Freestyle

Academy of Stardom, Book 1

By: Bea Paige

Narrated by: Joel Froomkin, Kylie Stewart

From the gutter to the stars....

Dance is in my blood. It’s what keeps me sane, out of trouble. It used to keep them out of trouble, too - a group of boys I grew up with. Xeno, York, Zayn, and Dax.

We were a crew once. and we ruled the clubs. Separately we were insanely good; together we were unbeatable. F--king on fire. I was their girl, and they were my breakers. Until they did something they promised they never would: broke my heart.

We were 17 when they left me. You see, for kids like us, dance was all we had. Growing up in a rundown housing estate in London with no prospects can make you view the world differently. It can make you choose the wrong path. I chose dance, and they chose crime.

Three years later, I’ve won a scholarship to Stardom Academy. I try to forget my past. But how can I do that when the four boys who hurt me are back?

And this time, they’re following in my footsteps and joining the academy, too.

Freestyle is book one of Academy of Stardom, a gritty, contemporary reverse-harem romance. If you love dance, your men on the criminal side, alpha hot holes, and the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers trope, this is for you. Contains mature themes and ends on a cliff-hanger.

©2021 Bea Paige (P)2021 Podium Audio

Freestyle

I really enjoyed this story and all the dance tied into it. Freestyle is the story of five dancers who grow up in the same area meeting through chance. Bea Paige is always really good about keeping her characters engaging while also giving us an amazing storyline to follow. I can not wait to read Lyrical next and see what happens after that ending. Joel and Kylie do an awesome job voicing these characters in the audiobook, if you enjoy audiobooks check it out. I can not wait to see where this storyline goes next.

A steamy angsty RH full of dance

I absolutely love this series. I have the books. And this series was the first audiobook I listened to.
I enjoyed listening to Kylie Stewart! She takes Bea's words and breathes them to life, and finally gives us Pen's voice. She did an amazing job. I didn't quite like Joel Froomkin for the men. I don't like that Joel did al four of them. And they are so young and he made them sound so old. But overal it was a very good audio.

A Passionate, Heart-Wrenching Ride!

Bea Paige delivers an emotional rollercoaster in Freestyle (Academy of Stardom, Book 1), and Joel Froomkin and Kylie Stewart bring it to life with stunning narration. The intensity of the story is palpable—passion, devotion, and love intertwine beautifully before betrayal shatters it all.

I felt every moment of Pen’s journey, from the highs of being their girl to the devastating heartbreak of becoming their enemy. Xeno, Dax, Zayn, and York each left their mark, making me ache for what they once had. The chemistry was off the charts, the emotions raw, and the dance sequences were pure magic.

If you love enemies-to-lovers with deep emotions and a powerful connection, this audiobook is an absolute must-listen! 🔥🎧

Amazing Listen!

This audiobook has an amazing story, characters, writing, and narrators! I highly recommend it and am very excited to dig right in to the next one!

Excellent Narration!

Very much enjoyed getting to listen to this book narrated by Kylie Stewart! She takes Bea's words and breathes them to life, and finally gives us Pen's voice....and WOW! She did FABULOUS!!

Great suspenseful story

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good plot, full of suspense. I will warn that it ends on a good cliffhanger, so you’ll want to have the next book ready. Overall, I found the characters lovable even if I did want to smack them upside the head at times. And I find myself rooting for them.

Kylie Stewart knocked this narration out of the park. I very much enjoyed her performance! There really isn’t any of Joel Froomkin in this book’s narration aside from a tiny bit at the beginning.

This series is life! Love the dance and angst

This series is one of my favorites by this author and I just recently listened to them on audiobook to get ready for the extended epilogue, Encore, that’s releasing next month. I picked up on things I hadn’t before, and made me fall for this shared universe she writes in even more. I am sad to be seeing it go but I know this ending will be amazing!

We get to see in book 1 of this series how Pen and her Breakers grew up in flashbacks and the main storyline continues and she is reminded of past events and feelings. I enjoyed the back and forth, I know some people didnt. I think it added more complexity to the storyline to get that background. I loved the Breakers as kids, like how they protected her right off the bat, seeing her go through things they had gone through and not abandoning her like others had. The banter was fun (*cough pickle cough cough * IYKYK haha) and I loved the connection with Asia from Academy of Misfits right off the bat. I love dance, I used to watch World of Dance all the time, love seeing it on AGT too and the show where the Jabberwockies got their big break on MTV haha I am forgetting the name. I totally can see why it’s got Step Up vibes, the academy is done well. Nothing overdone, esp in book 1 where other books can over-describe things. I loved how the dances were described and the emotions in them. I felt everything while I read, it was mesmerizing. The enemies to lovers part of this story is hard to get through but this author never disappoints with HEAs so I knew it would be a hard-fought love. Don’t want to give anything away, but the way things were lined up and hinted at with the plot was fabulous, the tension between the characters was palpable, and I just wanted them make up already haha. And the different dances the guys focus on, done so well!

In terms of the narration I thought it was done well. I do wish it was duet though because sometimes the female narrator didnt hit the mark for me when doing the guy parts. I have listened to her a lot before so I do enjoy her performances, but I would give the narration a 4/5 just because I felt a couple miscues and I wished the male narrator did a better job with making the guys different sounding. Some he did but not all in this one. I still enjoyed it and would recommend people listening to this series on audio as well <3

I love this world!

I just love this series. The world building is fantastic. The characters are wonderful. The story is written so well that you are just absorbed in. This was one series I read as a book first then had to have the audio knowing I would need to revisit it often. If you like dance movies and romance this is for you. Not to mention the soundtrack the author provides is wonderful.

Love this series

First if you like RH this is definitely one of my favs. The story is unique and while it has some typical tropes to it the base plot of the story is different than any RH I’ve read considering it centers a lot about dance and artistic expression. Bea Paige does an amazing job with descriptions so it isn’t hard to visualize the dance moves the character make and it it only adds to the artistic nature of the story. I definitely loved this series when I read it but I was thrilled it was out on audiobook. I can’t wait to listen to the rest of the series in audio too, because the narration was spot on and I loved hearing Pen (fmc) tell her story in this format. Worth a credit.

AMAZING!!

I had read this series on Kindle first. I’m a huge audio fan so I had to listen to this. I swear to God Kylie Stewart sounds exactly like Emma Watson. She did the most AMAZING job with this book!! She’s definitely a top narrator for me now. This entire series is epic and you will not be disappointed by this very well acted narration. Kylie really brought the story to life. I can’t wait for the rest of the books to release!