The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

This was one of the most irritating books I have read. The story was flat, two-dimensional, and utterly lacking in likable characters, plot, or feeling. While you can find summaries elsewhere, there are three things that I think made this book so terrible:1) The author is not American. This is okay—non-American authors write amazing things. The problem here is that she is a terrible writer with a limited imagination who wrote about a midwest town, that reads like a caricature. This shallow representation of life in Iowa comes across—especially from a European author with a European main character who is presented as wise and accepting and literate amidst the boorish and uneducated Iowans—incredibly condescending.2) As someone who loves books, this felt written by someone who googled some top ten book categories (American novels, classics, chick lit) and then inserted them into the novel. I can't believe that Bivald actually read, or enjoyed, any of the books she mentioned. Her main character's thoughts about these books could have been lifted from the inner book flap. No originality.3) The main character is one of those types who starts out meek and mild, yet by some grace everyone seems to like her, or she "grows" on people, through no effort of her own, no redeeming qualities, or no explicable cause.I cannot tell which of the above was more insulting to readers' intelligence, but I truly hated this book. It felt pandered to, talked down, and annoyed at a lost opportunity, because the premise was intriguing. The execution and the wildly inaccurate, unlikely, and superficial plotline were botched.

First, I LOVED the characters in this book; their personalities were delightful, and I loved how the love of books was practically another character.What I didn't love about this book was the random Harlequin romance-esque scenes. They just seemed so out of place; the book is going along displaying life in a small town when all the sudden there are taut muscles and shallow breathing.I also didn't like he random "hot topics" thrown in, but with very little development. Let's have a gay couple; okay, fine. Let's add a random gay kid whose actually bisexual having an affair with an older woman. Let's introduce an interracial couple but never learn anything about it.In summary, I wish the author had chosen to write a light vacation read or take the time to delve into the topics that she brings up. I can't decide if she was wanting to write a light novel, but got bogged down; or tried to write a deep novel examining the human condition, but was too lazy to develop it.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend was an entertaining book that could have been incredible with more writing experience and a better editor. There were too many sudden coincidences, sudden inexplicable romances, vanishing (and appearing) characters and instances where it was necessary to use the old English class exercise of "willing suspension of disbelief," all of which distracted from a very cute story. Example number one: The book begins with the death of Amy and arrival of Sara (this is not a spoiler; it's in the description). Sara lives in Amy's house, takes over Amy's store and sells Amy's books for almost 3 months (also not a spoiler; it's in the description). During this 3 months, there is NO mention of a will. Who actually now owns Amy's house? Is Sara stealing Amy's property from another unmentioned character? People don't just die and have their stuff raided by whoever wants it. Life doesn't happen that way. Example number two: Gertrude and May are two highly entertaining characters who have a pretty decent role for the first 3/5 of the book and then just up and vanish, never to be mentioned again - not even in the climactic scenes. Example number three: The opposite. Characters who shall remain nameless to avoid spoilers just randomly appear without explanation for two or three chapters to force a plot twist, then just as randomly vanish. Example number four (last one): The romances are not believable. There is one that can be described as "I saw you; I know nothing about you; I want you now!" Again, most seem to have been thrown in to force a plot twist because the author thought there weren't enough in the book already.I know it seems as though I am trashing this book. But, I had such high hopes for it. It had entertaining characters, a good setting, and fabulous descriptions. But, I got so very frustrated from all of the "What-in-the-heck?" and "No way!" situations. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend could have been amazing. I hope that as the author becomes more mature, she drops her infatuation with the sudden dramatic plot twist and concentrates on her ability to tell a good story.

Loved the characters. Loved the plot. Loved the setting. Although the author is from Sweden, she captured small town life. I wanted to talk to this book and give her some more recommended book titles. At the end, there is a list of the books discussed and a list of authors. The novel includes beloved Amy, who just died, Sara, the Swedish visitor, Tom, Amy's nephew, Andy and beautiful Carl, Caroline, who runs the town, George, the driver and first reader, John, Amy's beloved who runs the hardware store that sells groceries, Grace, the diner owner, Jen, writes the town's newsletter, and more. Odd and clever characters each and everyone of them! Just a well written book. It surprises me that an author from Sweden really understands the small rural communities in the USA and this book celebrate them! Highly recommended. I definitely will be looking for this author's next book! This book deserves an A++++++

This has potential to be a really lovely book. The setting of small town USA sets the tone of a slow paced plot that is easy to read with plenty of time to absorb the characters and get a few reading recommendations along the way.Sara arrives in Broken Wheel and doesn't have the welcome she expected. She meets the people who live in the town and decides to set up a book shop.Books are central to this novel from the first page when Sara has her nose in one. The range of books referenced within the story in extensive and it was lovely to be introduced to a few new books and authors which I will go on to read. There are lots of sections which show Sara'a love of reading which I related toEverything ticks along quite nicely until about halfway through when I started to get bored with the plot and by about 2/3 through I was ready to put the book down, only carrying on to see if everything ended as predictably as I expected.It is a great idea but the plot is too thin, it needed much more character development to keep my interest throughout the whole book. The obvious comparison is to the Fannie Flagg books and this book is very inferior to those.

I was disappointed with this book because it reminded too much of the love stories I used to read in my teens (I'm now well over 60), a bit too much unnecessary romance and unlikely happy endings! I couldn't help wondering how the happy couple would fare in a domestic environment after a few years' marriage. I thought the 'book theme' was good. In fact the descriptions of the books was the redeeming feature! I would only recommend this book for those of a 'Mills & Boon' turn of mind in lockdown!

This is a gentle rather slow-moving story about a quiet young Swedish woman and her time in an American town in the middle of nowhere.i was intrigued by her character and those of the reserved locals and wanted to find out how she affected the people of the town and was herself affected by them. Her passion for books and references to pretty much every book she had ever read was interesting if you had also read them and could understand the references but could become rather tiresome after a while. However I did enjoy it and would recommend it to those who do not crave action or passion.

A young Swedish lady, Sara, who is addicted to reading and has never before left Sweden, visits an elderly pen friend in a run-down town in Iowa. When she arrives she is dismayed to find the friend she has never met has died. Her world and that of the small community is turned upside down as her love of books seeps out and influences those around her, bringing back hope where there was despair. Beautifully written, “The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend” is a very pleasurable read. Plot 4/5, Characterisation 4/5, Literary Merit 4/5, Readability 5/5. Overall 4/5.

Just bought copies for both my sisters. It’s that sort of book—the kind you press into the hands of friends and talk about at the office or coffee shop. Bivald captures the broken craziness of a stranger in small town America beautifully. She also manages to show that romance lives in the the interstices of the sadness and pain of everyday life. This book is laugh out loud funny, sad and just plain nutty in equal measures. Is real life better than books? Here it ends in a draw, but I fear that, for me, this is an example of another win for books. (Books 1 Real life 0).