Some books feel like memories you didn’t know you had—quietly devastating, beautifully written, and full of emotional weight. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is exactly that kind of book.

Set in 1960s rural England, the story follows Beth, a woman still grieving the loss of her young son while trying to hold her life—and marriage—together. But everything shifts when her first love, Gabriel, returns to the village after years away… and with him, his young son, who looks hauntingly like the child Beth lost. From there, the past and present start to blur, and nothing feels safe or certain anymore.

There’s a slow-burn tension throughout the book, not just from the rekindled feelings between Beth and Gabriel, but also from the threads of a murder trial that quietly build in the background. You don’t realize just how much is unravelling until it all comes together—and when it does, it hits hard.

Hall’s writing is so evocative—filled with longing, grief, and moments of startling clarity. It’s not just a love triangle or a mystery—it’s a portrait of a woman trying to make sense of a life that’s shifted beneath her feet.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel opens with a bang-- a farmer shoots a dog that comes onto his property and is going after his sheep. The dog's owner and farmer's family have a shaky relationship that goes back years. I am pretty conflicted on this review-- there was so much I loved about this story, but really disliked the ending. What worked for me is the different timelines, the character of Beth, the nature/countryside/farm writing and Hall did an excellent job of portraying first love. I was very invested in the story until about 80%, when it fell apart for me. Prior to this point I had thought, "thank goodness she didn't make Beth's child be Gabriel's" and boom sure enough he is. I didn't care for either of the farmer brothers and the entire ending was a melodramatic cliché. I also did not like that either child is cared for properly during pivotal scenes-- really you aren't going to check where the kid is before knocking down a tree? or make sure kid is safe and with an adult when there's a volatile guy with a gun around? Also just personal preference but I wanted her to pursue a writing career and maybe end up with neither guy lol. I am an outlier as most people I know adored this book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy. 3.5/5 stars.

I received the ARC of Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall courtesy of Simon & Schuster and Netgalley. Set in the English countryside in the 1960's, this absolutely compelling story encompasses love of nature and sheep farming, references to many books, class distinctions, and family dynamics. Above all a love story, with the passion of first love and finally the understanding of a mature relationship, miscommunication and choices drive the narrative, along with an underlying mystery. I could not stop reading!

I had seen a lot of early reviews for this one and therefore I went in expecting something powerful, but I wasn’t prepared for how deeply I’d feel every moment—every ache, every longing, every impossible choice. I started the journey with these characters, holding myself back a bit because I don't typically enjoy books that have infidelity where children are impacted unless I can get behind the need to break up a family. I saw some very solid foundations in the early parts of this story that caused me to detatch from the characters in anticipation of those exact plot points I was worried may be woven into these pages. But instead of putting the book down, I decided to trust the process of being vulnerable and allow for the flawed characters to be real. Im so glad I did because the characters were blatantly raw and so real that I caught myself completely tangled in their heartbreaks and growth. The writing is powerful in that it cuts right to the bones in an almost painful way at times and it isn’t flashy at all. In fact, you can smell the dirt & whiskey, and the prose digs in deep, not letting you hide from the emotions. This was 100% worth the hype from cover to cover If you're looking for a story that feels like it's made of flesh and bone, pick this one up - you won't be disappointed.

What an emotional journey! I loved the dual timelines and the story unfolding. Devoured it in one sitting.
Thank you Simon & Schuster for the ARC and Simon Audio for the ALC.

Broken Country is a beautiful, intense story about love, tragedy, and how we adapt to our circumstances. I thought this story was wonderfully written, and the author did a great job making the setting and characters come alive. While I did not agree with some of the characters’ actions, and I thought some deserved far more than what they were given, ultimately these flaws made them feel human.

Broken Country is very binge-able, and I would recommend if you’re looking for something that is fast paced, but still with a good amount of depth/emotion.

Wow! A romantic thriller! This book was so spot on with making you feel heartbroken, torn, and on the edge of your seat. I throughly enjoyed this and recommend. The plot twist at the end, i kinda saw it coming but it still gut punched me.

What an emotional book! I read this in a single sitting, drawn into the story and could not be torn away from it. Tragic and heartbreaking, but you will not be able to look away.

What a book. I was honestly not expecting it to be that good.
This book touches on old love, new love and....true love. Murder, mystery all told as a trial unfolds.
This book fluctuates between past and present, giving you real feelings for the characters and making it super difficult to put the book down. 🫣🫣
Cannot recommend this one enough!

