When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord

 

“Nothing will get in the way of Millie Price’s dream to become a Broadway star. Not her lovable but super-introverted dad, who after raising Millie alone, doesn’t want to watch her leave home to pursue her dream. Not her pesky and ongoing drama club rival, Oliver, who is the very definition of Simmering Romantic Tension. And not the “Millie Moods,” the feelings of intense emotion that threaten to overwhelm, always at maddeningly inconvenient times. Millie needs an ally. And when a left-open browser brings Millie to her dad’s embarrassingly moody LiveJournal from 2003, Millie knows just what to do. She’s going to find her mom.

There’s Steph, a still-aspiring stage actress and receptionist at a talent agency. There’s Farrah, ethereal dance teacher who clearly doesn’t have the two left feet Millie has. And Beth, the chipper and sweet stage enthusiast with an equally exuberant fifteen-year-old daughter (A possible sister?! This is getting out of hand). But how can you find a new part of your life and expect it to fit into your old one, without leaving any marks? And why is it that when you go looking for the past, it somehow keeps bringing you back to what you’ve had all along?” - taken from Goodreads.

Mamma Mia with a gender switch. Millie Price, aspiring Broadway star is on a quest to find her mother. She has her sights set on a prestigious pre-college preparatory program, at the school 3,000 mi away from home. The only thing she knows about her mother is that she left her as a baby with her college student father to raise. After finding a Live Journal blog that her father wrote before her birth, she makes a plan to find the three women he wrote about. At the first stop on her journey, she runs into her high school nemesis, Oliver, where they both compete for an internship. Throughout her journey, Millie realizes that her plan to find her mother isn’t simple, Oliver really isn’t against her, and discovers along the way that her dreams can take many different paths. A wonderful, heartfelt story that’s worth the read.

Visit Emma Lord’s website.