Jenna Quigley made it to the top ten in America's Newest Sensation and now she wants to move to LA and make it big, even if she doesn't have her high school diploma yet.  Her father has other plans, and gets her into a prestigious fine arts high school, and she has to find a way to stand out among all these shining stars suddenly.  But when she realizes that the annual talent show at the new school gives out a $25,000 cash prize, she sees her ticket to LA.

Miles Cleveland has been the top of the class in his high school for the past three years, so when he lost his spot on America's Newest Sensation he refused to tell anyone who didn't need to know at his school.  He never imagined the reason would walk into his school at the beginning of Senior year. Especially when this was the year he could win the money to allow him to finally get the opportunity to live his dream after high school ended. 

I enjoyed the concept of this story- girl gets into the top ten of a nationally broadcast talent competition, but has to finish high school... Oh and she somehow manages to get into a very prestigious fine arts high school now. She has to find a way to stand out and earn her keep in a group that is all talented. So often we hear the beginning of a teenager's story on some TV show, but then they go back to their lives, and what happens? This story was a fun contemporary of that idea. So win!

I also appreciated the competitive nature of the students in this school They were all talented, yet had different niche areas they excelled in.  It made for an interesting dynamic that felt believable.  I especially loved all the tension between Miles and Shane over all the competition... and how a girl naturally ends up getting in the mix just makes this story fit in the YA/NA category.

And I was pleased with the presence of parents and teachers in this story. So often those adults are just MIA in these stories.  It was nice to have some parents who were stepping in and parenting the main characters.

My biggest issue with this book was the language.  This is categorized as a YA, and considering all the characters are in high school throughout the entire book, that makes sense. Yet they all had filthy mouths.  Even if that is realistic for public high school, it was too much for me. While I'm on that note, this book also had a fair amount of drinking, and drug use... while it never seemed to end badly, and seemed to just paint the picture of groups of particular high schoolers, it was a bit overkill. I will say, while there were clearly intimate moments happening in this book, there were some good scenes where parents step in and discuss the importance of being safe...

Another issue I had, and it's minor, was while the friendships developed slow and steady, there wasn't a ton of character development for the reader to glean from.  This could of have the issue with picking up book two, but it shouldn't have been.  I would have liked a little more character depth, especially for the secondary characters.

So I'm going with a three heart rating because some of the language in this was just too much and completely unnecessary.  It was a cute story, and for a fun summer read it was fine... but I'm not sure it will be a re-read for me ever.  A great choice for a summer pick from the library for sure though! 

Alright, so I'm going to say this is a mix of YA and NA just because the main characters want to be living on their own... and are only a year away from college... and because of the language.  So just fair warning, this isn't going to be a good choice for most younger YA readers.

I would recommend this to fans of American Idol, The Voice, America's Got Talent... those kinds of shows... as this book will feed into that whole idea completely. It is fun and well written.  I hope to see many more books from Chambers... with just a little less swearing all the time. 

Wondering Questions to Consider