The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend in Crazy Challenge Connection

Sep 21, 2016 Book Concierge rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: concierge, strong-women, library, romance, audio, books-about-books, iowa

Audiobook performed by Fiona Hardingham and Lorelei King.

Sara Lindqvist (of Haninge, Sweden) has been corresponding with Amy Harris (of Broken Wheel, Iowa) for several years. They’ve become friends, sharing their love of books and the lives they lead through their letters. But when Sara arrives for a long-planned visit to her pen pal, she is dismayed to discover that Amy has died; in fact, her funeral is in progress. The town residents don’t quite know what to make of Sara, but they do know that Audiobook performed by Fiona Hardingham and Lorelei King.

Sara Lindqvist (of Haninge, Sweden) has been corresponding with Amy Harris (of Broken Wheel, Iowa) for several years. They’ve become friends, sharing their love of books and the lives they lead through their letters. But when Sara arrives for a long-planned visit to her pen pal, she is dismayed to discover that Amy has died; in fact, her funeral is in progress. The town residents don’t quite know what to make of Sara, but they do know that Amy would have wanted them to welcome the young woman. So they invite Sara to stay in Amy’s home, arrange for someone to drive her around, and refuse to let her pay for anything from a cup of coffee in the diner to her groceries. Sara feels she simply must DO something, so she cleans up an old storefront and opens a bookshop, stocked with Amy’s treasure trove of books. One thing leads to another, however, with some surprising results.

This is a sweet story, with quirky small-town characters, a few heartaches and sorrows, but a happy result. It’s not great literature, does not have an intricate plot, nor complex characters. Still, it’s an enjoyable story, and I loved all the book references. I found myself trying to recommend the perfect book to characters before Sara could come up with a title! Some of the character-book pairings were quite surprising (Bridget Jones’s Diary for the newly sober alcoholic?), and others made me wonder why I hadn’t thought of them first. But I grew to love the residents of Broken Wheel, just as Sara did.

Fiona Hardingham and Lorelei King take turns performing the audiobook. While they are not specifically credited, I believe King voices Amy Harris’s letters to Sara, while Hardingham performs the rest (i.e. majority) of the story. I apologize if I have that backwards, because I had a real problem with whichever of these women was voicing the major part of the book. First she speaks in a British accent; she is perfectly understandable, but this story takes place in Iowa, shouldn’t the narrator be American? Or Swedish? When voicing Sara’s dialogue, she uses a Swedish accent (sounding remarkably like Katarina Bivald, whom I had the pleasure of hearing read at an author event); why not use that accent for the rest of the story? And then she gives every resident of Broken Wheel a Southern accent?! I wouldn’t mind if it were just one or two residents; people do move around in the USA and Southerners have made their homes in many a Midwestern or Great Plains state. But every single character? Just drove me crazy. So I give only 1 star for the audio narration.
...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 31, 2018 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018

Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen...

Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal. When she arrives, however, she finds Amy's funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor - not much else to do in a small town that's almost beyond repair. They just never imagined that she'd start a bookstore. Or that books could bri ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 18, 2019 Stacy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-stars, e-books, read-in-2019, book-club-reads

It started off slow, but the quirky characters grew on me.

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2016 Michele rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An awesome book!

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2017 Rachel N. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2017, small-town, reading-road-trip-u-s, chick-lit, books-about-books

Sara Lindvquist travels from Sweden to Broken Wheel, Iowa to visit her pen pal Amy for 2 months. Unfortunately she arrives on the day of Amy's funeral. The town insists she stay and to pay them back Sara opens up a book store using Amy's books. A cute, though totally unrealistic, book. I liked Sara matching people with books and the quirky town characters. ...more

Like · see review