Silence by Deborah Lytton

Love is blind, but it's also deaf. 

Stella was born to sing. Someday Broadway. Even though she's only a sophomore at a new high school, her voice has given her the status as a "cool kid." But everything changes when a tragic accident renders her deaf. She can't hear herself sing not to mention speak. She can't hear anything. Silence. What happens when everything you've dreamed of and hoped for is shattered in a single moment?

Enter Hayden, the boy with blond curls who stutters. He's treated like an outcast because he's not "normal." And, yet, Stella feels an attraction to him that she can't explain. As Hayden reaches out to help Stella discover a world without sound, his own tragic past warns him to keep a distance. But their connection is undeniable. Can the boy who stutters and the girl who's deaf ever find a happily-ever-after? Silence is a story of friendship and hope with a lesson that sometimes it takes a tragedy to help us find and appreciate beauty and love in unexpected places.

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Hearing is something I take for granted, I think.  It's just part of my every day life and most of the time I just assume it's always going to be there.  This book really helped me remember that you should never take for granted the big and little things in life.  Being able to hear is a tremendous gift.

Stella is a singer.  She has big dreams of Broadway.  But one freak accident throws her into a world of silence and her dreams of singing are shattered.  Stella is devastated.  Even though her world has become silent, her thoughts are louder than ever and those thoughts are anything but good.

I love how Hayden enters Stella's life.  He becomes a constant for Stella.  A friend who understands and wants to help her make sense and beauty of her new world of silence.  Hayden teaches Stella that life is still beautiful and worth living.  She is still able to do and experience things, just in a different way.  What a good friend Hayden is.

Stella and Hayden end up helping each other as layers peel away and they learn to trust each other.  I loved the gentle progression of their relationship.  The characters seemed older than 15-16 years old and I had to keep reminding myself that they were younger.

This was a book I really enjoyed reading.  It was sweet and it had a nice flow to it.  I loved the progression and the learning for both Stella and Hayden.

This book is clean.  No swearing, profanity or sexual content.  There are a couple instances of kissing.