A cute rom-com about an ambitious musical theater kid hunting for her mom, this entertaining twist on Mamma Mia is full of feels and musical theater references that will grab the high school theater kids crowd. While she initially comes off as self-centered and arrogant, Millie's search for the mom she never knew and, in the process, the discoveries she makes about herself and the boy she loves to hate add to her depth and appeal. The subplots (e.g., her best friend Teddy's romance with Chloe, the girl who just might be Millie's younger sister) and cast of characters (e.g., Millie's arch-nemesis, Oliver, the "enemy" who becomes more than a friend; her dweeby dad and spunky aunt Heather; Beth, Steph, and Farrah, the likeliest candidates for the part of Millie's bio-mom) are engaging and well-developed. The happy ending, though predictable, is satisfying. A solid 4 stars!

Read if you…
🎤Like musicals
🎤Know all the words to Mamma Mia! songs
🎤Are looking for a feel-good story

When You Get the Chance is a wonderful, musical, feel-good YA novel about Millie, a high school student living with her dad and aunt looking to carve her future path straight to Broadway. In true Mamma Mia style, when she finds her dad’s 2003 LiveJournal entries talking about three women who could possibly be her mother, Millie decides to go on a journey to find out which woman is really her mom.

This book was entertaining, funny, and addictive. Who is Millie’s mother?! I also loved Millie‘s friendship with Teddy and the banter and enemies to lovers relationship between her and Oliver. This was a really fun book to read.

Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC with honesty.

So I never read anything from this author before and I find myself needing to rectify that. I absolutely loved this story of a young girl, determined to make a name for herself by hoping to attend a precollege all the way on the other side of the country to get a leg up on her career. Her dad, a man that normally doesn't put his foot down, tell her no. But she can't take no for an answer. This is her life, her hopes and dreams. And if there is a will, there will always be a way. Enlisting her best friend's help, she embarks on finding someone who will side with her on this precollege dream and that someone will be the mother she never knew. But there's a problem. She doesn't know who her mom his and her dad isn't saying. So taking a page from the sensational Mamma Mia musical, she goes off father's LiveJournal blog from his college days and starts tracking down the possible baby mamas.

I absolutely loved this book It had so much character to it and even though Millie (the protag.) is a teenager, she starts to evolve from the self centered diva that everyone knows her for, to opening her eyes to those around her, including but not limited to her own archenemy!

This was a very cute and humbling read. For anyone that likes the musicals, or rom-com or even just a young girl trying to find her mother in the very busy city that never sleeps.

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I've loved Emma Lord's previous books, so it is no surprise I loved When You Get the Chance as well! Millie is a wonderful character with amazing friends and family. I enjoyed her passion and drive, but also her vulnerability. This is a delightful story about big, Broadway dreams, best friendship, family, and love. Whether a reader has undergone a search for a birth parent or not, everyone can relate to wanting to better understand yourself. This book is funny and heartwarming, and I can't wait to buy a physical copy for my classroom library. My students will love it!

Overall, I really enjoyed When You Get the Chance. Yes, Millie is kind of a lot, with her dramatic personality and her “Millie Moods,” but I sort of loved that about her. And yes, she IS a teenager.

Millie’s butting heads with her dad over her desire to leave home and attend a residential high school theatre program, and decides to find her mom. After snooping in her dad’s Live Journal from college (lol) Millie comes up with three possible candidates and proceeds to investigate each one. Simultaneously, she’s competing with her arch-rival, Oliver, for an internship with a super-influential theater producer.

Yes, this premise was almost as implausible as that of Mamma Mia, which clearly inspired the story. The reasons for Millie’s mom vanishing from her life and staying anonymous never really made sense to me and were a little hard to get past. (Maybe that’s a sexist double standard on my part and I had similar issues with the motherhood storyline in Lord's second book.)

But When You Get the Chance was also a huge amount of fun. Millie and Oliver’s relationship was super-cute. I saw them more as best friends than a romantic couple, but I loved their dynamic. Millie’s relationship with her father (and his sister, Millie’s aunt and defect mom) was also really sweet.

To me, it was incredibly obvious who Millie’s mom was, but that didn’t spoil the fun of the book at all. It was entertaining to watch Millie get to know three women who played a central part in her dad’s life.

