The Déjà Glitch

• Author: Holly James
• Genre: Romance
• Publication Date: August 1, 2023
• Publisher: Dutton

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To break out of a 24-hour time loop, all Jack needs is for Gemma to fall in love with him in a single day. All Gemma needs is to remember him first . . .

Gemma Peters is doing fine. She’s making a name for herself in the L.A. music biz as a radio producer. She’s got a ride-or-die best friend in Lila, and she gets to come home to Rex, her loving Labrador, every night. But ever since her rock star ex-boyfriend used her to get a record deal from her rock legend dad, she’s made a “no musicians” rule when it comes to dating that’s becoming more like a “no dating” rule, period.

So, when Gemma crashes (literally) into Jack one Thursday morning, at first she feels like fate might finally be doing her a favor. After all this guy is cute and, wait, is she imagining it, or is he staring a little too deeply into her eyes? And how does he know her name? Even harder to explain is the funny feeling of déjà vu she gets every time she looks at him. It’s not at all like Gemma to kiss a man and forget him completely, so then how can she explain the dreamlike memory of his lips on hers?

The truth is this is no ordinary Thursday. Not for them. In fact, they’ve lived this day over and over for months. And while Gemma has been totally oblivious to the time loop, Jack has been agonizingly aware of every single iteration. Luckily, Jack has a theory to bring his own personal Groundhog Day to an end. And it’s simple. Before the day is over, he just has to get Gemma to fall in love with him.

After Holly James’s debut, I was primed to love this book. Her characters, her writing style, and that slight whimsical touch that gets added to her romance? All right up my alley. So of course I couldn’t wait to read this one. And it wound up kind of being like a cross between Groundhog Day and 50 First Dates.

I’ve read a few time loop novels at this point, enough to know that this one differs in a couple of important ways. First of all, time loop stories are usually told from the POV of a character who is aware that they are in the time loop, but in this case, Gemma is the one who has to be convinced that she’s even in a time loop at all. Secondly, each time loop novel that I’ve read provides multiple iterations of the same day. But in this book, the entire story is told over the course of a single day. 

Those differences don’t make this any less enjoyable of a novel. In fact, I really liked the unusual structure of the story. Instead of going in unaware and having to figure out that they’re stuck, having to find the sticking point and addressing it, Jack is already aware of all of this and has the difficult job of convincing Gemma. 

Gemma isn’t a tough character to like. She’s easy to identify with, even if a lot of the problems in her life are of her own making, and she just isn’t seeing it. Despite a lot of people trying to gently guide her towards better choices, she isn’t just stuck in a time loop, she’s stuck in her life. Until Jack comes along and turns everything upside down.

Jack is also a really likable character, even if he would seem very strange if I was in Gemma’s shoes. He does come off as pretty stalker-ish in the beginning of the book—Gemma is consistently telling him she doesn’t know him and leaving, and he follows her around insisting that she knows him and they’re meant to be together. Now, that’s definitely red flag behavior in any normal situation. But … since this isn’t a normal situation, Jack isn’t actually a stalker but a guy who has had months to fall in love with her, and Gemma has to condense all that emotional development into one day.

I really found this story, once we got past the stalkery parts, to be a really good one. The development of the relationship between Gemma and Jack was cool to watch develop, as she got to know him, and see how much he really knew about her and was already invested in them as a couple. The plot was predictable in the typical romance fashion, but since I already expect that, it wasn’t an issue. 

This story is so much more than simply a romance. There’s family drama, finding a place in one’s family, learning to finally speak up for oneself, and making a decision to move on from hurt feelings that one has held on to, all of which are addressed throughout the story. I especially loved the friendship bond between Gemma and Lila, and how much the two of them lean on each other for support. Overall, this was a great, clean romance, and it’s earned James a place on my “authors I adore” list.