{Review/Excerpt/Giveaway} A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE by Sarvenaz Tash



O P E N I N G   H O O K:



  
 I’M IDLING IN MY CAR even though I pulled into my driveway at least ten minutes ago, nervously tapping my hands on the steering wheel in time to the How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying cast recording. My stomach is flipping like a full-blown Newsies routine, and my perfectly ordinary front door has never looked so intimidating.

   To give myself an extra shot of courage, I pick up my phone and read the impossible email just one more time.

Dear Nasrin,

Congratulations! You have been accepted to theDrama BFA program at NYU Tisch School of theArts. Welcome to New Studio on Broadway.

   I close my eyes and focus on the visualization technique I use to calm my nerves every time I’m about to step onto a stage.

   First, square breathing: in for two, hold for two, out for two, hold for two. Repeat four times.

   Next, my three words of intention: how I want my audience—in this case, my parents—to feel once I’ve performed. The words are technically supposed to be verbs. So, okay, I want to charm, excite, and . . .uh, prouden? Is that a word?

   Lastly, and arguably the easiest part for me: remind myself to speak calmly, slowly, and with passion. I also need to remember the most important truth bomb in my arsenal: that the NYU musical theater department only has a 15 percent acceptance rate. If there’s one thing my parents can get behind, it’s percentages.


Read the ENTIRE first chapter in the excerpt below!

(Page 1, US hardcover edition)


Whether you're an actor, a fan of musical theatre, or understand all too well the tightrope balancing routine of deciding between following your own dreams or those of your parents, A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE by Sarvenaz Tash should definitely be your next relatable read!

I previously reviewed one of Tash's previous novels, THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO UNREQUITED LOVE, which I still enjoy recommending to fans during Comic-Con season. I remember that book having really fun chapter titles, and Tash doesn't disappoint with her latest offering! Musical Theatre fans will recognize the chapters as being songs from various musicals -- and likely be humming along throughout the chapter if it's a song they're familiar with!

Tash's love for theatre and the arts permeates the page and fleshes out main character Nasrin Mahdavi, who lives, eats, and breathes the thespian life. Like her character, Tash herself went to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, albeit on a different tract. And as Nasrin mentions a couple of times throughout the novel, only the top 15% of applicants get into the program, so you know Nasrin has to be good at what she wants to do for a living. She even gets cast -- as a Freshman!! -- in a streaming YouTube series that goes viral and gets picked up by Hulu for distribution (although her character is more of a caricature and mocks her heritage, which she decidedly -doesn't- love...) as well as earns a role in a play by an up and coming playwright who just might be the next Lin Manuel Miranda.

You'd think she has it made, right?

...Wrong.

Nasrin's parents want a different life for their daughter. They left Iran and immigrated to the USA in order to give her a better life, one with less struggle. They want her to go to business school -- and think she got into NYU's Stern School of Business. They have no idea that she hasn't given up on her "childhood hobby" and that she's actually attending a whole different school at NYU. Between juggling her heavy courseload, acting in all her new commitments, struggling to keep afloat in Statistics to appease her parents, and trying to keep her secret until she can break the news to her parents in a way they can accept, Nasrin is in over her head -- and the school year has barely begun!

A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE focuses on so many different relatable elements. It takes place in the first year of university, when so many students are discovering themselves and who they will become as adults. It emphasizes the struggle when you want a different life than the one your parents have envisioned for you. It explores the burden of being born in a different country from your parents, who want everything for you that they didn't have. It also focuses on so many things that are important to early college life: Finding your best friends, finding (perhaps) your first significant other, or even, as a secondary plot, figuring out whether or not you and your significant other can stay in a long distance relationship as you begin to grow apart as people. College is one of the times people grow the most, and Nasrin discovers a lot about herself and her wants over the course of the novel.

If you love a good contemporary novel that doesn't sugarcoat life, but shows its ups and downs or even if, like me, you're just a fan of that theatre life and want to pick up a book full of fun Easter eggs, you're going to really enjoy A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE!

 ~*~

EXCERPT



Excerpt from 
A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE
by Sarvenaz Tash

 

Excerpt for Rockstar Book Tours

 


 

CHAPTER 1 

How to Succeed 


I’m idling in my car even though I pulled into my driveway  at least ten minutes ago, nervously tapping my hands on the  steering wheel in time to the How to Succeed in Business  Without Really Trying cast recording. My stomach is flipping  like a full-blown Newsies routine, and my perfectly ordinary  front door has never looked so intimidating. 

To give myself an extra shot of courage, I pick up my phone  and read the impossible email just one more time. 

Dear Nasrin, 

Congratulations! You have been accepted to the  

Drama BFA program at NYU Tisch School of the  

Arts. Welcome to New Studio on Broadway.

