I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so so much. It literally flew by for me and was such a quick read. I fell in love with the characters in this book, especially Sam and Felix. I saw in the author's note that she could have written like 50 more pages of conversation with Lucy and Felix and I would have been very okay with that. I spent most of this book with a smile on my face and it just made me feel good.

I haven't read any other books by this author yet and now I can't wait to see what else she has for me to read.

Thank you to NetGalley, G.P. Putnam Sons, and Sophie Cousens for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a sweet and easy to read rom-com! Sophie Cousens writes unique, closed-door romances that are quick-witted and fun. I did struggle at times with this one because it was so hard for me to relate and connect with Lucy. I found her selfish and but all over the place. However, I think it’s a recurring theme for me to have a hard time relating to Cousens FMCs (even though I tend to like the other characters in her books). I really enjoyed Felix as a character. I found him adorable and loved every moment with him on screen. Faye was a brilliant side character and added so much to the plot. Sam was dynamic and his struggles could be felt. I thought the premise of the book was executed well and I did enjoy it. I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, although I understood why the book went the way it did! Overall it was a super easy read that flowed well! I read it in one day and it was a solid experience!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Publication: November 7, 2023

Rating: 4 stars

This was a book that I closed gently and sat on my couch with a sigh. I didn't want it to end and this book tackles the age old question of: Is it the journey or the destination?

This is my first book by Cousens and won't be my last. Her writing sucked me right in and I loved that she tried to balance some humor with the heavier topics. I loved the cast of side characters especially Felix. The book did slow down a bit for me at the halfway mark but I found myself rooting for one specific ending.

Perfect for fans:
- Women's fiction
- Self discovery
- Clean/light romance
- Magical realism
- 90's/00's romance movies
- 13 Going on 30
- The Family Man
- The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

A wishing machine. Amnesia. Waking up to a gorgeous husband. Wise and insightful little boys.

And the concept: Would you skip to the good part of your life if you could? Or is the journey leading up to it just as important?

Five stars.

I know. Like, wut? Rebekah Ackerman is *actually* giving a book five stars?

Sure am.

It's just so effing sweet.

This book is set to release on October 5th in UK and Nov 7th USA.

Preorder now! You won't regret it.

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My personal notes on the writer.

I don't even know her, but I can tell you that Sophie Cousens LOVES her husband.

*shakes you violently by the shoulders* IT'S SO NICEEE!

It's nice to read about a HAPPY wife. A woman who adores her husband. Who looks at him every morning and thinks, "Well done, Me!"

GAH! Makes me emotional.

Stand by your man, ladies! Be annoyingly in love with him. Obsess over him. Crush on him. Boost him up!

And watch him shine.

*scampers off to find her husband*

#netgalley #TheGoodPart

What a delightful book! If you loved the movie 13 Going on 30, you'll love this one. This version was 26 going on 42, and so relatable. Who hasn't struggled in their 20's and wanted to know how everything turned out? I loved the magical realism element to this book, but loved how real and honest the story was. I fell in love with the characters, and loved the romance between Lucy and Sam. Felix was a delight. I read this book on vacation and it was just the feel good book that I needed. This book was like a hug from someone you love when you need a reminder about the important things in life. Definitely recommend this book!

Thanks for Netgalley and Penguin Group Publishing for this ARC! I really enjoyed this book. I've read others by Sophie Cousens and have always enjoyed her writing. What I liked about this one is that, yes, you could see some fun similarities from having watched Big and 13 Going On 30 but it was still unique and a different perspective. The main character, Lucy, truly holds on to being her 26 year old self for a bit of the story, even though she's become 42. It makes you realize just how much you truly change as a person as you get older. I like that she was married, had kids, and had to make like choices that really affected others. Overall, truly liked this book and would recommend.

If you like 13 Going on 30, Freaky Friday, or just plain old time travel, this book is for you.

26 year old Lucy Young is tired of paying her dues in the TV industry, going on bad dates, and living with nightmare flatmates. After a particularly horrendous day, she discovers a wishing machine and wishes to skip to the good part of life. The next morning she wakes up in a strange but posh house and a much older body having missed out on 16 years of life. Now she has a perfect husband, her dream job, and two kids with no recollection of any of it. Her doctors swear it’s just amnesia but Lucy and her precocious 7 year old son are convinced she went through a portal and traveled through time. Now she must decide if she wants to find the wishing machine or settle into her new seemingly perfect life.

I was slightly bothered by how incredibly advanced Felix seemed to be. It felt more far fetched than the time travel. And I didn’t love that Lucy never tried to get to know Amy and just experienced her as a bunch of messy mishaps. Other than those minor details, this was such a fun read. Sophie Cousens is incredibly funny and as far as I’m concerned, she does not miss. I’m dying to be her friend.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. It pains me to say that this wasn’t a compelling read for me. I love Sophie Cousens, she’s a favorite and auto-buy author but this one wasn’t my favorite. I still highly recommend her as an author and look forward to more novels from her.

