Sometimes you just need an uncomplicated, joyful book that’s going to make you smile. When You Get The Chance is that book, especially if you’re a theater kid who’s a bit dramatic at heart!

Millie Price doesn’t know her mother. She knows that her mom showed up on her very surprised 20-year-old dad’s doorstep with an infant one day and went her own way from there. She knows that her mom was a loud, bombastic theater type in college, just like Millie is now. She’s mostly been okay with living without her mother, because her dad and aunt are great. But the summer before her senior year, two things happen:
1) Millie is accepted into a selective, extremely competitive pre-college program that her father doesn’t want her to attend, leading them to their first major crossroads.
2) Millie’s best friend finds her father’s LiveJournal from college (yes, you read that right) and together, they identify three potential women who could be her mother.

So begins the “Millie Mia”.

Millie will have to fib her way through New York City’s theater scene to find the three women: Joining Beth’s Broadway enthusiast meetups and befriending her daughter, stumbling through dance classes taught by Farrah, and finally, competing against her longtime stage manager nemesis, Oliver Yang, for a prestigious internship at a talent agency at which suspected mom #3, Steph, is the cutthroat boss’s assistant. It’s the last task that takes up the most of Millie’s time, much to her and Oliver’s chagrin. But as time goes on, a little force cooperation away from the high drama high school theater scene proves enlightening for the pair-- until the real word drama kicks in, that is!

Frankly, this novel had the potential to be really stupid. But it’s NOT, because Emma Lord writes such flawed yet surprisingly lovable characters. Millie has a big personality that’s not so outrageous that you can’t relate to her. Every side character is given a distinct personality and has their own place in the world. Oliver’s more stern takes help guide Millie’s perspective when she’s normally prone to overreaction. Teddy’s completely different obsessions and anxieties allow her to exist beyond her own problems. Cooper and Heather reinforce her sense of belonging. Even Chloe, Beth’s unsuspecting daughter who just wants to find some new friends, constantly reminds Millie that there’s more at stake than her own answers. But they all do it while being lovable and important in their own right.

I did guess the ultimate resolution to Millie’s mother conundrum, but it was one of a few guesses. Also, because this is partly an homage to Mamma Mia, you’ll see where a few of the plot lines are going if you’re familiar with that. The sweet little enemies-to-lovers romance with Oliver mostly happens away from that plot, but it’s a joy that really keeps things from getting too bogged down. Yes, there’s some wish fulfillment and realistic elements that wouldn’t really happen-- not even to uber talented New York City theater kids. But just go with it and you’ll have fun!

When You Get The Chance is an absolute romp of a novel that turns contemporary New York City into a more magical setting, where anything can happen. It was a great read to end the summer and Emma Lord’s back catalog is definitely on my radar now!

I expected to like this book, but I didn't expect to love this book as much as I did. When You Get the Chance has comedy, a little bit of romance, plenty of musical references, inclusivity, and a lot of heart. We've got Millie, a teenager with big Broadway dreams who just got accepted to a precollege for exactly that, her dad and aunt, and her bff to start off the story. Millie stumbles across her dad's old livejournal from the year she was born. She realizes that in his blogs he talks about 3 women, each of whom could be her mother (whom she's never met.) This tumbles into her Mamma-Mia-ing herself and setting out to meet each of these women, which yes, does lead her into a pickle.

This book got me unexpectedly emotional in the last few chapters. I'm going to be honest, the Mamma Mia movie does not hit for me (even though I love ABBA.) To me, the book far outshines Mamma Mia in almost every case. Even when I found Millie a bit annoying, I was rooting for her. There isn't a character in the whole book that I didn't want to see succeed and thrive. The book's climax is great, and the ending doesn't wrap up way too fast or perfectly. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a bow tied around the ending, but it fit perfectly for the story. Recommended for musical theater fans, people who want to read a YA book where romance isn't the primary focus, people who enjoy strong female leads, and for if you need a book to cheer you up while also tugging at your heartstrings.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for the e-ARC.

I loved how much Millie grew in this book. This was a fun romp through the musical theatre world with tons of fun inside jokes and Easter eggs for the drama geek. The romance between Millie and Oliver was a wonderful enemies-to-lovers trope.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Emma Lord, and the publisher for this early copy.
Emma Lord does it again! I didn't think it could get any better than "You Have a Match" and "Meet Cute", but she is once again successful.
Theater lover Millie sets out to achieving her dreams of becoming a Broadway star. Nothing will stop Millie...well maybe her super quiet and introverted father who can't seem to let her go. Another thing Millie sets out to do is find her mother, who pulled a 'Dumbledore" and left her at her father's doorstep when she was a baby. Along the journey, Millie finds deep friendship in an old friend, a rival, and new people that become family.
I LOVED this book and will highly recommend it to friends and members of my book club!

This book is a gender flip Mamma Mia retelling. Millie was left with her father as an infant, while her mother disappeared. One day, her best friend Teddy and her find her father’s LiveJournal (online journal – what in the world?!) and go back to the approximate time she was conceived. Turns out there is not just one possible mom – but three. After some internet sleuthing – skills acquired thanks to Geocaching – she finds her three potential moms and the stalking begins.

I love the romantic interest build up and the drive behind finding her mom – someone she may identify with, but the character is just too immature for me to root for her. She seeks to find her mom to help convince her dad to let her go to a prestigious school across the country. First off – WHY would a strange woman who had NO influence, NO funding, and NO desire to raise you have ANY say in swaying her dad. The concept was absolutely far-fetched, ridiculous, and actually offensive to singe parents. Her lack of concept for other’s feelings and lives throughout the story is just mind blowing. Not to speak of her “Millie Moods.”

Thanks for netgalley for providing me with an e-arc.

Author Emma Lord knocks it out of the park again with this fantastic YA Contemporary! While there are gender-swapped 'Mamma Mia' aspects, YA readers who are unfamiliar with the musical will not be lost at all.

'When You Get the Chance' is a highly entertaining enemies-to-lovers YA rom-com. Millie is wonderful narrator and lots of fun to follow.

This was a cute book! I missed the YA part but I am an older woman and appreciated it none the less. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!

This one just didn’t grab me like previous works by this author did. I think there was too much going on and maybe that made it seem like the story was taking shortcuts.

Millie wants to go to a musical theater precollege program in LA. She sneaks behind her dad and aunts back in order to audition and she gets in. Her dad is against her going there. So Millie decides to try and find her mom who abandoned her after she was born to help her win this argument to go to this school. Very quickly (and easily) her and her BFF who lives across the call finds 3 women mentioned in her dad’s live journal from college. (They live in NYC this should have been harder to do) Millie inserts herself into these 3 women’s lives to figure out if they are in fact her mother and then she doesn’t really find out more from them. Eventually by complete accident she does find her mom but that is after she’s hurt everyone in her life trying to do this. Then they all live happily ever after and she doesn’t go to the precollege.

I don’t know what I wanted from the story but I guess I wanted more. I wanted more of a relationship built with each of the women. I wanted more from the last minute romance Millie ended up in. I also wanted more of her endgame story. She ends up staying to be in her high schools production of Mamma Mia and a program by some big name Broadway person. Maybe the story just felt unfinished and rushed to me. Like there was a lot of things the author wanted to include and thus cheapened the things that were included.

Mamma Mia, here I go again! [Emma Lord] how can I resist ya...

WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE does it again with that trademark Emma Lord charm - Millie Price is a determined young actor whose goal is to break out on Broadway in 5 years or less. When her father gets in the way of that dream, Millie decides to get someone else on her side - the mother who left her at her dad's doorstep when she was a baby. Through this modernized Mamma Mia, Millie not only learns more about her family history, she also learns more about who she is, what she wants, and how to achieve her dreams.
I devoured this book in a night, picking it up on a whim ("Oh, I have another hour until I should go to bed, let me read a short book, oh look there is an Emma Lord ARC on my Kindle...") and ended up staying up later than I should have in an incessant need to finish this story and find out just which of the brilliant women Millie meets is her mother. If you enjoy numerous theatre references, dorky friendships, and a rivals-to-lovers arc to rival that of Georg and Amelia from SHE LOVES ME, then WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE is the story for you!

A cute, yet predictable, story of a high school theater student who goes to look for her mother after her single Dad denies her long held dream of attending a theater school across the country.

After devouring Emma Lord's first two novels, I was instant;y excited about her next one and to learn it was centered around a theater kid, needless to say, I was pumped to start reading. From the first chapter, I was immersed into MC Millie's head in this fun. upbeat read. It's like an IRL Mamma Mia, which I'm into, and the concept is totally original to me. It's so compelling, and I'm hooked by the storytelling premise and just needed to keep reading. In the end, it's just so cute, well-written, indulgent, and fun! Like, it made me want to smile the darn smile, it's that cute and precious.

