An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book wasn't that interesting to me- it was definitely an easy read but there's definitely some parts that flowed weirdly. There wasn't much character development, which made them seem unlikable.

Thank you to Sweet Cherry Publishing and NetGalley for the e-arc!

Enjoyed it, but nothing particularly stood out to me. It was definitely an easy read although I feel like there wasn't enough character development.

The Songs You’ve Never Heard is the story of two lost girls from Brighton that are trying to have their voices heard – their medium is their music, their songwriting – in a world that wants them to remain silent. Co-written by British songwriters and composers, Becky Jerams and Ellie Wyatt, The Songs You’ve Never Heard is a booksical about friendship, family, songwriting, the music business, and body positivity.

Meg McCarthy is a 17-year-old girl who loves making lists. She has a famous pop star brother, and her family is all about promoting the picture-perfect “McCarthy brand”. Her social media influencer persona shows a rich, confident and glamorous girl who has the perfect life and family, but this doesn’t reflect her true self. Behind the facade, she deals with a family that makes her feel unheard and invisible; her brother and his career being her parents' sole focus. Furthermore, she experiences cyberbullying by trolls and jealous fans every time she posts or tweets anything. She hides her passion for songwriting, for producing her own music, thinking that she could never be good enough, never be as successful as her older brother. Only her online best friend and real-life crush Matty knows the truth about her music and has been her biggest supporter for the past years, not knowing that “LostGirl” (Meg’s username) and his enemy Meg are one and the same. When her mom gets her a job at a Frozen Yoghurt shop, Meg meets Alana Howard. Alana is loud, confident, fat, and a passionate singer-songwriter. She wants to make it in the music world, has been playing many gigs and open mic nights in Brighton, writing and performing her original songs. With Alana’s well-intended pushiness, Meg slowly opens up more about her musical talent, letting Alana into her world and sharing her songs with her. They become friends and form a deep connection, realising that even though their lives and personalities seem opposite, they share the same passion for songwriting and music.

I had a good time while reading this book; it’s a quick and enjoyable YA story. What I liked most about this was the growth both Alana and Meg go through in the course of the book. They open up, let people in, gain confidence in themselves and their music, form connections, and follow their dreams. The book also includes parts of their song lyrics, which I liked a lot and makes me look forward to listening to the album that will be released with this book. I also liked the insight we got into the workings of the music business, how stress and obligations can create writer’s block, and how cyberbullying and body-shaming can make a person want to hide in their comfort zone, never showing the world what they’re proud of or good at in fear of rejection.

oh my gosh I’m actually crying
CRYING.
at 11:45 pm
this is probably one of my new favorite books of ALL TIME???

this was so fantastic
I loved all of the representation and the music!
literally the lyrics are so beautiful and I cried
I love all of the characters so much
and the end had me sobbing.


literally, a new fav book
I love!! thank you so much!!

I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for my honest opinion. Thank you to Becky Jerams and Ellie Wyatt as well as Sweet Cherry Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read The Songs You’ve Never Heard before it’s release.

Let me first start by saying how fantastic a job Jerams and Wyatt have done with this book. Not only did they come up with a brilliantly heart-warming story about friendship and finding yourself, but all of this included song writing from the main characters.

To an outsider Meg Macarthy has it all; her brother Caspar is a world famous pop star, she gets free items in exchange for publicity, what more could any teenage girl want? Except things aren’t so simple; the boy she’s crushing on thinks she hates him, and she hides between an online account to talk to him instead. With what feels like crippling doubts and nerves, Meg appears to everyone as a spoilt, rude teen whose life was handed to her on a silver platter.

Starting a summer job, Meg finds herself thrust into Alana’s orbit, and the two girls lives will never be the same again. Discovering they have more in common than they would have ever thought, the girls defy logic and form an unbreakable friendship in such a short space of time and begin a journey that will take everyone by storm.
I absolutely adored Meg and Alana’s relationship throughout this book! While they hadn’t known each other for long, their lives are forever changed simply by knowing each other and their friendship is so pure.