Finally, When You Get the Chance was a wonderful love letter to theater and, specifically, New York theater. I recently went to my first Broadway show since before the pandemic, and it was so wonderful to be back!

4/5

While this isn’t my favorite of Lords this was still dang good!

By the end I was flying through the story wanting to know how it all played out! I loved the family dynamics and the Devil Wears Prada meets Mama Mia aspects.

You’ve got some of my favorite tropes in this one, the missing star is just because a few things didn’t fully work for me . I wish that Oliver and Millie’s dynamic had been flushed out just a bit more, but I get why it was laid out the way it was, there were lots of characters and angles that had to meet. Overall though giddy by the end.

This is the first book I’ve read from this author. I found it very predictable, knew who her mother would be , knew who her love interest would be. I skimmed thought so much of the book and yet didn’t miss anything. Millie was annoying most of the time, but occasionally had a moment of goodness. The theme of the story was a reverse Mama Mia. Millie searching for the mother she never knew and trying to find out discover who she truly is. I like that this is a clean (no sex) book, but wish ithey didn’t swear so much. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, it just didn’t cut it for me.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is the first Emma Lord book I have read, but this certainly won't be my last. When You Get the Chance is fun, enchanting and highly addictive. I was immediately obsessed from page one and could not stop reading!

Inspired by Mamma Mia, the book follows rising senior Millie as she sets out find her birth mom, all while trying to convince her father she's ready to go to the Madison Musical Theatre Precollege, instead of finishing high school. In the process, she discovers three potential mothers and her quest to figure out which woman might be her mother leads her on wild and crazy adventures across NYC.

I absolutely adored Millie. She's incredibly ambitious and a born hustler. Determined to make it to the Broadway stage, her grit and passion for musical theatre flies out of her at every turn. Growing up in musical theatre, I related to Millie on so many levels. Not only was this book about Millie finding her mom, it was also a story of self-discovery and I loved the growth Millie made throughout.

The banter and competitive nature between Millie and Oliver had me laughing the entire book. Their enemies to lovers story line was the perfect addition to the book. While I loved the romance, the theme of found friendship was incredibly endearing. Between her best friend Teddy and her potential half-sister Chloe, Millie has a group of friends that would do anything for her and their loyalty and friendship is something you don't see every day.

Perfect for lovers of musical theatre, When You Get the Chance is a must-read YA novel. When You Get the Chance publishes January 4. Thanks to Wednesday books for the gifted copy!

Favorite quote:
"How do you keep beating me here?" -Oliver
"Because I drink coffee like a real New Yorker and you drink tea like the American Revolution never happened." -Millie

This is a very cute story, I loved it a lot. Especially the mamma Mia references in the beginning,

I appreciate the father daughter relationship In this book it made this book very heartwarming

Cute, fun, upbeat New York YA story about a girl who's Broadway-bound and her quest to discover the identity of her mother.

When You Get the Chance is my second book by Emma Lord. (I loved You Have a Match and have Tweet Cute on my shelf to read ASAP.) Yes, she’s now an auto-read author for me.

This one focuses on Millie Cooper, a super-extroverted, self-described way-too-much actress who has big dreams of Broadway and has put in the work to make that a real possibility. After she learns that she’s gotten into an amazing pre-college program for her senior year, she’s ecstatic . . . until she shares the news with her dad and he’s decidedly NOT as ecstatic.

What ensues is Millie’s desperate attempt to actualize her dream into existence. First, she gets the help of her best friend and next door neighbor Teddy, an expert at geocaching and (as he says) human caching. Teddy does some research and, after the two delve into Millie’s dad’s LiveJournal from college (hello, the 90s!), begins unraveling the central secret of Millie’s life: her mother’s identity. When her dad was 20, Millie’s mother dropped her off with her dad, and that was the end of her mother’s involvement in her life. But Millie hopes that if she can find her birth mother, she’ll be on Team Millie and help convince her dad that moving across the country to this pre-college program is the right move.

The search for Millie’s mom leads to three likely candidates and the second part of Millie’s plan. She happens upon an internship with a Broadway management company where one potential mom candidate works. The only problem? Millie is vying for the internship with her nemesis: Oliver. Oliver is the manager of their fine arts school’s musical theater department, and he and Millie are *always* at odds with completely different visions for what the program should look like. So, when Georgie, the woman in charge of the internship, gives Millie and Oliver two weeks to compete and prove themselves before choosing a winner, it means that the mortal enemies have two weeks of forced collaboration, as well.

