As she attends the same performing arts school that her professional ballerina mother attended, Nettie works through her grief as she learns more about the mother she lost and most importantly, herself. Nettie lives and breathes musical theater, but ever time she tries to sing, her voice completely disappears, except when she finds herself in an empty rehearsal room with a mysterious accompanist.  

Performing arts boarding school? A swoony romance? Grief and drama? Sign me up! Yes, this book was kind of made for me, but that doesn't mean I can't see it’s flaws. I definitely wished it was paced more efficiently The first few weeks progressed pretty slow and then months were going by without any mention. At almost 400 pages, things should have been spread out a little more evenly. Plot lines dropped off a little bit towards end, and I think Nettie's progress with overcoming her issues with trauma in regards to her singing felt very rushed towards the end.  The main antagonist flipped halfway through the book which was kind of strange and as the story went on, actions and conversations started to feel redundant. 

While this should have been a total success on summary alone, fell a little flat for me.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable read. I loved all the musical theatre references, the main characters, and the mental health talk, but there are two problems I should point:

-Too many cliches. The gay best friend felt like a hurtful stereotype. 
-The mean for the sake of being mean is not a thing I would recommend. People want motivation and villain backstories. Fighting over a guy is not enough reason to be that bad.

I still would recommend this to theatre nerds looking for something light and easy to read. There's something dazzling about the musical theatre world that this book captured well.

e-ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Nettie Delaney has just been accepted into a prestigious performing arts school--the very same school her superstar mother attended. With her mother's shadow hanging over her, Nettie has her work cut out for her--and everyone is watching. To make matters worse, Nettie hasn't been able to sing a single note since her mother died. Whenever she tries, she just clams up. But if Nettie's going to survive a demanding first year and keep her place in a highly coveted program, she'll have to work through her grief and deliver a showstopper or face expulsion. All may not be lost, however, when Nettie stumbles upon a mysterious piano player in an empty studio after class. Masked behind a curtain, can Nettie summon the courage to find her voice? Or will the pressure and anxiety of performing come crashing down?

I loved the premise of the book and was excited to meet these characters. Unfortunately, the writing style didn't connect for me. A lot of the dialogue felt a little young for the age of the characters, i.e. words like obvs (obviously), emosh (emotional), and vom (vomit). This type of syntax didn't make me like the book any more than I already was but I also thought it was more hurtful to the book instead of adding to it, these kids are going to Duke, I would hope they aren't using this shorthand slang to talk. It also could have been that the characters just needed more time to be fully fleshed out. Nettie herself felt a little like an archetype of a plain Jane character that claimed to have no friends but used the excuse of having lost them after her Duke audition. At this point in the book, I wanted to straight up tell her they weren't her real friends if they abandoned her over some small misstep in the grand scheme of things. I also really really didn't like the storyline of these two girls fighting over a guy, it's 2020 we shouldn' be having these types of petty drama being put in novels to further the story. As a woman and a young adult reading this, I found it to be a very backwards concept that harms how young women will eventually view their relationships with another woman.
Even though I had a lot of issues with this novel I generally liked the musical aspect of it. 

Overall, this book was ok, for me. I didn't like the beginning and a lot of things were not developed and thought out deeply enough like the character's but I mean I didn't end up DNF'ing it so I guess that counts for something.

Content warning: cancer, death of a parent, body image, fatphobia, homophobia, physical abuse, bullying, verbal abuse,  disordered eating/body dysmorphia

As a musical theatre aficionado, I was incredibly excited for the opportunity to read this book, especially since it was written by a West End actor. I really loved the premise of this book, and was very interested in Nettie and her storyline. It was really easy to root for Nettie, and my heart ached for her. Something that I really loved was the strong friendship dynamic between Nettie and her friends. However, I felt like most of the characters were reduced to simple tropes or one  aspect of their personality, and weren't as fully fleshed out as I would've liked to see. 

I think the writing style was aimed towards younger audiences, although I don't think I would heavily recommend this book to younger audiences due to the trigger warnings listed above. In addition, this book normalizes toxic behaviors that I don't necessarily think is necessary. I also think the writing style just wasn't for me, but could be something that others enjoy.  For me personally, it felt very much like a combination  of Mean Girls and Glee. 

I appreciate the opportunity to review this book, but once again it just wasn't for me.

Before I jump into this review, I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

However, due to personal preferences, and the overall reading experience, I've decided to DNF this book, and not post my review on Goodreads. I will leave my feedback here on NetGalley for sure. So on to the main point of this feedback.

