This book made my musical lover heart sing! The summary was on point when it’s a fun take on Mamma Mia. Or in this case Millie Mia.

Much like in the musical, Millie has been raised by her single dad all her life and is perfectly happy with her life. She has a loving father, an aunt who acts as her maternal figure, her best friend lives next door and she just got into Madison’s precollage musical theatre program. Her life is all set but her father puts a stop to it.

She doesn’t need to skip out her last year of high school to go to precollage all the way out in the West Coast. Alone! But Millie is a force of nature, a rollar coaster in curls and she’s sure that Madison is the first step to getting to Broadway.

So when she, and her friend, Teddy stumble on her dad’s 2003 LiveJournal, they find three possible suspects for who Millie’s birth mother could be. With some internet stalking, she decides to find who’s the one and see if she can help convince her dad to let her go to precollage.

But it’s not all musical fun as this lighthearted summary implies, though there is a lot of fun. Finding her birth mom is easy on paper but the emotions that arise during the search complicate matters. Lord does an excellent job delving into the questions that Millie is wreastling with. Wanting her mom to like her, wondering why she left, wanting to know what parts of her come from her mom, wanting someone who can understand her passion, drive and unstoppable “Millie moods,” feelings of abandoment and sadness that she is dying even to herself. It’s part of Millie’s journey to finding herself and realizing that some of it is not just the past personas, her parents, or anything, it’s just her.

Lord weaves a summer of highs and lows and one big blow up that I felt the second hand embarassment/devestation when Millie’s plan and all her relationships blew up in her face. It’s a powerful scene that shows Lord’s strength in emotionality and chaos.

Millie also has a distinct love of New York, feeling that is the place where dreams are made, pushed and chased after. It really creates a certain sizzle in the atmosphere and embeddes New York in the story just as much as the other physical characters.

Plus Millie is such a vivacious, bubbly, confident character. But not so much in arrogant way (okay a little vain sometimes, we all have our flaws) but the way she pulls everyone together and tries to encourage friendship and community like a real theatre nerd. It’s not about cutting out the competition for her but love of life and theatre.

Well unless that competition is her three year nemesis, Oliver Yang. He’s the stage manager to her show diva, constantly one upping one another. Even with the same goals, they argue over how to execute it. They even argue over pizza toppings! That’s what makes it so delicious when Millie, in her haste to meet her possible birth mom, barges into Oliver’s internship application. So now they have something totally new to compeate over and though Millie doesn’t really want the internship as much as Oliver does, him saying she can’t handle it is enough to set her fire going.

But as you can imagine from all the total-opposites, diva vs stage manager descriptions, there is a good amount of unresolved romantic tension simmering underneath. Lord lets their romance unfold organically, showing where their potential friendship went south, devolving into a rivalry. Highlighting their similarities and common goals and how they balance each other out so by the end of it, you’re rooting for a big ol Elephant Love Medley from Moulin Rogue. Or maybe some other showtune duet.

But that’s not the only thing that Lord excells at. I loved all the characters! She sets up three very believable options for Millie’s mom, creating a sweet dynamic between all of them, and its a relief that they all manage to help and stay in Millie’s life in different ways. Because that’s the other thing that Lord excells in, showing how much love Millie has in her life and the expansion of her friends and family that comes from this crazy summer.

Like Chloe, the daughter of Mom Option #2 who is an adorkable ball of musical and geocaching nerd. Teddy, the forever best bud whos love of Reese Puff’s know no bounds. The three Moms who I mentioned before have lovely dynamics with Millie. Cooper, Millie’s dad whose soft spoken and nerdy nature does give Clark Kent vibes. Aunt Heather whose blunt yet gentle nature is just what Millie needs. I love them all.

And again, I love all the musical references like ABBA, Newsies, Six, Hamilton, and all the others. It’s clear that Lord knows her stuff.

So just a wonderful book. 5 Broadway stars!