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 three came via readers on Insta talking about their 2025 favourites.
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Summary: In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift: She is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they’ve lost. Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm’s way—until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened.
I’m thinking: Maybe.
The Eights by Joanna Miller
Summary: Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto, collectively known as The Eights, come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, and each holding tight to their secrets.
I’m thinking: Maybe.
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
Summary: After the sudden death of a renowned artist, his four adult children travel to Italy to sort out his affairs with his much-younger wife.
I’m thinking: Yes.
I loved Buckeye if that’s any help.
I really enjoyed the Joyce (one of my books of 2025) and Miller. I found Buckeye plodding and just ended up skimming it.
Gosh, I thought The Eights was tedious! Having loved other depictions of Oxbridge at that time, especially Gaudy Night, I was primed to enjoy this too.
However, it felt very 21st century (despite the list of rules of the day) except, oddly, in its portrayal of the token lesbian in the story which was straight out of Benny Hill, the woman in question being big, mannish, clumsy and a great mechanic.
Otherwise it just seemed very derivative and I was happy to return it to the library, relieved that I hadn’t bought it.
Totally YES, always YES to any Rachel Joyce.
Is Sample Saturday something you just do or host as a join in post? I love the concept! Just wanted to ask 🙂
I just do it but feel free to do the same! I started it years ago because all the Kindle samples were piling up. At the end of the year, I look at all of the samples I’ve said ‘yes’ to and then buy a bunch.
The Eights was good.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Buckeye.