The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend/Katarina Bivald/384 pgs

Imagine a young girl living in Sweden having a pen pal friend in the United States that has invited her for an extended visit.  The two pen pals, Sara and Amy, share an avid love of books.  Through their letters, Sara feels like she knows everyone in Amy’s small Iowa town and she decides to take Amy up on her offer to visit.

When Sara arrives in Iowa for her visit with her pen pal friend, Amy, she finds Amy’s friends attending her funeral.  Encouraged by the townsfolk to stay, Sara soon realizes how much the town loved and needed Amy.  Sara decides that she can do something to help fill the void left by Amy’s death.  Sara opened a book store and the hearts of the people of Broken Wheel.

Rescuing Rose/ Nicola Marsh / 304 pgs

This is the story of Rose, a single mother trying to get her life back on track, and Caden, a guy who looks like he has it all together but really he’s still letting his mother run his life. Obviously Rose and Caden both have issues. For the most part, they deal with them as adults. This was a decent romance although I found myself wishing there was more doing than talking. The secondary characters are well-fleshed out but I almost think they got too much screen time to discuss their problems instead of focusing on Rose and Caden falling in love.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend/Katarina Bivald/394 pgs.

What a fun debut novel by this Swedish author! Sara Lindqvist travels from Sweden to meet her pen pal, Amy Harris, who happens to live in Broken Wheel, Iowa--an extremely small town that has seen better days. Upon arriving, Sara learns that she has showed up on the day of Amy's funeral. The residents don't quite know what to do with Sara, and vice versa. It's a heart warming story of a small town pulling together, and a tourist discovering herself in a most unexpected place. Highly recommended!