Spotlight & Giveaway: The Déjà Glitch by Holly James

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Holly James to HJ!

Hi Holly and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Déjà Glitch!

 
Hello! Thank you for stopping by! Keep reading for some behind the scenes looks at my new romcom The Déjà Glitch.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Two L.A. strangers, Gemma, a radio producer and Jack, a TV screenwriter, are stuck in a 24-hour time loop where they have to fall in love to break out of it. The catch is, Jack can remember the whole loop, and Gemma feels like every day is the first day they’ve met. But it’s not the time loop you expect! We see the story from Gemma’s perspective as she lives the day for the “first” time, and Jack does everything to get her to remember the loop and to fall in love with him.
 

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

This is from a scene where Jack and Gemma are having lunch together and is my favorite exchange in the whole book: “It’s not fair,” she said. “What’s not?” Jack asked. “For you to look at me like that. Like you’ve had a hundred-and-whatever days when I’ve only had one.” He stayed silent long enough to make her look up. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I looked at you like this the first time I saw you too.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Dr. Woods, the physicist Jack takes Gemma to visit at Caltech, is named after Elle Woods because when I was drafting in the summer of 2021 and needed to name that character, it happened to be the 20th anniversary of Legally Blonde and I saw a post that gave me the idea to use the name. Also, Gemma’s favorite song is intentionally never named in the book because I want readers to imagine whatever song they want, but I used Our Last Night’s alt-rock cover of Blank Space by Taylor Swift for inspiration.

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

Because this story involves a lightly magical intervention designed to bring Jack and Gemma together, they are drawn to each other by an inexplicable pull neither of them initially understand. They soon realize (Jack much sooner than Gemma!) that the force drawing them together is the fact that they are meant to be with each other and that each is the missing piece the other needs to move forward in their lives.

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

I love Lila. She is Gemma’s ride-or-die best friend and my favorite side character I’ve ever written. As many best friend side characters are, she’s comedic relief and a wise advisor. One of my favorite scenes is the “first” time she meets Jack and is so quick to believe they are stuck in a time loop despite Gemma’s resistance. They have just left the psychic that Lila dragged Gemma to when they run into Jack on the sidewalk outside.

She eyed Jack up and down and flicked a brow. “Is this the guy?”
How Lila knew that, Gemma didn’t know. Perhaps she too possessed some of Clara’s Sight, which Gemma was starting to wonder if she did actually believe in.
“Lila,” Jack said with the pleasant warmth of a friend. “Happy Birthday.”
Lila took a dramatic step back with a hand over her chest and suspiciously eyed him. Then her face broke out in a smile. “I see. I’m part of this too. Nice to meet you.” She stuck out her arm to shake his hand, and Gemma smacked it away.
“Don’t encourage him!”
“Ouch!” Lila cradled her hand, looking affronted, and then she tsked at Gemma and reached out again. “Potentially delusional aside, Gem, you could do a lot worse. Nice to meet you, though I hear we’ve met before.” She said it all right to Jack’s face, and he took it in stride.

Readers should read this book….

If they like swoony romances, grand gestures, lovable side characters, Hollywood settings, and a little bit of magic.

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

My next romcom, NAME YOUR PRICE will be out with Dutton next summer! It follows a pair of broke exes in L.A.: Olivia, an entertainment writer, and Chuck, a struggling actor whose dramatic public breakup gets caught on camera, goes viral, and lands them on a reality TV gameshow where they try to win $1 million by living locked in the same house for a month. They are just desperate enough to say yes, and not quite over each other enough to keep things interesting.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A print coy of The Déjà Glitch by Holly James

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What would you do if you were stuck in a time loop? Also, who’s the one person who could convince you that you were in a time loop and why?

 
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Excerpt from The Déjà Glitch:

This is from the scene where Gemma and Jack crash into each other in the coffee shop. To Gemma, it feels like the first time it has happened, but Jack has lived the moment over and over.