While I don't think this was as good as You Have a Match in my own opinion, I did enjoy it and think it was compelling, fresh, contemporary, and so absolutely precious. I loved the cute romance storylines too, but even more so that they were just side stories to the main journey of coming of age and finding yourself.

3.5 rounded up

A sweet, albeit predictable, journey of a musical theater student trying to find her mom. I loved all the Mama Mia references and liked how Millie matured through the story. While I breezed through Tweet Cute in just a couple of days, this one took a bit longer for me to get into, but it was still a fun read.

3.8 stars :)

This is a fun story, with a little bit of a play on Mamma Mia. It’s a fast read, one that kept me entertained throughout, waiting for Millie to find her mom and figure Oliver out. I especially enjoyed the theater references throughout this story. Even though I didn’t understand them all, I appreciated their place in the story. My favorite part of the whole story was how Millie and Oliver explained how they changed their high school theater program (not a spoiler: this is before the story takes place). It just speaks a lot to their characters to know that backstory.

As for the book’s cons, it didn’t really sweep me away. This one is fun and entertaining, but it’s not too deep or past surface level. Things get all wrapped up by the end, which is nice, but it’s also ok to leave me thinking about these characters after the book is over. I didn’t feel that deep connection to these characters and there wasn’t anything left to wonder about.

Side note: Emma Lord is extremely entertaining on Twitter — it made me curious to read her stories.

Thanks to NetGalley for the early read. The book will come out in January.

Adorable, G-rated, YA, romantic-comedy homage to Mamma Mia

Sixteen-year-old Millie Price has been raised since she was six months old by her lovably geeky, IT-professional dad, Cooper, and his warmly supportive, unmarried, older sister, Heather. It was a big shock for then 21-year-old Cooper, but a very welcome one, the day Millie’s mother dumped precious, baby Millie on him. She had not informed Cooper that Millie existed until that moment and, from that time until the present, Millie’s mother has never had anything to do with her daughter. Millie has lived with Cooper and Heather in the same apartment in New York City all these years. Cooper works entirely from home except for two weeks in mid-June that he is required to spend in Chicago at his company’s home office. He is a major introvert and has practically lived like a cloistered monk all these years. Heather owns an all-ages venue on the ground floor of their apartment building called, The Milkshake Club, which offers appealingly kitschy décor, an ice cream bar, and live performances of both well known and newly discovered bands. She recently broke up with her long-time girlfriend.

Millie’s whole focus in life is musical theater. She lives and breathes it. She has shown enthusiasm and aptitude for performing since early childhood and has spent the past decade laser focused on constantly working to acquire the skills she needs for a successful career on Broadway. She first got child parts in Broadway plays as a pre-teen and, during the past year, unbeknownst to Cooper and Heather, she put herself through a highly competitive, grueling process, weathering a total of six video-performance callbacks, to finally win acceptance into a prestigious theater program in Los Angeles called the Madison Musical Theater Precollege. Students enter the program their senior year in high school and complete a year of college during that year, continuing on from there to earn a college degree. To Millie, this acceptance is like being invited into the promised land. The problem is, she must have parental permission in order to attend, and Cooper refuses to give it. He states, and Heather agrees, that there are a huge amount of opportunities right there in NYC for Millie to gain musical theater skills and, in reality, all Millie really needs to do to be fully prepared to perform on Broadway is to focus on taking dancing lessons. Millie passionately disagrees with her father and aunt and, in the midst of vociferously arguing, for the first time ever, with gentle Cooper, Millie brings up her missing mother. Years ago she overheard Cooper, while he was talking to Heather about Millie’s obsession with musical theater, stating that it is something she gets from her mother. In the midst of badgering Cooper for his permission for her to go to Madison, Millie declares that she knows her mother is associated with musical theater and is convinced that, unlike Cooper, her mother would give her permission to go to Madison. Cooper is shocked by this out-of-the-blue accusation and clearly wounded by the fact that Millie is, for the first time ever, resentfully yelling at him. Nevertheless, though he has never had occasion to do so before, and he does it with tears in his eyes, he puts his foot down firmly. He informs Millie that he has no idea where her mother is, but states that, even if he did, he is the one who has raised her, and he does not believe it is in her best interests to go to LA. Shortly thereafter, Cooper leaves for Chicago, and in his absence, Millie decides to take her destiny into her own hands. She is convinced her life will be forever blighted if she does not go to Madison, and she decides her only hope is to somehow, some way, find her mother and get her to intervene on her behalf.

