Song Vibe: You And Me by Lifehouse

I thought Holly James was the pen name for another author, but that is not the case, and I can't believe I haven't read her before! I absolutely adored The Deja Glitch, and immediately put her debut on hold at the library after finishing it. This is the third time loop novel I have read in the past couple of weeks, and I was really satisfied with the uniqueness of it, so it didn't feel like I was reading the same story over again. I loved Gemma and Jack as well as Gemma's bestie Lila, and I could totally see this being made into a movie and being completely wonderful. Picoult's blurb on the book referred to this as a mix of Love Actually and Groundhog Day, and while I haven't watched Love Actually, I could see this being a spot-on comparison.

The audiobook for this was fantastic, and I thought Kristen DiMercurio & Dan Bittner both did an excellent job with their characters. The majority of The Deja Glitch is told from Gemma's viewpoint, so DiMercurio did end up narrating most of it and she nailed it. I thought she was perfect for Gemma, and she had just the right tone and pacing throughout. While this is a romance, there is also some family drama that we get thrown into, and though it didn't bring me to tears it was awfully close. There are some really great messages and characters in the novel and the end just made me so happy. Even though this isn't a holiday read it would be great to read around the holidays, and I loved every minute of it!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

In a new take off Groundhog Day the movie, The Deja Glitch is a cute premise of what happens if to break the loop, you have to fall in love in a single day.

Gemma Peters is a radio producer with a world famous dad. She is making the way in the entertainment industry on her terms and no one else's. She has her BFF Lila and her pup Rex - what more does she need? One morning she walks into Jack, who is also distracted and Gemma ends up wearing the coffees she is taking back to the office. They talk and Gemma feels like she has met him before, but did she? He knows who she is, but why can she not remember.

As they talk, Jack informs her that they have met before, over 140 times, but Gemma does not remember. Jack has a thought on how to end this loop - Gemma needs to fall in love with him.

sadly this one just didn't work for me. It didn't feel very well thought out, and the characters were lack luster. I think that the premise could've been handled so differently. I just wanted more depth and a better plot.

I honestly did not remember anything about the premise of this book when I first started it and so was not anticipating the whole Groundhog's day, day repetition scenario that became evident pretty quickly on. But I did very much appreciate that this had a somewhat different approach what with the bulk of the story all taking place on a single instance of the weird time glitch, with one character describing the different days instead of literally reading all of the different iterations.

Though the start was a little slow I really liked how the story picked up and that it focused on the awareness of the characters as the day went on, how it made the instant love seem less icky as first Jack and then Gemma start to remember all of the many days they have spent together.

Overall I very much enjoyed this story and thought it was a fun little twist on the classic time loop style book.

This book was exactly what I was hoping for. The plot is in short our main male character has loved this day 146 times, and he is desperate to move to the next day. The female main character has not lived this day before, but runs into a bunch of roadblocks. The goal by the end of the day that true love unlocks the glitch.

What I loved about this book is that we didn't ever truly see the 140 something other days. It's not repetitive, it's just one day. The whole book is one day, and how everything can truly change to what you need. It wasn't spicy, and was unique. It talked through love, family issues, and sometimes how we need a change and don't recogize it.

I feel like I just scratched the surface in the review, but it is one of those books I'll think of for a while. This is one I can tell I will think of, and there is a strong possibility to reread so I can pick up on nuisances that I missed.

While I didn't enjoy this as much as James' first novel, it was still a solid read. Wasn't sure how she was going to tackle the time loop in a way that was different from what we've seen a million times before but she definitely did so. I appreciated that the person stuck wasn't the character whose POV we were following. It was also cool to pick up with this story so long into them repeating the day. The added layer of the father-child relationship was a surprise but added substance to the story.

Overall an enjoyable read. I'll definitely continue to seek out Holly James' work.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Groundhog Day meets Gemma and Jack!! This is a super cute and fun romance. Read it! You won’t be disappointed.

Thank you netgalley.

While it seems like this would just be another Ground Hog's Day (and nothing's wrong with that), I liked how this zeroed in on a single day in the time loop, as the past several months of days are revealed. Gemma uncharacteristically kisses a man at her best friend's birthday party. When she wakes up the next day, it's the same day, but she doesn't realize that until she bumps into a stranger at the coffee shop and feels an odd sense of deja vu. Jack has been working hard for several months for this moment of deja vu and proceeds to spend the day convincing Gemma that she is the key to his being able to move on to another day. Gemma's best friend Lila is a hoot, a great ride or die. I also liked the sense of family connections that rounded out the story.

The Deja Glitch was a fresh take on the time loop story we all know and love. Gemma is crashed into on her morning coffee run by a man that seems oddly familiar. After feeling a sense of deja vu all morning, Gemma entertains Jack's story that he's been stuck in a time loop and she's the key to getting him out of it.

I liked that this story was from the point of view of the person who wasn't necessarily the one stuck but the one who had to help that person. It feels like you usually get the opposite perspective in this type of story. I liked the nod to LA and the music industry and could have had even more of that part of the story including reconciling with her dad which was a big piece of her story that I felt got glossed over a little.

