I'm not sure what made me what to read this sampler. Was it the idea of time travel? The spilt timelines between 1967, 2017 and 2018? The idea of strong, smart women? I have no idea. But there was something about this that caught my attention and I wanted to read this sampler - something I don't do often on NetGalley

This takes place over three times. In 1967, four female scientists invent a time-travel machine. But when one suffers a breakdown, it puts the whole operation at risk.

In 2017, Ruby knows that her grandmother was one of the four scientists who discovered time-travel but doesn't talk about it. But Ruby and her Granny Bee discover a note from the future, telling of an elderly woman's death.

And in 2018, Odette discovers the body of a unknown woman, she goes into shock, but when answers don't turn up, she begins to get frustrated and wonders if someone - no, everyone - is trying to cover this murder up...
I'm going to admit this now: this is a long sampler, but I decided to read only the first three chapters so I got a feel on the writing and the story. I didn't want to waste my time reading a sampler that I didn't like or feel I was going to enjoy, nor did I want to waste the time of the kind publisher who approved me reading this sampler.

Though there was a moment near the start of the first chapter I did have to get my head screwed on and go "Oh, I get this!", there's something about this that made me go "Ok, I think I would have fun reading this. It's not heavy scifi, but it's more human driven with a twist of mystery. Ok, I can handle this."

It feels like a story that might appeal to Station 19 or The Gracekeepers (neither I have read, sadly), where stories have a fantastical or scifi element, but is more human in tone. I do worry this might be too heavy with science, but front he vibe I got, this is a story about women and their relationships - to each other, to their daughters and granddaughters, to themselves - with scifi behind it. I am intrigued to see what happens when the novel comes out...

Loved it (so far) hard to review a book properly from a sample but what I read was a gripping, fast paced narrative with believable characters.

Four women working together invent a method for time travel.. It all seems fantastically successful until one of them suffers some kind of breakdown which seems to be due to the travelling.. This sample has definitely made me interested in reading the rest of the book, I want to know what happens to the characters.

Please, please give me the whole book, what are you doing to me.

In 1967 four young women scientists - Barbara, Grace, Lucille and Margaret - are pioneering time travel, with some help from a rabbit called Patrick Troughton. What’s not to love about that? And that’s just the first few pages. It’s all going swimmingly until the press turn up and one of the women experiences a breakdown on camera.

Fifty years later, Barbara (Bee), who has lived for years with bipolar disorder, receives a cryptic message from the future and expresses a wish to time travel one more time; her psychologist granddaughter Ruby, concerned about what it means, seeks some answers. And a few months later a young woman, Odette, discovers an unidentified body in an inexplicably locked room...

Having read this sampler I’m now really excited about the full book. Thinking about time travel never fails to tie my brain up in knots, but I love it in spite of that (or maybe because of it). The plot is hugely thought provoking and the characters (an almost entirely female cast of characters, which is refreshingly unusual) are very engaging. Not to mention frequently alarming.

It’s a sampler, but it’s a substantial one with plenty to get your teeth into. The story moves between the past and an alternate present in which time travel is a reality, with the attendant effects on people and society.

There are many delightful touches reflecting the changes wrought by the technology (for instance, a time travel glossary purchased by Bee includes a word for “feeling angry with someone for things they won’t do wrong for years”). Fantastic.

It’s intriguing speculative fiction about time travel and its effects on the human psyche; I can’t wait to find out what happens next.