This book was so beautifully written — wistful, bittersweet, hopeful, poignant and occasionally funny— but it really is not a romcom. This book had me almost crying on the beach, and in general, it’s hard to call something a comedy when you’re crying in the beach.

Lucy is 26, and she’s having an awful day. The ceiling is leaking directly onto her head from her upstairs neighbor’s bathroom again, her three flat mates have used all the toilet paper and eaten her cereal and left random junk in the bathtub. Her job is a dead end to what she wants to do, even if it’s in her industry of TV production, and she’s broke as a joke. After a fight with her best friend since childhood, Zoya, an impromptu app hookup date goes really badly, and she wishes on an old fashioned arcade wishing machine to get to the good part.

She wakes up 16 years later in 42 year old Lucy’s body, with Lucy’s husband Sam, her children Felix and Amy, and her boss job at a children’s television station. We often see this time travel trope where children or teens boost to adulthood, so the author wanted to explore this time jump and what an impact it would have. I applaud this - I’m in my early 40s too, and 26 year old me would love/hate my life just like 26 year old Lucy finds her 42 year old life.

I suppose the romance is in how new-Lucy gets to meet cute with her husband Sam for a second time, but it was a little sad for Sam to have to essentially fall in love with new-Lucy when it looks like old-Lucy is gone. I did find their reconnection to be lovingly done and very lovely, just bittersweet.

Lucy is dismayed at not knowing what she’s been through for 16 years and having no memories of it, including how to be the boss at work, manage money, be a mother — she perseveres, which gives rise to some comedic shenanigans, and I felt myself cheer for her as she figures all of it out.

Finally, CW: death. If you skip ahead into the future, not everybody you love survives. Maybe you’ve grown apart, maybe you’ve had a falling out, but there’s always the chance that somebody just flat out died. This was quite heavy, though also done well.

Overall I really liked this book, it was interesting and gripping and cool — but not a romcom and I wouldn’t have billed it as such.

Fans of Sophie Cousens will certainly like this addition to her oeuvre. It reads like all her other books. But I also think this will appeal to readers who like books that play with timelines, like In Five Years, Maybe in Another Life or The Midnight Library. It's a bit lighter in tone than some of the other works in the "wonky timeline" genre, which I think might really appeal to some readers.

"The Good Part" by Sophie Cousens is a fascinating blend of modern romance, time travel, and magical realism. Our humorous and likable protagonist, Lucy Young, is bored with her ordinary life, and who wouldn't be after numerous coffee runs and bad dates? Her encounter with a weird wishing machine, however, alters everything.

Cousens spins a spellbinding tale that calls into question the entire premise of a "dream come true." Lucy's sudden entry into a seemingly ideal life - complete with a gorgeous husband, a high-powered career, and adorable children - left her wondering if she's truly living the dream or if something essential is missing.

Cousens' aptitude for time travel narrative distinguishes this novel. Her distinct viewpoint inspires people to think about their own lives and value the journey rather than the destination. It serves as a reminder that sometimes the "good part" is accepting the moment rather than looking ahead.

"The Good Part" is a heartwarming and soul-searching adventure that held my attention from beginning to end. Sophie Cousens has once again demonstrated her ability to create fascinating storylines that captivate readers. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever wished they could skip forward in life's trials.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and Netgalley for an ARC of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think all of us, at least once, have wished to leap from the sucky, boring, or devastating times in our lives to the point where everything has been sorted and we’re living in the best of times, where we’re happy and loved and have gotten everything we’ve worked hard for or desperately wanted for ourselves. THE GOOD PART, the newest novel by Sophie Cousens, examines just that.

Lucy Young is toiling a way in a low paying job in television production, barely able to afford anything after paying rent. After a disastrous night out with her friends (including a short-lived horror show of a date), Lucy finds herself waiting out a rainstorm in a small store with a curious machine that promises to grant wishes. Figuring she has nothing to lose, Lucy makes the wish to skip to the good part of her life and wakes up the next morning in bed with a strange, yet handsome, man in a strange, yet beautifully decorated, home sixteen years in the future.

THE GOOD PART is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. I loved getting to see Lucy stumble through her new life, learning to be her future self with Sam, Felix, and Amy. But I also felt for her when she learned of those moments she missed by wishing years of her life away.

