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by Evann Normandin

She erased their past. He’s betting on their future.

When Landon receives a letter from Rose—the woman he once planned forever with—he learns their love story is over. She’s undergone a radical memory-erasing treatment, leaving behind her grief, her past… and him. But Landon can’t bear to lose the love of his life. If she fell for him once, couldn’t she fall for him again?

Now living in Edinburgh, Rose’s world is a blank canvas, and she’s dating someone new. When Landon reenters her life as a stranger, they become fast friends, their lives entwining once more. But what Rose doesn’t know is that this new friend carries the weight of everything they once shared: their firsts, their marriage, and the heartbreak they barely survived. And when she starts exhibiting strange symptoms, it becomes clear their history isn’t gone—it’s just buried. And remembering could come at a devastating cost.

Told in alternating timelines—his from the present, hers from the past—The Good Parts is an achingly poignant story about the people we become across a lifetime, and the quiet grace of learning to let go while holding on to what’s worth keeping.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Magical Realism, Contemporary, Fantasy, Audiobook, Contemporary Romance

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2026

Reviews

[Yun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh boy. Sometimes you have to wonder, when a premise is so eye-catching, maybe there's just nowhere more interesting for the story to actually go?

The idea of this forgetting pill is what initially caught my attention. Landon is shocked and devastated when he learns that the love of his life Rose has decided to erase their entire love story by taking this pill. She's now living in Edinburgh and has moved on with her life, but Landon cannot. So he goes there to try to recreate their love a second time.

The narrative is dual timeline and dual point of view. Now, if you're familiar with dual anything, then you probably know where I'm going with this next. And yes, one of the two is indeed more interesting than the other. Rose's point of view, where she rehashes their original love story, is honestly a bit dull, and there wasn't much there other than physical attraction. Now, nothing wrong with physical attraction (I'm a big fan of it myself), but it doesn't make for a riveting read.

Not only that, but Rose possesses traits that I tend to find very annoying in a book. She shows no remarkable (or even likable) characteristics, yet everyone she meets instantly falls in love with her, including Landon and Poppy. From then on, no matter how difficult or mean she is, they remain steadfast in their devotion to her, bending over backwards to accommodate her every whim while she doesn't really do anything back. In fact, in the lead-up to the falling out between the main characters, Landon is the one who had to constantly apologize even though Rose was the one in the wrong.

Sigh. This tendency in recent contemporary novels to glorify the main female character while making everyone else around her bend to her will, however unreasonable or unlikable she may be, is exhausting. And so is the message that if one has mental health issues, it is perfectly okay to take it out on one's partner rather than go seek professional help (or even do some introspection). Both detract from what should've been a sympathetic protagonist, and both make me feel slightly uncomfortable while reading it.

But Landon's point of view wasn't all roses either (har har). While his storyline was more interesting, it did start to feel slightly icky as it went on. Because here is his beloved, having gone to so much trouble to forget and leave him behind, and he can't respect her boundaries. Could there be any circumstances in which that would be okay? But on the other hand, if one of our partners just one day up and vanished and forgot everything, would any of us really just sit back and accept it? I don't know, it's an interesting bone to gnaw on.

And so that gets to the crux of my biggest issue, which is that even though I got hooked on the premise, I probably should've thought about it a bit before diving in. Because if I did, I would've realized that while there are a few different ways the narrative could've play out, none of them were really appealing and some of them were quite problematic. And just like my imagination, it really did play out like that. The last portion of the story, as everything culminated and resolved, was quite a bit of a hot mess. It felt like the author didn't know where to go to wrap it up, so she tried to go everywhere at the same time.

This wasn't all bad. It did make me tear up in one place and there were a few passages that I thought were interesting. But for how emotionally charged the story was supposed to be, my investment felt lackluster. It wasn't that long of a book, yet I crawled through it, bogged down by my indifference to Rose and Landon.

At the end of the day, I think I just wasn't the right audience for this. If I were younger and just starting out on my adult life, maybe I would've found this to be profound. But I've long since aged out of that demographic, and now my cold, wizened heart just can't see past the characters to appreciate the speculative within.

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[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good Parts by Evann Normandin

As much as I am glad I read this story, it leaves me feeling so sad. What if you had a chance to erase all your memories and start over again? That is what Rose and others do and the more I learned about Rose, the happier I am that I never knew her. This is a girl/woman who doesn't like being forgotten but that is what she choses to do to the people she loves the most, forgets them.

