When You Get the Chance

TEST

When You Get the Chance is a cute, charming little novel that will work very well for younger teenagers; those aged between thirteen and sixteen should adore its fluffiness.  Older teens, however, might be bored by the story’s lack of complexity.

New York native Millie Price wants to do one thing – become a famous Broadway star.  She will do anything to get there, and she thinks she’s accomplished that goal when, on the same day she and her two best friends have just taken their finals, she learns she’s gotten into Madison, a performing arts school in Los Angeles. The expense and distance of such a move immediately puts Millie’s dorky introvert of a single father off and he tells her she can’t go, but nothing can stop Millie when she’s on a roll.  Even though her grandparents are LA based, her father is reluctant to let her be alone out there.  He has clung to her ever since her mother dumped Millie on him when she was younger and absconded.

Thus, Millie hatches A Brilliant Plan. She will find her mother by scouring her father’s college-era Livejournal.  Her bet is that her mom will say yes to the scheme of letting Millie go to Madison and she’ll be able to get on with her life out west.  But Millie doesn’t count on multiple complications standing in her way. Like having three potential moms.  Like her Millie Moods, which beset her with strong emotions out of the blue.  Like her drama club rival, Oliver, who would do anything to take Millie’s place in Madison and will not allow her to become the assistant of a famous Broadway agent with connections to all three of her ‘mothers’.

Ever want to feel old?  The LiveJournal plotline will make you feel that way if you’re my age!  But When You Get the Chance is clearly not intended for forty-one-year-old me, so I’m thinking young and saying that theater-obsessed youngsters are going to love it.

Millie is indomitable and fun and a squeaky wheel in the best of ways.  She is cute, the story is cute, and this book would make a terrific Disneycom – and I mean that in the best of ways.  Young teens will not notice the preposterous plot, nor the fact that Millie really ought to suffer more for causing incredible heaping amounts of chaos in the lives of everyone who loves her. But she’s really too nice to suffer a harsh scolding.

But the story is too light and breezy to linger much on these heavier thoughts.  Lord’s zest for Broadway and for life permeate every page and are contagious, enthralling the audience.  When You Get the Chance is as sweet as all of that ice cream Millie slings down at the Milkshake Club, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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Reviewed by Lisa Fernandes

Grade: B-

Book Type: Young Adult

Sensuality: Kisses

Review Date: 06/01/22

Publication Date: 01/2022

Review Tags: New York City

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier

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