Lexi: If you’re in the mood for a book that’ll give you all the feels about friendship, romance, parenthood, and sisterhood, then you’ll want to see what our guest author has to say: welcome to the blog, Freya Sampson!!
Freya: Hi Lexi, thanks for inviting me.
Lexi: Your newest release is THE LOST TICKET in which we ride along with Libby as she navigates her new home, London, from her bus seat. You currently live in London, do you frequent the bus or where did this book’s idea come from?
Freya: When I first moved to London I lived at the southern end of the 88 bus route, and now I live at the north end, so it’s a bus I’ve been riding for two decades! But I also chose it because it’s a route that goes through some of my favorite spots in the city: Hampstead Heath, Camden Town, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square, the River Thames... If you ever visit London, a ride on the 88 is a great way to see the tourist sights!
Lexi: We love love around here, and it seems like your main character, Libby, does as well! She meets Frank, an elderly gentleman, on her route and learns that he had a missed connection with a woman he considers the one that got away. Which makes this a second-chance romance of a sort. What is your favorite thing about second-chance romances?
Freya: I really love a ‘sliding doors’ moment in a book, when a character gets a sense of what might have happened if they’d made a different decision years ago. I think many of us find ourselves wondering ‘what if’ sometimes, and I love romance novels that explore that.
Lexi: We’re also excited to see what happens with Libby and her own love interest, but there’s so much more than romance on bus 88! THE LOST TICKET brings us friendships we are more than happy to ship! What friend duo was your favorite to write?
Freya: Libby and Frank were probably my favorite to write, just because I love writing about friendships that stretch across the generations. But I also loved writing the friendship between Libby and her 4-year-old nephew – as anyone with small children will know, no-one gives you the brutal truth quite like a preschooler!
Lexi: As with any bus route, your novel has a varied cast of characters and quirks. It makes us long for the days when people interacted when sitting next to strangers—making them strangers no more! So we'll raise a glass to human connection! How about you, what message from THE LOST TICKET would you most like to cheers?
Freya: I really wanted to write a novel that celebrated the kindness of strangers, and how one small gesture could have a ripple effect that touched the lives of many different people. So I’d like to raise a glass to random acts of kindness!
Lexi: With so many wonderful aspects in THE LOST TICKET we know our readers will fall in love with Libby and her quest to help Frank. Cheers to your release and thank you so much for stopping by the blog, Freya!
Freya: Thanks so much, Lexi, and cheers to you all from London!
About the Book
by Freya Sampson
Paperback, 336 pages
Published August 30th 2022 by Berkley
ISBN0593201418
Strangers aboard a London bus unite to help an elderly man find his missed love connection in the heartwarming new novel from the author of The Last Chance Library.
When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck.
Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.
More than anything, Libby wants Frank to see his lost love one more time. But their quest also shows Libby just how important it is to embrace her own chances for happiness—before it’s too late—in a beautifully uplifting novel about how a shared common experience among strangers can transform lives in the most marvelous ways.
About the Author
Freya Sampson is the author of two novels, The Last Chance Library and The Lost Ticket/The Girl on the 88 Bus. She worked in TV as an executive producer and her credits include two documentary series for the BBC about the British Royal Family, and a number of factual and entertainment series.
She studied History at Cambridge University and in 2018 was shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize.
She lives in London with her husband, two young children and an antisocial cat. Visit https://freya-sampson.com/
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