4.5 stars!

If you are/were a musical theater person, this is definitely the book for you! I (due to an utter lack of singing talent) was firmly in the pit orchestra at high school musical time, but have a firm appreciation for musical theater. In addition to the cute story, getting all of the theater tidbits was fantastic.

Now, on to the story! Emma Lord has, once again, managed to make me feel all of the emotions sandwiched in between some lighthearted, funny hi-jinks! Our main character Millie is an unapologetically loud, dramatic, assertive sixteen-going-on-seventeen year old girl who wants to go to a musical theater precollege in the fall. Her dad is less than thrilled with this plan, so she decides to use the time while he's on a work trip to find her mother (who dropped her off with her dad when she was a baby) to try to convince him, and answer some questions she's always had but been unable to ask.

With the help of her best friend Teddy, she goes on a Mamma Mia! esque adventure to determine which of three candidates (gleaned from a LiveJournal of her dad's that they inadvertently find) is her mom. One such hi-jink brings her into competition with her long-time theater "nemesis", Oliver, who is the stage manager for all their school productions - and who she's clashed with since their first day freshman year. Obviously, they start to learn more about each other, and feelings develop!

The character development with Millie was extremely well done. While she does not always do the best things, or think of how actions will impact others, I loved how she was willing to throw herself into things wholeheartedly. Having a young girl/woman know what she wants and be willing to go after it (even if it isn't always the best method) and take control of her destiny is a great thing to see! All of the other characters were also great, from Millie's intern boss Georgie to her three mom candidates (Beth, Farrah, and Sarah) and Chloe, her potential half-sister. And of course, her best friend Teddy, who is always very supportive of her; her father, who seems on the surface to be Millie's opposite; to her aunt Heather, her father's sister who raised her along with her father.

All in all, this is a great YA book to start the new year with, and I'm so happy that it is out in the wild now!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

I loved this cute, quick read! There was so much going on, between Millie trying to find her mom and getting to know 3 different women and their lives, her rivalry/crush on her nemesis Oliver (while working at an internship), geocaching with her best friend, and fighting with her dad over attending a new school in a new state. The way Emma Lord can blend all of these together so masterfully is nothing short of amazing.

Before I read this, I was excited. You see, my husband was a theater kid, and I love musical theater. I have been known to burst into tears at shows when the music is powerful (I'm looking at you Wicked). Then, around the middle of the story I began to relate to Millie in ways I did not see coming.

Millie lives her life as though she is always on stage - she's loud, she bursts into people's lives whether she should or not, and she's always in costume. I could relate to that how I was in high school too. Wearing "weird" clothes, being loud - anything to distract everyone from seeing the real me. Reading about Millie realizing this about herself cut a little closer to home than I thought it would.

Throw in the romance, and the page turning what-will-happen-next fervor of if Millie would get to go to her new school, and WHO IS HER MOM, and we have here another hit! Emma Lord is definitely one of my go-to authors now!

I loved this! Emma Lord continues to be one of my favorite authors, her writing is so fun and enjoyable no matter the subject, I've enjoyed all three of her books and I can't wait to read more by her. The musical theatre in this book threw me off a little, however, after a while, I got used to it and got really invested in the book. So glad this was my first read of the year!

When You Get The Chance by Emma Lord, follows Millie Price, an aspiring Broadway star. Millie has spent her high school years singing, dancing and engaging in anything that has to do with being on stage. Millie spends most of her free time preparing for college and pursuing her future dreams. When she comes across a bump in the road to her next step in her professional career, Millie decides that she wants to track down her mother, who left her when she was little. All Millie knows about her mother is that she has a background in musical theater, as well. Millie spends her summer trying to identify a few potential possibilities, while attempting to land an internship at the same time. Will Millie be able to juggle everything all at once?

This book was really unique to other YA rom coms that I’ve read before because of the musical theater aspect. I enjoyed the back and forth banter between Oliver and Millie. Their relationship is an interesting one to follow and I loved reading about their everyday adventures and arguments. This book focused in on Millie’s time spent looking for her mother and trying to figure out which of the women she has found, could be her. I thought the absentee mother storyline was very unique to anything I’ve read and it really kept me wondering who her mother was throughout the book. Though it started off a little bit slow, I thought it was a really cute book and enjoyed reading it.