Landon and Rose meet at the beginning of their freshmen year at university and the two spend all their time together. Both are awkward but together they grow, Rose coming out of her shell by performing in plays and Landon by knowing and loving Rose. But Rose has never really been okay, in my mind. She's allowed things from her past and present to fester in her heart, things that could not have been changed by her. So later in the relationship of Landon and Rose, she's allowed more things to fester inside of her and when something horrible happens, Rose is out of there forever. She choses to forget it all so she can just live blissfully in a "clean slate" world.

Rather than allow Rose to make this decision and move on, Landon goes after her. As we learn the story behind their pasts and their relationship, things just get sadder. I'm so glad I read this story with others because I needed to discuss it, to let off some steam, to go over choices and what those choices do to others, to gripe about people who expect the world to be the way they want the world to be when it is clear that they will never really be happy.

If there was such a pill in our lives, rather than the heartbreaking illnesses that take away a person's memory when they want to keep their memories, I'd hope I could let go of those who don't want to remember. This story is heartbreaking but I think what I learned from it is that we can only control ourselves and we must allow others to move on if they desire to do so. Be sure to check out the thoughts of Jayme and DeAnn on this interesting, thought provoking story.

Publication July 28, 2026

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC

[Jaime Fok · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5

You guys know I LOVE a dive into memory... and this book gave it all to me.

First things first, I would recommend this book as a ROMANTIC FICTION (a fiction with romantic themes), vs a contemporary romance. While romance was obviously a prominent element throughout the entire book, I would say if you're looking to escape into a dreamy romance story - this would not be the book for you.

Instead, we dive into characters who are flawed. We see their relationship that is messy. They both make the morally wrong decision at many points throughout their life with one another. But it all feels so authentic, and you can still feel their connection and love for each other throughout everything.

My favourite element of this book of course was the exploration into memory. What happens to a person when they erase their memory and start with a clean slate? Are they really even themselves anymore? Who are we really without those memories backing us? I was surprised at how much we dove into this theme throughout the book, I had expected the memory-erasing thing to just act as a plot device for the romance, but this ended up being more like the romance acted as a plot device for the memory story. I even started getting Severance vibes because of this brain/memory phenomenon that people were catching onto and voluntarily signing up for. They even called their pre-memory-loss-selves their "others", which added to the Severance connection for me.

Loved this so much, definitely got emotional at the end. Can't believe this is Evann Normandin's debut - can't wait to see what this author does next!!!

[bookluvr (s-ia) · Rating 2 out of 5]

sigh. ion know about all this. another case of unrealized potential, methinks. this has a solid idea and attempts to tackle ambitious themes, but the execution felt so sterile to me at the best of times, and chaotic and disorganized at the worst. for a story that hinges on this deeply passionate soulmate-energy kind of love, this left me feeling very little and i’m shocked by this outcome because i really thought this was going to be emotional.

the premise is actually interesting. it’s a second chance concept between rose and landon. as it alternates between past and present, we get to see these two “fall in love” and live a whole life in the past, before something unknown to reader must have happened that made rose want to forget about everything, including landon. in this world, something called a “forgetting pill” exists and rose took it, like many others looking to wipe the slate clean. in the present timeline, landon, who’s not over his wife and this once-in-a-lifetime love that they had, tracks rose down across the seas to scotland where she’s living her new life. he pretends to be someone else in an effort to insert himself into said new life and reconnect with this new rose to get her back.

this makes for an angsty premise but it never really took off for me. i think my two main issues boil down to the writing style and the last 30% of the book.

when it comes to the writing style, i felt most let down by it in the past timeline. this kind of story really only works for me if the writing feels charged, emotive and well-fleshed out. in this, it just didn’t. it felt like the author was narrating all these supposedly defining moments instead of writing them in a way that they could be experienced. it started bordering on telling instead of showing and this created a disconnect between me and the book. for example, the book kept asserting that these two had electric chemistry but was the chemistry in the same room with us? on the same planet as us? in the same universe? i just didn’t feel it in how it was written in a very bland style with uninteresting individuals at the center of this love story. another example is that the writing would “state” characteristics for the characters like oh, this person is “funny” or “charming” or that person is “bold”, but i didn’t actually see solid examples of this or get to feel these supposed traits play out in enough situations in the book? i was just told about them. even some key milestones in their past that would have been nice to see play out as scenes were not shown, merely mentioned. the development of the initial relationship felt very disjointed and the execution came across very dull as a result. why this tell-y style of writing hurts most is because i didn’t believe in the monumental love these two were supposed to have had, so then going into the present chapters meant i had no investment in them actually finding their way back to one another. this fails the entire book.