The man looked like he wanted to kiss Gemma right there in the crowded coffee shop. Strangely, she had a curious feeling that they had in fact kissed before.
But that was impossible.
Gemma didn’t go around kissing men and then forgetting about it. Certainly not ones with soft pouty lips and big blue eyes. She would definitely remember doing that.
And did she remember it?
Flashes of familiarity nipped at her brain like parrotfish on coral. She knew this guy but didn’t remember him at the same time. And he obviously knew her—the look on his face almost matched the blind relief of homecoming that she expected to see on Patrick’s face in a matter of hours.
And that left her in a very odd position.
Despite their already humiliating coffee collision, she didn’t want to embarrass him by telling him he had the wrong girl. Nor did she want to embarrass herself by admitting she did not know who he was despite whatever previous meeting had him gazing at her like the promised land.
Gemma forced herself to feel the floor beneath her feet and shifted to reclaim her balance. She removed her arm from the man’s hand and politely laughed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to remember—”
He all but lunged at her. “Yes! Yes you can, Gemma. I see it in your eyes.”
At the sound of her name, she stepped back. Their encounter had crossed from charming-meet-cute-misunderstanding to downright concerning in a snap.
“How do you know my name?”
“Because I know you. And you know me! I’m Jack.” He pressed his hand to his chest and reached for her with his other. His words came out in a rush. “We met last night at your friend’s birthday party. Well, technically it’s tonight, and technically it hasn’t happened for you yet, but we know each other, I swear.”
Gemma pulled from his grip and stepped farther away. She knew L.A. attracted some weirdos, but this guy was pushing it.
A desperate, startled look shot across his face. “Okay, I know that sounded absurd, but let me explain.” He stopped reaching for her and calmly held up his hands like she was a frightened animal about to bolt. “I’m sorry if I startled you, but weird things have been happening to you today, right? You’ve been remembering things? Feeling like they’ve happened before?”
The fact that he knew that made her want to run away at the same time it made her want to listen.
He recognized the willingness on her face; he had her ear at least, if only hesitantly. He slowly nodded. “It’s because it has happened before.” He waved his hands between them like he was casting a spell over a cauldron. “This. Us.”
Gemma glanced around the room. The spectacle they had provided with the coffee fountain was already old news. But even with everyone having gone back to business and appearing to ignore them, she searched for knowing eyes, because she had obviously stumbled into some kind of hidden-camera prank, and someone was watching. It was the only explanation for this handsome stranger having plowed into her, called her by name, and then insisted that they know each other. The fact that he knew about her otherwise strange morning was admittedly more difficult to explain. But she would not succumb and make a fool of herself. Even if she wanted to throw herself at him, grip his lovely forearms—had she seen that vintage wristwatch before?—and confess that he was completely right, she would not turn herself into a viral video for the sake of a joke.
She gathered herself and searched for a reason to end their confrontation. “Sorry. I have to call my brother,” she said when she realized she was holding her phone. How she had not dropped it in the collision, she wasn’t sure. And how it avoided a sticky, scalding latte bath was nothing short of a miracle.
She turned to step away, and he lunged at her again.
“No, you don’t, Gemma. Your brother doesn’t make it.”
She wheeled on him in horror. “What?!”
Visions of a fiery plane crash must have been written all over her face because he visibly backpedaled.
“Oh god, no! Not like that! Sorry. I mean he takes another flight and gets stuck in Atlanta, or Dallas, or Salt Lake City. One time in San Francisco and tries to rent a car to drive the rest of the way. I meant he never makes it here, to L.A., anytime today. At least he never has before.”
The synapses in her brain had instantly fired disaster as soon as he said Patrick didn’t make it. She was so quick to worry about her brother’s safety that she completely forgot to wonder how this stranger could have impossibly full knowledge of his travel plans.
She reeled for the third time in what felt like as many minutes.
“How do you know my brother is trying to fly here?”
Jack took a big breath as if in effort to calm them both. He held her gaze with his bright, pleading eyes. “Because I told you: this has happened before.”
