Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

With samplers, I always add loads more books to be my TBR and this was no exception. This was a great introduction to debut authors and I am ready to get stuck in. So many of these books were added to my TBR. The biggest problem however, was the lack of a clear contents page or being able to easily navigate through the book.

I liked the idea of this little sampler of books - the titles that spoke to me the most were What's Left of Me Is Yours by Stephanie Scott and Exciting times by Naoise Dolan but I bought all titles for my library. However, I'd love to see more info about all the titles, as immediately after finishing reading the sample I wanted to know what the book was about.

Some interesting reads here to keep my eye out for, though nothing that really made my heart beat with the passion of true love.

A sampler is a great idea and one I hope other publishers will consider. The only downside is getting pulled into a story you can’t then immediately tear through. Haleh Agar’s Out of Touch and Niamh Campbell’s This Happy stood out the most to me and I’ll be seeking out the novels in their entirety.

Very excited to read some of these fantastic debuts and will be looking out for them in the near future!

I requested this sampler to get a feel for the Orion Literary Debuts within, as I feel that extracts are more valuable than reading other reviews or simple blurbs from Goodreads or Amazon.

All of the extracts seem extremely promising, particularly Looking For Eliza. I have read The Stinging Fly's version of Modern Times and know it is excellent, so would definitely recommend people download this sampler and then buy the book if they like it.

Enjoyable Preview....
Enjoyable preview of what’s to come from publishing house Orion in the literary fiction genre. Both useful and entertaining. Some exciting prospects here and reading the sampler, for me at least, is more useful than the promotional blurb on a book when deciding whether to read. Many thanks, a great idea.

This is such a good idea to get a taste of what Orion have to offer soon! I really enjoyed reading snippets of upcoming books so I know what to keep an eye out for!

Here we have a selection of samples from Orion.

The first is What’s Left of Me Is Yours which is beautifully written and drew me in straight away. I am attracted to the Japanese setting and the writing brings forward some beautiful imagery in my mind. I would love to read the full version of this.

Out of Touch
What is written here is engaging and attention grabbing. The plot sounds intriguing, this is another book I would like to have the opportunity to read in full.

Naoise Dolan’s excerpt greets me with another oriental setting. Unfortunately I found the characters in this selection unlikeable and I’m not convinced I could get lost in this story. It was an easy style of writing to read.

Looking for Eliza is another example of something I would love to try in full. The writing here is very emotive. I felt very drawn in and endeared to dear Ada.

This Happy has me wanting more! What is here has totally hooked me, the writing is almost poetic.

Modern Times has an opening line of “There once was a woman who loved her husbands cock so much that she began taking it to work in her lunchbox.” This left me wondering how?! The writing style is not for me, I found I had to concentrate far too hard on what was being said in order to understand but I think my partner would love it, it’s really his type of thing. It comes across as a very bizarre, out of the box way of writing which has its own merits to the right reader.

Some very interesting looking reads here - 'Out of Touch' by Haleh Agar looks brilliant and I want to read more. 'Looking for Eliza' by Leaf Arbuthnot also looks very good but probably too sad for me.

I found reading these samplers fascinating, they drew me in, but the one that stood head and shoulders above the others for me was the beautiful poetic prose of What’s Left of Me by Stephanie Scott.... I really wanted to read it.....that alone made this sampler worth its weight in gold! Thank you!!