there were some moments where the writing veered into something more evocative (and i can almost isolate those instances more to the present timeline). a few of the lines thrown around here and there nibbled a little, but the book’s grasp on me never lasted very long. any faint charge it managed to muster up fizzled out almost immediately until the next try. the sustained depth and connection just wasn’t there.

beyond the dynamic between the mcs, i also felt like the entire cast had no chemistry either. interactions between the mcs and side characters felt stilted and awkward — again, i think it was the writing being a bit dry and boring that caused this. attempts at humour also fell flat.

now, for issue número dos: the last 30% of the book. it was a mess. here is where all the big revelations and events that should be drawing an emotional reaction out of me were crammed into the narrative, but herein lies the problem…the aforementioned cramming. a lot here was under-developed and under-explored. like i said, there were some ambitious themes in here like postpartum depression, grief, marriage-in-crisis, the pains and joys of motherhood in particular all stand out to me, but it all felt glossed over because the book tried to smush all these ideas into the last stretch and only touched on them in a surface-level way. others, like rose’s grief over her father and estrangement from her mother, were completely forgotten about after being briefly introduced in the first half of the book. because of all of this, the book didn’t deliver the emotional punch something like this sorely needed. i think we wasted too much time on existential musings (even earlier on in the book) instead of using space and time to really go into more depth on some of these topics. the one core element that the book did explore well was the one around identity and whether the erasure of memories can fundamentally alter a person from who they used to be — a lot of time was dedicated to this. i wish there was more balance though with some of the other subjects.

outside of these two bigger issues i had with this read, there were three other more minor, but still notable things that gave me pause:

— the mmc
he gave me a bad vibe as the book progressed. i don’t know if all of this was supposed to be romantic, but the lengths he was going to with what started out as a desperate man in love quickly morphed into manipulations, secret agendas and obsessive behaviour that started feeling creepy and distasteful. usually i can enjoy this kind of conduct in darker romances (and from an mmc with the right kind of aura), but i’m not a fan in contemporary ones. also, finding out some of his actions in the past timeline from that chaotic last stretch of the book made me dislike him even more. ship him back to the streets 🙂‍↔️. if his grief was better explored in the book, i may have been able to drum up a bit more sympathy for him but it wasn’t, so here we are.

— the magical realism element — rules where?
⚠️ don’t read this next paragraph if you don’t want to see a hint at a spoiler!
if your book is going to have something not of this reality in it, at least make it make some sense and have it have some consistent rules to it. i’m all for whimsy but if things don’t really matter, it cheapens the concept. suddenly, things just don’t work and only for the mcs, without a plausible reason as to why not? how? maybe i missed something as i was dozing off, but i don’t understand why one mc would have a vastly different outcome to something when other people subject to the same set of circumstances aren’t having such outcomes — and for this immunity to wrap up the book. the ending didn’t feel all that well-thought out to me.

— the ending itself
no.
if i’m truly honest, i wasn’t happy with this resolution and i’m not sure i like all the choices made here. it also felt incredibly rushed.

a final (and more petty) remark: the fmc’s married name was rose calloway and there is only ONE person in my mind’s eye that this name belongs to and who embodies it, wholly and completely!!! one of the baddest fmcs to ever exist!!! this rose, unfortunately, holds no candle to her. sawri. try again 😂. and why was there also a poppy and a conor (albeit with one n) in this book? i’m psycho about the addicted / calloway books so all these name similarities were irking me 😂.

so yeah, this was a flop 😭😭. i really wanted to cry and feel something and i just didn’t. i really had to power through on this one and i was only motivated to because i was mildly curious about what drove rose to take the “forgetting pill” to begin with (so i was nosy), and i wanted to give the book a chance to recover, given how i’d seen mostly positive stars / sentiment on it. alas, it wasn’t for me i guess. pretty cover though.

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

GENRES/TAGS: Speculative fiction, Literary fiction, Book Club fiction, Romance, DEBUT

NOT ALL LOVE STORIES END WITH HAPPILY EVER AFTER…

👀 LOOK at that gorgeous Book Cover!
If you enlarge it you can see a carefree couple who look to be very much in love-

That couple is Landon and Rose, and this is their love story. It unfolds from alternating timelines, his from the present and hers from the past until the two intertwine.

Initially they have the kind of love that makes all of their friends envious-but an event in their lives will completely change the trajectory of their story, eventually tearing them apart.