I close my eyes and focus on the visualization technique  I use to calm my nerves every time I’m about to step onto a  stage. 

First, square breathing: in for two, hold for two, out for  two, hold for two. Repeat four times. 

Next, my three words of intention: how I want my  audience—in this case, my parents—to feel once I’ve performed. The words are technically supposed to be verbs. So,  okay, I want to charm, excite, and . . .uh, prouden? Is that a  word? 

Lastly, and arguably the easiest part for me: remind  myself to speak calmly, slowly, and with passion. I also need  to remember the most important truth bomb in my arsenal:  that the NYU musical theater department only has a 15 percent acceptance rate. If there’s one thing my parents can get  behind, it’s percentages. 

This is it. I’m going to use all my performance acumen and  all my courage and come clean: Maman and Baba, I applied  to Tisch, the art school, not Stern, the business school. I got  in! And I’m going to study theater and spend the rest of my  life performing. 

I’m going to tell them. Today, I think, just as my stomach  does another Tony-worthy backflip and the arched glass in my  front door seems to frown even wider. Or maybe . . . sometime  this weekend. Because I think there’s an Iranian soccer match  on tomorrow and then they’ll be feeling particularly relaxed. 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that my parents aren’t supportive. Maman and Baba paid for and drove me to every voice lesson or dance class, attended every single one of my  performances whether I was playing a background tulip or  had the lead role, and cheered harder than anyone when I  took my bows, from age four until now. They love that I love  to perform . . .They also really, really want me to go to business school. 

I listen to Daniel Radcliffe belt out some more tips about  how to walk into a conference room, soaking in my ironic  choice of pump-up music, before I finally turn off the car. It’ll  be okay; I have a whole weekend to tell them. 

But when I step into the door, Maman and Baba are both  lying in wait in the foyer. Their eyes are wild and bright, and  when they land on me, my parents let out a joyous exclamation, as if they’ve been waiting for me all day. I glance back  at my treacherous front door uneasily, wondering if they’ve  been staring out at me sitting in my car. 

“Nasrin, I’m sorry,” Maman says, and that’s when I notice  that she’s clutching my iPad. “I promise I wasn’t prying. It’s  just, the alert popped up on here this morning and I’ve been  waiting all day to have you read it. . . .” She hands the tablet  over to me. 

“It’s from NYU!” Baba butts in. “We just saw it was from  NYU.” 

So much for that soccer match. 

“Did you get in? Are you going to be a Sternie?” I look  at my dad’s smiling face, how his dark mustache is bobbing  up and down with anticipation. Then I turn to Maman, her brown eyes blinking madly behind her funky purple-and pink glasses. 

Maybe this would’ve been easier if I’d just let them overhear my Zoom audition. But I specifically asked my theater  director to let me borrow the school auditorium for it. Probably because a large part of me never expected it would lead  to this moment. I mean, come on. Fifteen percent. 

I take a final deep breath and finish it off with my good luck ritual—two taps on the silver necklace that’s hanging  from my neck, the pendant a tiny rendering of stage curtains.  Maman and Baba got it for me years ago, just a few months  before that disastrous Chorus Line audition that almost made  them make me quit. . . . 

But no, no. That is not what I need to be visualizing  right now. 

I put all the force of my vocal training behind my voice as  I say, “I got into NYU—” 

But before I get to finish my sentence, both my parents are  hugging me and whooping loudly. I’m pretty sure that’s one of  my mother’s tears I feel on my hair. 

“We’re so proud!” Maman says. 

“So proud, jigar talah!” Baba reiterates. “This makes  everything worth it. All the sacrifices . . .” 

Maman waves at him. “Let’s not get into that now, Nader.  This is Nasrin’s moment! She did it!” 

They both embrace me from either side again, a tight-knit  Mahdavi circle that feels as warm as the sun. 

They’re so happy. 

And I’m so happy. 

And we’re elated over the same thing, really. The same  university. Just . . . a slightly different school within it. Okay, this is good. This is how I’ll ease into the truth. “So,  Maman. Baba . . .” 

“We have to celebrate properly!” Baba says, and jumps  away from the embrace, the slight chill in his wake scattering my train of thought like stage snow. “I’m making reservations!” He grabs for his phone. 

I don’t have to ask where. He knows my favorite restaurant. He sorta knows everyone’s favorite restaurant, given that  my parents are the proud creators of RatethePlate.com, currently the number two restaurant-rating site in the country. 

“I’m opening up some champagne. Just a little for the special occasion,” Maman says, winking at me. 

I smile at her, swallowing down my confession for the time  being. Because a little alcohol will make it go down easier too,  right? I mean, I’ve never really drank, but I’ve seen enough act  2s opening on party scenes to get the idea. 

“I’m buying us matching sweatshirts!” I look over in alarm  to see that Baba has somehow managed to already navigate  over to the Stern merchandising page. 

I give a small laugh. “Well, maybe let’s hold off on that  for one . . .” 

POP! 

I physically jump, for one bizarre instant thinking that  a cymbal has been hit, signaling the first note of my opening number. Traditionally, it would be something called an  

“I Want” song, the main character establishing to the audience what their goal is going to be for the next two hours  and change. Think “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” or “Part of Your  World.” 

So I want . . . 

. . .to get into Tisch. The program whose audition I agonized over for months. The program I applied to just to see if  I had what it took to make it. I told myself that if I got in, it’d  be a sign that theater is what I’m meant to be doing. And I did. I got in. Fifteen percent. 

Right, that’s it. Remember the percentages, Nasrin.  Remember the percentages! 

My mom stuffs a skinny glass into my hand, a small pool  of pale liquid fizzing at its bottom. 

“To our great mind!” she says. 

“To our great mind!” Baba echoes, raising his glass and  clinking it with mine. 

My eyes involuntarily flick over to the wall of my parents’  office, where the giant sampler that hangs there is visible even  from the foyer. It reads: 

Great minds have purpose, others have wishes. —Washington Irving 

Ironically, I’m the one who stitched the words of my dad’s  favorite quote onto an enormous piece of fabric a few years  ago, when I learned how to sew so I could have a better grasp  on how to alter my own costumes. The sampler was a Father’s Day present, replacing the small, framed quote that had been  there for as long as I’ve known how to read. 

Everything my parents have ever done seems filled with  purpose. For one thing, they left behind their entire country  in pursuit of opportunity. And when they combined Maman’s  coding skills and Baba’s penchant for sales, they somehow  arrived at a magic formula for success. It seemed like one day  they were updating their WordPress from the little alcove in  their bedroom, and the next, they had a feature in Wired. But  I know it was “overnight success” by way of ten years of toiling in obscurity. 

And that’s all they’ve ever wanted for me too. Maybe not  the abject struggling part, as they’ve made quite clear, but  the part where I work hard and eventually get rewarded for  it. The first and last time I ever saw Baba with tears in his  eyes, through fresh ones streaming from my own, was the  month after the Chorus Line audition, when he told me in no  uncertain terms that theater is meant to be a fun hobby and  not a source of devastation. But this acceptance email makes  me feel like my wishes have purpose too; one of the premier  drama schools in the country thinks I have what it takes to  turn them into something concrete—into a career. What could  be more purposeful than that? 

I smile and follow Maman and Baba’s lead by taking a  small sip from my glass. The liquid is cool and light, and  nowhere near as bitter as I was expecting. I read it as a sign  that my confession will be the same. My parents might be surprised by its novelty, but they’ll get used to it, accept it,  and, maybe even eventually, enjoy it. 

I put down my glass. “Maman, Baba. First of all, I want to  thank you. It’s because of you that I was ever able to do this.”  I get a little choked up because it’s so accurate. All those les sons, all that driving me to community theater auditions and  rehearsals over the summers . . . 

“Oh, don’t be silly, azizam,” Maman says. “What are we  doing in this country at all if not helping you to accomplish  your goals? You did all the hard work. . . .” 

“Nasrin, look,” Baba says, bouncing on the balls of his  feet. He thrusts his iPad into my face, and I can see that, fortunately, he’s navigated away from the merchandise . . .though,  unfortunately, it might be to an even more disconcerting page.  “There are so many clubs you can join!” 

The Stern clubs page is filled with words like “economics” and “finance” and “investment analysis” that stream  through my eyes and get jammed up before they can absorb  into my brain. But then there’s one that actually makes its  way through my synapses: a Stern & Tisch Entertainment  Business Association. Okay, maybe this is the opening I need. I point to it. “This one looks interesting. . . .” 

Baba looks down, and his eyebrows knit together as he  reads what I’m pointing at. “That one? Well . . . we wouldn’t  want you to get tempted, Nasrin.” 

“Tempted?” I ask, my shoulders slowly creeping up. “You might see all those Tischies and decide to become a  drama major! Remember when you started high school and that’s what you wanted to do? Your mom and I were so worried.” They look over my head at one another. The sense of  relief flowing through them is palpable, like they dodged a literal bullet—naturally, from a gun that appeared in act 1 and,  in a Chekhovian progression, went off by the end of the play. 

They clink their glasses again, and it’s like a lighting cue  has darkened the liquid inside to an ominous amber. Suddenly my stomach feels like it’s sloshing around giant bubbles,  bouncing together, creating friction and waves upon waves of  anxiety. My dad just voiced everything I was afraid of. 

