I don't know what to start with when talking about this book, except to say that I loved it! Right from the start I was drawn in hook, line and sinker with all the musical theatre references (yes Im a musicals nerd right here!) and I found most of the characters to be three dimensional which is where I struggle in a lot of YA.

This book follows Nettie as she makes her way through her first year of prestigious performing arts college Duke, while trying to come to terms with her grief over the loss of her mother and find her voice. I think the storyline was well done, however I wish some of the topics around body positivity and eating disorders had been more in depth. They seemed to just be mentioned in fleeting.

At the end of the book I was a little disappointed as it felt to me like far too many questions were left unanswered ... that is until I found out there is a sequel coming!! I just don't know how I am going to wait until next year to find out the answers!!

Overall a really fabulous read and a sequel I am already on tenterhooks for!

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.

Rollercoaster of emotions - however not all of them good.  Has such a great idea and is very original however the writing itself is what lets this novel down. What potential wasted. Fun sometimes, with the play on music and lyrics, but it's such a shame that the actual writer doesn't hold as much potential as the idea. Needs a lot of refinement and redrafting. It was kind of confusing!

Well... I literally finished this book in one day. That's how hooked I was. This story was sweet, and fun, and had heartache and inspiration woven throughout it. I'm also a sucker for a couple that seems to be made for each other. And music. I recommend playing each song that is mentioned (and there are quite a few- the main character loves musical theater after all). Lovers of broadway will probably find this entertaining to read. 

With that all being said -  I felt like I was reading a book intended for young adults in the college age range but written in a voice meant for middle schoolers. It made it a quick read, but I felt as if there could have been more depth, more maturity in the storytelling. I loved the characters and I loved the storyline. I feel as if it ended much too quickly.  I could have read another hundred pages about Nettie and I would  still want more.

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 was pleasantly surprised by this book. After reading the first few chapters, I thought it would be only 2 or 3 stars because there are some sudden reveals that don’t make much sense at first. But as I got further into the book, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought (possibly because it’s about theatre kids, and I have a huge obsession with Broadway musicals). The protagonist was really likable, and I liked the romance, too. There were a few things left unexplained at the end, but overall this was a book that I enjoyed.

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.

Adorable feel good book. Love the main character and found myself rooting for her. I absolutely love musical theatre so this was just the book for me!

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.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing to review this book. 

The storyline begins when Nettie is about to do the biggest audition of her singing career. However, everything that could go wrong goes wrong because she has not been able to process past life events. 

Over the course of the chapters, Nettie deals with how to move forward after a tragic loss, while still trying to succeed at college. Her feelings of insecurity and sensitivity were what I related the most, as she truly believed she would not be able to get past it. 

I loved how music was at every point of this book, and how it can help as a coping mechanism. Also, how secondary characters had a good storyline of their own, and how they helped her find her self-growth. Although, the love story was realistic and romantic, There were definitely times were the guys was making things far too confusing for my taste. The chemistry was there, but at times, it seemed like it was not going to be enough.

Nettie is a first-year at Duke's, a college for artists. The only trouble is - she can't sing. She lost her voice because of the trauma of her mother's death.
Set in London, and where we follow Nettie through her first year at university and see her struggle and gradually overcome her fears and setbacks (and find true friendship and love).

So, that's the synopsis I'd probably put on the back of the cover. An honest synopsis would probably sound like this: Nettie is a lost first-year at Duke's, a fancy college for dancers, singers and such, led by the most ridiculous, Cecile Duke (read: Nettie's dead Mum's ex-best friend). The only trouble (apart from the numerous clichés forced on us throughout the book, such as the gay best friend, plain Jane and the hot musician who "understands") is that Nettie, which is short for nothing less than Antoinette, can't sing in front of people because of a voicemail she got after her Mum's death that messed something up with her brain. 

Okay, I've had my fun, now let's review for real.
The writing was very quick and with almost no description. It was told from Nettie's POV in present tense, and I got the impression that she was always hyperventilating, anxious and super stressed out. (It definitely didn't make me like her.) 
Apart from that, she was the prototype of plain Jane. She had no friends, claimed it was because she ignored them after her breakdown at her Duke's audition, and had no problem with it. Let's get hypothetical here, shall we? So, 12th Year, secondary school. Nettie has a lot of good friends, whom she's known for AT LEAST three years. Then, her Mum dies, and she starts to ignore them all, even though (as she said) they try to help with the grief. Wouldn't she miss them? That'd be... natural. But no, she doesn't think twice about them, same as her Mum - throughout the novel, she continually says how much she misses her and how many problems she has because of her death. Do we, however, SEE her miss her Mum in real-life situations? No, we do not.
Also, this is something I wrote into my notebook when I was at about 28%: "a better intro needed - too rushed, we still don't know who Antoinette is as a person". And you'd think I'd disagree with that statement (at least the second half) after getting through the whole thing - but I don't. I don't know Nettie after 320 pages from HER point of view, besides the fact that she's a musical theatre geek. A singer and an orphan are not exactly personality traits.
The other characters include Kiki, an anorectic commercial dancer, Alec, a cocky ballet dancer (and the gay best friend), Leon, a writer (I think) (the other gay best friend), and Fletch, a guitarist (and the ever-glorious love interest). We also have some antagonists - Natasha and Jade - characters created only to humiliate Nettie or cause drama between her and Fletch. Anna Todd, anyone? They all are somehow stereotyped and flat, even though I smiled along at times - British humour can save everything.
The plot was moving smoothly and swiftly most of the time, which I appreciated, although it irked me how Nettie just seemed to make all the dumbest choices possible and the biggest drama could've been solved by simply communicating. I don't understand if most contemporary writers nowadays miscommunication is cool, but IT IS NOT. It's simply frustrating for the reader.
The last thing - words like obvs (obviously), emosh (emotional) and vom (vomit). If I pay for a book, I'd like to receive one without these typos/desperate attempts at modern language. I'd understand if this was aid while texting, but no - Nettie either thinks it or someone (ehm, the stereotype gay drama queen Alec is, ehm) says it out loud.

In conclusion (finally!), this book is an OK for me. I didn't like the beginning and a lot of things were not developed and thought out deeply enough, but I found myself quite enjoying the last 40%, so it wasn't a total flop. I'd say, give it a try if you like books about boarding school, singing and theatre, or book set in Britain. Maybe you'll love it!