I’ve always loved the idea of knowing how things are going to work out in the future. Psychics, mediums, tarot card readings on Tiktok? Sign me up. When you‘ve lived in periods of such uncertainty and can’t imagine what the “good part” might even look like, it’s easy to wish away years of your life filled with the bad parts to get there. Sophie Cousens, in THE GOOD PART, takes that idea and makes the reader think about whether it’s better to miss out on the hard parts, the years that will eventually turn you into the person you’ll become in the “good part” in order to reach that ideal portion of life, or if an entire life is worth experiencing to better appreciate everything that will eventually occur, all the first and lasts that happen in the in-between.

TW: death of child, loved one (off page)

Thanks to the publisher I got to read an advanced copy of this novel! It comes out in November but do yourself a favor and order this now! Lucy is tired of bad dates, deadend jobs, and crappy apartments and just wishes she could get to the “good part” Which is exactly what happens…

She wakes up over a decade in the future and finds herself with a family, house, and stellar job but no memory of how she got there. Her family assumes she’s had a fluke memory loss but she’s desperate to get back to her old life when she realizes she doesn’t want to actually miss out on all the small moments that built this life.

A heartfelt look at the value of each piece of your life and discovering how to appreciate what you have mixed in with delightful 13 Going on 30 type humor! A young woman trying to adjust to motherhood and marriage was so fun and relatable. An all around great read!

Probably one of my favorite contemporaries that I've read this year.
I always enjoy a blend of contemporary women's fiction, magic realism and a sprinkle of romance and this book was the perfect mix of it. Amy is easy to identify with, wanting to fast forward your life to the "good parts" I've wished too, that there was a magic button or in this case a magic machine to fast forward my life where I have everything figured out but this book has highlighted the importance of slowing down and enjoy the good, the bad as well as the inbetween.
Also a small note, I appreciated how Felix and Amy were written, most books that I've read with kids of the main character in it tends to be cringe-y because either the dialogue or the behavior wasn't developed properly so it was refreshing to read (this is coming from someone who works with kids everyday so thank you). I also loved Sam and Amy's relationship, to know she finds her person is so reassuring and he's just a really understanding character. Big thank you to Penguin Group Putnam Books and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review, all the stars to The Good Part!
You can also find my review on Goodreads!

I LOVED THIS BOOK!
I was expecting a rom-com, romance, something a little young for my liking but Omg , it was SO GREAT!

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I know what it’s like to love someone and I know what it’s like to have children, so keep that in mind!
Sophie is 26 and is living with roommates in a “not so nice” flat. She has an entry level job in tv but just got promoted to the next step up ( which doesn’t seem to be what she expected). She goes on a spur of the moment date with some guy off a dating app and has the worst experience. She is far from her flat and out of money, blisters on her feet from walking so far. It’s starts to pour rain, she dubs into a newsagents and sees an old woman and a “wishing machine” . She feels so tired of her mundane life and puts the coin given to her by the woman into the wishing machine and wishes for her life to “ skip to the Good Part”, her wish comes true!

She wakes up in a room she doesn’t recognize and next to a man she doesn’t know! Her two children are down the hall and she has the wardrobe she’s always dreamed of. 16 years have passed since the day of the wishing machine and she doesn’t remember any of it.

I had no idea where this storyline would go ! I couldn’t STOP reading , read it in one sitting, so entertaining, I laughed , I cried…… multiple times!
A little bit Freaky Friday, a little bit 50 First Dates, but it’s VERY OWN storyline.
I highly recommend this book, it’s whimsical, heartfelt, loving, realistic even though fictional.

Thank you @netgalley and @putnamsons @sophiecousens for this ARC for my honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's for an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It was a little bit 13 Going on 30 and a little bit Hallmark. Down on her luck 26-year-old Lucy makes a wish to get to "the good part" of her life and wakes up the next morning 16 years later, married with children, and no memory of those missing years. The way Lucy and Sam's backstory is told in reverse was charming. There were definitely slow parts but overall recommend for a light romance.

I DEVOURED this book in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down once I started! Lucy Young is tired of her life, barely scraping by and often times needing to rely on her friends for a hands up here and there. One night, she wishes to essentially skip to the good part and wakes up 16 years in the future.
Her friendships, especially hers with Zoya, reminded me so much of my own. I loved Sam, and I was genuinely rooting for Lucy the entire time. It’s rare for me to encounter a book where I just adore every single character.
The addition of Chloe into this book is near and dear to my heart for my own personal reasons and I’ll leave it at that. Anyone that reads this book and knows me, will understand why!
Thank you SO much to Penguin Group Putnam Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. It was a true honor to get to read it!

Wow! Sophie Cousens did it again! Although a little different, I loved Lucy’s journey to finding herself. As I’m currently 26 myself, I resonated a lot with her desire to get past the rough years and into the good parts of life. If you’re a fan of tropes similar to those in The Time Traveler’s Wife, 13 Going On 30, or Rebecca Serle novels, this one is for you.