But I fall back on my training once again. My voice is  entirely calm and relaxed when I say, “But there was never  anything to worry about, was there?”



Excerpt from Sarvenaz Tash's A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE,

reprinted with permission from Disney Books.


All rights reserved.


    ~*~

C O N T E N T R A T I N G S

Content Ratings: highlight between ( ) for details

Romance: G  ( Kissing )
Language: --
Violence: --
Other:  PG ( Lying to parents about the school being attended and the degree being earned. Secondary character is often lying about sneaking out, clubbing, getting a fake ID, etc. )
~*~
C O V E R   D E S I G N:

This cover just screams New York, New York! Nasrin is standing in front of an iconic NYC view, complete with some posters in the background that are reminiscent of the ads all over Times Square. 

Nasrin's image is brought to life by Sara Alfageeh, who did a whole thread on Twitter when the cover was revealed that showed us how it went from concept to final product -- I highly recommend taking a look! Sara captured her personality -- her gorgeous hair flowing, her confident personality that has already helped give her some booking attention, and, best of all, the necklace that she buys herself in the book!

If I saw this on a shelf at a store, being a Broadway lover, I'd pick it up to see what it was about and absolutely bring this baby home with me!
~*~

O F F I C I A    I N F O:

Title:  A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE
Author: Sarvenaz Tash
Release Date: April 4, 2023
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
 
SUMMARY:
 

Sarah Dessen meets Abigail Hing Wen in this heartwarming romantic comedy starring Nasrin Mahdavi, an Iranian-American college freshman who's a triple threat on Broadway—but who's living a double life.

It’s her first semester majoring in musical theater at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, and Nasrin spends her days prepping for auditions, sweating through dance classes, and belting her heart out for the viral streaming show she’s been cast in. But on calls with her maman and baba, she’s the golden child who put her theater dreams aside to follow in their entrepreneurial footsteps as a business major. 

At least her whole life isn’t a lie—she is taking a single business course. Except she’s kind of failing it. Nasrin needs to bring her grade up fast if she’s going to keep her parents in the dark, so she grudgingly signs up for tutoring with the infuriatingly smug and annoyingly attractive Max. And yet . . . as the semester rushes by, the sparks of anger that first flew between them start to turn into a very different kind of spark. The kind she definitely does not have time for.

Except when Nasrin’s charmingly devious cousin takes an interest in Max too, Nasrin has to figure out exactly what has been an act, and what’s for real. Can Nasrin decide what—and who—is truly worth fighting for, and find a way to step into the spotlight as her full self?




 ~*~ 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR




Sarvenaz Tash is the author of The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love (an Amazon Best Book of the Year, YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant YA Readers), A Whole Song and Dance, Virtually Yours, Three Day Summer, The Mapmaker and the Ghost and the co-author of Ghosting: A Love Story and Hollywood Ending (as Tash Skilton). She was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, which means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun). She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting for the likes of Bravo and MTV. Sarvenaz currently lives in Brooklyn with her family. 




  
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****Giveaway*****

You could win...


-   1 winner will receive a finished copy of A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE.

Ends May 6th, midnight EST.

(US Only)



You must be at least 13 years old to enter or have a parent's permission!

Enter now!

<a Rafflecopter giveaway

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TOUR SCHEDULE


Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/1/2023

The Bibliophilic World

Review/IG Post


Week Two:

4/2/2023

I'm Into Books

Excerpt

4/3/2023

YA Books Central

Excerpt/IG Post

4/4/2023

Lifestyle of Me

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4/5/2023

Reads by Radus

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4/6/2023

@stargirls.magical.tale

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4/7/2023

Review Thick And Thin

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4/8/2023

Country Mamas With Kids

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Week Three:

4/9/2023

@bookishlifeofkels

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4/10/2023

Tracey Reads and Rambles 

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4/11/2023

A Blue Box Full of Books

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4/12/2023

Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's 

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4/13/2023

A Backwards Story 

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4/14/2023

The Book View

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4/15/2023

pluvioreads

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Week Four:

4/16/2023

Breysreviews

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4/17/2023

popthebutterfly

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4/18/2023

More Books Please blog

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4/19/2023

zaineylaney

TikTok Review/IG Post

4/20/2023

Two Points of Interest

Review

4/21/2023

Brandi Danielle Davis 

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4/22/2023

@froggyreadteach

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Week Five:

4/23/2023

@carlysunshinebooks

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4/24/2023

@lexijava 

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4/25/2023

OneMoreExclamation

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4/26/2023

@travelersguidetobooks 

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4/27/2023

Author Z. Knight’s Guild

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4/28/2023

Midnightbooklover

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4/29/2023

@My.Bookish.Mind

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Week Six:

4/30/2023

@drew_ambitious_reading

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