Meeting Sang: Owen

The Ghost Bird #1.9

by C.L. Stone

The Academy: Ghost Bird series in a different look at the very beginning. Read Introductions with a whole new perspective—the boys'.

Mr. Blackbourne had never seen his team in such disarray as of this past week. Incomplete tasks. Willing to give up Academy jobs and favors they desperately needed. Not only were the other members of his Academy team completely distracted, they were keeping secrets.

Among a team like theirs, secrets were unacceptable. 

And when Dr. Green finally introduced him to the core of their distraction, a young woman with haunted green eyes...

Devastatingly beautiful. Extraordinarily kind.

And something terribly wrong that no one wanted to name, but it felt all too familiar.

Within moments of meeting Sang, priorities were already shifting, for the team, for himself. Walking out on jobs. Making room for her in their already busy schedules.

Mr. Blackbourne should have known their fates were sealed the moment Miss Sorenson walked in— including his own.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary

60 pages, ebook

Published December 25, 2024

About the author

C. L. Stone likes :chocolate_bar: and #findingburiedtreasure. Her books are about :revolving_hearts: and @dark_themes and #chocolatechippancakes.

If lots of book boyfriends scare you...run. Run now.

Reviews

[Lia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was slightly disappointed by this one. Owen is my favourite, but his POV in the 2nd Ghost Bird book (epilogue) was more detailed and interesting than this book. Also, I was hoping this would at least reach their violin class timeline, as I was starved to read more of his thoughts on Sang as initially he was kept in the dark about her situation. Still, I was grateful for this book because I really miss Sang and her boys and have been waiting for "Ties Left Unsevered" since forever 😊

[Alicia]

This took me a ridiculously long time to finish (nearly a week) because it just did not appeal to me. At all.
I had completely forgotten about that hotel brother/sister bit. How long has it been since anything has been mentioned about them? Five years? Last I recall it was about people in masks and the school is getting nowhere, and it just reiterates how pointless all of the books in this series have been.
Sang is practically non-existent in here, and it did feel more useful as a Scarab Beetle extra than a Ghost Bird one.

[Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars.

this was the alternate beginning novella i had been looking forward to the most. and it had its moments. unfortunately, it only contained a few scenes related to sang, and a lot related to things i cared little about.

my favorite moments were when sang and mr blackbourne met and the scene where mr blackbourne is in kota's room.

there were a lot of little gems hidden throughout this. we see how distracted by sang the team is, how little they care about other things, how kota (the most responsible and reliable of the boys; the team lead) stands up to mr blackbourne in order to be there for sang... this is a side of kota that i absolutely adore. he sometimes comes across as a bit too buttoned up, a real rule-follower. so i love seeing how his infatuation with sang makes him lose sleep, develop borderline stalker behavior (it's cute, i swear), and disregard other obligations.

the reason im not giving this a higher rating atm, though, is that a looot of pages go by about the motel, dr green's phone, wil, etc. etc., and it's just not as interesting to me as mr blackbourne and sang. but it was still worth reading.

[Melanie (words.aremagic) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to get inside Owen’s head for a while. I have really enjoyed reading these novellas to see all of the guys perspectives when it comes to meeting Sang and it’s sad this is the last one. I shouldn’t have been surprised by how analytical this particular one was, because that’s just who Mr. Blackborne is. Although I would love to know the story behind Dr. Green’s comment. Either way, now it’s time to just hang out and wait for the next book in the series to be released.

[Esmeralda Overweg · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book from 1 of the guys who get involved with Sang and on the background more information about the Academy. really enjoyed Owen's story.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

This left me a little disappointed. I wanted more insight into Owen and how he thinks. I also wanted more interaction with Sang. However, this focused more on the overall mysteries the group is trying to solve. I think this is going to heavily tie into the Volto issue. It makes sense that group dynamics and their assigned jobs are what takes up the majority of his thinking since it goes with the timeline and he doesn't get much time initially with Sang. I was just hoping for some time jumps so we could see that. It was frustrating that he gets so mad at Sean. I think that because I am so far into the series now, seeing the beginning like this feels a little slow to me.