Rose will decide to take the controversial new “forgetting pill” which will erase her memory and most importantly, her grief. Those who take it, write themselves a letter of what they want to remember, and everything else will be forgotten.

But, Landon refuses to give up the “love of his life” without a fight.

If she fell for him once, couldn’t she fall for him again?

He will travel to Edinburgh where Rose is now living and dating someone new. Landon will reenter her life as a stranger, and then become her friend.

But, much is unknown about the side effects of the pill, and it seems like her “new” self recognizes things from her “other” self even if these things are “ out of context”.

And, that could be dangerous.

I enjoyed this DEBUT, although the ending was more MELANCHOLY than expected.

Don’t let the speculative aspect scare you off. as the “forgetting pill” is a plot device-but it isn’t explored so the narrative isn’t bogged down by Science.

This was an ORIGINAL, ENGAGING, and THOUGHT PROVOKING story that will offer your BOOK CLUB much for discussion.

A buddy read with Marilyn and DeAnn. Be sure to watch for their reviews for additional insight!

AVAILABLE NOW!

THANK YOU to Grand Central Publishing for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts!

[ambersometimesreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

getting hit by a truck would've hurt me less than this book 😃 how am I supposed to cope with that outcome??

this is a book that's going to stick with me forever. this has the perfect balance of romance and devastation and consider me DEVASTATED. this follows landon and rose in a world where a memory erasing pill exists. it doesn't just erase a moment/moments but your whole entire life and essentially makes you a completely different person, just with the same face and body. this book reminded me of the severance tv show because they refer to their old self as their 'other.'

rose experiences something horrible and decides to take the pill without even writing a letter to her husband landon. she completely forgets him but since he didn't take the pill, he still remembers her. he can't live without her so he goes in search of "her" and starts to hang out with the new version of her. this book was such a good mix of magical realism/sci-fi/romance and really had me thinking about how horrible it would be to be landon in this situation but then also getting glimpses into why rose felt it was the only right choice.

thank you to grand central publishing for sending me this ARC, it's the best feeling for an ARC to be 5 stars ⭐️

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unsettling psychological drama.
I almost didn’t finish it. The beginning was to slow and boring: sugary love story of two privileged unbothered people. But the intrigue how did it end up kept me going. And it was worth it. Author is very good in painting psychological portraits, in describing grief and complex relationship. Slowly the story leads to the tragic heart-breaking end.
The middle of the book reminded incel-horror: another man who believes that his feelings are more important that woman’s “no”. And his confession-revelation at the end doesn’t fix that impression. But that just the author being good in showing human nature and intricate emotions.
The sci-fi like premise also gives a lot of room for philosophising on death, love, marriage, second0chances and an importance of memories.

[maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m actually very annoyed over the amount of tears I shed reading this book.
I thought people were lying about this book being sad but turns out it was even sadder than how they were portraying it 🧍🏻‍♀️

[Mysha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the heartbreak!!!

The premise follows a married couple, Rose and Landon, who have broken up. Rose moves away and takes a memory erasing pill to forget all the heartache she’s been through and start fresh. Landon finds out and goes after her to make her fall back in love with him, and falls into a spiral of lies, etc. It’s a dual-timeline so you get to witness them falling in love, their marriage, plus the current timeline post-memory erasing pill.

Various parts of this book worked very well for me. I think the book did a very good job at keeping me engaged throughout, because I was so curious as to what could have been so bad to make Rose take the pill that I had to keep reading until I found out. Additionally, the spiral of lies that Landon kept getting himself into had me very stressed in a way that I wanted to look away but couldn’t.

Additionally, I found the writing-style to be lovely. I appreciated that it was written in third-person POV, and I thought it was very beautiful at times.

Some of my favourite parts about this book were that it wasn’t so in-your-face with lots of themes. I think that a lot of the times books will write something so explicitly that it loses it’s spark, but a lot of what resonated with me was pretty subtle. For example, Rose’s whole dilemma of feeling like she’s not doing enough with her life… it made me feel so dreadful and I could relate very deeply, but it wasn’t overly shoved in your face as a reader. Same goes for her frustration about how Landon could be such a good and positive guy because of his amazing upbringing, that it may be hard for her to connect to at times. I LOVED that the relationship wasn’t perfect, we saw deep flaws in both characters, but it wasn’t enough to put me off from their romance.

