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.

Shape of an Apostrophe by Uttama Kirit Patel

Why I have it: Read a review (somewhere).

Summary: Lina never wanted children, but now there are two lines on the test. Pregnant and newly orphaned, she is living with her in-laws in their opulent Dubai villa, while her husband fails to make concrete plans to find their own place. Tensions in their marriage grow.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Thirst Trap by Grainne O’Hare

Why I have it: suggested because I loved Slags.

Summary: Harley, Róise, and Maggie have been friends for years. After meeting in primary school, the women are still together, spending their nights on the sticky dance floors of Belfast’s grungiest pubs. Each woman is navigating her own tangle of entry-level jobs, messy romantic entanglements, and late nights. But as they approach thirty, the fault lines in their group become harder to ignore.

I’m thinking: Yes.

Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire

Why I have it: Sucked in by the cover and title.

Summary: Grace lives alone on the coast of Northern Ireland. She fills her days with swimming, quilting, and baiting cashed-up tourists. One of the tourists is Evan, taking an enforced trip to grieve the death of his daughter. He’s been there a week when he gets trapped by lockdown. When Grace saves his life in a kayaking accident and Evan’s troubled son arrives to stay, all three are drawn together in a way that forces a reckoning with their personal traumas.

I’m thinking: No.