She watched him with growing uncertainty at the same time she felt he was sure he knew what he was talking about. He spoke with enough conviction to mean either he was telling the truth, or he was completely delusional. Despite herself, Gemma hoped for the former, even though it might make her delusional as well, because she didn’t want to think that this handsome stranger was trapped in some unfortunate prison of his own mind’s making.
“Please,” he said again. “Let’s go sit down and I can explain.” He gestured to an empty table in the window.
Gemma felt like a stranger was offering her a ride off the street. Don’t get in the car had been beaten into her head like every young woman’s. This wasn’t a car, but indulging him felt as precarious as buckling up with a potential madman behind the wheel.
He sensed her reluctance and sighed. He checked his watch and gave her a weary look. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do anything like this so early on, but your brother is going to call you in about thirty seconds and tell you he missed that 11:45 flight, but he’s trying for another.”
Gemma gaped at him, her mind a scramble of impossibility. Silence stretched between them while her heart pounded in her ears. She was tempted to walk out the door and forget everything about their strange encounter, but the certainty in his voice glued her to the floor.
Thirty seconds expanded into an eternity. She did and didn’t want Patrick to call. All at once, it could explain everything and nothing.
Jack watched her, holding his breath.
How could he have any idea? she wondered as her phone buzzed to life in her hand.
Patrick Peters.
She stared at it in shock before numbly lifting it. “Hello?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Hey, Gem.” He was out of breath. “I missed that 11:45, but I’m trying for another.”
Her first thought was that her brother, her beloved little brother who did appreciate a good joke, was in on the elaborate hoax. Maybe he was already in L.A., sitting in the same coffee shop and watching her fall victim to whatever scheme had been hatched at her expense all for a laugh.
But she could not think of why anyone would want to play a trick on her.
All she knew was that the man in front of her had predicted exactly what was happening, right down to the very words Patrick said.
“Gem? You there?”
Her mouth hung open like a flytrap. “Yeah,” she said with a stunned shake of her head. “I’m here.”
“Good. Thought I lost you. Well, the good news is I’m officially on standby now. There’s another plane in an hour, and if one of these unfortunate souls doesn’t show up on time, I’ll have a seat.” The signature pep of caffeine inflected his speech. Gemma was certain he’d downed a coffee since their last call.
She was still floundering.
“Unless there’s no hurry and I can kick it in New York for a few days . . .” Patrick said in her silence, the hope in his voice unmistakable.
“No no, please come home,” she pleaded, and she felt like she had said the words before.
He sighed. “All right. Thoughts and prayers for standby. I’ll let you know if I have any luck.”
Jack was staring at Gemma with a knowing, if not slightly patronizing look on his face.
“Wait, Patrick—” she blurted before he vanished into the airport chaos. “Where was that 11:45 headed?”
“L.A., duh,” he said with the air of his younger self.
Gemma had a sudden vision of a gangly teenager wearing an obscure band’s tee shirt and dirty Chucks. There was a high probability Patrick was wearing the same thing, his signature uniform, at that very moment.
She couldn’t help the smug smile that spread across her lips. She aimed it at Jack and hoped he could hear her brother all but shouting over the background noise on his end and proving him wrong. “Right. Of course it was.”
“Layover in Dallas, though,” Patrick said. “Gotta go!”
Jack tilted his head with his own smug smile and motioned to the empty table in the window. “Shall we?”
Gemma lowered her phone and closed her mouth, which had fallen open again. She stepped over the puddle the barista had smeared into gritty brown sludge in an attempt to clean it up and swiped a few napkins from the cart by the door. Less reluctant than she had been thirty seconds before, she followed Jack to the table.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

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.
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Meet the Author:

Holly James holds a PhD in psychology and has worked in both academia and the tech industry. She loves telling stories with big hearts and a touch of magic. She currently lives in Southern California with her husband and dog.
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