I felt for both of their struggles throughout the book, and the doubts plaguing them. I could not stop reading this for the life of me and I grew to love Meg’s relationship with Caspar; while fractured it was never truly lost.

This book was a quick easy read. I loved the concept of finding friendship and your place in the world through music.

But I struggled. I found the characters unlikeable, all of them, but especially the main character and her family.
Meg went from having issues trusting and opening up to people, with good reason, after all of her former friends had broken her trust and hurt her.
But within moments of meeting this new girl, she's opened up, telling Alana all of her secrets, including that she writes music. It was really unbelievable.

The way the MC spoke about Alana's size was confronting and felt unnecessary to me. The way she treated her 'best friend' Matty was also hard to swallow.

The redemption ARCs of the characters didn't feel fulfilling and felt too abrupt.

I enjoyed the way the songs reflected the character's journey though.

Thank you for allowing me to read an advance copy of the book.

This book is a love letter to music and, in some ways, to friendship. The story delves into a surface level representation of the music industry and Meg’s pop star brother, but the focus is on her passion for songwriting and making a name for herself outside of her brothers shadow.

Meg is the main character and the narrator, and the character that I never warmed up to. She’s rude and snobbish and straight up mean to every single character that she interacts with on page, even the characters in flashback scenes. Her brother’s fame has unintentionally made her become an influencer, but we don’t really see any exploration of this other than the annoyance of public attention, so her constant meanness feels out of place. She’s also deceptive and dishonest about her identity to her online best friend because she knows him in real life and he hates her due to her rudeness. There are no redeemable qualities and she made the book incredibly difficult for me to enjoy.

In contrast, Alana is the standout character of this book. She is pure light. I loved the exploration of her confidence issues as a plus size girl and her fear that people only praised her talent out of pity for her appearance. However, as the token diverse character in this book, her presence is accompanied by overwhelming fatphobia from both the main and side characters, and this is never addressed to my memory. It’s only after a character makes her cry that Meg decides to step in and defend her.

Caspar is a character who I should probably feel a lot more strongly about than I do. He is only ever on page to start arguments when he doesn’t get his way and to bully Alana under the illusion of ‘helping’ her. There’s not a single moment in this book where he showed a glimpse of being a good person so I simply did not feel anything or care for him when his redemption arc arrived. I thought a lot of the things he said and did were unforgivable and he never took accountability for those things, just blaming his actions on the stress of the industry.

I think my biggest issue with this book is the timeline: a majority of the plot takes place over one week, then another week to ‘conclude’ after a two week jump. So much happens in such a short amount of time that it feels both unbelievable and underdeveloped, especially Meg and Alana’s enemies to besties friendship. I’m also going to blame this rushed timeline on the reason why every other side character feels so dimensional but I can’t help but feel like they were never supposed to have a more defining impact on the storyline. It also meant that a lot of the potential storyline and character arcs were incredibly simplified in a way that felt almost juvenile to still fit in all of these events in a limited page count.

I had such high hopes for this one. I thought it was going to be sweet and lovely but sadly I didn't like it at all. In full transparency, I DNF'ed at 39% because I couldn't continue. So it could have improved and I just didn't stick it out long enough.

I just could NOT with the MC. I'm all for redemption arcs and character development but nope. The catty, mean, whining inner dialogue (and dialogue between other characters) was impossible to take. The writing style just didn't work for me (although I did actually really like the lists.)

What I did enjoy was the premise and how it was clear that friendship was going to be the focus. Alana was a breath of fresh air on the pages and I do regret not getting to know her further because I feel like she was probably by far the highlight of this novel.

