First Kiss

The Academy: The Ghost Bird, Book 10

By: C. L. Stone

Narrated by: Natalie Eaton

Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

The time has finally come for Sang Sorenson to be formally introduced to the Academy. Protocol dictates the boys keep the details of Sang's official introduction to the Academy a secret from her. The only thing they can advise her to do is to work on what will become her mantra: She is determined to stay with her team, no matter what.

Despite her wishes, however, the boys are second-guessing her place with them, concerned for her safety. With dangers all around and threats closing in, some of the boys are questioning if this is the right time to bring her to meet the Academy at all.

Sang is challenged with being the brave face among them and instilling the confidence needed to keep her with them. However, in order to appear compliant with the Academy's rules, she has to be willing to listen and try their suggestions. As the boys have suspected and feared, the council wants to see how she'll work with a different team. An all-girl team. She has no choice but to go along with the proposal or risk losing a shot at the Academy.

But when the Academy's inner world is revealed to her, Sang knows that she's finally found her place - somewhere she belongs - and she sees a future with them. The deeper she gets, the more she sees how she can make a difference. Learning what she is capable of and the impact she can have, she feels obligated to help. There's so few girls, and they need her.

The guys try to stick to their plan, but every team must pay their debts, and the cost of keeping her might be more than any of them can afford.

It's up to Sang alone to prove to the Academy where she truly belongs - but can she resist the call of a new team that needs her?

The Academy, Inside

©2016 C. L. Stone (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Naration is horribly whiney on this one.

The others have been fine, for some reason Natalie makes everyone sound like petulant toddlers in this one. Bummer.

What happened to the narrator??

The narrator changes her voice for Sang in this one and it becomes incredibly whiny/childish/babyish. Sang sounds like a 3 year old for half the story which makes the fact that she seriously attempting a relationship with 9 guys to be extra creepy. I don’t think CL wrote the lines with that whingy voice in mind. Early audiobooks are better, idk what happened to this one...

Good story but...

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I think the narrator came off overly whiny and annoying at times.

Any additional comments?

I love this story so even though the narrator was annoying at times I still finished it.

least favorite audio

great book, but my least favorite audiobook. the reader made sang sound like a toddler throughout most of the book! I'm sure I would've read her part differently in my head. shes a teenager not 3! very disappointed. great story though

Great story, so-so narration

I didn’t like the narrator’s depiction of Sang in this story: whiney and, in some spots, as if she were about to throw a tantrum. This wasn’t my view of Sang at all when I read the book; in no spots did the author state or hint at this emotion. Very disappointed, especially since I quite enjoyed the narration in the previous books.

Great but...

I love the story and until this book, loves the narrator. However, the narration became very whiny this time. Sang was constantly voices as a petulant child and it was really distracting!

I love this series!

I love this series. The book is every bit as good as the others. The narrator did sound a tad bit whiny though which is not true to the character she was portraying. I hope #11 is released on audio soon!

Not As Bad the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Time....

I have read the this book twice and listened to the audio book about 4 times.
I know a lot of people were unhappy with the narration in this particular book in the series and I get why. The first time I listened, I didn't like it either...
The whiney baby act doesn't start getting too bad till about 1/4 in, but there are a few instances, even in the previous books that she gives her a little bit of a whine.
Sang starts becoming a lot more outspoken in this book in particular. I think spending those few weeks on winter vacation with the boys really opened her up to saying what she is feeling.
Even though I didn't interpret this newfound conference of hers as whiney when I first read it, I can see where someone else might. Sang is becoming a lot more comfortable and confident around them and she is starting to develop her own personality, which she wasn't able to do before while she was still with her parents and sister.
This is the only Audible in this series that portrays Sang in such a whiney way, so if you can't get past that while listening I would recommend skipping the audio for this one.
It wasn't so untolerable to me after the first few times hearing it but if you are the type to listen only once maybe skip it.

What happened with the Narrator

Love this series and love these characters. I really enjoy the narrator but for some reason she makes sang sound soo WHINEY. I don’t understand why. Kids beings you out if the story.

First time I found the narration a bit annoying.

Absolutely love this book! All the special moments with they guys were sweet. Glad that some issues are finally in the open and that Sang finally got her introduction.

Now, I really do like this narrator. She has done an amazing job with all the characters to this point. However, in this particular narrative I found her portrayal of Sang very annoying because of the baby talk.

When reading the book, Sang came across as irritated with Gabriel but not as pouty or whiney. It's hard to even picture Sang's character ever doing that considering the years of abuse.

Terrible narrator but otherwise a good story.

I love this book and the series however the narrator really spoilt this for me.
She made Sang into an irritating, whinging girl which I don’t get the impression of from the books.
Buy the books instead.