Millie’s BFF, Teddy, was the newborn child of two award-winning brain surgeons who lived in the apartment across the hall from Cooper the day that baby Millie came to live with her father. She and Teddy have grown up together and are like brother and sister. Teddy is a brilliant, adorably nerdy, tech-savvy, sweet-natured, Beta male, who attends a fictional, ritzy, Upper East Side prep school called Stone Hall (the same school that the protagonists of this author’s first novel, Tweet Cute, attended and graduated from a year ago). Millie has no trouble sucking Teddy into her mother-tracking plan, and he certainly has all the skills required to accomplish it. He is enthralled by a geocaching app, which involves using GPS to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches," at specific locations marked by coordinates all over NYC. The ability to track the coordinates of locations around the city for that purpose becomes quite useful in tracking down locations where three different potential Mammas Mia might be located. In addition, the geocaching app becomes the means for an engaging, romantic subplot. Introverted, virginal Teddy has never dated, but he has been chatting for some time now with a fellow GeoTeen through the geocaching app and has a big crush on her. Their user names are anonymous, so they don’t know each other’s real identities, and Teddy has so far been too fearful of potential rejection to ask her to meet in person. This subplot is a fun homage to the movie, You’ve Got Mail, though it is a much more condensed version than the homage that is Tweet Cute.

In the midst of hunting for her mother, a delightful, “enemies to romance” plot occurs between Millie and Oliver Yang. Millie has just finished her junior year in high school at the fictional school, Cornelia Arts and Sciences, a magnet school for the arts that is part of the New York City Public Schools. She has attended CAS since the eighth grade, when she was a winner in a lottery conducted every year to randomly choose students to attend CAS from all over the city. Ever since they were both in ninth grade, she has been enemies with Oliver. While for Millie acting and singing in musical theater is her calling, Oliver’s is working in the background, making the magic happen, as a theater manager. During their freshman year, Oliver went behind her back and talked their drama teacher out of their school putting on a performance of Mamma Mia, a play Millie was dying to star in and which she had lobbied very hard to be approved. He claimed they should delay for a year until the CAS theater department had more resources, and the theater teacher agreed. Unfortunately, soon after, there was a revival of Mamma Mia on Broadway, and during its run for the next two years, it was not possible for anyone else to obtain the rights to perform it. Millie has never forgiven Oliver for that obstruction. Ever since, getting on his nerves at every opportunity has been a cherished pastime of hers, and Oliver has not hesitated to respond in kind. The last thing either of them expected to happen was to come into competition outside of the walls of CAS. Millie shows up at a prominent talent agency in order to connect with one of three different women that she and Teddy have figured out that Cooper was close friends with during the time period when Millie was conceived. She is surprised to find Oliver sitting in the waiting room of the office, and discovers he is there to apply for an internship. Impulsively, though she has no real desire for the internship herself, Millie talks the brusque woman who owns the agency into taking her on, as a means to be around the office manager, who might be her mother, and get to know her. She does such a good job selling herself to the owner, the woman ends up offering the internship jointly, to both Oliver and Millie, much to Oliver’s dismay and Millie’s semi-guilty triumph.

This book is absolutely fabulous! Let me count the ways:

1. Millie is one of the most marvelous YA heroines I’ve ever encountered—and that includes the previous, delightful heroines of this talented author’s other two wonderful novels. Her drive, determination, loving loyalty to friends and family, her absolute dedication to her craft, and her talent and charisma, all of this combined, creates a mesmerizing heroine. On top of all that, Millie is very witty. It is a source of a great deal of the humor in this romantic comedy, in particular her rapid-fire repartee with Oliver.

2. I love Teddy, Cooper and Heather. They are all three absolutely adorable. It is such a tremendous relief to read a YA novel with kind, compassionate, loving family members of the protagonist, instead of the typical hit parade of melodramatic narcissists!

3. Oliver is a terrific romantic interest. Though we only get Millie’s point of view in this novel, unlike in Tweet Cute, which is dual point of view, we still come to know Oliver quite well by the end of the novel. In his own way, he is as talented and driven as Millie. He is also a gorgeous, Chinese-American male, and the multicultural-romance element is done very well.

4. The women who are candidates to possibly be Millie’s mother are each appealing in their own unique way. All three are very supportive of Millie, and any one of them would be an enviable mother for her. I also loved the way that the author used two of these women to create two additional endearing, romantic subplots.

