This was as if I had wrapped up an entire tv season of an arts academy in one book and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! I loved the realistic way in which anxiety and grief were portrayed. It was such a captivating story and honestly I couldn’t get enough. I enjoyed the miscommunication between the love interest and the banter between friends. I adored the angst and drama, but most of all I loved the protagonist’s journey to discovering her voice again after the death of her mom. I thourougly enjoyed this book and if I’m being honest I would love to read more about Antionette’s journey at her arts academy and her relationship with her friends and love interest!

"Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth."

The sensitivity of dealing with death and the emotional impact it can have. I thought the book dealt with this topic so well. I especially loved the main character, Nettie, and enjoyed "spending time" in the musical theatre world conjured up. I also loved the other characters; there is a lot to explore in this novel and not all of it is through the main cast. Nettie happens to have a very supportive trio of sidekick in Kiki, Alec and Leon who happen to have their own stories and struggles. This added nicely to the mix. I would recommend this for everyone but especially going through loss, mental health, and theater.

Vanessa Jones' novel, SING (Like No One's Listening) is a musical theater or musical person's wet dream. It's a mixture of FAME!, Center Stage (there's ballet), one of the many Cinderella Story movies that involves the really hot guy and the girl with the desire to be a singer and has a really great voice, and every other musical movie out there. It can be a bit smaltzy at times, but for the most part, I enjoyed it for what it was; a really cute and breezy YA novel about a singer and her first year at a performing arts college.

Nettie Delaney lost her singing voice after her mother suddenly dies from a long term illness. Her mother was a pretty well known ballerina in her hey day and was a student at Duke's College of Performing Arts or whatever its actual name was. Nettie botches her audition, but somehow made it, and thinks, after finding out that the director (whose family owns the school) were friends with her mother when they were much much younger. As she struggles to find her voice, she meets new friends, a new boy that captures her interest, as well as a few enemies. Because what book about a performing arts school doesn't have drama and cattiness.

The great thing about this book is that Vanessa Jones actually did go to a performing arts school and was in musical theater. It's obvious this woman knows her stuff, and it shines in the novel. The history of ghost singers that becomes a project between Nettie and her crush, Fletch (because why not?) was fascinating. I do wish, however, that there was more focus on that project than a lot of the unnecessary drama that felt shoehorned in for the sake of page count.

Speaking of the unnecessary drama, the two girls that become enemies with Nettie felt almost as if they were caricatures of actual performing art students. Yes, it is highly competitive and yes, people are looking out for each other, but the drama wasn't about talent. It was over a boy, and that felt lazy and contrite. I would have believed Jade and Natasha finding Nettie competition regarding talent, but over some dude who has a pretty smile, plays the guitar, and can carry a tune? Oh, and he's white so now we have White Guy With Guitar happening, and it couldn't be more cliched if it tried.

WGWG, by the way, is Fletch. Shocking, I know.

The other issue I had with this book is the obvious hand holding that the teachers did with Nettie. Home girl went through almost her entire first term unable to sing a note. She's awful at ballet, can pass a dance class, but her whole point of being at this school is singing/musical theater. And it isn't until last maybe 100 pages, possibly less, does she actually belt a tune out and show exactly why she should be at that school in the first place. I did appreciate that Miss Duke basically told her that if she doesn't show up that her time at the college was through after the summer. But even still, she got far more allowances that actual students would have gotten. Tragic backstory aside.

The other highlight of the story are the secondary characters, Alec, Leon, and Kiki. They were all great, fleshed out, and weren't just side notes in Nettie's story. Alec was written almost stereotypical of a gay dancer, but his arrogance and confidence wasn't really all that out there. Jones probably ran into dancers like Alec all the time. Either way, I really did adore him and Leon and Kiki.

I wanted to give this 4 stars because I really did enjoy the hell out of it, but the lack of resolution about Nettie's mother's history really brought it down. There was so much the writer could have done with Nettie finding out who her mother was and why she gave up ballet and cut off ties to that world, but we never got it. Instead we had to have another scene where Nettie was all "bad headspace" over Fletch and that drama. There was so much potential there, and I saw it there, shimmering in the distance, but it never happened. I wanted less smaltz and more history. Because of that, this got stuck at a solid 3 stars for me.