WOW! JUST WOW! I was submerged in the story since the first page! I cannot believe all the emotions i felt throughout the story!

For the musical theater nerd who needs to lose themselves in the world of a high profile performing arts school. Sing Like No One's Listening has it all: meal girls, true love, best friends and horrific dance teachers.

Nettie starts her journey at Duke's, a performing arts school, only to lose her voice after the death of her mother. While she works on finding it again, she also manages to find some amazing new friends and even love.

This one was fun, quick read that made me 1. want to listen to a playlist of all the songs mentioned and 2. go back to London ASAP. There were a few loose ends I wanted more information on like history between her mother and the teachers at the school but overall this one was a good, fast read that read like a movie!

Sing Like No Ones Listening is a Teen YA Book. It has vibes of High School Musical.

I did enjoy the dance/singing academy vibe. It had themes of loss, love and hope.

The two main characters were bonded by loss which made the connection between them strong.

Overall, it wasn't the best of this genre but 8t had enough inside to keep you entertained for a few hours.

This book had a lot going for it. I enjoyed the characters- Nettie was a lot of fun as were her side kicks. This was also fast and compulsively readable. I adore musical theatre so it was fun to see the embedded references. However, with the above noted, this was a three star read and here’s why.

1.)Fletch was only borderline swoon- he had moments but overall was not smart enough to not cause problems.
2.) This story resolves much too quickly and leaves some things open that were frustrating. I have a lot of questions about Nettie’s mom still which irritates me.
3.) The drama was superficial and very trumped up. I think this went too heavy with the mean girls schtick.
4.) ARC formatting- maybe not a huge deal but it was nearly impossible at times to read texts and discern time jumps without going back.

It was definitely enjoyable but probably ultimately forgettable in the long run. I would read a sequel if there was one, maybe about another periphery character.

What a beautiful story about grief and healing. I loved the main character. I will definitely be reading more from this author!

I have received an e-arc of this book via Netgalley (Thank you Netgalley)
*All thoughts and opinions of this book are mine.*

Spoiler Free Review

Young Adult+ Music+ Singing+ Dancing+Self love
Sing like no one’s listening is a quick, fun, and entertaining read. I enjoyed reading about Nettie and her copping with life. There is a good take on art, music, and life situations with this book.

-Synopsis-
Nettie’s mother passed away around a year to Nettie attending a school in which happens to be the same her famous mother went to. Nettie hasn’t sung a single note since her mom died. As the books own blurb states “All about finding and raising your voice, and not throwing away your shot” is a good description of the moral lessons in this book.

-Setting-
For the setting I will mainly be talking about Duke’s the dance school that Nettie attends. I feel as there wasn’t much description for the setting. So there isn’t much I can’t criticize. There is as much as similar to high school musical vibes.

-Characters-
The characters can be considered of my favorite things about this book. Nettie, I liked Nettie and her character she over came her anxiety of singing. I do wish she had a little more personality, and that she is kind of based over her moms death. Overall she is still likable. I didn’t really like Fletch at first. To me he wasn’t that important. As the book went on I slowly started to like him and now he is pretty okay.
Alec was definitely my favorite character of the book. I just loved all the personality and funny remarks.

-Writing-
The writing of this book may be what maybe me give this 4 stars rather than 5.
This book was more of “tell than show” for the writing style. The beginning drew me in and had my attention firmly. Then the middle it just became “meh” I wasn’t as captivated as I was before but during the end my attention was captured fully. One of the tropes I don’t really favor was in this book; girls fighting each other for A guy. Like come on. The book “normalized” bullying. There wasn’t an action taking to the bullying in this book. Which saddens and upsets me. Moving past those statements I liked how musical theater was incorporated into the book. The writing was not as good as I hoped it would be, though it did flow at a steady fast pace.

-Conclusion-
Do I think you should read this book? Ehhhh it’s a quick read so why not. Will I recommend this book to other readers? Yes to those looking for music included books. The book overall was good not really great just good.

Nettie’s got the entire universe turned against her. Her mum dies of cancer, she has a dysfunctional relationship with her grandmother and therefore has no family left. For some inexplicable reason, Nettie can’t sing. After a horrific audition, she gets accepted into Duke but life doesn’t seem to give her a break. Although Nettie makes good friends and begins to find a connection with Fletch, a talented second-year artist, she gets bullied by her peers and her teachers. Can Nettie overcome her obstacles and triumph in Duke?

“It’s every ‘fine’ I replied when someone asked me how I was doing; every woman I chased down the street thinking it was mum; every scream I ever uttered in my bedroom at night, begging her to come back. It’s the memory of her singing me to sleep. It’s every morning waking up and forgetting for a split second that she’s gone, until the realization hit me with a dull thud. It’s waking every morning to that dull thud.”

