This review contains affiliate links, which earn me a small commission when you click and purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.
Lucy is 26 and ready to skip to the good stuff in her life. The ceiling in her bedroom of her shared apartment leaks whenever her upstairs neighbor takes a bath. Dating is a string of disappointments. She works in TV production, but her dream of actually doing anything productive (rather than gopher work) seems distant. One night, when she’s really had enough, she takes shelter from the rain in a shop that holds a wishing machine. Putting a couple of coins in, she makes her wish.
And the next day, she wakes up in a comfortable bed in a tastefully decorated bedroom. With a strange man sleeping next to her. After some moments of panic, and plenty of information-gathering, Lucy figures out that the wish must have come true. She’s skipped forward to marriage to a good man, a desirable job, and even parenthood. But she’s 42, and she lost 16 years of life: life she doesn’t remember.
As Lucy slowly gets to know her husband, accepts her older face and body, and picks up a little bit about parenting, she tries to figure out how to get back to 26. But as time goes on and she seems stuck at 42, it grows on her. It finally comes down to this: should she stay in a life that is pretty darn good, knowing she’s lost years of life, or should she fight to get back to the earlier stage that is kinda crappy but still allows her to experience all of it?
The Good Part is a charming novel. The author writes in the acknowledgments that the book “takes inspiration from” many familiar movies, such as Big, 13 Going on 30, and The Family Man. I particularly noticed very clear elements from the first and last. Sometimes it felt a bit too spot-on, but at the same time, those are beloved for good reason: they resonate. Many of us make wishes like this, but if those wishes really were granted, we would end up realizing we don’t want them after all. Here, I was actually torn: Lucy’s life is so good, her relationships with her husband and her 7-year-old son so sweet, that I didn’t want her to go back. (Her son is a kick in the pants. Anyone would want a 7-year-old boy like him.) What would really happen: what would Lucy (and Cousens) choose?
I really enjoyed all of this book.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 15 uses of strong language, 25 instances of moderate profanity, 20 uses of mild language, and 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There’s one use of British profanity. Sexual content is fairly minimal; there are some vulgar references and brief sex scenes but nothing detailed or lengthy.
Click here to purchase your copy of The Good Part on Amazon.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