I think another aspect this whole premise really makes me consider is the whole dilemma of whether a good life is one which is happy or one that is meaningful? As we see, Rose is super happy after the pill, often waking up with hope and excitement for what life has to offer her. But we also quickly see how dispensable everything is to her, including her current boyfriend and anything in her current life. Is that a superior way to live? Whereas Landon is somebody who faced his trauma head-on and continued to do so, writing and recalling past memories, even the ones that hurt and shaped his life so tremendously. Both characters choose different paths yet have their own stubborn opinions of what a good life is. I thought it was insightful and gave the reader lots to think about.

[Léa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good Parts was one of my most anticipated releases of 2026 after hearing its similarities to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my favourite films ever)... however I wouldn't say that it necessarily lived up to my expectations.

Following our protagonist who voluntarily goes under a memory erasing surgery, she chooses to forget her lover... only for him to do whatever it takes to make her fall back in love with him. Now I love a second chance romance, I love yearning, longing and I really felt as if this had such promise to deliver on these feelings however whilst reading, it did not feel romantic in the slightest. There was something about Landon going against Rose's wishes due to his admiration for her, that morally I didn't enjoy. It opens so much discussion surrounding what we owe those we love especially in conjunction with ourselves.

My favourite part of this book however was the way Rose was written. Perhaps slightly controversial but I found that she was written in a way so raw and vulnerable that I couldn't help but resonate with her on some level. She felt like a real representation on what it means to be human and how grief, our circumstances and the people we surround ourselves with do to some level, govern parts or moments of our lives. This reading experience unfortunately wasn't what I was hoping for but there were elements that I adored (lowered my rating slightly)

[caleigh · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

trust, nobody is more disappointed than me over the fact that this was just a meh three star read. i started it thinking it had five star potential, and finished it feeling like there ended up not really being a point to the 333 pages i just read.

don’t get me wrong, there’s some great parts. the writing is sort of reminiscent of sarah damoff’s, which i LOVED. it was super fast-paced and easy to binge, and there were some quotes that i underlined and that stuck with me. i liked the concept of the story, too. the idea of a forgetting pill is so fascinating, and i kept thinking throughout the story about what it would be like if this was a real thing.

but honestly, my philosophizing was the most interesting part of my reading experience.

i just felt so indifferent for the majority of the story. the way this is told is, in theory, perfect for the story. alternating timelines, rose’s perspective in the past and landon’s in the present. you get to see them meet, fall in love, and go through tragedy together in the past; then see them (potentially) fall back in love in the present. but it all felt very … surface level, i guess. you only get the big moments of their relationship - first meeting, first date, first ‘i love you’, proposal, wedding, etc etc - in the past, and that made it really hard to really feel a connection to their relationship or characters. love is in the little things, and we didn’t see any of that. it was more that we were being told that they’re in love and experiencing these things, but i don’t feel like their (alleged) soul-deep bond was ever truly shown. and, again, i never once felt even the slightest attachment to either rose or landon, so.

as for the present timeline, i fear it never sat right with me what landon was doing. i know it was supposed to be romantic but the more i read the more i was like, why is he not respecting her decision to forget him? if rose wanted to keep him in her life, she would’ve. and to so blatantly go against her wishes when he claims to love her so deeply, all just because he can’t bother to work past his own heartbreak and grief, was so unbelievably selfish. and the misleading!!! like let’s not disregard the fact that he lied about literally everything. i won’t go on about this because i want to keep this spoiler free but EUGH i couldn’t look past it. maybe that makes me a cynic, but like, i love a love story. this was not it.

edit: i’ve read so many reviews blaming rose for taking the pill in the first place but oh my god can we stop blaming the woman for one single second in the history of humanity!!! i cannot even begin to imagine the devastation and hardships she went through, first with postpartum depression then with the literal death of her child. get your head out of the fcking patriarchy’s ass.

and the ending sucked i’m so sorry. first of all i absolutely despise it when a main character is oh so conveniently an exception to a rule. like what do you mean rose just happens to not end up like all these other cases of the same situation? with NO explanation. that’s just laziness on the author’s part idc. those last 60ish pages just turned far too convenient and idealistic (i think that’s the word i’m going for here) for me. odd incorporation of god and praying quite a few times too which was kinda sus but okay whatever. then the way everything came together just … made it feel like the entire story had no real point. like, genuinely, the progress and growth was so tiny it truly just didn’t even matter. i hated it.

lowkey i might drop this to a 2.5 or 2.75 because the more i think about this book the more i’m genuinely just so uninterested and, at best, annoyed and disappointed. i can understand why people love it so much - in theory, i should’ve too! - but the execution of it all just did not click for me unfortunately.

ps i didn’t cry. not a single tear even close to being shed.

