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4.0 

The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet

By Charity Tahmaseb
The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet by Charity Tahmaseb digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

1st Place: 2015 International Digital Awards, Young Adult Novel

Sometimes staying silent is the biggest lie of all.

Sophomore Jolia does the one thing no one expects from the girl who has perfected the art of keeping quiet.

She joins the speech team.

Jolia can't confess the real reason–not to her best friend, her new teammates, or even to crush-worthy rival Sam who offers to coach her in secret.

Keeping quiet might be the easy way out, but when what Jolia doesn't say starts to hurt those around her, it might just cost her a best friend, her spot on the team, and even Sam.

But she isn't the only one with a secret. It's going to take words–her words–to make things right.

If only Jolia can find them.

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6 Reviews

4.0
“When Jolia is failing her speech class, due to her shyness and anxiety of speaking, she is forced to join the speech team. This forces her to face her fears of public speaking and make new friends along the way. It even gives her a chance to find love. This was an okay read, nothing special. A lot of the story is Jolia at speech tournaments and facing her fears of public speaking and really speaking in general. I believe it does have a nice message of facing your fears and overcoming them. This is a story that I can see a number of people connecting with in one way or another, but for me, I didn't connect with it. The writing was alright, but there were tropes in throughout it that I didn't like. It did feel like Sam, her love interest, fixed her by giving her the confidence to give the speeches and girls were mean to each other for no reason than to be mean. Those tropes took away from the story for me. Overall, it was a mediocre read with a romance that I didn't feel. It's a quick easy read, but unfortunately falls under the all too forgettable.”
“A perfect breezy contemporary that was very cute and held a place close to my heart.ni too was terrified in Speech class but did NOT join the speech team. An excellent read”
“The Art of Keeping Quiet is a young adult contemporary novel with a ton of heart! Confession time, I have both generalized and social anxiety and I had to take a speech class in college. Every week I’d basically want to curl up and die, it even felt like I was pretty close to a heart attack a few times. The only thing that saved me from freezing up was the overwhelming need to get back to my seat and away from the video camera. So while the situation is a bit different from mine, the entire premise (forgive my pun) spoke to me. I hadn’t even started yet, and I already felt like I simple ‘got’ Jolia. We are treated to a story that is not only well written, but very relatable and full of characters worth rooting for. Jolia is a girl with many passions like writing and playing the violin, but speaking is not one of them. On the outside she’s become soft spoken, ruled by fear, and a bit of doormat…but on the inside she’s full of fire. She has comebacks she never has the courage to say, she wants to speak up when her friend takes advantage, and she wants desperately to pass speech class…but her voice and her confidence seems to desert her. Her story isn’t just about learning to speak up and move forward with confidence it’s also about bullying, friendships, and honesty. It’s nice to see a YA contemporary that just speaks to you on a normal level; where it’s easy to see the past you dealing with the same obstacles. And then there is Sam! He’s such a sweet and awesome guy, he has his own issues of course but he’s genuinely there for Jolia even when he doesn’t need to be. It goes without saying that everyone needs that one person who pushes them to become better and achieve their goals, and Sam is that person for Jolia. It’s not really a secret that I’m a tad picky with my narrators, I tend to listen to a sample three or so times before committing to a review or purchasing. I mean I have to listen to it for hours. I didn’t even listen to the full sample before I knew I had to listen to this one. While she may not be the best narrator out there, Ashley Klanac’s reading of The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet is excellent. She has a voice that’s easy to listen to and easy to enjoy, and to top it off she adds some real individuality to each voice she does. In short The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet was an excellent read. In between all the fantasy and science fiction it’s nice to unwind with a light YA contemporary, and just let yourself get swept up in a good story.”

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