A bookstore fantasy

Of all the shops they might have needed, why would someone choose to open a bookstore? And why would they travel all the way from Sweden to do it?

Katrina Bivald, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

We read fiction to fuel our fantasies, and this can include just about any kind of fiction and just about any kind of reader.

And for that matter, just about any kind of fantasies.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend will appeal not only to those who yearn for true love, but also to those of us who want to believe that a simple bookstore can change the world, or at least change a small town.

Sara is a young Swedish woman, an introverted bookworm, who had become a pen pal with Amy, an older bookish woman in Broken Wheel, a one-stoplight town in Iowa. Amy invited Sara to visit, but Sara arrives just in time for Amy’s funeral. She had planned to stay a month, but now what?

Broken Wheel has never had a tourist before, especially not an international tourist, and Sara immediately becomes special. She stays in Amy’s house, is driven around by George, a recovering alcoholic, and is not allowed to pay for anything. The townspeople seem to think she would make a good match for Tom, an introverted young man in the community, and everyone conspires to bring them together. And although Sara and Tom are drawn to each other, each is too shy to move their relationship along.

Sara wonders how she can possibly pay the town back for its kindness, then decides to open a bookstore in a vacant building that had been owned by Amy. There she would try to sell Amy’s vast library, even though Amy was apparently the only reader in Broken Wheel.

How can this possibly work, especially when Sara will be in town only for a few days? Ah, but this is fairy tale, of sorts, and anything can happen. And does.