Hi Everyone!
Happy Thursday! I have been waiting far too long to post this review and am beyond excited to be sharing it today! This review is for none other than When You Get The Chance by Emma Lord. The book comes out January 4th - so less than a month away, and yes I have had this book preordered since it first became available to do so. I am so grateful I got the chance to read an advanced copy and already know it’ll be one of my top faruvrites of 2022. I loved everything about this book and could honestly talk about it for hours but I’ll try and condense all my thought and feeling about it into this post. Apology in advanced if it’s a bit rambly - This book has me very excited, so I hope you enjoy the review!
This book was everything I wanted and more. It drew me in right from the first line and kept me captivated the entire time, I didn’t want to put it down once. The entire book has a musical theatre theme which I LOVED even more so since the book was based in New York City. Millie (the main character) lives in NYC with her dad whose raised Millie alone and is just a *bit* introverted. He never talks about Millie’s mom and curiosity eventually gets the better of her. When Millie sees her dad’s LiveJournal from 2003 accidentally left open on his computer she acquires her best friend Teddy whose a major tech nerd to help find her mom. While on this hunt for her mom, Millie somehow ends up at a job interview for an extremely well known manager which her nemesis Oliver just happens to be at as well. Not letting go the chance to one-up Oliver, Millie decided to do the interview and ends up competing with Oliver over two weeks to see who will become the permanent assistant to the manager. Tie that chaos in with Millie still trying to find out who her mom is and it ends in a complete summer of chaos, fun, and getting outside of her comfort zone. Of course all of the chaos causes Millie to have a few “Millie Moods” otherwise known as overly intense emotions on the verge of overwhelming her. Sometimes I find this kind of thing can distract or be an annoyance in the story, but I didn’t find it as bad this time. Millie might get a bit ahead of herself and jump to conclusions this way which could seem a tiny bit childish at times and yet I didn’t think it made Millie feel any less mature that I otherwise thought her to be. This could have to do with the fact that she’s a theatre kid and so she’s a bit overdramatic to begin with which for the story would make sense to me.
I loved how much of a #theatrekid Millie is. It really showed all the way through the book and it was incredibly cool to see just how passionate Millie is about theatre. The musical theme was kept up perfectly throughout the entire story which gave a great consistency that made me enjoy the read even more. I thought the passion Millie has for musical theatre was just wonderful. Millie is such a dynamic character who will stop at nothing to make her thoughts and wants happen, even if that means some major sleuthing into her dad’s past to find her mom. While trying to find out who here mom really is, the story turned into a gender-bent Mamma Mia which fit into the musical theme of the story perfectly. It was such a fun aspect of the story. Even though the book is focused on Millie finding her mom, it has some wonderful moments between Millie and her dad. They are quite close since it’s just the two of them in their house and the bond they have is incredibly sweet. I loved seeing how much love and respect they obviously have for each other.
This book is definitely more of a contemporary, which for once I absolutely loved, but there was of course an element of romance. Not only that, it was a slow burn enemies to lovers trope. I can’t think of anything more perfect. It tied into the story nicely but at the same time didn’t take away from the main plot. I loved the competitiveness between Millie and Oliver, especially when they had to work together and they’d both be so skeptical of each others motives for thing they did. The whole time they were competing for the assistant position it was obvious there was romantic tension wether they wanted to admit it or not. Even though it wasn’t the main plot of the story, I though Millie and Oliver’s romance trope was perfect.
Now, if anyone here has read Tweet Cute then be sure to look out for a little easter egg in this story! I loved that Emma set When You Get the Chance in the same universe as Tweet Cute and that she was able to include a cute little nod to her first novel in her newest one. I am a huge fan of Tweet Cute so finding that easter egg made my day. I always love when Authors make subtle references about one of their books within another one of their books. It’s like a little secret for the reader who have read the other books.
This was by far my favourite contemporary book that I’ve read in a very long time, possibly ever, and if I’m being honest I think I liked it even better than Tweet Cute (I didn’t think that would be possible!.) I felt so many emotions while reading the book, from laughing out loud when something happened that I had guess was a possibility to so many sweet and joyful moments that had me melting with pure happiness. It was also the perfect book to get me out of my reading slump and I already want to re-read it.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC!
Emily Marie