Overall the concept was great and I'm sure many people will love this, it just was not for me at all.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This book was really fast-paced which I didn't think I would like, but it had a really great flow so it worked out perfectly for me. There are so many song references that I listen to in this book which made my heart swell with happiness. Meg and Alana's friendship is absolutely perfect. I love how they uplift each other, being each other's silhouettes as the spotlight shines on them. The sibling relationship with Caspar and Meg developed so well and even though the story was fast paced, I felt that their relationship felt the realest and most grounding. This book would be really great for singer-songwriters and any music lovers who want to read about passion and inspiration <3

Fans of K-pop music will enjoy this one. Even though I'm not a fan of YA contemporary I enjoyed this one because I'm a sucker for books that features music in any form.

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. i really enjoyed this book, it was a fun read and i really enjoyed the characters and plot, and how their arcs and the plot developed towards the end of the novel. i cant wait to see what works this author produces next. taking this all into consideration, i am going to give the book 4/5 stars because i really enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend to others!

This was an amazing concept! I absolutely loved that finding lasting friendships took precedence over the romance in this novel. The love of music radiated off the pages as well and I had such a fun time reading the lyrics and their meaning/part in the overarching story as well. This is a shining example of a perfect contemporary novel for teens.

"It feels like I've finally found the real me." The Songs You Never Heard by Becky Jerams & Ellie Wyatt

📚REVIEW📚

Meg McCarthy lives in the shadow of her famous brother and the family's trade mark McCarthy Brand. The family have moved back to Brighton, and to escape the chaos at home Meg starts working at a Yoghurt shop thanks to her mother's persistence. Here is where she meets Alana her coworker, bold, confident, in-your-face singer and songwriter Alana.

Coming from different backgrounds these two lost girls were meant to find each other in music and life.

Thoughts:
Loved this story, mostly because it touched on a range of stories, peer pressure, social media standards, influencing and the analogy that people think it's OK to put you in a box. What it really meant for me was that no matter what people say or do remain authentically you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Becky Jerams, Ellie Wyatt, Clock Tower Publishing, and, Sweet Cherry Publishing for the e-arc of this book!

First things first this book is a super cute read; fun for those who are interested in books about music, fandom, friendship, and family! The main character is fully thought out and has relatable struggles and issues and the song lyrics were good -you really root for her and her music which is great! I really loved the character of TJ he could have been some horrible villain or useless but in reality, he was helpful and a really interesting take on managers.

I felt like some of the background characters were not fully realised - the parents and Casper especially felt one-dimensional and I couldn't forgive them at the end for everything they put the protagonist through. Other characters disappeared; her frienemies could have gone on longer and I felt like they just stopped being an issue with little resolution.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I started I was hooked. The story follows Meg, the sister of a famous singer and how she feels invisible in the shadow of his brother, and her passion for music, until Meg meets Alana and everything changes for both of them.

I love the friendship between the characters and how two different personalities can become friends in less than a second.

This books tackles different topics such as overdose and the guilt, feeling invisible within your family, jealousy, fat-phobia and more.

It was a great and quick read.

Let me start by saying, two chapters in, I said to myself "I know where this is going".
Newsflash, I didn’t.

In the beginning, I thought it would be a cliché low-key broken family getting back together and realizing that family is more important than music and the industry. I thought Meg and Casper would grow closer and bond and create music together.

This story delved into the music industry but on the surface level. It didn’t go deep into schedules or tours or contracts like most stories about musicians do. It focused on Meg, the sister of the pop star, the girl who felt invisible to her family and kept her own passion for music and songwriting to herself.

Meg was the type of character I didn’t really warm up to for a while but as you went deeper into her family, into her background, you begin to understand her. She’s a young girl who is constantly being dragged into things by her family and dragged down by fake friends and haters online. It shows another side of the ‘influencer’ lifestyle that so many people think is perfect.

I adored her and Alana. Their friendship was perfect because it wasn’t. They fought, they got off to a rocky start, they didn’t see eye to eye on everything and sometimes Alana didn’t understand Meg’s personal space. I loved the exploration of her confidence issues, and how so many people ignored her talent and focused on her weight. It’s a real issue that so many artists, and everyday people, have to face every single day. Snide comments. Snickers. Yet Meg helped her, constantly lifted her up and tried to make her feel better.

There were a few things I wasn’t quite sure about. One was Casper. Some of his comments and his actions, to me, were unforgivable, and I feel like, in the end, they were kind of glazed over because suddenly he was acting nice and inviting her on stage. Yes, it’s nice to see character development, but I felt he had a lot more wrongdoings to be forgiven for. Another was Matty. I felt like he was a little bit pointless. I wasn’t rooting for him and Meg together and I wasn’t obsessed with him immediately thinking he was talking to Alana just because she was nice to him. He felt like the type of boy that would say ‘Why won’t you go out with me when I’m a nice guy. I just didn’t feel it.

However, I did love TJ. In many books about the music industry, the label and manager are always absolutely awful. Casper tried to tell Meg and Alana that he was exactly like that, just here for the money and not caring about them. Yet TJ shot him down. The story about his start in the industry, the way he supported them, the way he scolded them for not performing the song they’d agreed on but not in a harsh way.

This story is a love letter to music, to trying to find yourself and not living in someone’s shadow. I’m not a musician, I don’t have a famous pop star brother, but I too find solace in music, in lyrics, in sweet melodies. Music is so special, and it can inspire and help so many people. It was a book about friendship, about family and most importantly to not hiding who you are. To be free.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this e-arc.

Thank you to NetGalley, Becky Jerams, Ellie Wyatt and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wholesome YA read about friendship and struggles in the music industry. It’s perfect if you want a quick and uplifting read.

It was sort of okay, but i was missing more character growth...i was missing more of this story.... Plus, some of how it was written was a bit boring to me..

Thanks to Netgalley, Clock Tower Publishing and Sweet Cherry Publishing for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Songs You´ve Never Heard by Becky Jerams and Ellie Wyatt revolves around Meg MecCarthy. She lived her whole live in the shadows of her brother, Casper, a famous pop-star. She writes her own songs in secret, never wanting to share them with anyone until her absolutely different world collides with the one of Alana.

First things first, this book contains a lot of heavy topics like drug abuse, toxic relationships, bullying, fat-shaming, unrealistic beauty standards and so on. This book is supposed to be for young adults, but I am not quite sure how some of them will handle those topics.

So, since I got this off my chest let`s get into this review. Let me tell you I have a lot to say, so you better grab a drink and a snack. I enjoyed reading this book. The story hooked me from the first page on and I couldn`t and didn`t put it down until I was through it. As a mood reader I really enjoyed the fact I could get absolutely easily into the story. This is ALWAYS a huge plus for me and this book delivered it. So, thank you for that!

I absolutely adored the idea of game two characters played in the game. Name 5 songs that ... for example have numbers in it. This was such a fun concept and I really enjoyed reading through the songs. I found some I didn`t knew and listened to them and on the other hand I thought about songs I would put onto such a list. I would love to see that in future books again.

Another amazing thing is the plus-size representation! I absolutely hate that society requires for everyone that they look a certain way. The weight or look of someone has nothing to do with their talent. People hear different music, people look different so please let there be more diversity. We absolutely need more of that or there will never be a change! In addition to that point I absolutely loved the character TJ., the black manager of Casper. I never thought he would have such an important role, but he delivered such an important lesson. And I am sure he is an underrated character. Never saw him mentioned in one review.

The only negative thing I can`t get quite over it is how dull some characters are portrayed. I couldn`t handle the parents and absolutey not her brother Casper. They had no depth at all. They had literally only two moods and I felt like what the hell is going on with you all?

So, overall it was a lovely and fast read I really enjoyed. I can absolutely recommend "The Songs You´ve never heard" by Becky JErams and Ellie Wyatt.

Pub. Date: 16th June 2022

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains fatphobia, overdose, violence, toxic beauty standards, diet culture & bullying.

This book is YA, if you're into self discovery character growth you may enjoy this book. Seeing the MC come into her own is lovely, however, getting through the pages and pages of rude, mean dialogue is hardwork. I didn't love this book, I wanted to because of the music ties and the 'finding yourself' themes but there was just too much to sift through.