The setup is worthy of any Broadway musical, and references to shows—and especially Mamma Mia!—abound. For anyone who’s a fan of musicals, there are plenty of allusions here to feed your Broadway-loving soul. Sometimes, I have to work to get past premises like the “meeting-three-candidates-who-might-be-my-mom” kind of story, but when cast in the light of Broadway, I suspended my disbelief and just gave into the ride. Because Emma Lord has such a fabulous sense of character and because, in Millie, she created such an empathetic, realistic character, that ride is a great one. Though the plot here is so much fun, it’s watching Millie go through some pretty rough self-reflection that is the real strength of this book. Yes, there are beautiful friendships (seriously: this author REALLY understands friendship), some fun romance, and compellingly complex family dynamics (Millie’s relationships with her dad and her aunt Heather are strong anchors for the plot), but it’s Millie’s coming of age story that made me love this book so much.

Now, on to Tweet Cute.

I wanted to love this one, but I just couldn't get into it. It might be a right book at the wrong time type of thing, and so maybe I'll return to it at some point, but for now I'm setting it aside. I did really enjoy Lord's Tweet Cute, but not as much as others. I have You Have a Match on my shelf, and if that one doesn't do it for me it might just be that Lord isn't the author for me.

I've been a fan of Emma Lord's since "Tweet Cute" and have always looked forward to her new releases. This book has just cemented my love for the way Emma writes her characters, relationships, and tropes. I really enjoyed following Millie's journey of self-identity and discovery with plenty of Broadway references thrown into the mix of this "Mamma Mia"-esque story. I'm not a theatre kid and have only listened to a handful of musicals but my very little knowledge added to my enjoyment of the book; I think big fans of Broadway will have even more fun with the book than I did.

I also really loved the way Lord wrote about Millie's relationships from her rival to *perhaps* love interest, her best friend, and especially her dad and aunt. I just love the exploration of family in YA contemporaries and this book delivered on how heartfelt relationships can be, especially a father-daughter one. Lord has a way of making all of her characters distinct and interesting and it had me falling in love with Oliver, Teddy, and each of the prospective moms. I just had so much fun with this book and I think anyone looking for a fun, summer YA contemporary book will as well!

I adore Emma Lord's writing. It is bubblegum, pop music loveliness. It is like a bop that you cannot help but listen to on repeat. It think my favorite remains Tweet Cute, but I have yet to be disappointed by any Emma Lord novel I pick up. She has been on a winning streak with me and is a must read author. If you could not tell already, I thought this book was darling.

One of my favorite things about this one is how it is a little love letter to musical theater. As someone whose household was filled with musical theater growing up I appreciated each and every musical theater reference in this one. The love Millie has for theater was something I could relate to and appreciate. One of the strengths of all of Emma Lord's books are the characters. They are lovable, flawed but sweet characters that I always get so very attached to. This was the case here.

I think if you have never read an Emma Lord this is a great place to start, although I will always recommend Tweet Cute first. Really I do not think any of her books will steer you wrong. They are full of love, heart and joy. Her common themes of love, friends and family always hit the right notes and leave me with a big smile by the time I have turned the last page.

I absolutely loved this! I'd been putting it off because Emma Lord's second book didn't hit quite as good as Tweet Cute did, and I was worried this one would fall short for me as well, but I was happily proven wrong.

I thought the ode to theatre kids and Mamma Mia was super well done. Millie was an amazing main character to follow along, and she was supported by a great cast of characters and family. What I also really enjoyed with the plot was that each of the potential 'moms' could've been the one. Up until the points where each one was proven wrong/right, I honestly could've believed any of them were the mother - and the twist that came with the end of this plot line was one I thoroughly didn't see coming and enjoyed.

This was such a cute story that came together wonderfully with a HEA and an easy 5 stars.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy for review. All opinions are my own.

Do you like Mama Mia? Then you'll love this retelling. ( I was 75% through the book before I made the connection even though they bring up Mama Mia every chapter! LOL)

Millie Price is a super-talented and ambitious teen who has dreams of bring a Broadway star. She has the opportunity to attend a precollege to get a jump start on her Broadway career, but her family and friends aren't sure that's what she should do. She wants to prove them wrong.

She also has a nemesis, because of course she does, named Oliver. Are they really nemeses or are they end game? Definitely worth the read to find out.

