One thing I’ve learned this past year is I love a good time travel book – especially in the rom-com or contemporary fiction genre. I really enjoyed Cassandra in Reverse and Maybe, Next Time was absolutely beautiful. In this book, the author delivers a different take on the time travel concept, sending our protagonist forward in time to experience the good parts of her life.

The story revolves around Lucy Young, a twenty-six-year-old woman who feels trapped in a cycle of monotonous daily life. Tired of her dead-end job and disappointing dating life, Lucy stumbles upon a wishing machine in a small shop during a stormy night. Desperate for a change, she drops her last coin into the machine and makes a heartfelt wish: to skip to the good part of her life. Little does she know that her wish will come true, but with unexpected consequences.

When Lucy wakes up the next morning, she finds herself in a completely different life. She is married to a kind, handsome man, has two beautiful children, and has finally reached a successful point in her career. The downside? She jumped fifteen years, which means she aged overnight and is now in her forties. She has no idea who this man is that she married, and she has no idea how to raise kids. Faced with the disorienting reality of skipping ahead in time, Lucy must navigate her new life while also grappling with the question of whether she wants to return to her old one. Things are definitely better as far as financial stability and her love life go, but her old worries have only been replaced with new ones, so is it really better now? And if she wanted to go back, could she?

Cousens does a fantastic job of exploring the impact of time travel on Lucy’s emotional journey. As she embraces her new life and forms meaningful relationships, Lucy begins to question if she truly wants to go back or if she should cherish the present. On the flip side of this, Lucy also has to deal with the fact that she has lost fifteen years of her life, and some pretty significant life events took place during that time, including the loss of loved ones. If she goes back, she’ll get those years back, but there’s no guarantee that things will play out exactly as they have and lead her back to this exact timeline. Does she go back and chance it, or does she just stay?

The characters in this book are incredibly endearing and well-developed. Lucy, with her witty humor and relatable insecurities, is a protagonist that readers will root for. The chemistry between Lucy and her husband becomes more palpable the longer she spends with him. It got to where it felt like they were old friends, and I couldn’t help but become invested in their story.

As I mentioned earlier, what sets this novel apart from other time travel books that I’ve read lately is the way Lucy jumps forward in time. Typically, we see the character jumping backward to fix something, but rather than focusing on time travel as a means to fix the past, Cousens puts an exciting twist on the concept by allowing Lucy to skip ahead and experience the good parts of her life. The problem is, by jumping ahead, Lucy basically winds up in foreign territory. She doesn’t wake up with future knowledge – her memories basically stop at putting the coin in the machine. Her husband and kids are total strangers, and while she’s finally ahead in her career, things have changed in the industry, and she has missed out on the knowledge and experience that got her to where she is in her career. Also, her friendships have morphed and changed over the years, and she has no knowledge of what happened. This really raises the stakes. At least when you travel back, you’ve lived it before, and you have an idea of what happened. In this case, Lucy is jumping in completely blind.

Overall, I found this to be a heartwarming story that reminds us of the beauty of living in the present and appreciating the journey. If you’re a fan of time travel romance with a touch of whimsy, then this is the perfect book for you.