I love Emma Lord’s books, and was so excited to read When You Get the Chance. I adored Millie — she definitely comes off as bossy and precocious but she has so much heart and genuinely cares so much about the people around her. I loved her relationship with Oliver — their rivals-to-lovers dynamic definitely gave both of them depth and rounded out their characters. I also really commend Emma Lord’s ability to write familial dynamics — Millie’s relationship with her dad and aunt, as well as Millie’s quest to find her mom were expertly woven.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This book made my heart so full. Millie, an aspiring Broadway star, finds herself living her very own Mamma Mia when she discovers her dad’s old Live Journal account, which hints at three women who could possibly be the mother who abandoned her at birth. This book made me so nostalgic for my own high school theater days.

Millie is so spunky and passionate. She reminds me a bit of Rachel Berry from Glee, but not so insufferable. At times Millie could be stubborn and dramatic, but that just left her room to mature and grow. I really related to the way this book depicted her “Millie Moods,” when her anxiety sends her emotions into overdrive, and how she discovered healthy coping mechanisms. Positive and realistic mental health representation is so important in books, especially for young adults.

Romance was not the main focus of the story, but it was a big part of it. The enemies to friends to more was so sweet and well-written. I couldn’t stop swooning over the slow realization of feelings.

The father/daughter relationship was the true star of this book. Millie and her dad didn’t always see eye to eye, but they were always there for each other.

This is a fun, funny, and truly beautiful coming of age story. I cried like 4 times, I laughed too many times to count, and I loved every moment. Emma Lord’s writing is so easy to read, making the story and characters come to life. I highly recommend this YA contemporary!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC.

First of all, thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an e-ARC of <i> When You Get the Chance </i>.

This book is perfect for fans of <i> Mamma Mia </i> and <i> Definitely Maybe </i> and all things musical theater. Emma Lord is a self-confessed theater geek and it absolutely shows in the names dropped, shows mentioned, witty names (Baron Levait is totally a play on Aaron Tveit, right?), and just overall joy for the performing arts. This theme makes the book feel fresh and fun. Additionally, the whole "who's my mom?" mystery, a heavy nod to the above show and movie, keeps the story moving forward at a fast pace.

That said, the plot feels a bit mechanical at points. Like, if you read closely you can see Lord's gears turning and her building the plot when it should feel more character driven. But if you like quick books where tons of things happen and keep happening, then <i> When You Get the Chance </i>.
has got you covered. On the plot, I also enjoyed the last twist on that maternal mystery. I had a feeling of where it was going but I didn't expect it to happen like that.

Characterization is a bit faulty here, for me. Millie, our MC, is a diva, a drama queen, and she knows it. She leans into it hard, too hard at times. To the point where it no longer makes sense, like when she digs her heels in towards the last fourth of the book about her school choice. We all know someone like that, so I'm not saying it's unrealistic, but in this case I needed more to understand where she was coming from because at that point it seemed like the character knew the right choice but Lord kept her going down the wrong path to fill pages.

There are many characters that get page time here, so characterization veers a bit much towards archetypes, especially for the adults who do not feel as fleshed out as the teens even when part of the point of the book is Millie getting to know these women who could potentially be her mother but could be summed up as Broadway Club sweet woman, happy dancer woman, and actress woman. The dad could have used some more details instead of just being painted as a nerdy dweeb (Lord's words, not mine) without much depth.

I've noticed that it's a bit of a theme for Lord to have MCs with male best friends, maybe she's drawing from real life but it starts to feel like a "not like the other girls" sort of thing. In any case, Teddy was a great best friend character and sometimes he felt more like the one bringing about the events than Millie herself.

The ending is as saccharine as the milkshake described at the end. Almost everyone gets paired off as if this were Noah's Ark and the flood were imminent. I could have done with less of that and more of the actual family dynamics, which I found more interesting.

Overall, this is a fast-paced, fun, fluffy romp with many nods to musical theater and New York City that is perfect for fans of both and for anyone who enjoys Emma Lord's quippy voice.

MILLIE HAS MY HEART. Ok, so it is no secret that I'm an Emma Lord STAN and obviously was thrilled to learn there would be a Mamma Mia inspired book by her. When You Get The Chance delivered FOR SURE..

The self discovery, the theater references, the mutual pining. I loved it all. I think that the way Emma Lord writes high school characters and relationships is very authentic and enjoyable. I will be recommending this book to all YA readers and also any and all self proclaimed Theater Geeks.