Their peaceful life is shattered when a dog flies onto their farm and attacks three of the newly born sheep and must be shot to protect the rest. The dog belongs to Gabe Wolfe's son Leo. Their lives will never be the same again.

Hemston, England summer 1955: Beth catches the eye of Gabriel Wolfe, only son of the wealthy estate owners of Meadowlands as she is walking around looking for a quiet place to read her poetry book. Gabe is a handsome, well-educated guy with a quick wit and a wannabe writer. He is getting set to leave for Oxford and is quickly taken in by Beth's confidence and country grace. After a few days of getting together and talking, they find they are more and more attracted to each other, and this will become a summer filled with deep conversations and sexual explorations ultimately falling deeply in love much to Gabe's mother's chagrin. Afterall, how could this country girl fit into their upper crust world when Louisa would be so much more suitable? Louisa is the daughter of a wealthy American who is introduced to Gabe by his conniving mother during a family dinner when Beth is also invited. The perfect evil character! Of course, Louisa is infatuated by Gabe and what do you know, she goes to Oxford too!
In the background of Beth's life is Frank, a young man who has had his eye on her for years as they have grown up in this quaint small town. He is a shy, quiet, reliable guy, who lives with his widowed dad David and his younger brother Jimmy on their family farm raising sheep and other small crops. They lost their mother in a freak farm accident which left Jimmy bereft and has since acted out in angry fits from time-to-time which Frank has helped quell. But that's just the kind of guy Frank is. No brothers could be closer.
Hemston, England 1968: There's been a murder and someone close to Beth is on trial. The author brilliantly keeps that information a secret as she builds the tension over the course of story. The reader can only speculate until the truth is known and then when it is, it's a gut punch. But there is a nugget: they all have to stick to the same version of the story. What does that mean?
This is a highly atmospheric story, so well written and the characters are believable and seem real. The reader learns from the opening that Frank and Beth are happily married and working the farm but that the loss of their little boy Bobby, the love of their world, died and everything at the farm is a constant reminder of his not being there. Jimmy lives with them too but still struggles with his demons until he meets the daughter of the local pub owner Nina, who seems to know how to curb his wild streak. And after Gabe's marriage ends in divorce, he returns to Hemston with his son Leo. When that dog is killed, Beth brings a new puppy to their house hoping it will fill the space left by its death. And what she thought was also dead between herself and Gabe, will be reignited and she can't seem to stop it from happening despite her lovely life with Frank.
The way the timeline moves between Before and After is easy to follow and the short chapters are also appreciated. CLH is masterful in keeping the reader turning pages with her storytelling and slow building of the whodunit. The love story and mystery work so well together. While the reader feels for Beth and Gabe, for me at least, made me mad that they could do this to Frank who has given so much and who has endured so much. The end is a gut punch beyond belief!
This book has been suggested for lovers of "Where the Crawdads Sing" and a film is being developed from "Broken Country" which I am going to be very excited to see!

WOW. Wow, wow, wow. This may just be the best book of 2025. I'm calling it now. And even as I'm typing this, I am not sure I can adequately review this beautifully tragic novel with the justice it deserves. I want to start at the beginning and read it all over again!

Be prepared to give your whole self to this book. It will sweep you in, steal your heart and leave you sobbing. The writing is incredible, and the characters are flawed yet so authentic. As another reviewer stated perfectly, "this is what reading is about."

Absolute perfection. No notes. (But make sure you have tissues nearby at the end.)

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Broken Country is the kind of story that breaks your heart, fills you up, and stays on your mind long after it ends.

The main character, Beth Johnson, is content in her life as a farmer’s wife in rural Dorset, England, in 1968. She's in love with her husband, Frank, surrounded by family and friends, and secure in her place in their small village.

But Beth has known loss, too. Her all-consuming first relationship, with a wealthy local boy named Gabriel, ended abruptly and unexpectedly a decade earlier. In the devastating aftermath, she was forced to give up her dream of studying poetry at Oxford. Most recently, her sweet young son, Bobby, died in a tragic accident on the farm.

Beth, Frank, and their close-knit family are quietly living and grieving when Gabriel, now a successful author, returns to the area. He’s newly divorced and settling into his old family home with his own son, Leo. As Beth yearns for both her lost love and her lost son, she easily connects with young Leo and begins a tenuous new friendship with Gabriel.

