that's why it's called the present
Lucy Young is 26 and waiting for her life to begin. She lives with four friends in a cheap apartment, so there is always something going on. But there is also always someone in the bathroom, someone else eating Lucy’s cereal, and there is never any toilet paper (although, it’s in London, so it’s loo roll). And when the upstairs neighbor’s bathroom floor leaks, water rains down onto Lucy’s bed.
She works in television, just getting a promotion to junior researcher. Lucy is excited to start her new job, but everyone at the office still relies on her to be the runner, since she was so good at it and the new guy isn’t trained yet. And when her after work drinks with friends ends badly, with Lucy alone, lacking funds for a cab, her phone dead, and having to walk home in inadequate shoes, she stumbles into a news agents just to try to catch her breath. What she finds is a wishing machine. The woman working offers her a couple of coins for the machine, and Lucy finds herself wishing her life would skip ahead, to the good part. No more job struggles, no more bad dates, no more soggy bedding. The machine told her that her wish was granted, and Lucy made her way home.
When Lucy wakes up the next morning, her bed is dry. Except that it’s not her bed. The sheets and blankets are far higher quality than she’s used to. And there is a very handsome man in the bed with her. She sneaks into the bathroom, realizing she is wearing someone else’s pajamas. But it’s when she looks in the mirror that she gets the greatest shock. It’s her face, but somehow it looks much older. As she puts the puzzle pieces together, she realizes that she has skipped 16 years into her future, and she has a husband, two kids, a house, and a powerful television job. And she doesn’t remember any of it.
Lucy tries to fake it through the first day, thinking that her memory will come back at some point, but it doesn’t. Her son Felix thinks that she is an alien and asks her to bring her real mom back. When she finally breaks down and tells her husband Sam that she can’t remember the last 16 years, he calmly schedules a doctor’s appointment for her. But all the test they run on Lucy don’t come up with a reason for her amnesia. Felix is the one who believes her. He thinks she came through a portal and that they just need to find the portal again to send her back. Then he can get his mom back. But finding that wishing machine again isn’t so easy. Lucy has to learn to live this life, as it’s the only one she has.
At first, Lucy struggles. Taking care of two kids is not easy. But as the days slip by, Lucy figures out how to set herself up for better days. She gets to know Sam and finds that she really likes him. And since she has no memory of their hard times, she brings a lightness to the relationship that had been missing for a while. And while Lucy finds herself falling in love with her husband and kids, she can’t help but feel like she missed out on something, skipping all those years. She missed meeting her husband in a karaoke bar, their first kiss, their first fight. She missed out on their wedding, on being pregnant, on the birth of their children. She wants those years back. But as the days in her future tick by, is that portal to her past slowing closing?
The Good Part is a romance about how much sweeter the good days in life are when you’ve made it through dark days. It’s about how love can survive anything thrown at it, if the people involved want it to enough. It’s about learning to live each day to its fullest, not knowing what the future will bring.
This is a classic rom com combined with Big, or any of a half dozen other time traveling films. It’s a little obvious how it will all turn out, but the journey to get there is very sweet. The relationship that Lucy develops with Felix is utterly adorable, and there are several big surprises along the way. I listened to The Good Part on audio, and I thought narrator Kerry Gilbert did an excellent job with Lucy’s confusion, with the twists, and with Sam’s Scottish accent. I really loved The Good Part. It’s a powerful reminder to celebrate life’s moments, good and bad, and not to skip anything.
Egalleys for The Good Part were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio book myself.
