*makes nonsensical noises by moving her finger up and down over her lips* That's what reading the Ghost Bird series is like. It's a bunch of painfully slow nonsense that you just kind of roll with because you can't help yourself. 
 Sang hasn't changed. She finally gets clued into the plan, which it to have her date every single guy in her team, and even gets some advice from the woman of the original harem team, Lilly, yet she sits on the information and acts like a clueless twit. So help me god. She's selfish, which she admits to herself, but the guys assure her that she's not. She gets jealous of Dr. (lol) Green's female patients and nurses. She pictures the guys dating other girls and she gets jealous. She wants them all to herself, thinks it's wrong, but pushes for it anyway. (I know what the series is leading to, but COME ON.) She becomes even more dependent on the guys, where Blackbourne has to order her breakfast because the waiter makes her too nervous! She gives a line about how meeting new people is hard, yet she willingly threw herself into a weird, pseudo friendship with nine different guys in the first book without a hint of fear. You know who Sang should be with? No one, because she's not mature or smart enough to handle a relationship, never mind nine relationships with nine different guys. All book she worries over the guys' feelings and how to keep them happy and love them all. It's pathetic. Sang, I say this every review, but grow a goddamn backbone. However, even though I say that, when she does, it'll be so inorganic and forced that I'll hate it. Mark my words. 
 Gabriel was a huge, heaping load of emo this book. It was painful to read. Okay, he lives in a trailer, with his stepmom who is a drunk. We get it, his life sucks. But my god, he was all whine, whine, whine, and picked fights. I wanted to slap him. Where the hell was sassy Gabriel? He's probably one of my favourite characters because he's very distinct (even though I think he's gay or bi), but the whining that creeps up every once in a while is not fun. 
 Guy ranking based on character, not who I would want to date (Blackbourne and Kota, I would date, if they were aged appropriately): 
 ~Good Characters~ 
 Blackbourne 
 Kota (minus the stalker thing) 
 Gabriel (minus his emo fits) 
 ~The Great Chasm of Meh Characters~ 
 Victor 
 Silas 
 Luke 
 ~Horrible Characters, In Fiction Or Out~ 
 Nathan 
 Dr. (lol) Green 
 North 
 The plot: McCoy is somehow following Sang via GPS tracking on her phone and the guys move her around so they won't get caught. The rest is basically Sang trying to fix Gabriel's problems. 
 It seems to me that Lilly is very similar to Sang. She was in a bad home situation, so she's constantly coddled by her four guys. They hover so much that any normal person would tell them to back up, but she laps up the attention. She craves it. She's basically Sang in twenty years. Her advice to Sang basically boiled down to "be whatever the guys want and do anything to please them", aka, "don't be yourself or an individual". No thanks. I don't think Lilly has any sense of self, just like Sang. Her life revolves around her sheltered, hidden away little family. For the love of anything, why can't there be a harem story where it the girl isn't a doormat/robot for the guys to screw, or the girl isn't flitting from one guy to the other, making her seem like a slut and the guys idiots? WHY CAN'T I HAVE THAT? *ahem* 
 My biggest problem for the entire Academy line (both Ghost Bird and Scarab Beetle) is how misogynistic it is. Every woman is the enemy. Lilly, Sang, and Kayli are the only girls who are shown as decent people. Every other female is a conniving, jealous harpy, a bitch, or straight up untrustworthy because they're female. Marie wants Sang's (lol) popularity. Danielle wants Nathan. Jade wants North. Muriel wants Victor. The Academy girl they get to play Sang while they escape McCoy is depicted as an entitled, bratty snob. Marc's girlfriend (in SB) is shown as a clingy liar. Kevin's girlfriend is also overly clingy (SB). Karen saved Sang from Jade's assault, but Sang still refuses to trust Karen because she doesn't have a penis. Every girl that isn't the heroine is a bad person. All women are evil creatures. Not just actual characters, but theoretical women too! 
 Am I over exaggerating? Maybe. But come on, even the reasoning against mixed gender teams has everything to do with how evil women are. Girls can't be in teams with guys because the guys' girlfriends will get super jealous. Apparently if your S.O. works with other women, you should be frothing at the mouth. If he has female friends, get your jealous rage on. 
 There are girl teams, and there are guy teams. Couple teams are usually one guy, one girl. If there are more than one, it's because they're gay and lesbian. Because you know what? Apparently gay people don't get jealous. Multiple straight couples in a team is a no-no, because the girls will get catty with each other over their men. Girls will get along in all-female teams, because they don't have menfolk to fight over. 
 Guys and girls cannot be friends. That's what the premise of this series basically boils down to. Sang cannot just be friends with nine guys, even though she technically was for a few books before they starting making out with her. The only way to be on their team is to bone all of them. That's not how real life works. You do not throw one guy into a group of girls and watch them tear each other apart so they can have him to themselves. You do not put one girl into a group of guys and watch them all try to woo her before agreeing to share. 
 *beats temples with her fists* I don't know why I read these. Maybe it's because they're easy, or because I'm curious, or now that I'm on this crazy train I can't get off, but I keep reading them and sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, but most of the time I'm just annoyed. 
 So yes, get used to my ranting, because I'm still reading, and I'm not going anywhere. Enjoy my money, Stone.