Beautifully written and very true to the culture in the book. This was a fantastic read and I highly recommend giving this author a try.

Thrilling story with a plot that kept me turning the pages, really well written with great characters. Highly recommend to everyone who is a fan of this genre.

BROKEN FIELD, by Jeff Hull, is about a small town rocked by a high school football team hazing incident. As the student body, the school ,and the community try to discover what really happened, opinions are formed and lines are drawn. As the legal judgments are made, tensions are high and the town becomes more and more divided. As most emotionally impactful events do, the aftereffects change people and forever change the landscape of the school, the team, and the students involved.
Hull spends a lot time following the coach, who has past baggage, and made a few school protocol errors when the hazing incident happened. He didn't follow the guidelines, and while the overall sentiment is not to blame him for the hazing, the question becomes how should he be reprimanded and the timing of it because the football team is heading into the playoffs. One of the most intriguing and realistic conflicts that arises is that there is a faction of men, mostly former football players, who feel like the coach is abandoning at the time by resigning before the big game, even though it is clear that for the sake of the school, it is the right thing to do. This and many other issues Hull brings to light and has the reader contemplate how they would react to everything. Just to be clear, Hull does reinforce the idea that hazing is wrong, he is more concerned in the novel with considering what happens after such an occurrence.
They were a couple of subplots that just seemed to slow the story down, but overall by leaving the reader pondering their own feelings on the ramifications of hazing, Hull has done a good job with BROKEN FIELD to challenge the mind and soul and force one to think how they would react to all of it.

What a mess. Would the hazing incident have happened if Tom had opted to ride with his team of football players? Maybe not at that particular time but these teens were heading for some sort of crisis. Tom's coping with his own problems and now his small Montana town is in upheaval. At the same time, this is Josie's story, as she deals with the incident and what she knows (and has experienced with) her boyfriend Matt, the quarterback. This is a well done look at a rural community. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.