When You Get the Chance

This book is a musical theater fan's dream.
There are references to so many favorite popular shows (Newsies, Mamma Mia, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, Little Women, Jersey Boys, Rent...there are honestly too many to list) as well as names that anyone who loves musicals will recognize (including Ben Platt, Anne Hathaway, Idina Menzel, and my personal favorite, Darren Criss).
There's even a Very Potter Musical reference. Which is one of my very specific favorite shows that I've never seen mentioned in a book before, ever. I swear, it's like this book was written just for me.
There's also a slowburn enemies-to-lovers plot between Millie (the most talented diva at her New York City arts school) and Oliver (the stage manager who has been Millie's rival for years).
And Heather, Millie's lesbian aunt who owns a club that serves milkshakes and ice cream. I mean, can someone please start one of those in real life?
And a truly adorable romance subplot with Millie's best friend, Teddy, and the daughter of one of the potential moms, Chloe. They met on a geocaching app using screen names before they met in person. I would 100% read a whole book that's just about them. (Chloe's screen name is ParticularlyGoodFinders, the reference I mentioned earlier).
The potential moms (Steph, Farrah and Beth) were all really well-developed characters. Steph works for one of New York's most well-known and most intimidating talent agents, Beth hosts weekly Broadway-themed events in her apartment and has a daughter close in age to Millie, and Farrah is a dance teacher in Brooklyn whose class works on new Broadway numbers every week.
I think my favorite thing about this book was Millie's personality and how different it was from most YA protagonists. Millie is super talented and not afraid to acknowledge it. She doesn't fall into the annoyingly overused "constantly humbling themself" trope of teenage girls. Her confidence was nice and refreshing to read. I mention in other reviews sometimes how I wish not every book about theater had to have an extremely shy MC who hates performing and is forced into it. Turns out, THIS is exactly the book I was waiting for all that time. The theater kids are winning! I might see reviews calling Millie narcissistic or unlikable, but I thought she was a welcome change.
I was also relieved that there wasn't a love triangle with Teddy, or any kind of romance plot between him and Millie. If he's not gay, the guy best friend in books usually ends up being the love interest, but that didn't happen here. Teddy had his own romance story with Chloe, and Millie never got jealous or realized suddenly that she liked him as more than a friend. No, he's just the best friend who STAYS a best friend. As much as I like to read friends-to-lovers stories, I also like to see friendships between boys and girls that don't involve romance.
As for the reveal of Millie's mom, I liked who it turned out to be, and I can honestly say that I didn't see it coming at all! Readers will definitely be surprised.

This book gave me Mamma Mia feels and I absolutely adored it! Millie's a bit of a diva but has to get an adult/parental consent to move to the west coast to pursue her college dream. When her father refuses to give his approval, Millie's got to find the mother who abandoned her when she was young and get her consent. The only problem? She has no idea who it is and there's three possible candidates: Steph, Farrah, and Beth. I love the premise of this book and it's definitely my favorite Emma Lord book so far!!

Oh my gosh, the amount of Broadway references- *star eyes*.
I adored this book--the premise, the characters, everything! I'm a fan of Emma Lord's and was so excited to receive an ARC!

Millie is hopeful the senior musical will be Mamma Mia and simultaneously accidentally stumbles upon her dad's live journal with three different women's names--one of whom might be her mom? Cue real life Millie Mia! Millie is on a quest to get to know each of the women, and in the meanwhile meets a new friend, tackles dancing, and works with her nemesis turned love interest, all while trying to figure out her future plans.

Lord weaves family life so well and I adored Millie's dad and aunt, and her best friend/non-blood brother.
I LOVED how everyone and everything wove together. I was cheesing so hard by the end. Loved it!

This is the second I’ve read by Emma Lord this year and have enjoyed both of them immensely! I don’t care that the end wrapped up in a nice little bow or that the plot twist was fairly obvious it was exactly the beacon of optimism I need when I turn to books like this. Now I need to go and read the third!

Oh, this book brought my theater-loving heart so much joy (side-note: it's really great to read a book where the theater nerd character talks about musicals besides Hamilton).