Back to the Mama Mia thing... Millie doesn't know who her mom is. She's never asked her dad and he's never told her, but now that she needs a parent's approval to attend precollege she thinks if she finds her then she can convince her to give that approval for her. But who is she and how will she find her?

I really enjoyed When You Get the Chance. All of the characters are really likeable and fun. The plot is so much fun you can really picture everything that happens. I highly recommend this book if you love Broadway, fun enemies-to-lovers, found family, and searching for clues.

Gimme Gimme Gimme an enemies to lovers YA romance with alllll the Broadway magic 💃

🎭 REVIEW: WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE 🎭

By Emma Lord

📖 SUMMARY: Millie, a young Broadway hopeful, finds herself in Sophie’s (of Mamma Mia) shoes when she reads her dad’s old journal entries and discovers that she has THREE possible moms, all of whom also live in the city. She has one summer to figure out who gave her up at birth — and also to convince her dad to let her go to California for a intense theater precollege program. There’s also her arch-nemesis, with whom she’s competing for an internship with a top talent agent, but she’s starting to see him in a new light outside of school. 👀

💭 THOUGHTS: I LOVE LOVE LOVED this cute little YA book! Millie is one of my favorite MC/narrators that I’ve encountered recently, and I thoroughly enjoyed tagging along on her escapades. Emma Lord is such a talented writer which is so evident while reading this because there are so many great side characters, but not too many that you lose track or get confused! All of the storylines are believable and enjoyable, and it’s been a while since I’ve read a book where the romance storyline can share the stage with another main storyline. I seriously recommend this one!

Thank you to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for the arc!

✨ RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥰 YOU’LL ENJOY IF: you had an I-want-to-be-young-Donna phase after Mamma Mia 2 came out and you love a YA romance. 🥰

I loved the plot of When You Get the Chance. I loved that it was a gender-bent take on Mamma Mia, affectionately referred to as Millie Mia.

Millie was a character that I loved. She had easy-to-understand and believable motivations. Millie strove to be the best and at times it meant she didn't think about the impact her actions would have on those around her. However, watching Millie realize how she was affecting others felt true to the teenage experience. I could relate to and understand her feelings towards trying to protect herself and how she deals with her anxiety, by putting on a mask. Millie was a well-developed character that I'm not soon to forget. All of the relationships felt necessary and I enjoyed reading about them, from Teddy to Chloe to Heather to Oliver. I do wish that Millie had been a little more up front with her aunt and that the romance had a little more room to develop. But overall this made me want to watch a musical, so I call that a win!

I enjoyed When You Get the Chance and can't wait to see what Emma Lord puts out next! Check this out if you're looking for a fun coming-of-age story!

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book made me tear up! 🥺

Ok, so to be completely honest, I was not into the first 50% of the book, at all. I was thinking about not finishing it; I was bored with it and kind of over the “all about me” attitude that Millie portrayed… but then I can’t explain what happened, she just felt apologetic for her mistakes and started to grow as a character, and I fell in love with the second half.

Millie was on a search for her mom, and the scene that made me tear up was her first interaction with the character in the novel that turned out to be her mother- which I’m not surprised by but actually didn’t predict. I was on the fence as to weather or not the author would ever have Millie find her mom, but I’m glad she did tie up that lose end and had her mom eventually come into her orbit at the end of the story.

OLIVER- a new favorite book boyfriend for me!! I loved him so much. I loved how he treated Millie and how he managed his brothers (who were in a band) and yea, he was just really great.

As a whole I loved the entire cast of characters, Millie’s dad, Heather, Teddy, Chloe, Oliver… etc. The three women who turned out not to be Millie’s mom but stayed in her life in other ways was also great. So yea, as a whole I really enjoyed this story.

Broadway fans must add this cute novel to their TBR pile. Millie has big dreams of Broadway but her dad isn’t ready to let her spend senior year across the country, so begins the Mamma Mia hunt for her mother. I cracked up when the clues to find her mother came from her dad’s 2003 live journal (I sure wish I could find my Xanga page). I really enjoyed the cast of characters, Broadway nods, cute enemies to lovers romance and a sweet dad/daughter relationship.

🥰really liked || 💗low steam
🤟Broadway, charming, NYC
📚Maize by Melanie Crowder
🎶Mamma Mia