I really enjoyed this book. It kept me engaged and it only took a few days to read. I think this is going to be a good book club option for several clubs. I plan recommending to my book friends and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Wow! I just finished reading "Broken Country" by Clare Leslie Hall, and I have to say it's one of my favorite books I've read this year! The writing is so incredible and the emotions it evokes are just so powerful and plentiful. Even though I finished the novel a little while ago, the characters are still living rent-free in my mind! If you're someone who only reads a couple of books a year, "Broken Country" absolutely needs to be at the top of your list. This 5+++ star novel is the perfect book club selection – I promise you will be able to discuss the storyline and characters for hours! I am in awe of Clare Leslie Hall's brilliance, and I truly look forward to reading more from her in the future!

This was very good book. Lots of twists and turns. A nice love story and true heartache. I enjoyed it and think you will too.

This book started slowly but by the last 80 pages, I couldn’t put it down. I liked the twists and turns of the back and forth viewpoints between “before” and “after”. There were a few twists that I didn’t see coming, and I was pleasantly surprised to be caught off guard by them. The writing was fantastic and the characters were all likable and relatable. I would absolutely recommend this book.

Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall, was a simple love story that becomes complex as life gets in the way and continues to move forward. Beth lives her life as best as she can, but twists and turns get in the way and complicate things. Family interferes, love is lost, love is born, love is put on the back burner, as Beth continues her life’s journey, finding herself and who she is along the way.

After reading the synopsis of the book Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, I was hooked and given the opportunity to read an advanced copy by Net Galley. The book was told in several sections based on character, with each section being told by way of the past, the present, and the trial. It was a great concept, and even though it is not the type of book I would typically read, I found it intriguing and hard to step away from. It was a great read, and I wouldn’t hesitate to read another book by this author.

There were a few editing issues that I found bothersome. Mainly, when a quote was being said by an individual, the response was typed on the same line, which led me to read that as a continuation of the statement, when in fact, it was a response by the other person in the conversation. Several times I had to go back and reread to figure out what in fact was being said, as it didn’t make sense the way it was written. There were a few other editing issues, but other than that, this was a great quick read!

Gorgeous and gripping storytelling. I was utterly riveted by Beth (past and present versions) and her life in the English countryside.

There is mystery, romance, longing, tragedy, love and the scene setting is beautiful. Once I read the first few sentences, I was hooked and could not put the book down. It was easy to care deeply about all the characters and experience their heartbreaks and triumphs alongside them. A wonderful read.

Thank you very much to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Compelling, shattering, and so deeply profound... BROKEN COUNTRY is one the those books that reminds me why I fell in love with reading. I was in just in absolute awe with how layered and complex the plot is.... both messy, intense and beautiful. I felt for and deeply, genuinely cared for every character.... and for every character's side to the story. Beth, Frank, Gabriel, Jimmy, and Leo. This book is built around tragedy, heartbreak, guilt and shame and underneath all that is ingrained with innocence, forgiveness, and love in the purest forms. I admired how the story and the writing brought forth such emotion with its realness and rawness. It was a true privilege and honor to have experienced such beautiful, poetic storytelling on humanity and look forward to the day everyone can read it themselves.

Much, much gratitude to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Secrets are so hard! this can be why it is best to be truthful in relationships. Secrets hurt more than we can understand as a kid, sometimes they catch you when your grown! Good story line that keeps you thinking and wondering

Many thanks to @simonandschuster @netgalley for my #gifted (free) copy. Pub date 3/4/25.

Sometimes, a book comes along and literally steals your breath away. This was definitely that book for me. The emotions I felt while reading this were crazy, I was an emotional wreck! I did not want to put this book down. It was so good, and it's going in my top books of the year list. If you have #netgalley request this book now, if not, add it to your TBR list because this is just one of those books that will stay with you forever 🩷. I literally can not wait for this book to be out to the world!

Is it possible to be in love with two people? A forbidden love triangle between a country girl, a wealthy boy, and a farmer. This is a beautifully written tragic love story that spans a decade and ends with somebody being killed. The courtroom scene chapters will give you brief snippets of who was killed, what happened, and who the suspect is. The chapters alternate between past and present, and literally after each chapter, your mind will be blown. Everything was written perfectly, and I can not say enough good things about this book. If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would!

I cannot say enough good things about this debut novel. When I say I like messy family dramas, this is exactly what I mean. Beth is in love with two men. She is living in England on her husband’s family farm when her first true love moves back next door with his son. Their dog wanders on to the farm and attacks Beth’s sheep and is shot by Beth’s brother in law. This sets off a chain of events that simply can’t be undone, changing the course of everyone’s lives. So many secrets, trauma, love ,a trial and difficult choices. I loved all the characters, I felt for all of them. I didn’t want this book to end because I loved getting to know the characters and spending time with them. What a story! So many layers to this story! Couldn’t love it more. This is going to be a big book in the spring 2025 fiction releases. Read if you like Claire Lombardo. It’s an easy 5 stars for me!!!!

From page one, the reader knows the farmer is dead. Broken Country is a well-constructed suspenseful novel is linked by then and now chapters detailing the lives of Beth, Frank, and Gabriel who grew up in an English farming village in the Sixties. Gabriel and Beth's high school summer love affair ends abruptly and Beth marries Frank instead of going to Oxford. Their farm life is disrupted by the accidental death of Beth son's, Bobbie, and further complicated when Gabriel, now a successful novelist, moves back to town. The story is sad and haunting because even though readers may get caught up in the love triangle plot, author Clare Leslie Hall always brings back the reminder that someone is on trial for murder. Highly recommended for book discussion groups.