I wasn't sure I was going to like the main character at first. She's loud and blunt and the definition of a theater-kid, but I ended up loving her confidence and vulnerability. My favorite part of the book, though, (besides the thousands of theater references, obviously) was the ensemble. This book was all about finding your family, blood-related and otherwise, and the cast of characters were all kind and loving and eccentric. I loved every one of them.

I work in the theater department at the school I teach at. I can't wait to tell all my students about this adorable book.

I absolutely adored this book! This might be my favorite Emma Lord book thus far and I think that's partially because it's so completely on brand for me! Emma's writing is emotional and clever and funny and totally draws me in. The broadway dreams mixed with the mamma mia premise is everything I could want out of a book!

Theatre kids will fall in love with this story but also Millie and Oliver. A+ and I can't wait to see what Emma does with her upcoming adult rom coms.

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

Two things I may honestly say about this fabulous read:
This is the sweetest thing I’ve lately read!

This is my favorite Emma Lord I’ve ever read!

My cheeks, my lips hurt so much because of extra long smiling time! I felt like I did so many sitcom sound effects during my reads: 135 awww, 147 laugh out loud, 74 sighing, 32 giggling resulted with big permanent smile on my face!

This is gender reversed Mamma Mia meets Definitely Maybe with great enemies to lovers premise, a little You’ve got mail vibes ( side story )

This book gives you contagious happiness and pocketful of sunshine with its uplifting, relieving , feel good premise and beautifully resonating , so much likable, unique characters!

Millie Price, a young diva, loud, entertaining, extrovert, self confident, expressive, ball of fire, an aspiring future Broadway star gets her precollege acceptance which means she has to move to the West Coast, living her 37 years old, Tolkien- stalker, dweeb, dorky, earnest, kind father who raised her alone when he was just a college graduated young man and her cool, friendly, successful club owner dear auntie!

But when they didn’t give their consents, she needs an adult’s help for applying her Plan B which means she has to find the mother who left her when she was a baby and she ignored to contact with her for years.

Thankfully her neighbor/ best friend Teddy is a tech nerd who can reach any information in few seconds. He already found LiveJournal of Millie’s father. There are three women were mentioned at this journal who could be the possible mother candidates of Millie. Beth: social worker, mother of Chloe who is a year younger of Millie, Steph: executive assistant of famous Broadway agent and a struggling actress and finally Farrah: a talented dance teacher.

Millie decides to meet with all of these candidates which means she finds herself at the job interview to be intern of very famous Broadway manager. And guess what? She’s competing with her long time nemesis Oliver who likes to push her buttons and challenge her authority at school. And they’re both chosen to be temporary assistants for two weeks for finishing compelling tasks. The one with the best performance will get the permanent position.

Millie finds herself attending Beth’s house parties, hanging out with Chloe to get her out of her shelf, attending dance lessons of Farrah and working so hard to defeat Oliver by achieving her impossible tasks, having morning coffee chats and long career talks with Steph.

But the funny fact about her search is as she gets closer to find the identity of her mom, she finds out more about her true self and learns more about her long time nemesis who may be kind hearted and protective guy with perfect management skills.

Maybe she doesn’t need to move to the West Coast to find her true happiness. Maybe the way to pursue her true dreams just stands right behind her eyes!

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH!

One of the cutest, sweetest, most adoring, engaging, heartfelt reading I had for a long time! I’m giving my five musical, quirky, dorky, sweet, perfect supporting characters, permanent smile stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ Wednesday Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Oh. my. gosh. My theatre kid heart is bursting at the seams with this one. A theatre kid living her own real life ‘Mamma Mia’ in NYC? Sign me up!!!

This book follows Millie as she tries to convince her father to let her go to a pre-college theatre program in California. When he refuses she decides to seek out her mom, who abandoned her at her dads doorstep as a baby, to see if she can help her convince her father to let her go.

Millie is one of the most likable characters I have ever read about. She is so charismatic and hilarious. She reminds me of some of my theatre friends and never failed to make me smile and laugh out loud.

For any fellow theatre kid out there I 100% recommend you read this fabulous story!