Broken Country unfolds in three timelines: the present (1968), Beth’s past (1955), and a future murder trial (1969). Author Clare Leslie Hall builds and sustains tension throughout each arc. Her writing is lyrical, vivid, and emotional, yet somehow restrained. In the main timeline, Beth navigates intense feelings for two very different men while also grieving her son and seeking out Leo. In the past timeline, she explores first love in a lush, wild setting as she hurtles toward adulthood. In the future timeline, Beth is burdened by the murky circumstances surrounding a fatal shooting. As she says near the end, “Ours was a complicated tale with many pieces to fit together.”

I’m an outlier here.

I didn’t like Beth, the main character, at all. I felt she was self-centered and hurtful to the people who cared about her. Also, what about repercussions for horrid behavior? The outcome seemed to validate her selfishness.

The entire story centers around a love triangle, which is, really, just an affair between two people who clearly never matured beyond their teenage years when they’d initially been a couple. The third person in the triangle, Beth’s husband Frank, comes off as a doormat. I needed more from and about him in order to understand why he put up with it all.

The murder mystery didn’t come into play until close to the end. The other 80% or so was all melodrama.

I absolutely did not feel a “sweeping love story” and the slow pace was not equal to a thriller by any stretch of the imagination.

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster & Simon Books Buddy for the complimentary copy of the book!

This book is out now.

This is one of the buzziest books at the moment so of course I had to read it. I ended up finishing this in one day because of how much I was enjoying it. It was a little bit of a slow start in the beginning but as most books its because the author was introducing us to the characters. You don't have to wait too long for an occurrence to occur that sets in the motion the rest of the book. This is told from 3 timelines - the past, the present day and the future. In the past timeline we get insight into how the relationship with Gabriel started & why it ended. The current timeline we see them reconnect as adults and what is going on in their separate lives and then in the future is all about the court trial. You do not know until closer to end who & what the trial is for. The book keeps you on your toes and each chapter leaves you wanting for the next. The book is not very long only around 320 pages and just under 9 hours of audio which made it a pretty quick listen.

I will say this was a bit more romantic than I was expecting! Now its nothing like the romances I read but just more action than I assumed we would get. And of course I loved it all. This is not a spoiler as the descriptions alludes to a love triangle but how does one pick when both object of desires on paper seem like great men?! You'll have to read to see what happens!

I had planned on reading this one in tandem with the audio but I got sucked into the audio to even had a moment to follow with the book. Hattie Morahan was the narrator and I don't believe I ever listened to any of the plethora of books that she's done but she made the listening experience very easy.

This book was already picked up to be adapted by Reese's film production and I think it will translate really well to either a limited series or a movie.

If you were a fan of the book Penitence that came out earlier this year, I think you would really enjoy this! There were themes that mirrored in both books. This book has a little bit of everything - romance, suspense, family drama, murder and grief all wrapped up!

4.5

When a book like Broken Country comes along, it affirms why reading is so important to me. Broken Country is a deep and moving story of love and loss, and how both can break us. I was captivated by how human the characters; Beth, Frank and Gabriel were written. It all comes down to the writing. The storyline is excellent. I couldn't and didn't even try to predict what would happen next. I just let the flow of the story continue, and honestly, I didn't want it to end. Thanks to Netgalley, publishers and Clar Leslie Hall for the opportunity to reader this exceptional novel in exchange for my honest review.

I’m sure some will hail,this book as tender and emotional. I viewed it as betrayals over and over again.
I really couldn’t stand Beth. She was selfish and cruel yet she gets her way. I also found her unremorseful.
I thought Gabriel was a stooge.
The only person I liked was Frank. He paid for sins that weren’t his, got backstabbed over and over, and loved a woman who didn’t love him back.
The book irked me and I was glad when it was done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Clare Leslie Hall for the ARC to review. This book was a fast read and a real page turner. The story has is a love story of one woman for two men. And the sacrifices that they make for the sake of a young boy. I don’t like to do spoilers or give the plot away. However, I highly recommend, it is a great read.

This was a really emotional story. I liked that we got the bulk of the story up front, and the way that the alternate timelines brought the rest of the story to life. The "reveal" was both unexpected and heartbreaking.

𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞. 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐝, 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧.

I began reading this novel assuming it would be your usual return of a first love, but I was wrong. It is about class, loyalty, family bonds, and how destructive dabbling in “what if” can be. The past suffocates Beth with crushing loss and romantic love for two men. The novel opens with the sentence, “The farmer is dead,” which is a dark beginning for a love story. The tale simmers with the threat of exposure, violence, some sort of doom. We know that in a place where people are always watching, and a woman is harboring secrets, with lovers who are sensitive to her every mood, thought, it’s only a matter of time before the balloon bursts. It is an emotional journey, and judging the players isn’t easy. There is enough blame and resentment to go around for every character, one wonders when fate will let up on them. There will be a fall from grace, deaths and a trial.

1955: Beth Kennedy’s first flush of true love begins when she meets Gabriel Wolfe, trespassing on the private property of Meadowlands. Naturally he is the handsome, wealthy boy who lives in the big house, and he is the very Wolfe that catches her during said transgression. He is not the upper-class jerk of fiction, he is warm, funny, clever and a reader. Home for three months before he heads off to university, just enough time for the teenagers to form an unbreakable bond, one that will burn in Beth’s heart for years, even after her marriage to someone else. The obstacle is his mother Tessa, whose plan for her precious son doesn’t involve a country girl, daughter of teachers. Tessa doesn’t give an inch, makes Beth feel like something on the bottom of her shoe and Gabriel leaves her to the mercy of his mother’s sharpened claws. She does not seem to be able to hold her own against his mother’s snide assumption that her son will simply leave Beth behind. Summer dies, Beth studies for her interview at St. Anne’s and Gabriel heads off to Oxford, where eventually their love collapses under deception, lies, confusion.

1968: Beth is now married to Frank, a tried-and-true farm boy since youth, and a man she loves deeply. They raised a child together once, a boy who took to their way of life with delight. Their life on the farm is hard, but there has always been joy in tending the land and caring for the animals, even if mornings are cold. Frank’s brother Jimmy is a drinker, but loyal to his brother and sister-in-law, just as married to the land as they are. Things become complicated when Gabriel returns to Meadowlands, and their reunion involves the death of Gabriel’s son Leo’s dog. It reignites the terrible grief Beth has been carrying over her own beloved child, and she falls in love with Leo, as much as being near Gabriel rekindles feelings that have been lying dormant within her heart. Frank is no fool, he senses the threat Gabriel poses, how can he compete with a ghost of the past in the flesh, now a successful, wealthy, handsome writer for the affection of his own wife? Particularly with so much tragedy pushing them apart? How can Frank trust her, especially with a horrific tragedy still haunting them all, and when she is spending her time at Meadows since the incident? It is dangerous for the health of their marriage, but he can only helplessly watch.

Beth knows she should not dare, that she shouldn’t open her heart to Gabriel and his son Leo, but she isn’t going to stop herself. Life with Frank is not always charmed, not with the farm’s debt, the loss she can’t allow herself to touch if she wants to remain sane, it is the opposite of what she had once imagined she could have with Gabriel. Is it all just a lost dream? She cannot cease feeling alive in Gabriel’s presence, reminding her of her youth, who she once was. Frank is the comfortable partner, the one who has saved her, and he just wants them to be okay, their love to survive the rotten, incomprehensible, tragic thing that happened to them. Even if his brother Jimmy is angry with him, dumbfounded by Frank’s acceptance of his wife’s wandering attention. Gabriel has more success, ease, and adores her, they too have a heavy history, secrets kept from each other, but like a ripple on the surface of water, every choice we make creates waves that affect others. People are wild cards, Beth knows firsthand how those who interfere can destroy a good thing. There is a second chance for Beth, she will explore her love for Gabriel and Frank, but who is the stronger man? The right choice? The ending is stunning.

I did not imagine how this tale would twist and turn, and the ending is a fitting one. This novel pulls on the reader’s heart. It is about love in various forms, between siblings, parents, children, and of course lovers. The heart is messy and can push us to act in ways beyond reason. Yes, read it.

Published March 4, 2025

Simon & Schuster

Broken Country is an amazing story that had me glued to the pages. I wanted to learn the end but also didn't want the story to end. It was a great mystery, a testament to true love and a story about second chances. Lots of surprises that I didn't see coming!!
Link coming soon.