── .✦ pre read
going into this after main characters may be slightly psychotic of me but what is life if you’re not constantly being wrecked by fictional love stories am i right!

[Val ⚓️ Shameless Handmaiden ⚓️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 - 2 Star

I actually thought the writing was good and the story captivating. Thus this getting more than one star.

But otherwise…by the end of this story I loathed Rose on a visceral level. She was a selfish coward and Landon deserved so much better. Shame on her.She erased her daughter and her soulmate. Compete fucking cowardice and selfishness. Life is hard and sometimes it sucks. It’s called being HUMAN. But at least she will spend the rest of her life with the mindset of an immature child with no concept of herself or the value of other people. Her life will be vacuous and empty of anything real.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is definitely going to take the reading world by storm, it is an emotional, character driven and impactful story and I can see so many who are not only going to be bawling their eyes out but loving it.

For me personally, it was a 3 ⭐️ read, I’d recommend it but it wasn’t my favorite book, if that makes sense? The pacing was a bit off, going between the two different timelines and I had a hard time connecting to their love story, but I will say, the big thing that happens in this book, almost took me out. It was absolutely devastating and I couldn’t even imagine. And I did like the ending, you don’t see books end that way often, so it was refreshing to read something different. While I flew through this book in less than 48 hours, I felt disconnected from the couple and the pacing was not exactly right (for me), and I feel like there could have been more of the past brought into the story, to further solidify the relationship, I’m not sure if that makes sense, but anyway.

I’d recommend this one to you, if you love character driven stories with past and present tense and an emotional read, but for me it was just okay and not something I am super attached too.

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy!

[Kaceey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Question…If you could take a pill that would erase all your bad memories, would you?
But think twice; there’s a catch. It will remove all your happy ones too. In essence, you’ll be starting over with a fresh slate. No memories. You will forget everyone in your life.

This is the latest pill on the market, and people are clamoring for a chance at a do-over in life. But what about those left behind?

Our lead character, Rose, took the pill and moved to Scotland. Her husband, Landon, just can’t let go. He still loves her and wants her back even if she can’t remember their past. They fell in love once, and he believes in his heart they can do it again! He’s off to Scotland to re-introduce himself to Rose.

Perfect for readers who enjoy:
Slow-burn
Contemporary
Love, loss, and second chances.

🎧 Audio:
▶️The narrator’s performance felt a bit choppy; ultimately, it became a distraction rather than pulling me into the storyline.
▶️The transition between the present and past was abrupt in the audio with no warning. It would usually take my brain a minute to catch up.

✍️ Evann Normandin
🎧 11 hours 40 minutes
🎤 Mhairi Morrison
🗓️ Available Now
📈 3.5/5🌟🌟🌟💫
👉 Contemporary

Thank you to libro.fm and Hachette Audio

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had lots of potential that unfortunately wasn’t realized, imo. The Good Parts follows a couple, Rose and Landon, the former of whom decides to take a “forgetting pill” where she loses all recollection of her romantic relationship with Landon. We follow Rose in the past where we learn about the development of her relationship with Landon, whereas from Landon’s point-of-view we see the present and how he’s coping with the aftermath of her decision to take the pill. It’s an interesting concept that combined with the cover design, motivated me to give this novel a shot.

Unfortunately the writing was the biggest flaw here for me. Lots of telling instead of showing, lots of sentences that gave the vibe of “a big emotion is happening here” instead of the quality of the prose itself delivering that emotion. The prose kept me right outside of the characters and the story instead of letting me dive in. I also found one of the plot events/twists at the end of the novel a bit immaturely handled; I won’t spoil what it was but I think if you read the book and you get to it, you’ll likely see what I mean.

Overall, I wish I could’ve rated this one higher because I feel the author approached topics such as relationships, postpartum depression, interpersonal loss, etc. from a genuinely good place. The writing just didn’t cut it for me.

[Flor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really meh book for me... Nowhere near as heartbreaking as I thought considering the heavy themes.

I liked the premise and structure, and the ending couldn't be better. However, the execution fell flat. The concept of the "forgetting pill" never fully sold me, and I couldn't connect with the main characters. Rose and Landon's story is supposed to be this great, epic love story, but to me it lacked depth and heart, which made it hard to root for them or stay invested.

Overall, it was ok but didn't deliver the emotional payoff I was hoping for.