Overall if you enjoy a time loop story with romance, a meddling best friend and a grand gesture or two you'll like this one too.

Gemma and Jack are literally stuck in Ground Hog Day, the movie but in real life. When Gemma meets Jack, her neighbor, she feels like she had met him before but cannot quite grasp where. She spills coffee on him and that sets off a memory overfill and it is like she is on overload. Jack is trying to trigger memories for her. He has been wooing her for the past year trying to get past this same day and knows that if he can get her to fall in love with him the world will get back on it's axis. This is a quirky book and intriguing.

I love a time loop story and I liked that this one was the same day and all the looping happened off the page. If you can suspend disbelief and enjoy the romance then this might be the book for you! Loved the side plot of Gemma’s family too.

First of all, this cover is everythiiiiiiiiing! Sold me just on that.

I tend to enjoy Groundhog day type plots and when you add some romance to this?? I'm in. I really liked Jack and Gemma and they had good chemistry. The banter was also a bonus. I thought there may have been too much fluff and slightly too repetitive, but nonetheless I still enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

You got drama, ex-drama and that Deja feeling! Super cute romance!!! This is a quick read that will keep you entertained!

📖My Thoughts📖

We all know those sappy lovey smooshy gooshy warm-hearted books that could never in a million years be realistic, but we can’t help but love oh so very much. For me, this was that book! I absolutely adored this book and then some! Don’t get me wrong, I love smut just as much as the next girl as well as the intense heart wrenching romance, but sometimes I just desire a good whole hearted “fairytalish” kind of book. I really enjoyed the storyline and the characters. This was a quick, fun, easy to read book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. If you are looking for a cute and fun contemporary romance book, I would suggest giving this one a whirl.
Thank you Netgalley, Holly James and Penguin Group Dutton for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I liked this book! It was very cleverly written and I love a good retelling of groundhogs day! It was a cute slow burn romance and I enjoyed the characters!

A cute romcom that didn't make me want to scream every five seconds... which seems to be an accomplishment nowadays.

One thing I wish we got was seeing at least one more day of Gemma and Jack having to interact - while we got to see the night of Lila's party that ended with a kiss transition into the next "same" day, I wish we had gotten just a bit more (aka show them knowing each other the whole day and then Gemma not remembering the next day) I feel like that would have added another layer that would have made the consequences feel more real. As it was, until they made sure to specify Gemma remembered the other 147 days at the end, I was convinced we were going to find out this was just a huge hoax.

Jack is a sweetheart, and I'm someone who likes the golden retriever type character... but he was almost too much for me to bear. Gemma had far more flaws and personality - Jack's personality was that he's in a time loop and loves Gemma. That's about it.

While I can suspend my disbelief for some aspects of the story (aka a time loop), a lot of the dialogue and interactions felt so fake that I found myself rolling my eyes (the airport, the live streams going viral, etc.). However, overall it was a cute read, so if you're looking for a quick palette cleanser, this is a decent choice.

Thank you to Dutton Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!
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This novel centers around a very Groundhog Day premise, with the main characters stuck in a time loop of the same day happening over and over again. But the major difference is that the reader isn’t staying with Jack who realizes that the day is constantly repeating. Instead, we are with Gemma who at best experiences a bit of deja vu. I really enjoyed the new take on this trope.
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That said, given that Jack had all of the time to fall in love with Gemma off the page, I had a very hard time finding their chemistry. Gemma was confused and disbelieving for much of the book, and once she did decide she believed what was happening, it felt like insta-love. I understand why we couldn’t spend more time with Jack, but there were so many things that he mentioned happening in previous versions of their days that I like I had been able to be shown instead of told.

I thought this book started off promising and went downhill from there. I think it was so much longer than it needed to be and I thought the author was wrapping up about three times throughout the second half of the book. The romance was not compelling to me in any way and I think the time loop was introduced way too soon. I almost DNFd this book so many times because it was such a slog to get through.

This book was very cute. The main characters were likable and I always love a Groundhog Day premise. My major issue is they didn’t repeat the day enough, if you are going to Groundhog Day, I want more days, not just being told there are more days. This is not spicy at all, just kissing. Overall I very much enjoyed it.

The first third of THE DEJA GLITCH had me totally invested. Then it fell apart.

The real problem with this book was it focused entirely on the time-loop portion of the story, and we got to know almost nothing about the main characters and they had almost no meaningful interactions with each other.

There was no romance beyond Jack constantly reiterating that he was meant to be with Gemma. But WHY? We never know. Jack never says one thing that he likes about her or why he feels like she's the only one for him or what interactions they have during the time loop that made him fall in love with her. NOTHING.

In fact, I felt like I knew both of these characters very little. And what I did know about Gemma was hard to like.

By the second half I was skimming over this story, hoping for some sort of romantic connection between Jack and Gemma, and it never came.

THE DEJA GLITCH is a book about a time-loop, not a book about falling in love with your soulmate.