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.