A bookish gem...

"All towns need a bookshop."

But what Broken Wheel, Iowa, really needs is Sara Lindqvist. She's a bookish, quiet girl who prefers books to people, but who has come all the way from Sweden to meet her pen pal, Amy Harris, only to arrive on the day of Amy's funeral. Luckily for her, the residents of this shrinking town are determined to make her feel welcome and wanted. They get Poor George to chauffeur her around town, they treat her to lunch, let her stay in Amy's house, and even try to set her up with Amy's handsome nephew, Tom. In an attempt to repay their many kindnesses, and to honor Amy's memory, Sara opens up a bookshop on Main Street, filling it with all of Amy's books. Now if only she can convince the residents of Broken Wheel to read them.

This story has everything I love:  pen pals and letters, good books, humor, charm, friendship and romance, heart, and a town full of quirky, fun characters. I loved it! Seeing the town pull together on Sara's behalf was very entertaining, and her effect on each of them, especially on Tom, made me smile. This bookish gem is a novel I would happily buy and read again and again; it's that good!

Happy Reading!

Similarly delightful reads:

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets by Jessica A. Fox

The Little Bookshop of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch

Another serendipitous find from the M shelf...

Title:  Arrowood
Author:   Laura McHugh

Then:  "My little sisters were neither alive nor dead, hovering somewhere in between, in the hazy purgatory of the missing. I had been the sole witness to their kidnapping when I was eight years old, and I had spent my childhood wondering  if the man who took them might come back for me. He was never arrested, and no bodies were ever found."

Now:  Leaving her master's thesis unfinished, Arden Arrowood returns to her family's ancestral home, Arrowood, in Keokuk, Iowa, to the very house from which her twin sisters disappeared seventeen years ago. The house itself feels the same, and Ben Ferris, her first love, still lives nearby, but so many other things have changed. Even her memories of that fateful September afternoon when Violet and Tabitha went missing don't feel so reliable any more. And when Josh Kyle shows up investigating the mystery of her sisters' disappearance for a book he's writing, Arden can't help wondering where the truth actually lies. Only not everyone in Keokuk wants her digging up those long-buried secrets from the past.

My thoughts:  What a great read! I loved McHugh's words and imagery, and the way she builds such quiet suspense all the way through to the end of the book. And her characters are very well-written:  Ben and Josh are likeable, Heaney, the care-taker, is a little creepy, Arden's mother is so passive and superficial it made me want to slap her, and Arden herself, who hasn't been able to move forward or find her own happiness because of what happened to her sisters and her own sense of guilt over it, felt very authentic and real. I liked her a lot. I would definitely recommend this mystery to anyone who enjoys a good story.

Happy Reading!