If you are a musical theatre nerd and a YA fan, then you want to read this book. Set in NYC, When You Get the Chance, follows Millie as she tries to convince her dad she should be allowed to go to a pre-college program, ropes her best friend into helping her figure out which one of three women is her mother and works side by side with her nemesis for the summer. Chock full of Broadway references and a couple of references to Tweet Cute, it was impossible to read this book without smiling multiple times. Millie, with all her over the top-ness, was so relatable and just a fun character to read. She also may have one of the cutest fathers in all of YA ever and a badass aunt who owns a music club that also makes milkshakes. Every character in this book is adorable and it was a super fun read.

If I had finished @dilemmalord ‘s new book When You Get the Chance last week, it definitely would have had a spot on my favorite YA of the year. I was halfway through when I made my list and I almost included it anyway, but it seemed like kind of a cheat. I’m 99.9% sure, this one that comes out tomorrow about a Broadway bound teen looking for her mother will be on my 2022 favorites.

When New Yorker Millie’s accepted into an intense precollege performing arts program in LA, she’s definitely going. Except her dad says no. Millie has never wondered all that much about who her mom is—a woman who dropped her off as a baby with her college-aged dad—but now maybe that mom is the key to getting parental consent, or at least swaying her father. When an old online journal of her father’s drops in her lap, she identifies three potential mom candidates—the book 100 percent leans into the Mama Mia parallels—and Millie, with the help of her geocaching best friend, sets off to Millie Mia her way into having two parents.

There’s a lot going in this one. There’s an enemies to possibly more with her stage manager nemesis Oliver. There are three possible moms to follow. There’s a beautiful platonic male/female best friendship and questions about what makes a family. Like in any Emma Lord book there are food references a plenty—a lot of them about milkshakes. And there’s the geocaching and punk bands and Broadway openings and a thousand and one fabulous musical theater references.

I’m a huge musical theater nerd and if I’d had have Millie’s talent I’d still be trying to act. I could also relate maybe too much to the main character’s “Millie Moods.” The only small quibble I had was that by the end, there were a lot of conflicts to wrap up, but I wouldn’t have wanted to lose any of those storylines.

Thank you so much to @Wednesdaybooks and @netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion. I can’t recommend this one enough to YA lovers or any fans of musical theater or moving, funny writing. I’m definitely buying a copy for my daughter that I may steal.

As an "elder millenial" the thing that got me about this one was the use of the LiveJournal as how the main character found out more about her dad and mom. Not just LiveJournal y''all, but one in 2003 as WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE. That said, I also loved that this could feasibly be how a teen today could find out more about her parents. This was one with heart as Millie tried to figure out where she came from and learn more about her mother. It was realistic feels as Millie searched for answers about who she was throughout.

Perfect for theatre kids, Mamma Mia fans and Gleeks alike, this is a fun, chaotic story that was a great start to 2021. I loved the author's previous book, Tweet Cute, so I went into this story assured that I was in good hands. Millie is a loud, sometimes annoying character that you can't forget about, and I couldn't help but love her.

What let this book down a little bit for me, was that there was simply too much going on. Millie's search for her mother via her Dad's old livejournal was overshadowed by the internship, the internship's tasks overshadowed the enemies to lovers romance with Oliver and somewhere sidelined along the way was Millie's friend's geocache romance with a girl who he only knew the username of.

Overall, this was really fun. I didn't think it needed as many different plot lines as it did, but they were all tied up really well in the end. I really appreciated that we came back to the teens months later, to see where they ended up in the end - this will nearly always push a book up a star for me.

If you loved Tweet Cute by Emma Lord, I think you’ll absolutely love When You Get the Chance! This story follows Millie Price, a vivacious and tenacious teen trying to convince her “dweebish” dad to let her go to a prestigious arts high school across the country. When he doesn’t budge, she decides that if her mom supports her dream, her dad will finally relent. Just one problem, she doesn’t know who her mom is. She just has vague clues pointing to three different women as possibilities. Millie finds herself in her very own rendition of Mamma Mia.

This book was a blast to read! I love the energy and vibrance Millie brings to the people around her. Her relationships with her family and friends are so rich and, for the most part, pretty light even though there are some heavier topics touched on throughout the book. Her relationships with her dad and aunt Heather were especially heartwarming. I also loved watching her form bonds with each of the women she believes to be her mother.

There is also a side plot running throughout the story involving a sort of rivalry between Millie and Oliver, the stage manager at her school. Things heat up between them when they are forced into even closer proximity, and I really enjoyed watching their relationship develop and evolve.

This was my first read of 2022, and it was so amazing! Definitely reminded me of all the things I like about YA contemporary stories!

Now if Emma Lord would like to try her hand at an adult romcom, I will pick it up in a heartbeat.

**Big thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review. All thoughts are my own.

I've thought this for awhile, but When You Get the Chance cemented it for me - I think Emma Lord is one of the best YA contemporary writer out there right now. It's hard to fully express how much I loved this book. It really had everything I love in a book generally, including a swoon-worthy hate-to-love romance, a strong cast of endearing supporting characters, and a propulsive and exciting plot. In addition, as a forever theatre kid, the theatre element of this book was so fun - Emma Lord really came for me with her deep cut Broadway references (including having Little Women: The Musical, a failed show I've loved since I saw it on Broadway in 2005, be a critical part of the book. Are you me, Emma?!) But most importantly, particularly for a YA book, I loved the journey our main character, Millie, went on. Yes, the plot of this book is a take on Mamma Mia (which the novel is fully aware of and pokes fun at), in which Millie tries to find her mother, narrowing it down to three possible candidates and attempting to get to know them all. But the self-reflection and growth Millie displays throughout the novel is the true star of the show. The end of this book made me want to stand up and cheer for Millie- not as an inspiring Broadway ingenue, but as a teenage girl, who finally figures out who she really is and why that person is pretty great, regardless of her talents or her parentage. Not every YA book manages to nail that type of journey, let alone with outstanding humor, romance, and emotional moments along the way. Bravo, Millie, and bravo Emma Lord - I can't wait to read what's next.

I LOVED IT!!!!! Everything I needed. Loveable characters, enemies to lovers, singing, theatre. I was laughing and tearing up by the end.

This was cute and I really liked the beginning but it ended pretty middle of the road for me. In the beginning, the characters hooked me. Millie is somehow right on that fine line between totally annoying and amusing which really worked with this plot and played well off of the other characters. I loved her interactions with Teddy and found it refreshing to see that kind of friendship in a YA novel with no romance behind it. Millie's dad and aunt were also really interesting characters and I loved their family dynamic. The other characters were all decent but there really were a lot of them for a 320 page book.

The romance was also cute, a nice enemies to lovers that you could see coming from the first page but it was well done and sweet. And while her reasons for doing it were a little wonky, the search for her mother was enjoyable to read. However, this eventually all got a little stale, there was a lot going on but I could see where everything is going (I knew who the mom would be a mile away, sooo many little hints were dropped). It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying the story but I had no real drive to keep reading when it was pretty obvious. I also thought the change in Millie didn't really make sense and it isn't really talked about except for her clothes so just odd overall that she seemed to have a personality switch. The book takes place over 2 weeks and it just seemed like the author was trying to tone her down at the end. I also wasn't a fan of any of the other side romances, it just isn't necessary to pair up every character in a book, it felt way too forced.

I also think people will be split on this one because it relies pretty heavily on musical theater references. I did musicals in high school and knew a good amount of the references as most are pretty classic ones and not super recent. So I didn't find it annoying but if you don't know who Elphaba, Javert, Kate Monster or Feyero are (to name a few), it might start to get on your nerves as these are consistently dropped throughout with little to no explanation. If you love musicals, then you'll probably eat it up as the references did seem be used well from the ones I was familiar with.

Overall, I thought this was cute and enjoyed my time but a fairly middle of the road YA contemporary. I'm still interested in reading Lord's other books, I've had Tweet Cute on my shelf for a long time, I'll get to it eventually.

* I received a free eARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What originally had me interested in When You Get The Chance was a viral tweet about the book having LiveJournal integrated into its story. I, a longtime internet user, who used livejournal quite frequently, was immediately intrigued.

When You Get The Chance is a fun story of self-discovery and nothing describes it better than Mamma Mia in the digital world sprinkled with a lot of broadway goodness! The characters are a lot of fun and they all brought their uniqueness to the story,

A great read for something lighthearted, fun, a book that can be its own rom-com, and yet has great themes that explore relationships and family!

If, like me, you’re a huge fan of the musical Mamma Mia, you’re going to just fall in love with Emma Lord’s latest contemporary romance, When You Get the Chance. It follows Millie Price, a talented teen who has dreamed of becoming a Broadway star from the moment she saw her first musical. She’s determined to get there and nothing and no one will stand in her way – not her overprotective father, not her drama club rival Oliver, not even her own intensely emotional moments of self-doubt. When Millie secretly applies to an elite high school drama school and gets accepted, her dad says no way.

