Her goal, spending the night in an unoccupied house on her street, is derailed when an unknown neighbor's dog runs her down. So begins her introduction to a very special group of boys and her own confused awakening and introduction to the wider world.

Stone is absolutely an excellent storyteller. Rarely have I come across a book that captivated me so quickly and thoroughly. As she says in her "cheat sheets," this is a very slow moving story. The first book takes place during the last week of summer prior to the start of school. If you're wondering whether anyone can find much to write that only covers a week's time, yes. She can and she does. While the timeline of the story may move slow, that by no means indicates the story itself is slow.

As much as I love the story, the same cannot be said of the book. Yes, there is a difference. The story is the creation of the writer's imagination. The book, however, is the finished product, more on that in a moment. Her characters have a depth to them I've seldom seen in Young Adult stories. The trials she places in Sang's path show how fully she understands her audience. She takes a fifteen year-old girl raised in an emotional vacuum and thrusts her into the midst of seven boys with an exceptionally tight friendship. There are secrets that they can't share, but which she brushes aside having secrets of her own.

As for the book itself, the quality of Stone's writing far surpasses the quality of the editing. Several errors made it past all of her beta readers and editor. Interestingly, there are no spelling errors. This leaves me thinking that either the author has excellent typing skills, or someone used spellcheck. Having said that, some of those non-misspelled errors are words that are incorrect, others are wrong word choices for the place in which they are used.

Had this book received the editing that matched the quality of the author's writing, I would have gladly given her five stars. However, because of the errors, I can only give this book three stars.

This book is available at Amazon (US, UK, CA, AU), Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.