This book takes you on a thrill ride with suspense and true feelings. I was swept in by Clare a journalist and a love triangle with danger and love. It’s a dual timeline that you just get sucked in with each character. There is secrets that come to life that unearths dangerous outcomes. There are some many emotions with this book. It starts out with Clare, her husband and brother in law working the farm when a dog comes and attacks their sheep, and they unalive the dog, and the suspense starts their and just keeps building. The dogs owner, a young boy, comes looking for him and find him unalived. Unfortunately the young boy belongs to her long lost love from years ago. As the story progresses many secrets and dangers are brought forth. It’s def a page turner and kept me wanting more!!

Broken Country is the debut novel for Clare Leslie Hall, but with a compelling plot, well defined characters, and twists you won't see coming, it reads like it could be her twentieth. Both love story and mystery, Broken Country fires on both cylinders from beginning to end. When an impulsive decision by her brother in law leads to the loss of a young boy's dog, Beth is stunned to discover the child's father is Beth's first (and never forgotten) love Gabriel. Beth and Gabriel broke up years before, and Beth is now married to Frank. Although she tries to resist her feelings, Beth is again drawn to Gabriel, with tragic consequences. You'll know from the first sentence a death has occurred, but the identity of the deceased, and how it happened, remain a mystery until the end. Beth and Gabriel's passion for each other spills off the page, but Broken Country is not sexually graphic. One of the plot twists is fairly easy to figure out, but the other you'll never guess. Broken Country tugs at your heart and plays with your head. It's an intoxicating combination that works beautifully.

This is the story of Beth. She's married to Frank and is a farmer's wife. Beth and Frank lost their son, Bobby, in a tragic accident. One day, a dog starts killing lambs and has to be shot. This is how Beth finds out that her first love, Gabriel, has moved back to his estate. She has kept a secret from him for a very long time. Will it be revealed?
This is a gorgeous book. It's beautifully written and goes back and forth in time as the story is told. I feel like I know these characters personally. Once I started reading, I could not put this book down. It explores themes of love, loss, regrets, and forgiveness. It will be released for publication in 2025. Highly, highly recommended.

A bit too intense for me. Beautiful setting and writing but the heavy topics were not my jam. I’m definitely a mood reader and maybe at another time I would have enjoyed it more.

Story told in past and present timeline about love, loss, & heartbreak. There’s a mystery element. It’s about a girl named Beth who accidentally reunites with her first love Gabriel after his son Leo’s dog gets shot on her farm by her brother in law after it attacks her lambs. She ends up spending more and more time with Gabriel when she takes a job watching after Leo and is forced to make a hard decision. What happens when you love two people? Does Beth choose the boy she fell madly in love with as a teenager and was forced apart from or does she choose the boy who picked up all the pieces of the mess the first left? I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend! Thank you NetGalley for the digital copy.. 5⭐️read.

Was ok. It took me awhile to get really into the book but once I did I couldn't put it down. It has love triangle, with a dual timeline and secrets revealed at the end of course. Was a fun read!

Put this on your TBR list right away. This is such a wonderfully written novel that so perfectly describes four different and distinct times in Beth’s life. I was thoroughly invested in Beth’s life and this book from start to finish.

The novel is broken up into Parts and within the parts is sections. Each of the Parts is about a character and the sections are “1968”, “Before” and “the Trial”.

Before. The part where young Beth falls madly, deeply and almost instantaneously in love with Gabriel, the son of very wealthy parents, destined to become somebody important. Beth, Gabriel’s mother tells her, will never be the person Gabriel would marry. First loves run deep and they’re hard to forget. And sometimes too easy to reignite.

1968. When Gabriel comes back home years after his relationship with Beth has ended and Beth has been now been happily married for several years to a good, honest, hard-working and loving farmer. She loves her life and her husband immensely.

The trial. You know there’s a trial but you have to read further to know who did what to whom.

Each of these stories were intrinsically interwoven and I loved each of them. Each character was written with flaws and imperfections. This is a heartrenching and emotional novel that left me drained after reading it. I read it in 24 hours because I couldn’t put it down. The perfect mix of suspense and emotional familial drama. Grief, as much as love, plays a huge role in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Claire Leslie Hall and Simon & Schuster for this wonderful read.

This is a story about love, loss, and tragedy. The topics are extremely sensitive (child and animal death, alcoholism, gun violence) but for some reason I had a hard time connecting to the story and found myself more annoyed than swept up in the tragedy. Doesn’t feel like there are any great lessons learned. It wasn’t until I was about 40% through that I stopped contemplating DNFing. I think it felt a little too long and meandering and I didn’t really like any of the characters. You can also feel that there will be twists coming a mile away and it makes me feel like I’m being set up or that I am supposed to be amazed by the cleverness of how it all turns out. But mostly it didn’t make a ton of sense to me. I think I would have liked different POVs. Overall it wasn’t my favorite but I’m sure it will connect to others.

I can hardly see through the tears to write anydamnthing.

THIS BOOOOOOK!! O. M. G. 😩

I am wayyyy too in my feelings right now to make any sense of all these emotions or to simply explain how Broken Country was everything! How it made me swoon. How it wrecked my whole mf’n soul. And then put all my pieces back together, oh so very slowly. Then shattered me all over again!😩💔

But in all the darkness and pain, the passion & heartbreak, the guilt & grief, and holy hell, the nobility & SACRIFICE, there finally comes a light….🙌🏼

And got dammit, that ending…😩🙌🏼

Maybe I’ll be back to edit this mess. I honestly don’t know.

All that needs to be said is: everyone should read this. And I mean everyone.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this beautiful and heartbreaking arc in exchange for review.

Pub date: 3.4.2025.

Ima just go drank about it okurrt…🥴

To Clare Leslie Hall. Thank you for this. Please write more🥴 I’ll be waiting. 🙌🏼