Millie decides she needs someone on her side and thus embarks on a search to find the mother she has never known. She thinks she has hit the jackpot when she stumbles across her dad’s LiveJournal from 2003. After reading post after cringy embarrassing post, Millie has come up with a list of three possible women who might be her mother. First there’s Steph, an aspiring actress who works as a receptionist at a local talent agency. Then there’s Farrah, a dance teacher in the area. And finally, there’s Beth, a fellow musical theater enthusiast who also happens to have a daughter just a couple years younger than Millie. Millie sets out on a mission to get to know all three of these women in hopes that it will become obvious who her mom is, and thus begins her “Millie Mia” journey, which is the focus of this book.

I had so much fun reading this book! I adored Millie and was fully invested in both her dream of being on Broadway and her search for her birth mom. I loved her spirit and her sense of determination. I also fell in love with basically all the other characters in the book too. Millie’s nerdy dad and cool aunt are both so fantastic and so supportive of her, even if they don’t necessarily agree with her choice of schools. Millie’s best friend and neighbor, Teddy, is a sweetheart and I loved the closeness of their friendship. Steph, Farrah, and Beth were all so delightful that I couldn’t even decide which one I hoped would turn out to be Millie’s mom. Millie’s nemesis, Oliver, is also fabulous. I loved watching the two of them interact when they both end up working as interns at the same talent agency. Their escalating rivalry is hilarious, especially since it’s pretty clear they’re both just hiding their true feelings for one another.

If you’re in the mood for a heartwarming story about family, friendship, and following your heart that also features an utterly delightful cast of characters, I highly recommend Emma Lord’s When You Get the Chance.

To say Millie is ambitious would be an understatement. She knows what she wants and she knows what she’s going to do to get it. She wants to be a Broadway star and to get there, she needs to go to this special Broadway school in California. But someone is getting in her way: her dad.

He doesn’t want to let her go across the country especially when there is so much she could do right where they live.

But Millie is not giving up. Especially not when she finds her dad’s old LiveJournal that just so happens to talk about the mom she never met. She dropped Baby Millie on her dad’s doorstep and that was it.

With the information Millie discovers, she decides to find her mom and get her to convince her dad that she should go to this fancy school (she’s a teen, Logic isn’t always the name of the game).

While searching for her mom, she inadvertently gets a chance at an internship with a theater talent agent much to the chagrin of her frenemy Oliver. He is…a little pissed when she shows up and gets the internship along with him, but she’s not about to tell him she’s just there to find out if the secretary, Steph, is her mom. SHE HAS SOME DIGNITY! And she can’t let him win! (or maybe she can when she starts to have feelings for him…)

Millie also finds two other potential moms in a mother who runs a theater lovers group and another that runs a dance class. She meets each one of these women and comes to care for them.

It gets to the point where she’s not sure she wants to know who her mother is because when she does find out…then she has to do something with that information. She has to confront her actual mother.

She also doesn’t tell her dad or her aunt about anything that she’s doing. The only one who knows is her best friend Teddy. This causes all sorts of problems for Millie and her family. Like BIG complicated, emotional problems that Millie never saw coming.

I really loved how this book dealt with single parenting, parents who leave their kids for whatever reason, and the way those kids deal with that abandonment. It’s done in a very nuanced way and…did I mention the sobbing??


I also appreciated that Millie is not that likable. I liked her, but I pretty much like all unlikable girl/woman characters lol. As great as she is at performing and as much confidence as she has, she has her flaws and she works through them and grows as she goes through this journey.

The relationships in the story were also incredibly well done. Millie and her dad. Millie and her aunt. Millie and Teddy. Millie and her potential moms. Millie and Oliver. All the relationships are complex, well-developed, and clearly well thought out.

Also, while I’m not a theater person (although I do love a good musical), I felt completely immersed in Millie’s world.

I am giving When You Get The Chance 5 out of 5 stars.

If you liked any of Emma Lord’s other books or are a fan of YA contemporary/romance, this is definitely a book you want to check out!

When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord is out on January 4, 2022.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Mamma Mia fan in me died when I saw the blurb for Emma Lord's new book and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Millie is such a good YA protagonist and I adored her dad. This is a great book with a great dad/daughter bond and perfect for any broadway fan.