Spotlight & Giveaway: MAYBE NEXT TIME by Cesca Major

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Cesca Major to HJ!

Hi Cesca and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, MAYBE NEXT TIME!

 
Thanks so much for having me and hello fellow book lovers!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Maybe Next Time is a Groundhog Day love story about Emma, a stressed working mother and London literary agent, who loses her lovely husband Dan at the end of an ordinary Monday only to wake the next day and discover he’s there again… and again…

Why is this happening? And how can she stop Dan from meeting this terrible fate? Can she save her love story?
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Maybe when any of us dies we will always say it isn’t time, that we need another day, another hour, another minute.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• It is my 13th book but my first to be published in the USA!
• I can’t read the last letter (you’ll see) without crying myself. Despite reading it more than 100 times.
• It is a book born out of my own experience of being a stressed working woman trying to juggle all the things AND be a decent partner – in fact the relationship (charted through the book through love letters from Dan) actually mirrors my own relationship with my husband who I met in the same year!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

The book actually opens with their meet-cute on a crowded tube when my lovely hero, hapless Dan, is dressed as an “Extra from the Sound of Music” and spots a devastatingly wonderful woman and proceeds to utterly humiliate himself with a certain receipt……. you need to read it to see what I mean. Even years later the way tbey met makes him blush.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

That first letter is one of my faves for laughs – and actually many of the love letters make me smile because their relationship feels so real to me. His proposal story always makes me giggle but the laughter makes the other part of the book harder for me to read. Chapters 14 and 15 always make me re-apply my mascara and then the last letter is just too raw for me to read without crying…

Readers should read this book….

If they want a cathartic cry, a few laughs and a kick up the ass to change their life for the better. I really hope this book changes some people’s views on their relationships and the way they live.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I am working on the next Cesca Major book which is another big love story – this time rather than a time loop my characters get stuck in an even madder way – they swap bodies with each other! It’s called IF I WERE YOU and it’s out in 2024 and I cannot wait for everyone to read it too!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 3 Print copies of MAYBE NEXT TIME by Cesca Major. US giveaway.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you had to live the same day over and over again which day would you choose and why?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from MAYBE NEXT TIME:

‘Why are you dressed like a fairy?’ she asked, taking in my large-netted skirt, my gold sequinned jumper, my red DM boots. ‘A really weird one.’ She stepped past me slowly, giving me a sideways glance and joined Miles at the table.
I shrugged, ‘Just felt like it.’
Dan followed me without a word, placing the milk in the centre of the table. As they ate cereal and eyed me curiously I stood staring round at the cupboards.
‘What do you want for breakfast? I want the cinnamon swirl and then I want ice-cream. Who wants to join me?’
Miles paused to look over at me, milk dripping from his spoon.
‘Um… I’m alright on ice-cream. Sit down OK,’ Dan said, steering me to a chair at the table. ‘Let me get you a coffee. Decaf maybe…’

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

One Day meets Groundhog Day, in this heartwarming and emotionally poignant novel about a stressed woman who must relive the same day over and over, keeping her family and work life from imploding as she attempts to spare her husband from an unfortunate fate.

It is an ordinary Monday and harried London literary agent Emma is flying out of the door as usual. Preoccupied with work and her ever growing to-do list, she fails to notice her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. Even the dog seems sad.

She is far too busy, buried deep in her phone; social media alerts pinging; clients messaging with “emergencies”; keeping track of a dozen WhatsApp groups about the kids’ sports, school, playdates, all of it. Her whole day is frantic—what else is new—and as she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out, desolate, dragging their poor dog around the block. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary and she has forgotten, again, she hears the screech of brakes.

Dan is dead.

The next day Emma wakes up… and Dan is alive. And it’s Monday again.

And again.

And again.

Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up: leaving WhatsApp, telling her boss where to get off, writing to Dan, listening to her kids, reaching out to forgotten friends, getting drunk and buying out Prada. But will Emma have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children, love her husband? Will this be enough to change the fate they seem destined for?

A moving “What if” story of what it is to be a woman in the modern world—never feeling we’re getting it quite right—about learning to slow down and appreciate life that is sure to resonate with women’s fiction readers.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Cesca Major is a novelist and screenwriter. She has written fourteen novels under different names and her books have been published in more than 10 countries. She has been nominated for the RNA’s Romantic Comedy Award, HWA Gold Crown and the CWA Gold Dagger Award. She currently has TV shows in development with Monumental Television, Roughcut, Tickled Pink, Sky Studios and the BBC.

Her next book MAYBE NEXT TIME – a Groundhog Day love story about Emma, a stressed working mother who loses her husband at the end of a busy day only to wake to find him alive the next morning, is out in March 2023 in both the UK and the US with HarperCollins. IF I WERE YOU – a big body swap rom com is out in 2024. Film rights have been sold to 42.

Cesca has presented shows for ITV West and Sky Channels in the past. She enjoys hosting or speaking on panels and films vlogs about the writing process. She runs writing retreats twice a year, is a writing mentor for the Black Girl Writers and has taught creative writing for Jericho Writers & the Henley School of Art. Cesca lives in Berkshire with her husband, son and twin girls.

She loves to hear from readers so please feel free to send her a message over at Twitter or Instagram.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |