Introductions by C.L. Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published December 23rd 2012
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.
Introductions was the perfect name for this book. At first I couldn't imagine a whole book introducing characters... but that is exactly what happened.
Starting out knowing that Sang's home life is anything but normal, I knew this would be about saving her. When Sang meets Kato, I almost felt like she did.. insecure. He gave off a nice-guy-to-everyone-vibe almost in a big-brotherly type of way, but yet the mysteriousness is there. As Sang meets all the other boys, she seems to have time to create a sincere friendship with each of them. Each one has such different characteristics, looks, and personalities I wondered how they could all get along so well. I even fell for each of them as Sang got to know them. I found myself wanting her to get together with each one for different reasons, but found myself liking them all. All 7.
Sang's mother.. a crazy woman, punishes her for talking to people. She isn't allowed to associate with anyone so Sang has to sneak out to meet her new friends. Sang hasn't felt so free yet so tied down because she finally has friends and yet she fears her crazy mother.
I have to be honest... I TOTALLY CHEATED! After finishing this book I couldn't wait for more so I went ahead and read the next two books!! Lets just say... It gets so much better! So forgive me for taking so long to share this review, but I just couldn't help myself!
There is abuse and bad language in this book so please be mindful of letting children under the age of 16 read this.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this to review.
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