The shyest girl on the speech team has exactly one goal: make it through the season.Sophomore Jolia never wanted to join the speech team.She'd rather hide in the back of the classroom than speak in front of it. But when failing speech class threatens her future, joining Fremont High's fiercely competitive team becomes her only option.Now she's spending every afternoon practicing speeches she can barely get through, every Saturday competing against schools that take speech way too seriously, and every tournament trying not to embarrass herself in front of judges, teammates......or Sam Romero.Sam is the star speaker from rival Winnetka High—the school Fremont loves to beat and rarely does. He also happens to be Jolia's long-lost summer best friend, and somehow he's volunteering to help her become a better speaker.Keeping those secret coaching sessions from her teammates is hard enough.Pretending she doesn't look forward to them?Impossible.As tournament season turns rivals into friends, friends into something more, and every competition raises the stakes, Jolia discovers that finding the courage to stand behind a podium might be easier than risking her heart.Filled with unforgettable teammates, academic rivalry, first love, laugh-out-loud humor, and the wonderfully chaotic world of competitive high school speech, The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet is a feel-good YA romantic comedy about finding your voice—even when you'd rather disappear.