Whew, this was such an emotional read. This novel is written in Nettie’s perspective and that helped convey her mental distress, which is the primary focus of the story. Some of her moments with Fletch were profound.

Alec was my favorite character in the entire novel. His pragmatic, vibrant, no bullshit attitude made me admire him. He stole my attention like everybody else’s in Duke. I found the book disengaging in the beginning but everything got better as the story got nearer to the end. Nettie rids herself of her doormat behavior and turns into a more independent, career-oriented woman. Her loose ends from her past get tied up as well.

‘Sing Like No One’s Listening’ is one of the most cliche YA novels I’ve read. It is also highly unrealistic in various aspects. Musicians are serious about what they drink or eat because it might affect their voice but the students in Duke drink quite a lot, it seemed a bit illogical. The competition in any prestigious art institute is cut-throat and for the first 50% of the book, Nettie doesn’t make a significant effort in her academic activities. The constant fat-shaming, slut-shaming, girl rivalry themes were tiresome. Jade; there was so much potential to add substance to her character but she’s completely cast off as a typical mean-girl villain. Nettie and Fletch were sweet but they had bad communication and Fletch’s indecisive nature was quite irksome. All the message texts were poorly edited, serving as a distraction from the story. A high school setting would’ve worked better.

This book has profound original ideas, entertaining characters but a passive narrative. ‘Sing Like No One’s Listening’ is recommended to all readers in the mood for a completely cliche YA romance. ARC provided by Peachtree Publishing Company and NetGalley. Thank you. #SingLikeNoOne'sListening#NetGalley.

Full review: https://www.inabookshell.com/2020/08/sing-like-no-ones-listening-by-vanessa.html

Sing Like No One's Listening is a beautiful story that takes the reader on a journey of finding yourself, facing up to the weight of expectation and dealing with grief. It will resonate deeply with music theatre lovers and for those of us who have lost people we love.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

"Sing Like No One's Listening" is a young adult book centered around a singer and new art school student named Nettie.

Nettie’s mother passed away a year prior to her attending the school, which also happens to be the same exact school her mom attended. Her first couple of days were difficult, but one day, she is convinced that her singing voice came back, and throughout the term, she regularly meets with a vocal coach who plans to help her sing again, which ends up happening the following term.

I absolutely loved this book. The plot was partially based on music and the arts, which instantly caught my attention, and I loved seeing Nettie’s growth and progression throughout the story as she gets through her first year at this school and finds her voice again.

Without spoiling too much — this book just didn't hit the mark with me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for Vanessa with this as her debut novel knowing how hard it is to get published, and I did genuinely enjoy the friendships (very wholesome) and the musical aspect of this book quite a bit.

However what I had a problem with was a few things — the only thing our entire main character's character arc is based on is her famous mother's death. It makes her a little one dimensional. And then, let's not talk about the cliches (and not the good ones) — girls fighting each other over boys, superiority, and in general lack of character growth. I really don't like when girls are pitted against girls in a book, because we live in a world where we should be supporting each other and the last thing I want to see is them fighting over a guy.

As for the writing style — that is probably the reason why I couldn't make it to the end of the book in the first place. I found it dry and more telling than showing. It was like a report being written of what the author was seeing (I also saw inconsistent tenses sometimes where the author switched from present tense to past tense with no apparent reason). I really could not get into the story or imagine it, and in the end it felt like High School Musical, but in a more dry / drab way which I'd still more prefer as a movie because I couldn't imagine anything based on descriptions.

All in all, congratulations to Vanessa on her debut novel, and while it wasn't my type of a book, it does not make it a bad book in any standards. Can't wait to see what new things she brings in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Myrick Marketing & Media, LLC for providing me with an eARC of the book in return for an honest review.

This review is posted on Goodreads.

**Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publisher for a chance to read & review an E-ARC of this novel!**

Sing Like No One's Listening was an enjoyable read. I found it easy to follow, with likable and, correctly so, dis-likable characters. The setting reminded me of past movies but I liked the take of a girl dealing with no voice due to the grieve caused by the loss of her mother. I had no trouble finishing the book and was pleased with the ending.

This was a cute read with fun characters whose personalities popped off the page. It’s perfect for anyone who’s ever dreamed of being on stage.

Nettie has an audition for the prestigious arts school she’s always dreamed of going to. But when a voicemail from her dead mother pops into her inbox just before the audition, her voice disappears. And it doesn’t seem to want to come back.

But Nettie still gets in. She thinks it must be because her mom was practically ballet royalty and friends with the school’s founder.

