The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

Every book-lover likes to read novels about other book lovers, right? Especially books with lots of quirky characters who don't quite fit in with the crowd. The success of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and others like them probably helped inspire Sourcebook editor Shana Drehs to pick up this translation of a Swedish novel about the transformative power of books. Our heroine is Sara, a young Swedish woman who comes to visit Amy, her American pen pal in the small town of Broken Wheel, Iowa, only to learn that Amy has recently passed away. Sara is shy, insecure and bookish, but the townspeople of Broken Wheel take her under their collective wings to honor Amy's memory.

Sara is fairly passive for the first part of the novel, but when she decides to open a bookstore using Amy's books as the inventory, she blossoms and finds her place. With cute bookshelf titles such as “For Friday Nights and Lazy Sundays” and “Short but Sweet,” she finds the right book for everyone in town, including tough-as-nails bar owner Grace, sad-sack divorcee George, and self-righteous church maven Caroline. Only handsome Tom is immune to the power of books - but is he immune to Sara?

The slowly blossoming romance between Sara and Tom is actually the weakest part of the book, relying on the dreaded Big Misunderstanding trope that happens when two people fail to have a simple conversation instead of assuming the worst about each other. The book is more interesting when it focuses on the secondary characters, including the development of an unlikely relationship between two of them, and the rivalry between the economically failing Broken Wheel and its more prosperous neighbor, Hope. It's a nice fantasy that a bookstore and a few community events can save a dying Midwest town, but that's why it's called fiction, right?

I'm not sure we really need one more feel-good book about people who love books, but The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend does its job ably and with a great deal of charm.