To put it bluntly, the story was not for me. In another perspective or taste in reading, Sing Like No One's Listening could be for readers into every possible cliche contemporary tropes there is about performing arts and young adult drama. The story revolves around, Nettie, a freshmen college student that got accepted to an elite university for music and the arts. "Duke" yet, Nettie questions consistently why she was even accepted to the university when she had no voice to sing and flunked her audition. 

The story goes into her life in college and hoping to earn her place there, and that's about it on what I know. I've decided to DNF the story around 50% because it was just not working for me at all. I like reading contemporary every now and then, but for me, if the characters don't draw my attention or pique my interest, I teeter between continuing the story or not. One of the things that turned me off about the story, firstly was the characters. I found no attachment to any of them at all. I felt like they weren't clicking to me or even remotely interesting, there wasn't enough essence in them to make me care about them entirely. I've reached halfway into the book hoping that there would be something cleared up, or getting more depth on any of the characters, but there were none. I like contemporaries that have unique character-driven plot. 

Nettie just felt like a huge mess, trying to keep her head above water in the university her mom studied from, but had no actual solution or motivation to push herself in the school. Another thing that bothered me were the plotholes and unanswered questions. Though since I did DNF it, I might never know the answer and it will remain a mystery, but I had reached the point where sticking around to read the story to resolve these unanswered questions aren't too appealing at all.

I give this story a 2 star rating, the book does have promise, but I truly wished it gave more life into the characters on an overall.

This was an entertaining and emotional story about a young woman dealing with grief while trying to attend a high pressure college for the performing arts. Nettie Delaney is the daughter of a woman who was a star performer who died of cancer a year earlier. Nettie's mother was a dancer but Nettie's strength is her singing voice. At least it was until her mother died and she lost her voice. 

Nettie's audition was a disaster because she got a long-lost voice mail from her mother just before she was set to perform and found that she couldn't sing at all after receiving it. So she was very surprised to find that she had been admitted to the prestigious program despite her awful performance. Once she learns that that head of the school knew her mother, she thought she understood why she had been admitted.

The story is filled with a bunch of characters straight from teen melodramas. Almost the first person she meets is the awesomely talented and gay dancer Alec who decides that they are going to be best friends. And she meets the talented and handsome Fletch who wants to write songs with her. She makes friends with Kiki who is in the dance program and who feels like she always has to lose weight. There are the school Mean Girls in Natasha and Jade. Jade has a massive crush on Fletch, a dad who has bought her way into the school, and absolutely no talent. There is a mean ballet teacher who has taken Nettie in dislike and who belittles her at every opportunity. There are also sympathetic teachers like Michael who knew her mother and Steph who is the advanced vocal coach and determined to help Nettie get her voice back.

There is lots of drama too. Naturally Fletch and Nettie have difficulties with their romance. Between Jade who is constantly trying to attract Fletch's attention to Fletch's confusion about the real-like Nettie and the girl who is singing when he plays piano in the next room - who also happens to be Nettie. Time is spent with Nettie trying to figure out who her mystery accompanist is. She even suspects Jade at one point.

I liked the story and know that fans of musical theater and romance will enjoy it. Lots of the references to musical theater went right over the top of my head though because I'm a very casual fan of the genre. I really liked that Nettie had a strong body image and was confident in her appearance despite other people's attempts to belittle her.

Content warning: cancer, death, body image, homophobia, abusive teachers.

This book is perfect if you enjoy picking up on musical theatre references, and boy, does this book have a lot of them. Throughout passages there are references and name drops to popular shows, and some not-so popular shows, making it a dream read for any musical theatre fan out there. However, for a book set in a theatre school, I would've liked to have seen more, well, theatre.

This writing in this book was lovely - the imagery was nice and it was a fast read. However, I felt as if it came across as juvenile in places considering the characters are supposed to be at university level. It did a good job in displaying the competitiveness of drama school, and what people will do in order to get accepted. However, it was over dramatised to the point of being unbelievable. No matter how badly they want their place, or how badly they want to keep their place, students should not have turned a blind eye to physical abuse to another student at the hands of a teacher. The treatment of Nettie by the ballet mistress was one of the worst, and hard to read, parts of this book.

As for our characters, we don't get to know much about them. Their personalities are reduced to tropes: grieving main character, dancing side character who doesn't talk about anything else, gay best friend, and mean girl. I wanted to care more about their lives and their dreams beyond theatre school, but that just didn't happen. In fact, I found myself skimming a lot of passages because they just spoke about the same thing over and over again. 

Ultimately, I don't think I'm the right audience for this book, but I appreciated it being a quick read to add to my reading list.

