This is a book lover's book, much like Elizabeth Eagen's A Window Opens (my favourite book of 2015). I didn't like it as much as A Window Opens, but I did enjoy reading it.

This is a relatively inoffensive book with not a lot of swearing or sex and a pretty gentle, very predictable storyline. There are A LOT of characters with not tons of backstory, so it was a little hard to keep them straight and be invested in their lives (and the two old ladies who reminded me of the old men on the balcony in The Muppet Show" kinda just disappeared). I wasn't particularly enamoured with either of the main characters (a bit too much Elizabeth/Mr. Darcy going on there, but not as well done, obviously). But..I do believe in the magical power of a bookstore to bring back to life a dying town (it could happen, people!) and I could absolutely see myself sitting in Sara's book shop for the rest of my life happily reading away, so that forgives a lot of faults I may have with this book.

I wished to read The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald published by Sourcebooks Landmark and translated impressively well by Alice Menzies from Swedish from an age.

I loved the cover and the story sounded very intriguing.

I recently requested a copy at the publisher and I obtained it thanks to NetGalley. I admit that I haven't been deluded at all.

It's a book written with sentiment, "feeling the story" in profundity, and giving to each protagonist a proper and strong character. The various chapters end always with a letter written by one of the two main protagonists: Sara and Amy.

It's a story of old-fashioned correspondents this one between two book lovers with their own messy lives, one living in a town in Sweden and working in a bookstore and another one living in a very tiny corner of Iowa: Broken Wheel.

There is, in this correspondence, real, sincere friendship, the possibility of sharing good thoughts, good reading, and good stories and tales about their respective lives.
Amy will introduce Sara, without maybe wanting it, or thinking that who knows? one day she would have loved that place, her own world and people: the ones of Broken Wheels. Special people with each of them a story behind, their troubles, their weakness.

The picture taken with words of Broken Wheel , its community and the various characters, George, John, Tom, Caroline, Grace (everyone was named Grace, they called her Madeleine but her destiny was this one, to be a bar owner to her and so she is Grace as her ancestors for everyone) outlined with precision and surely the ones you can meet in a little community more dead than alive.
I can tell that because I live in a little rural countryside.

The story starts when Sara, unemployed because the bookstore in Sweden closed decides, why not? to afford for some months, two exactly, in the USA for a visit at her beloved friend Amy with which she exchanges letters, many books and great letters about their life.
Amy answers enthusiastically at this idea and so it's all done.
Sara arrives just when Amy was buried. Dead? Amy is dead?

When? How? What happened exactly? She is not just devastated. She doesn't know where to go, what to do, while she is in Amy's house.
The answer from the people of the town: she must stay at Amy's house. She will stay at Amy's house. No rent at all. It's just a word: hospitality.
The following days as it happens in all little communities people invites her out for a coffee or a beer or for eating something and they offer always lunches, dinners, beverages.
This story keeps Sara tormented. She can pay. They are so nice.
What can she does to these people, Tom John, George, Grace, for thanking them all for being so kind and for let her feel at home?

One day she enters in Amy's house. There weren't books in the other rooms of Amy's house. Maybe she would have found them there.

Yes it was true. All her beloved books stayed close to her since at the moment of her departure.

Maybe the only thing to do is this one: to open thanks to an old store owned by Amy's husband, dead many years ago, a bookstore.

Not any person in Broken Wheel thinks that this one is a winning idea, because no one read.

There are not in any Broken Wheel's houses books.

Books doesn't mean anything to the people of Broken Wheel. Why reading, they think?

They all help Sara to opening the store, someone discomforted for the choice of Sara, thinking that this one is for sure a terrible idea and no one buy any books when Sara opens the bookstore.

She stays per hours closed in her store, reading and reading, lost who knows? in the tormented love stories of Bridget Jones with her Mr Darcy and Daniel Clever, both fascinating men or feeling the atmosphere of the Profound South of the USA, with Idgie, Ruth and yum! such a delicious barbecue, in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, or who knows maybe re-reading The Redbird Christmas, a great lesson of a life that can re-born psychologically and physically thanks to the love of other people.
You know: Fannie Flagg is enchanting.
You could find her devastating while she was reading Jane Eyre a moving book one of the best classic around, written with pathos, feeling, sentiment and with great and beautiful words.

