Book Review: When You Get the Chance by Tom Ryan and Robin Stevenson

Publisher’s description

Follow cousins on a road trip to Pride as they dive into family secrets and friendships in this contemporary novel—perfect for fans of David Levithan and Becky Albertalli.
 
As kids, Mark and his cousin Talia spent many happy summers together at the family cottage in Ontario, but a fight between their parents put an end to the annual event. Living on opposite coasts—Mark in Halifax and Talia in Victoria—they haven’t seen each other in years. When their grandfather dies unexpectedly, Mark and Talia find themselves reunited at the cottage once again, cleaning it out while the family decides what to do with it.
 
Mark and Talia are both queer, but they soon realize that’s about all they have in common, other than the fact that they’d both prefer to be in Toronto. Talia is desperate to see her high school sweetheart Erin, who’s barely been in touch since leaving to spend the summer working at a coffee shop in the Gay Village. Mark, on the other hand, is just looking for some fun, and Toronto Pride seems like the perfect place to find it.
 
When a series of complications throws everything up in the air, Mark and Talia—with Mark’s little sister Paige in tow—decide to hit the road for Toronto. With a bit of luck, and some help from a series of unexpected new friends, they might just make it to the big city and find what they’re looking for. That is, if they can figure out how to start seeing things through each other’s eyes.

Amanda’s thoughts

This book was good fun. I’ll say more, obviously, but sometimes a quick little review like that should sell it, when combined with the summary up there of the story. It was good fun and features characters who are vibrant, interesting, and grow satisfactorily over the course of this short book. Also, I loved the length of this book! That might seem like a silly thing to be psyched about, but it was just the right length. Probably one of my most frequent feelings about books is that it was just a little too long, or, in some cases, way too long. Part of that is my reaction because my goal in life is to blow through as many books as humanly possible, and shorter books makes that easier, but part of that reaction is because some stories just should be shorter. Anyway. This book: fun, great characters, perfect length. So go read it.

Okay. Fine. A bit more. I love that this book is about cousins, and that maybe we should think they will be instant best friends, despite their years of estrangement, because Mark is gay and Talia is queer, but they’re not. They butt heads, they make assumptions, and they don’t always understand each other—not to mention they both can be kind of insufferable. But they’re family, going through a tough time for their families, and together with their parents and grandma, are going to have to work it out. I really also loved how neatly the authors got the parents out of the picture so that Mark, his 10-year-old sister Paige, and Talia could have their adventures. Family crisis? Bye, parents! I also adored all of the characters they met on their way to Toronto for Pride. Also, Talia and Erin’s relationship (together for three years, breaking up, maybe, now that high school is over) was super relatable and allowed them both to investigate their MANY complicated feelings and needs.

A fun little adventure that will probably leave you wishing you had a Paige in your life. Full of family drama, new experiences, and the very real teenage desire to both discover new things and have comfortable things stay the same.

Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780762495009
Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
Publication date: 05/04/2021
Age Range: 13 – 18 Years

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