I really wanted to like this book but it wasn't nicely executed in general. The premise sounded like so much fun.
 My biggest issue has to be the fact that most characters (I'd go as far as to say even Nettie, our protagonist) aren't that well developed. The worst  perpetrators of this are Nettie's friends. Their dialogue is even sort of inappropriate, reaching stereotypical at times. Contemporary is so character driven (at least that's how I read it) so this pulled me away from the story.
 Furthermore, most of the plotpoints, the most important ones, are brushed over. I wish they were more explored and  that  the book had stopped and let the reader experience those moments, because it could've been great. I just couldn't connect that much overall, and I felt like the moments that could've had impact were severely rushed. 
 Lastly, this could've saved everything and made it much more entertaining, Nettie's voice. It was also not that well developed. It fell flat. 
 It could be enojoyable, it just needs polishing.2,5 stars

This was such a sweet book, and the cover really reflects the feeling of the book as well. Would recommend for people who are into the performing arts.

Despite her audition being a complete disaster, Nettie is accepted to a renowned arts program. The only problem is she can't sing. Not a note. Hopefully, Nettie is able to work through her grief and loss and be able to reclaim her voice before she is loses her spot at her dream school. 

I had such a lovely time getting to know Nettie. Following her mother's death, she was more or less, on her own, at least emotionally. Life with her formerly estranged grandmother was not full of warm fuzzies. Rather, it was punctuated with sharp criticism and attempts to undercut Nettie's belief in herself. But Nettie didn't let it get her down. She was determined to get into Duke's and succeed at achieving her dreams. 

In case you couldn't tell, it was really easy for me to root for Nettie. She had baggage and was dealing with a LOT, but she still kept her head up and her eyes on the prize. While at Duke's she encountered a lot of people who were set on making things difficult for her. They were hoping she would stumble and fall, but Nettie had grit and determination, and I loved her that much more for it. 

As I said, Nettie was not only dealing with a lot of pain due to the loss of her mother, she was also struggling with a mental block which was keeping her from singing. The great thing was that Nettie was not alone in her struggle. She had a fabulous and colorful group of steadfast friends, who were there for her. They were all really so supportive of each other, and I admired and adored this little "family". 

She was also fortunate to have stumbled into a friendship with Fletch. Fletch was someone who could really understand Nettie's pain, because he had also lost someone close to him. I think it was vital that she had someone like that to connect to, and that made Fletch an important part of her healing process. I actually was a fan of Nettie+Fletch. I thought they were rather adorable together even if there was some drama (isn't there always). 

Like many other readers, I was curious to learn more about Nettie's mom's past. But, alas, those answers never came. It was sort of frustrating, but in all fairness, this was not her mom's story. In fact, Nettie explicitly stated (multiple times) that she was not trying to uncover these answers. Though I will never get the answers to some of my questions, I am ok with it. 

I love grief books, and I thought this was a beautiful story of healing which managed to touch my heart. With stellar friendships and a fantastic musical score, Nettie was bound to ease her pain and find her voice, and I happily rooted for her along the way.

I was excited to read this book as I went to school for theatre and I was hoping to enjoy a quick realistic story about grief and performing through the tough times in life. Unfortunately, this just didn't hit the way I wanted it to. A lot of the dialogue felt a little young for the age of the characters, but it could have been that the characters just needed some more fleshing out. I didn't really know too much about our main character other than the fact that her mother died and she liked musical theatre for most of the book. I thought that the beginning of the book was good but as soon as we entered the school environment it just felt so unrealistic. There may have been a time that professors could talk to students that way, but it's gone now- and if someone has a teacher that speaks to them the way these ones do I encourage you to report it or find a different school. Theatre school IS competitive. Theatre school IS hard work. But Theatre school is NOT, and should not ever, be what was represented in this book. In addition to these things, many of the questions I was interested in knowing the answers to were never answered. I'll also say the cover art on NetGalley is gorgeous, and was one of the reasons I requested the book (other than the subject matter), but the cover on Goodreads is nowhere near as compelling. I think there are definitely people who would enjoy this quick read- if they enjoyed the HIlary Duff movie Raise Your Voice, it's quite similar. But in the end I'd caution anyone going into this that this is not an accurate representation of theatre school and has some problematic elements that are never solved. 
///////HUGE TW for fatphobia/disordered eating, grief (spec. death of a parent)

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.

Sing like no one's listening is a quick and refreshing read. . II quite enjoyed reading this book.The writing style and narration is simple and lucid .I had no difficulty in deciphering the meanings. Looking forward to reading more books by the author

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

An enjoyable but not altogether memorable read. I'll check out future stories from her though and hope that others enjoy it more. (I'm not one for showbiz stories)