Sara created a special place where she put all the books exchanged and favorite by Amy and called it: Broken Wheel Recommend.

The Oak Tree Bookstore, as Sara called the store started to receive appreciation from the citizens of Hope the closest town, this one with a different life, many readers, different cultural level.

The arrival of the citizens of Hope will create the occasion for bringing to the bookstore as you will see also the other reluctant readers of Broken Wheel for a story of pride, involving also the local pastor of the city.

In the while Sara discovers something else: that since she in the USA she is not just a reader of many interesting books. She has a life.

And people needs her at different levels. She has been in grade to create unthinkable situations 'till recent past. She is an element of eruption and at the same time unity between the community, an element of discovery and novelty for the citizens of Broken Wheel. Someone able to make the difference, to singing another song, to bring new life in their discomforted place where no one knows because live there.

I guess Sara had a life also in Sweden with a job that could become crazy during the Christmas Time when in Nordic countries there is the tradition, in particular in Sweden to present many books for Christmas! During this period of the year everyone are ready for massive visits of customers all interested to present many books to their dear ones. Voracious readers? Yes, Swedish are surely voracious readers.

In general more than a million of books sold in Sweden for the occasion. Swedish are famous for presenting clothes, books during the festivities and they don't renounce at the old-fashioned Christmas greeting cards, so post offices are very visited during this Christmas-Time as well.

Sara finds a family in Broken Wheel, and it makes to her the difference.
Not only: Sara build bridges between the community and people close to them. Now thanks to her bookstore people arrives from closest town and it means tourism. Not only: they start to organize a market.


Her parents appears to be pretty rude with her when she tell them that Amy is dead. Her sister doesn't mind if she is alive or not.
What kind of life she can have in Sweden?
She analyzes her new life. More exciting, with her new friends, in another Continent and these new friends all so happy and joyous to see her around and all absolutely at a certain point involved for not let her return home!

Yes because a person can stay in the USA to work (and so the person is requested) only if there is a peculiarity still missing in an American. Selling books doesn't give to Sara all of it.

But love is just there, waiting for her...Will this one be the answer to all her problems and the book, yes this one in this case closing with a lot of happy endings or Sara will return after all in Sweden?

I can't tell you this final part, I just can tell you that if you want to read a book plenty of warmth, friendship, great sentiments, real values, a gem of the genre and the mirror of a little community, goes for it, because your money are very well spent.

I surely thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this eBook.

Thank you so much for being willing to grant me access to this book. Unfortunately, life obligations have prevented me from doing so. If my schedule clears, I plan on reviewing this in the future and will post the review on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity read and review this title! I didn't enjoy it as much as I"d hoped, and rather than post a negative review, I chose to not feature it on my blog. I look forward to seeing what new releases you have in store!

This is a quirky little story about a woman who comes to America to meet her pen pal, only the pen pal has just died. But instead of heading straight home, our Sara from Sweden stays in this little tiny town in Iowa. The townpeople seem to think it their duty to care for her, and in her effort to give back, she opens a bookshop with all the books her dearly departed friend left behind.

Now, there's lots of small town charm (weirdness), and while some of that rings true, some of it is over the top for effect. As someone who lives in a small town (pop 2,500), I can tell you reality tends more towards boring than cute and quirky. But the residents of Broken Wheel (as every other town, fictional and real) have a story to tell...most of them just don't know it yet.

This was a fun read, had some well-crafted moments (which, considering this was likely not written in English initially...but these moments WORK in English, so kudos to the translation as well as the original crafting of the scenes). It's almost a 4 star book, but since it's not one I'll likely ever go back to, it lost a little bit and sits at a 3.5.