"Life is never sorted. It's just an undulating shit storm of problems and pleasure."

Lucy is a 26-year-old single lady living in London. She's sharing a flat with three other twenty-somethings and has been woken up to a wet mattress due to her upstairs neighbor flooding the bath and the aftereffects dripping through the ceiling more times than she's like to admit. While she'd love to move out and get away from her mooching flatmates, her job on the bottom of the totem pole at a television station barely covers the bills - it's possible she's shamefully dug a pastry out of the trash at work and picked off the pencil shavings when she didn't have money for breakfast. After yet another online date that seemed promising ("He might not be as slim and tanned as his profile picture, but if I squint, he could pass for a short Chris Hemsworth, if Chris Hemsworth had a hangover and a dad bod.") but ended with her fleeing his flat, Lucy feels defeated. When she subsequently enters a nondescript shop to avoid the rain, she stumbles upon a wishing machine. Lucy wishes she could skip to the good part of her life, and the next thing she knows she's waking up in a fancy strange bed next to a sexy but strange man and her reflection reveals an expensive hair cut, crows feet, and a saggier neck. Was her wish legitimately granted - is this house in the 'burbs, this hot hubby, these two kiddos, and this high profile job really her life? And if it is, what the what is she supposed to do now?

This. Book. Is. So. Cute. And fun. And I loved it.

I have to confess that whatever this genre is - female time travel/alternate universe rom-com? - it's my favorite. I loved Oona Out of Order, This Time Tomorrow, and Maybe in Another Life far more than the average reader. But even within this genre, The Good Part stands out as a real gem.

Obviously this is a work of fiction set in the year 2039, but one of my favorite aspects of this book is how plausible and realistic everything about it felt. From Lucy's initial aversion to her sticky, drooling toddler to going on a shopping spree when she realizes she actually has money for the first time in her adult life to having a voice activated car that sounds like Stanley Tucci and won't let her operate it due to her blood alcohol level - the details had me nodding my head as I could see it all play out. I mean, I thoroughly enjoy Blake Crouch books, but I hate that I can't think too hard about many aspects of his books or they simply don't make sense. Not so was the case with The Good Part.

In addition to the "what might a character act like if they were thrown 16 years into the future?" and the "what might day to day life be like in 20139?" aspect both feeling realistic, Cousens wrote characters and their relationships with each other in a rational and logical manner as well. It's understandable that her 7-year old son would know something's amiss immediately and call her "alien mummy" from the start, whereas her husband thought something might be up but didn't think too much about it right away. And Lucy's character development from a 26-year old stuck in a foreign 42-year old body to what she blossomed into at the end of the tale was simply divine.

Not only were the genre, concept, characters, and character development all to my liking, but Cousens gave Lucy the perfect ending as well. Well done!

The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
From GP Putnam Sons Publishing: Lucy Young is twenty-six and tired. Tired of fetching coffees for senior TV producers, sick of going on disastrous dates, and done with living in a damp flat with roommates who never buy toilet paper. After another disappointing date, Lucy stumbles upon a wishing machine. Pushing a coin into the slot, Lucy closes her eyes and wishes with all her might: Please, let me skip to the good part of my life.

When she wakes the next morning to a handsome man, a ring on her finger, a high-powered job, and two storybook-perfect children, Lucy can’t believe this is real—especially when she looks in the mirror, and staring back is her own fortysomething face. Has she really skipped ahead like she’s always wanted, or has she simply forgotten a huge chunk of her life? As Lucy begins to embrace new relationships and the perks of maturity, she’ll have to ask herself: Can she go back to her previous life, and if so, can she stand to leave the good part behind?
*************************************
My review:
I love time travel-y/time warp kind of books. The idea of waking up in a different place and time is exciting and scary and intriguing. Lucy wakes up after wishing to skip ahead in her life to the “good part”. The trouble is for most of us, you don’t know what the good part is until it is in the past. She doesn’t remember her husband, her kids, her career, or any of the things that got her to the “good part”. Her young son Felix is probably the most endearing character. He is adorable, intuitive, creative, and just wants his Mum back so he is willing to help the “alien” Mummy fix her memories.

While I wouldn’t necessarily believe someone if they told me that had amnesia of the last 16 years, I appreciated that the people in Lucy’s life did believe her. How would you get through the days if you didn’t remember anything that had gotten you there? Re-falling in love with her husband and earning her children’s trust was well done. I worried so for Lucy in her career…would she lose everything she worked so hard for because she didn’t remember how to create tv shows??

Loved this writing, the “incidents”, the adventure, and the characters. Being where you are really is the sum of what came before in life. And the “good part” is generally the good part only when you are past it and you can remember with fondness only the positives.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Five stars!! Thank you to NetGalley and GP Putnam’s Sons for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for my review.