I tried so hard to love this book, but it fell flat for me. I adore Mamma Mia but this just felt like a miss for me. I DNF’d 30% in and don’t feel comfortable giving a full review.

It is the summer before Millie's senior year of high school and everything in her life is changing. She wants to attend a pre-college program in California, she's trying to figure out who her mother is, and the guy she thought was her enemy might not be so bad after all.

Millie felt like a real teenager who doesn't have it all figured out. This is a single POV book so you really get to know and understand her. She had some nice growth as the story progressed and I enjoyed her love of all things Broadway and musical.

Emma Lord's writing and storytelling get better and better with each book! She does a wonderful job creating relatable characters and interesting stories. I don't read much YA anymore but I will always pick up her books!

I thought this book was sweet but a little more juvinielle/middle grade than Lord's previous 2 books. I really thought it was a sweet, feel good story though. You can tell the author has a passion for theater and her voice really comes through in the text.

Such a cute book!
Excellent story for theater lovers!

Millie is a high school performing arts student with big dreams. She hopes to take her first big step towards a successful career by leaving high school early and attending a musical theater pre-college program - across the country. Her dad says no, which spurs her interest in finding her birth mom. It gets interesting as she and her best friend, Teddy, find some potential moms and as Millie finds ways to interact with these women. One of these women leads Millie into an internship with her nemesis, Oliver. There are ups and downs, frustrations and sweet interactions. You can’t help but want the best for Millie in every area of her life.

Millie is a bit over dramatic, but it fits her character and the storyline. The side characters are all good additions and help fill out the story with more dimensions. It’s very YA, even as it deals with some deeper issues. Mostly it’s just fun. Fans of previous books by Emma Lord should like this one, too.

I really enjoyed this author's other story You Have a Match so I was excited for this one. It's super cute and really deals with some tough topics well. I thought the MC really learned a lot and grew along the timeline of the story and I appreciated her apology tour and her insights. Loved the heart to heart talk too.

But I have to admit that every time the word Geocahe was the in the story, my eye twitched. I geocache on a much different app - the one with based in Washington state - where we don't take the container, we don't put food in it nor stalk it. But it was a cute game and interesting addition to the story.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Another fun, coming of age story from Emma Lord! As with her previous novels, I found her voice refreshingly unique and her characters headstrong and full of determination. This is a great story for teens who are confident and know who they are, but still struggle with feeling like something is missing. And it’s written as a love letter to theater nerds everywhere.

I ADORED this book. Emma Lord is one of those authors who I will read almost anything by. She's witty, inventive and her stories are perfectly sweet. Millie's journey to finding out more about her mom was both lighthearted and emotional. I really loved Millie's support system as well--it made for a uplifting and charming story.

When Millie gets her precollege acceptance to her school of her choice everything is good in her life until her dad says no. No because it would mean she would have to leave to the west coast when it’s always just been them two. This is when Millie decides she is going to find her mother and nobody is going to stop her not even her arch nemesis Oliver.

I loved this book. I loved the characters and the relationships to one another. I loved seeing the relationship slowly grow between Millie and Oliver going from despised to tolerable. This was such a fun read.

Thanks Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC of this book for an honest review.

Emma Lord never fails to deliver absolutely adorable books. Millie is so charismatic and fun, while still having moments where she is allowed to falter and be less than perfect. Her journey to discover the identity of her mother is full of hijinks, tension, and angst, but it is interwoven with genuine joy and lots of fun.

I have enjoyed all of Emma Lord's previous novels, and this one was no different. I had a delightful time reading this and am excited to get it into the hands of students.

Emma Lord has become a new favorite of mine in the past couple years. This book was so sweet and I loved all the characters! This is my new favorite by her, for sure! Looking forward to future work.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I was a drama kid in school and this book took me right back to that feeling in just a few pages. Millie wants nothing more than to be a Broadway Star. There is nothing that is going to get in her way, not her drama rival Oliver or a mystery that she wants to solve about her mother's identity. It sends her on an adventure to discover that very thing and it ends up showing her exactly what she needed to learn.

Wasn't my favorite Emery Lord book. I still love her very first book, Tweet Cute a ton. I did enjoy the Mamma Mia aspect of this but I sadly didn't love the main character alot.

I really wanted to like this book, as I love most things Emma Lord puts out into the world, but I could not get into it as I wanted to.

This was such a great book. I am new to YA but Emma Lord is a definite go to for me. I loved Millie and definitely recommend this to YA fans!

Let's play a drinking game: every time you read "Millie Moods" take a sip (not even a shot, just a sip).

You'll be drunk VERY quickly.

This is a YA book, but it reads like a middle grade fiction. Millie is 17 years old but acts about 12. When she meets Chloe, the way Chloe acts is about on par with a 10-year-old (not a 15 year old). They are into drama and Broadway and the whole book is a take on the play Mamma Mia, but it's just too much.

Perhaps if you are into theater, you will enjoy this much more. I love a good show, but having SO MUCH drama in every aspect of life is exhausting and that's how I felt about this book. Millie was not a likeable character (but she was supposed to be). She is all over the place, all about her and everything is the WORST. She breaks down crying in the middle of Manhattan for... what? Exactly?

Plus there is the storyline of trying to find her mom... when instead of talking non-stop to anyone else, had she just talked to her Dad, this whole book could have been resolved in about 40 pages.

At least in this book, the 17-year-old didn't do a DNA test that you have to be 18 to do...

A YA retelling of Mamma Mia? Yes, please! This was adorable -- Emma Lord is, as always, fantastic! All the feels.

Rating: 4.75 stars: Emma Lord books hold a dear place in my heart, I tend to pick them up when I need a book that is going to let me escape and cheer me up and this book absolutely did both of those things! She is absolutely an autobuy author for me and I can’t wait to see what she reads next!

As a former theater kid, I absolutely LOVED all of the musical theatre references in the novel. Millie was such a fun, confident, sassy main character and I loved her! Her friends, boss, and her potential moms were well fleshed out, fun, and I was rooting for all of them, in addition to Millie. I loved that Teddy was super into geocaching since my husband went through quite a geocaching phase when we were in college!

I definitely recommend you pick up this novel if you love rivals to lovers, musical theatre, a smidge of found family, or New York City.

I started off reading the book, but I got sick (not because of the book) and listened to the audiobook for the majority of it. I smiled and even groaned from secondhand embarrassment once or twice throughout the book as operation “Millie Mia” went into effect. As Millie tried to stealthily figure out who her mother was, like Millie I also forgot about the search and why she was looking for her mom. I thought this was cleverly done by Lord. Millie begins to see what has been there all along, and I got to appreciate it alongside her.

Millie had the potential to be unlikeable because she is overly dramatic, but I liked her because the narrator Jesse Viinsky, was amazing. Millie is passionate and feels things so strongly. A singular focus on her dreams leads her to do everything in her power to secure them, sometimes forgetting to live and appreciate the present. Viinsky successfully relayed Millie’s rollercoaster of emotions. I’m sure I would have been exasperated with Millie had I read it instead of listening to it. The book is entertaining and well-written, and the audio narration added to the experience.

This book sadly wasn't my cup of tea and took me very long to finish it! I didn't relate to the characters at all and found the plot to be very slow. Emma Lords writing style was definetly something that helped me enjoy the story at least a little bit. I think she also described the setting (my favorite city!!) very well and I also liked the actors aspect very much. I just wish that the characters were more relatable and that the tension between them was more believable. I sadly didn't feel it at all.
Nevertheless I really like Emma Lords way of writing and this will definetly not be the last book I've read by her!
Thank you so much for the arc!