5. I was completely taken by surprise when the woman who is Millie’s mother is finally revealed. The author did a great job keeping that central revelation a mystery right up to the end.

6. The ultimate tying up of the main plot, Millie’s search for her mother and the personal growth arc that entails, is brilliantly written. The various subplots are all outstanding as well. The author does an amazing job weaving each subplot artfully into the main plot, such that they all contribute to Millie’s quest, and each of them is also highly enjoyable in its own right.

7. The setting in NYC, and all the fascinating information about musical theater sprinkled throughout this novel, contribute greatly to the story. There are enough colorful details to immerse readers into Millie’s world and allow us to vicariously experience her passion for musical theater, but not enough arcane bits of trivia to cause either confusion or boredom. It is obvious, even without the charming author’s note at the end of the novel, that Emma Lord adores musical theater and is highly versed in the ins and outs of that world.

8. In general, this author is an all around, fabulous writer. She brings her characters and their world vividly to life, and she has a gift for writing extremely sympathetic, enthralling protagonists.

Overall, for me, as a jaded, picky reader, this novel was a peak experience. It is one of the best YA novels, especially one of the best humorous YA novels, that I have ever read, and certainly one of the best novels—of any genre—that I have read this year (300 novels, and counting, so far). I know I will read and reread it many times in the future, and I am greatly looking forward to the audiobook version so that I can listen to it performed as well.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5 stars
Romantic Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 5 stars
Mamma Mia Homage Plot: 5 stars
Primary Romance Plot: 5 stars
Secondary Romance Plots: 5 stars
Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Another fabulous book by Emma Lord. I loved the tenacity of the main character! She was strong-willed, bubbly, confident, and funny. If you are a fan of theater and musicals you will love this "Mama Mia" retelling.

I adored Emma Lord's debut, Tweet Cute, and her follow up You Have a Match. So I am grateful to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the free advanced reading copy of her upcoming release, WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE. (PUB 1.4.22)

This was another stellar YA read. Listen- ABBA is playing on a near-daily rotation at my house, so I was here for a gender-flipped take on Mamma Mia! It didn't disappoint.

"Millie, you’re not a person,’ he says. ‘You’re a roller coaster. My seatbelt is buckled. I have no idea where you’re going, but I’m in for the ride’"
(SIGH- isn't this the best line?)

What I loved:
- All the delightful musical theater elements. On stage and behind the scenes.
- NYC setting.
- Secondary characters and second chances.
- Enemies-to-more trope.
- Big personalities, big emotions and big dreams.
- Delightfully funny and heartwarmingly charming.

Love love love! Emma Lord has some great reads. Her first one has been my favorite so far but isn't that always the case. Loved the strong characters & the Mama Mia like story.

I enjoyed Emma Lord’s other books, but this one wasn’t for me. It was an over fine read but I wasn’t in to it much.

Mille has the dream of becoming a Broadway Star and she’s not going to let anyone get in the way of that. Chasing her dreams and searching for her birth mom is how Millie spends her time during summer break.

I struggled through this book. It was slow to start but picked up and was an overall good read.

If theatre is your thing— this book is for you!

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️

Be still my Broadway musical loving heart. Emma Lord’s upcoming YA book, 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 gets a whopping 5⭐️s from me! I read her book 𝑻𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝑪𝒖𝒕𝒆 last year and it was adorable so I knew I had to get my hands on this one!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝:
-Mamma Mia inspired story about Millie, a HS girl, trying to find her Mom
-Millie & her dads relationship was adorbs and tugged at your heart strings
-musical references galore
-NYC setting 🤩
-every single supporting cast member was just icing on the cake
-did I mention Mamma Mia?! I LOVE me some Abba

Thank you so much to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review 🙌🏻 I absolutely loved this book and cannot wait to grab 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 off my shelf to read soon!

God, I loved this book. SO much. Millie is such a lovable and flawed protagonist. If you enjoy the theater, this book is a MUST READ. Millie has ambitions to be a Broadway star, and finds herself living out her very own Mamma Mia plot looking for her mother. With her in this romcom are her adorably geeky best friend Teddy, and the always good and also tough Oliver. I really enjoyed Millie's chemistry with Oliver because although they drove each other nuts. they were on even footing. He was never a bad guy that had to learn how to be good. He really sees Millie for who she is. I also really appreciated the discussion of "Millie moods," and what it's like for a young woman trying to navigate high anxiety and high ambition. And, of course, there's Emma Lord's writing which is full of humor and banter. Highly recommend.