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. (Pub Date: Aug 01 2023)
Things get weird for Gemma after she kisses a guy at her friend's birthday. When she wakes up the next day, people seem to be acting too familiar, as if she could predict even what they'll say. Then she meets Jack, who ends up telling her it's not a case of déjà vu, but that the day has been repeating itself for months now, and that their kiss the previous night may have made her finally notice it, even though her memories are very vague about it all. To make it even more overwhelming, he tells her them falling in love might be the key to get out of that loop.
I like Holly James's style for building a plot. It kept me interested to the end, and she had the funniest plot twists, even for a trope that's been used ad infinitum, the twists surprised me. It was also interesting that she picked the point of view not of the person who consciously got stuck in the endless day, but of the romantic interest, before she even knows who the other one is. Surprisingly, the blooming love seemed convincing on Gemma's part. It's probably because that day seemed endless with so much happening, but it worked, it's within hours that she falls for the weird guy who seems more like a stalker, but turns out to be a victim of a time loop, but it convinced me it's not instalove.
And yet, I wasn't a fan of the romance. Yes, I did buy the development even though it literally happens in the span of one day (in Gemma's perspective, but if Jack says she's the reason his days are repeating then it was also like that for him, he just didn't realize it). However, I didn't feel the thrill of a romance. It's like the book left out all the magic you want from a romance, all the falling in love. This is fine for other genres, but end up missing the very reason we got the book. And it didn't help that as much as we knew Jack was in a loop for months and so he's gotten desperate, he was very stalker-ish. I'm not so convinced his love for Gemma is real and not just something he got into his head. It's probably what we miss for getting the other person's POV, but I would have been even more freaked out with him than Gemma was. And then, probably upset there were events he could have stopped from happening but just sat and watched. Is he some god or parent to teach her a lesson? So yeah, Jack isn't the ideal partner and we missed the swoonworthy moments that would usually blind us from characters' flaws "because it's all worth it."
This is an entertaining story, from a fresh perspective of a beloved trope, but it's lacking in the romance department, and it doesn't make up for it in the rest, although it's not like I was expecting something genius to explain or stop the time loop, so it doesn't deduct points, but it doesn't compensate the romance ones either.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment