Dance Like No One's Watching

by Vanessa Jones

Overview

The show must go on.

It’s back to show business as usual at Duke’s Academy of Performing Arts. Things are finally working out for Nettie, with her voice restored, her gorgeous boyfriend, Fletch, by her side and the lead role in the college musical.

That is, until Fletch is offered the opportunity of a lifetime miles away from London and a TV company invades Dukes, pitting Nettie against old enemy Jade Upton and pulling her friends apart. As she tries to juggle the impossible pressure to perform and following her heart, Nettie discovers secrets about her mother that make her question everything she ever knew. Will Fletch come back? Will the stage ever feel like home? And will she ever find out the truth about her mother? Nettie is determined to find out.

Dance Like No One's Watching by Vanessa Jones will show that Nettie is not helpless, and we'd better listen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529013153
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	04/15/2021
Series:	SING , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Vanessa Jones was born and raised in Kent. After training at Laine Theatre Arts, she went on to be a Musical Theatre actor in West End shows, including Sister Act, Grease, Guys and Dolls, Annie Get Your Gun and Mary Poppins, where she met (and married!) a fellow chimney sweep. She now lives in East Sussex with her sweep and their two children. Sing Like No One's Listening was her first YA novel.

Editorial Reviews

2023-09-09
In this follow-up to 2020’s Sing Like No One’s Listening, readers return to the cutthroat world of a prestigious London performing arts academy.

Seventeen-year-old Antoinette Delaney-Richardson had a fantastic summer with Fletch, her adoring new boyfriend. After the stress of her first year at Duke’s, she’s returning with a renewed sense of confidence and is looking forward to seeing friends. The place is aflutter with the excitement of a docu-series that will be capturing students’ daily lives. But this means there’s even less room for mistakes, between cameras in the classrooms and rehearsals for the demanding school musical. A video of Nettie singing went viral the previous year, and now the director wants to feature her in the program. She’s hesitant, but the director threatens to expose sensitive information about Nettie’s late mum and even manipulates footage to manufacture a story for ratings. Her friends experience their own troubles, including dancer Kiki’s ongoing struggle with body image. Fletch springs the announcement of a once-in-a-lifetime six-month apprenticeship two hours away, and alongside the continued search for answers about her ballet dancer mum’s past, Nettie faces industry and personal struggles. While just as enjoyable for musical theater aficionados as the earlier entry, this sequel gets into more intense aspects of a career in the arts. There’s plenty of drama to keep pages turning as readers root for Nettie. Nettie is white; diversity is woven into the supporting cast.

An honest, thoughtful look at show business’s personal toll. (resources) (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews