Title: “The Good Part”

Author: Sophie Cousens

Genre: Contemporary Romance/Humorous Fiction

Publication Date: November 7, 2023

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

“The Good Part” asks readers to imagine what it might be like to skip straight to the “good” part of life. Lucy Young is only twenty-six, but she is already exhausted by what life is throwing at her. Bad dates, feeling stuck on a low rung at work, unable to afford better than a crappy flat share with roommates she would sometimes rather live without, going on bad dates, and eating pastry out of the trash bin at work in a particularly low moment. 

While waiting out the rain in a convenience store after escaping a bad date, Lucy decides it can’t hurt to stick a few cents into a machine she sees there. She wishes to skip ahead to the good part of her life, where all of the issues she currently faces are resolved, and very much like Tom Hanks in Big, her wish is granted. 

As Lucy struggles to navigate where she is and who she has become, she also has to rely on others to figure out what exactly took place over the last sixteen years to get her to where she is now, living a pretty amazing life at forty-two. If you knew the life you really wanted was going to happen, would you skip through the good, bad, and ugly that got you there, or is it worth going through the hard times so you can appreciate the future even more?

I had a hard time getting in to this book, but I ended up being glad I stuck with it, because I did end up enjoying it quite a lot, and found myself actually getting invested in Lucy’s struggle to decide whether or not to go back and redo the sixteen years that had led her to where she was now.

Thank you to NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.