Book ~ "The Good Part" (2023) Sophie Cousens

From Goodreads ~ At twenty-six, Lucy Young is tired. Tired of fetching coffees for senior TV producers, tired of going on disastrous dates, and definitely tired of living in a damp flat share with flatmates who never buy toilet roll. She could quit her job for a better living but she's not ready to give up on her dreams. Not just yet. 

After another diabolical date lands her in a sudden storm and no money for bus fare, Lucy finds herself seeking shelter in a tiny shop, where she stumbles upon a curious wishing machine. Pushing her last coin into the slot, Lucy closes her eyes and wishes with everything she's got: 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 storybook perfect little boy and baby girl, Lucy can't believe this is real - especially when she looks in the mirror and staring back is her own forty-something face. Has she really skipped ahead to the future she's always wanted or has she simply forgotten a huge chunk of her life? And as Lucy begins to embrace this new life and new relationships, she'll have to ask herself: Can she go back and if so, does she want to?

Lucy is 26 and is excited that she has just been promoted to junior researcher ... but it seems like she's still expected to do the same chores. She shares an apartment with three others (one of them is her best friend who is moving out). The ceiling in her bedroom is always leaking, there's never any toilet paper and one of her roommates puts weird things in the bathtub. She's tired of living paycheque to paycheque so when she comes across a strange machine in a convenience store, she makes a wish that she'd like to jump ahead to "the good part".

When Lucy wakes up the next day, she is in a strange bed in a strange bedroom with a strange man. She discovers she has jumped ahead 16 years and is now 42 and married to Sam, is the mother of Felix and Amy and has her dream job. But she can't remember the last 16 years and Felix thinks she is an alien who has replaced his mummy. As Lucy tries to catch up to her new time, she finds out about what's happened over the last 16 years, the good and the bad, with her family and friends helping her along the way. In the meantime, she searches for the "time machine" that has sent her into the future.

I find time travel stories interesting and liked this one. It's written in first person perspective in Lucy's voice. As I was reading this book, I didn't know whether Lucy had indeed travelled to the future, did she have amnesia (as everyone suspected) or was it all a dream ... you find out in the end. As a head's up, there is swearing.