Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all are new releases by authors whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past.
The Echoes by Evie Wyld
Summary: Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him.
I’m thinking: Maybe.
Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler
Summary: Moddie abruptly ends her long-term relationship and moves back to her Midwestern hometown, throwing herself at the mercy of her old friends as they all suddenly approach middle age. When her friend Pam invites a mysterious artist to take up a residency at the local university, Moddie has no choice but to confront the demons of her past and grapple with the reality of what her life has become.
I’m thinking: Yes.
Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey and Leslie Jamison
Summary: Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits at her palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman.
I’m thinking: No.
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Oh, the Peggy Guggenheim one sounds interesting! But it would need to be expertly written, it could so easily come across as tacky/twee
Agree. I also feel like there’s been a few of these types of historical fiction books about significant women and I sometimes wonder if I’m better off reading a straight biography instead (‘invented’ dialogue irritates me).
I quite fancy Peggy but your reply to Kim makes sense.
I like the premisse of The Echoes. It reminds me of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, might have similar vibes, but you probably should be prepared to cry 😅
Don’t bother with Echoes..unpleasant.A real let-down after Bass Rock.Like the sound of Banal Nightmare.
I was disappointed with The Echoes in comparison to The Bass Rock. I have Butler’s first two novels on my shelf and I don’t know why I haven’t read one yet!