[bookss_addict · Rating 5 out of 5]

mais quelle histoire 🥹 une de mes meilleures lectures de l’année, et un des livres les plus marquants qu’il m’ait été donné de lire. je n’oublierai jamais cette lecture ❤️‍🩹

[Adi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 This was sadly a like not a love for me! I can see why people love this one, it was fast-paced and I did really love the writing. Unfortunately I just had an incredibly hard time connecting with the FMC and believing in the romance and so unfortunately I spent most of the book feeling mostly angry upset vs sad upset. And I wanted/expected the latter!

[ahana ⊹ [ ia ] · Rating 4 out of 5]

tugged at my heartstrings ouch

[Lauren W -behind! (work)- trying to stay semi-caught up♥︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you could take a pill and forget all of your heartache, grief, and tragedy?

The Good Parts takes on a unique premise. Rose has endured unbearable tragedy throughout her lifetime, bringing to mind her father's favorite word, apricity—the warmth of the sun in winter—and the way we wrap language around complex human emotions.

At its core, this story centers on Landon and Rose. Theirs is a deeply moving love story that manages to transcend overwhelming grief, devastating family loss, emotional betrayal, physical distance, and the terrifying prospect of a pill designed to erase one half of a couple's shared memory.

While I didn't entirely love the ending, I completely understood why it went the direction it did. Overall, it's a poignant and thought-provoking read about memory, loss, and connection.




**Thank you, Grand Central Publishing & NetGalley for this ARC.

[mak · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was actually a HORRIBLE story. this is not romance, this is a f****ing horror book. I cannot imagine the pain the characters went through but this was such a devastating story to read from the MMCs POV. This woman is selfish to her core. I am utterly DISGUSTED & ANGRY at the way this man was treated. Wasted my time & $30. I was better before this book.

[Jess Massey · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

3.25

[cursedb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think one of the most honest things a romance novel can explore is the idea that sometimes loving someone means letting them go. We tend to think that holding on is proof of love, but sometimes the most loving thing you can do is accept that you can’t have the person you love. Love isn’t always about getting what you want, and I think this book understood that beautifully. That’s probably why this became one of the best romance novels I’ve ever read. Even though it has elements of speculative fiction, the emotions and relationships felt incredibly real and familiar. I loved the characters, and I especially enjoyed the way we got glimpses of the past and the future through different perspectives. It made the story feel much more intimate and immersive. The friendship between Rose and Poppy was another highlight for me. Their relationship reminded me so much of my own college roommate, especially the way they met and gradually became such an important part of each other’s lives. That familiarity made their friendship feel especially genuine to me. And, of course, I absolutely loved the ending. I genuinely love unhappy, tragic, bittersweet endings in romance novels, which I realize is probably a slightly questionable preference, but this one completely delivered. It broke my heart reading what happened between them, but I found it incredibly moving. This felt much more honest than the romances I usually read because it acknowledges that sometimes letting go really is an act of love. Being selfish isn’t necessarily loving someone, and sometimes choosing their happiness over your own is the hardest and most genuine expression of love. That’s what stayed with me after finishing this book, and it’s ultimately why I loved it so much.

[Shanique · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5☆

Did I shed a tear while reading this? Absolutely! The Good Parts is reminiscent of One Day, with the emotional turmoil experienced by the main characters. As a huge fan of dual timelines, I found the author’s clever approach particularly noteworthy. As the story unfolds, the reader’s experiences are intertwined with Rose’s perspective from the past, while Landon’s perspective remains in the present. The book’s prose revolves around the concept of a memory erasing pill that acts as a restart button to one’s life. It’s evident that something unfortunate must have occurred for Rose to desire taking the pill and forgetting. The gradual buildup to this revelation kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly anticipating the other shoe to drop.

Rose and Landon met during their first year of college, and while they instantly had chemistry, it felt more like insta love to me. I would have preferred a more gradual development of their relationship before they delved into deeper emotional moments. Throughout the entire book, I felt for Rose because of the hardships she faced.

I genuinely enjoy the side characters, Poppy and Connor. Poppy was not afraid to confront Landon when she felt it was necessary, and Connor’s brotherly bond with Landon was incredibly endearing.

I wish there was more scientific explanation or even backstory and depth behind the memory-erasing pill. It was simply thrown at the reader without any real context, except that it erases one’s memory.

Overall, this was a good read for me that 100% pulled at my heartstrings.

[Caylean 🩷 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was giving 5 stars until the last 30% and then FMC absolutely fumbled it.

I was SO excited for this book. The premise you ask?
A woman takes a pill that erases her memories of the man she loved, and he comes back into her life as a stranger hoping she’ll fall for him all over again?

Inject it directly into my veins.

For a book called “The Good Parts”, I genuinely thought the entire point was going to be that you cannot erase the bad and expect to keep some perfectly preserved version of love. There is no magic pill, or forgetting pill, that removes heartbreak, resentment, mistakes and hardship and leaves behind only the pretty bits.

That is not love.

The good parts are good because you survived the bad parts together.

But Rose was giving Debbie Downer from page one and by the end I genuinely felt like Landon loved her significantly more than she ever loved him. This man remembered EVERYTHING about her, I mean EVERYTHING, down to the way she moves. He remembered the pain, the fights, the disappointment, the reasons they fell apart, and still looked at her and said, “Yep. Still you.”

Ma’am.

What more would you like from this man?

Landon understood the assignment.

I’m not convinced Rose ever did.

I wanted compromise, forgiveness, growth and the courage to stay when things get hard.

Such a frustrating end to a book that had me convinced for 70% that I was reading a five-star love story.

[cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was like eternal sunshine but ten times more sad to read. The build up between Landon and Rose was so beautiful and the reveal of what happened between them felt like a rug being pulled out from beneath you. This entire book portrayed all of the ways people deal with grief gorgeously and was definitely a tear jerker. The ending was bittersweet but I think it fit the characters and the story perfectly. I would check trigger warnings on this one because one of the main themes can be really difficult to read about but I 100% recommend this.

[Kyleigh | alltheroseyreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a beautiful and emotional ride that was.

The premise of this book was so unique and I am such a sucker for anything with magical realism. The entire time I was reading it, I kept thinking about how this would make such a fantastic book club book. It is so thought provoking and can really stir up some interesting conversations.

I adored Landon and Rose and all of the side characters. Each one played such an important role throughout the story. I would love a version in Poppy’s POV.

This book was so much more than a love story — I felt like the way that it depicted grief and marriage and all of life’s challenges was heartbreakingly beautiful and real and vulnerable.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

[LILLY ࿔*:･˙ᵕ˙ · Rating 5 out of 5]

(netgalley arc) So I’m actually suing for emotional damage because my heart feels like it’s been physically ripped out, stomped on, put back together and then ripped out AGAIN.

A million stars out of 5. A new favourite book. I genuinely don’t even know how to review this because I’m still processing what I just read.

The Good Parts follows Rose and Landon, a married couple whose love story is completely turned upside down when Rose undergoes a memory-erasing treatment that wipes away her memories of her past, including Landon and their life together. Landon, however, still remembers everything. He travels to Edinburgh and re-enters Rose’s life as a stranger, hoping that maybe, somehow, she could fall in love with him all over again. Told across alternating timelines, we get to see their relationship unfold while also watching Landon try to build something new with a woman who doesn’t remember that they were ever in love. And somehow this premise manages to become SO much more than just a romance.

This book completely destroyed me because it asks such a heartbreaking question: **if you erased all the pain from your past, would you also be erasing the person you became because of it?** The story explores memory, grief, identity, love and whether the difficult parts of our lives are just things we should escape from, or whether they become part of what makes us who we are.

What completely destroyed me was how REAL the emotions felt. Nothing about Rose and Landon’s relationship was simple or easy, and I loved that. There was so much messiness, vulnerability and uncertainty woven into their story, and I found myself becoming ridiculously invested in every part of their relationship. Watching Landon remember a life that Rose no longer knows existed??? HELLO???? I was SICK.

The relationships are what really made this book for me. There’s so much emotional depth in the way these characters love, hurt and care for each other, and I think that’s what made certain moments hit me as hard as they did. This book understands that love isn’t always straightforward, and sometimes loving someone means confronting the parts of a relationship that hurt just as much as the parts that made you happy.

And the writing??? I highlighted SO much. There were so many moments where I had to put my Kindle down and just stare into the distance because WHAT am I supposed to do with these feelings???

I’ve got nothing more to say because I’m still crying while listening to *loml* by Taylor Swift, which is honestly the only song that could possibly accompany my current emotional state.

A million stars. A new favourite. Completely emotionally destroyed. I will be thinking about this book for a VERY long time.

[Lynn Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick in that it dealt with a way of getting through trauma or grief. This book involves taking a “forgetting pill.” I loved the two main characters and felt like their love story was so amazing that it was hard for me to see the separation.

[Temi (temisreads) 🧸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

as predicted, this hurt me🥲