Nettie’s immediately drawn to a cute guy, Fletch, and he seems to be into her too. But Nettie starts to worry that there’s someone else, and he may just be leading her on. Nettie has to decide if he’s worth taking a risk.

The only time Nettie can sing is when she’s alone in the studio, but she gets a helping hand from a mysterious piano player behind the curtain. Nettie must put in the work to emotionally heal from her mother’s death so she can perform again.

One thing I wished we had more resolution to was the back story of Nettie’s mother and the other teachers. Why did she mysteriously quit ballet? Some teachers like her and favor Nettie, while another hated her so much she’s kind of abusive to Nettie. Learning more about this would have added some depth to those interactions.

A great read about first love and loss.

This gets a big fat 5 stars from me. SO many musical theatre references, wrapped in an engaging tale of love and pain and grief that I think everyone can relate to. It wasnt perfect - the plot was definitely predictable and some of the characters, while loveable, made some... questionable choices - but overall I absolutely fell head over heels with this.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this, I had an interesting premise but lacked in execution.
There’s nothing I hate more than misunderstandings, and that’s all we had here, besides how predictable this books is, and normally I don’t mind that, if the execution is good and the characters are interesting, but as the book progressed the less I liked Nettie. Besides the whole Mean Girls plot and the clueless leading man, so, so tiring!
I did like Leon, Alec and Kiki.

Sing Like No One's Listening by Vanessa Jones talks about the hardships of grief and the pressure to rise up and regain your voice.

Antoinette “Nettie” Delaney has been accepted into a prestigious performing arts school, one that her famous mother attended as well. But months before, her mother passed away due to cancer, leaving Nettie to live with her grandmother who wants nothing to do with Nettie.

When Nettie officially moves into the dorms of Duke’s she is forced to come to terms with her deceased mother’s famous reputation throughout the school. But, throughout her stay, she makes amazing friends that help her and finds a romance that she didn’t realize she thought she would gain.

I loved the aspect of friendship and the way Nettie formed close bonds with Alec, Kiki, and Leon who helped her throughout her stay in Duke. They helped her slowly overcome her discomfort and fear of singing after the death of her mother. Though sometimes there were moments where they were quite irritating to read about, they supported Nettie and stood by her side through her rough times during her first year at Duke.

Alongside her friendships that she made, Nettie meets Fletch who is a year above her, a guitarist and pianist to be, handsome and has girls swooning at him. Nettie and Fletch have an instant connection with each other, talking about music, lyrics, and forming a deeper bond together when they better get to know each other. When they both agree to write music together, they slowly spend more time with each other, going on “dates” and meeting at restaurants and quiet places where they can work side by side together.

One day, Nettie comes upon someone playing the piano behind a curtain in an empty studio, Nettie is instantly entranced by the player who is sitting behind the piano. Torn between the mystery pianist, Fletch, and conquering her music to maintain her place in Duke, Nettie must figure out how to fight her fears.

My reasoning for giving this three stars and not higher is because of the amounts of verbal and physical abuse that Nettie had to go through that I completely disliked while reading this book. Nettie was basically treated like trash when she entered save for Alec, Kiki, Leon, and Fletch. Even some teachers treated her severely poorly.

Students and specific teachers used verbal abuse to fat shame and make Nettie feel uncomfortable and when reading these parts, I felt uncomfortable as well. This was a problem because Nettie was a normal girl and normal-sized. There was unnecessary fat-shaming throughout this book that made me cringe and feel excruciating to read.

Nettie was practically beat around my those students and teachers that physically and verbally abused her and it wasn’t just toward Nettie but others. And that was a problem because Duke’s is a prestigious performing arts school that is full of rich and well of students and families, so, these students could get away with anything, including all sorts of abuse.

This book also reminded me somewhat of Camp Rock. The way Nettie is trying to figure out this mysterious pianist is absolutely familiar and the way both settings had mean girls in them as a form of bullying. While Camp Rock was much tamer, The way Nettie was bullied was completely unbelievable to read and it felt understandable why Nettie had so many negative emotions and had trouble finding her voice throughout the book.

Those were the few specific things that I felt rather uncomfortable with while reading and was one of the reasons why I didn’t rate this any higher than a three-star. I enjoyed the character growth of Nettie and the way she grew stronger throughout the book was very nice to read and I did enjoy some parts of this book.

Sing Like No One’s Listening had some great moments that I did enjoy and while I may not have enjoyed it as much, you might so I do think that it is worth trying out!

Thank you again to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sing Like No One's Listening is the perfect book for theater enthusiasts; it took me right back to my high school musical days! Nettie Delaney is a talented singer/songwriter and desperate to follow in her mother's footsteps as a performer. Duke's Academy, a prestigious performing arts school, is exactly where Nettie needs to be to achieve her dreams. On the morning of her audition, as she is warming up, she receives a voice message from her mother...the only problem is that her mother is deceased! What follows is an emotional journey for Nettie to find her voice.
I found the supporting cast of characters to be completely engaging. Alec, Leon, and Kiki are three of the best friends a girl could ask for, not to mention absolutely hysterical. Fletch is the hot lead that all girls dream of being cast with. Nettie's resilience and fortitude kept me cheering for her the whole time! I can't wait to read Vanessa Jone's sequel, Dance Like No One's Watching!

This book was a rollercoaster for me. I loved the premise of the book and was excited to meet these characters. Unfortunately, the writing style ruined any chances this book had, as it was so confusing, and ultimately inadequate to support the storyline. Overall the general idea is there, and if it was developed better would have made for an excellent novel.

I think that the premise of this book is interesting. The idea of losing your voice after suffering a loss of family is a very painful one. I feel as if the emotion in the writing behind that was very good. That's why I decided to give it 2 stars as compared to a 1 star. Everything else I felt wasn't up to that level. The gay best friend stereotype was just painful to read and having these stick-thin girls obsess over their weight was cringe inducing too. The part where Nettie talks about having great body confidence and being body positive when she herself is the thinnest of them all made me roll my eyes. Of course she feels great about her body and her friends bodies - none of them are bigger than a size 2 (at least from what we can gleam from the narration about the other girls bodies). Maybe that message would have came across better if one of the characters was a bit heavier and if there was some revelation about it instead of it just being small talk between the girl characters? The relationship between Fletch and Nettie was awkward too. While reading I wanted her to end up with Luca. The writing was leading us there and then it turned very quickly back to Fletch. There are many things I did not like about this book but I did keep reading because I wanted to know more about Nettie's mom and familial relationships (What happened with her mom and grandma? Why does her grandma act hateful towards Nettie?) I was very sad when I got to the end and there was no information on it. I see that there's a sequel for this book but unfortunately I won't be reading it.

If this book was more focused on Nettie, her mother, and finding out more about her then it would have been a better book. I think throwing in the forced love triangles with Luca, Jade, Natasha, Nettie, Fletch, Kiki, and even Alec (hitting on every single guy- gay or not) really brought this book down and took away from what I wanted to read about.

This book is a very quick, and adorable read full of wonderful characters (main and side). It tells the story of Nettie, a singer who has lost her voice after losing her mother to cancer. The book deals mainly with Nettie's first year in a highly prestigious performing arts college, attempting to deal not only with the loss, but the mental block that is making her unable to sing in front of anyone. I think at its heart this book is really about connection, with other people and with pieces of yourself. The friends that Nettie makes at school are almost more endearing than Nettie herself, and I found myself rooting for all of them. The setting is in London, so there were a few slang terms that took some figuring out on my part, but it did not detract from the story, it helped suck me in even further. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review and ARC. This was a delightful, happy ending read that really lifted my spirits. I highly recommend

I felt torn in rating this book, it was very cute, and for a YA novel I think many readers would enjoy. However, I felt like a lot was missing with context and it was very predictable.
This book follows Nettie, a singer who auditions for Duke's school of performing arts, but right before she begins her audition, she cannot sing. The death of her mother impacted her more than she knows.
She gets accepted anyways and is excited to be able to leave her grandmother's house, who has always been cold towards her. She still cannot sing in her classes, but it being given special treatment and excused from singing til she figures out what is wrong. She makes some friends right away including a 2nd year boy named Fletch. She helps him finish a song in the library and feels connected right away. She also feels connected with a mystery piano player who played in the empty theatre a few times and she was brave enough to let things go and sing when nobody was around.
Throughout the school year she has a few meeting with Cecile Duke, the woman who runs the school and apparently was good friends with her mom. She talks to her a few times and Cecile seems to know something about why her mom stopped dancing.
So first, the book was predictable, boy meets girl, they both like each other's then a mystery singer gets in the way, but it ends up being her. The other thing that frustrated me was the missing context and unanswered questions. We know nothing really about Nettie before school. Who is she, other than her mother being a famous dancer, now dead, and an estranged grandmother she has to live with, we get no background. Then the writer hints that Cecile knows why her mom stopped dancing and it is never mentioned again?? The very end of the book Nettie falls down and knocks herself out. Her head is bloody when she wakes up and prolly has a concussion, but she performs and then goes to the after party like nothing happened.
Like I said, the story was cute and I liked the idea, but it was missing too much context, and it just seemed too 'superficial'
Thank you to @netgalley for a chance to review this book in exchange for an honest review.