I have enjoyed many books about reading, bookshops and book lovers. So when The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend was compared to The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry -- I had high hopes.
In this novel Sara, a Swedish woman, comes to Broken Wheel, Iowa to visit her pen pal and fellow book lover, Amy. But when she arrives in this rundown small town she finds that her elderly friend recently died and left instructions for Sara to stay in her house as long as she wants. Sara, a devoted bookworm tries to hide herself in the books from Amy's library but soon gets drawn into the town and the lives of its local inhabitants -- a motley crew of misfits. These normally insular Iowans gradually warm up to Sara and make her a part of their town. She opens a bookshop and recommends the perfect reads for her new friends and neighbors. Much of the story is about the effect Sara and her reading recommendations have on the inhabitants of Broken Wheel.

The book is interspersed with the past correspondence between Amy and Sara. But, sadly they reveal little about these characters and their friendship.

The small saving grace in The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is Sara’s love for books -- I had to smile, as Sara knows the difference between the smell of paperback and that of a hardback -- only a true book lover would know (or care) about this fact.

I also nodded in recognition at this description of Sara's school experience:
"Others might have found themselves stuck in a tired, old high school in Haninge, but she had been a geisha in Japan, walked along China's last empress through the claustrophobic, closed off rooms of the Forbidden City, grown up with Anne and the other in Green Gables, gone through her fair share of murder, and loved and lost over and over again."
This is a sweet and predictable story of friendship, small-town America and the love of reading and books. It tries to be life affirming and wise, but instead, wanders into trite and clichéd.
Don't get me wrong, reading this Swedish novel was both enjoyable and pleasant.
I just wished it could have been better.

A cosy romance story about a bookseller who, in ignorance or innocence, travels from Sweden to mid-America to visit a pen pal. The ending must be viewed with no reality but needing to tie the small story lines together. A wonderful and delightful escape novel.

I attempted to read this book several times and struggled with staying engaged. When I picked it up this time, I was determined to finish reading it. Then, the main character started telling other characters all about other stories, including the endings! This was spoiling some real life books for me that I haven't read yet and I decided not to continue. Sorry, but this one was just not for me.

This book is a little slow--I actually put it down and came back to it about six months later. I thought the book was going to have a nice 84 Charing Cross Road vibe, but by the end it turned out to be more of a typical romance complete with secondhand embarrassment and a plot that relies on characters not being honest with each other. So, I was disappointed, but the book has done very well at my library.

This was a very charming book that felt very cozy. I love how many references there were to other books, and as a bibliophile, I felt right at home in this tiny town learning to love literature. I liked learning more about the characters and reading the pen pal correspondences. Still, this is a book that seems very much like wish fulfillment. Everything happened much too easily, and I never felt terribly concerned for the characters. The ending did wrap up a bit too tidily and the romance felt very contrived, but I enjoyed the reading experience overall.

A young woman comes to a small town in Iowa to meet her long time penpal only to find out she has passed away. She opens a bookshop, and starts to make friendships and maybe a love connection. It plays out like a Hallmark channel movie, but I still loved it.

I received this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This book was a pleasant surprise. It was one of those down home, make you smile books. I loved the town gossip, reading a love story and how it all came together. Get this book.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend was an entertaining escape into an interesting community. I enjoyed reading about the characters and their dilemmas.

DNF. I got this book a lot, A LOT, of months ago, started it, dropped it and left it there. I have tried to pick it up several times without success.

The writing was fine but I felt everything a little bit too much. This book just wasn't for me and I'm really sorry because I hate not liking books!! I'm also sorry for taking all this time to decide to drop it for good.

This book was good. I love books so it was a great subject for me. I loved the title sometimes I wished for a little more background. It took me a little while to read because sometimes it was a little slow. All in all I am glad I got to read it it turned out to be a good story.

I found this one very difficult to finish. It was well written and the story was enjoyable but I didn't felt as gripped as I thought I would. I think perhaps the premise of this stranger being able to take over the shop of a dead pen pal to be just a little bit too far fetched to suspend my disbelief.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this publication.