What readers think of Broken Country, plus links to write your own review.

“Broken Country” by Claire Leslie Hall is obviously fiction, but the characters seem real. The murder of a dog sets events in motion, but another tragedy lurks around the corner. Since so much depends on “the twist,” book clubs across America will discuss how a romance faltered and altered the future for all involved. Do not limit this to one genre, though.

The 50s and 60s serve as the backdrop to love, loss, and death. A farming community in Great Britain provides all of the claustrophobia that you would expect. I personally connected with the complicated relationships within the family and their past. Learning about Beth and Gabriel, exes reunited, reminded me why my mental health would have faltered if I had stayed in my hometown.

Character Development is an easy target when critiquing a book, but it flows without notice when done correctly. Once the plot changes dramatically around the halfway point with adultery and death, I felt bad for everyone, even those who brought the conflict on themselves. The book’s structure helps with this, since the lack of a true genre ensures that you don’t know what to expect.

I am very anti-spoiler, so I will tread carefully. Hall has a big task here since I loathe any attempt to glorify adultery. It almost took me out of the novel. The twist was strong enough that I came back, as always, fooled by my expectations for similar stories.

The ending will sadden and satisfy you, and you will anticipate the resolution the way you would with any thriller worth its salt. It had just enough intrigue that I did not want to put it down. It has four confirmed curveballs for the read, but each one stayed true to who the people were and how they usually acted.

My daughter recommended this book and what an excellent recommendation. I was hooked almost immediately by the deeply and intensely emotional story of loss - of love, of people, in relationships - and redemption. Beth Kennedy Johnson loves being a wife to farmer, Frank Johnson, and loves the farming life. However, when her childhood sweetheart returns to the area, a lost love is rekindled destroying the equilibrium in Beth’s life and spilling over into the small farming community and leading to a murder.

The book has a tension that is developed by the alternating timeframes as we go back and forth in time to the experience the coming of age of the two young lovers and them grown up. When a murder occurs, the author weaves in a trial and at that point the plot twists and turns leaving you stunned! But what a magnificent ending. Bring tissues to the read.

What a book! This is an intense love story—an impossible love triangle shrouded within a whodunit murder. It's a delicious ChickLit/soap opera plot that is unputdownable.

Written by Clare Leslie Hall, this is the story of Beth Johnson, who is madly, passionately, and totally in love with two men. Two very different men. It's the 1950s in the (fictional) rural village of Hemston, England when Beth first meets Gabriel Wolfe one hot summer day. Beth, an avid reader, excellent student, and aspiring poet, is the daughter of two teachers. Gabriel is the son of the wealthiest family in town, living on a posh estate with his older father and snobby, angry mother. But it's love at first sight for Beth and Gabriel, and even though Beth is still in high school and Gabriel will soon be starting college at Oxford, they have a steamy and fiery sexual relationship that lasts all summer.

Beth aspires to go to Oxford herself, hoping to snare one of the few spots allocated for women. When she goes to the college to take the entrance exams and interviews, she learns a horrifying fact about Gabriel. She bids him farewell forever, heartbroken and distraught. Soon after, she takes up with Frank Johnson, a steady, safe farmer who has loved Beth from afar since he was 13. Frank is kind, compassionate, and filled with a pure love for Beth. They marry and have a wonderful life together until their little boy, Bobby, dies, leaving them inconsolable and forever changing their marriage.

Fast forward to 1968. Gabriel, who is now a famous and wealthy novelist, returns to Hemston and his family's estate with a little boy of his own and an American wife who divorced him and moved to California. Beth tries to avoid Gabriel, but to no avail. The attraction is too strong, too vital, leaving her with an impossible choice to make: Gabriel or Frank? As dangerous secrets that had long been buried in the past rise up again, tragedy strikes. A man is killed—but is it murder or an accident?

Beth's love stories—past and present—are interwoven with the tale of the murder trial. With colorful characters, a riveting and multilayered plot, and superb pacing, Clare Leslie Hall has written a perceptive, mesmerizing novel that simmers with tension and sex. It's the perfect escape read.

And the ending? It is completely unexpected, incredibly powerful, and absolutely perfect.

Oh, this is a good book!

This book lives up to all the hype it is getting. Yes, it is a love story but there is also a mystery/thriller aspect to it as well. The author did a great job hiding not only the crime, not only the victim, not only the perpetrator, but motive, as well! This was a real page turner and if I wasn’t taking notes for my book club I might have finished it in one sitting. Job well done.

Broken Country grabbed me from the first pages and never let me go. It was so intense; such an emotional land mine of a book. It starts when a dog attacks a herd of sheep and is shot dead by one of two farming brothers. Turns out Gabriel, the dog’s owner, has just returned to his family’s estate with his eight year old son. But as a teenager, he had had a passionate love with Beth, before dumping her for someone more of his social caliber. Now Beth is the wife of the other brother. Before long, a love triangle has started and a murder follows. What is unclear is who the killer is and who was the victim.

Told across multiple time periods, from the 1950s to 1975, it follows Beth’s life from when she meets Gabriel through the “present”. The book gives an excellent sense of time and place throughout. Told solely from Beth’s POV, Hall takes a risk when making her main character an adulterer. I couldn’t relate to her decisions, but I was engaged by them and everything felt very real.

I usually am not a fan of anything that smacks of romance. But this is much more a family drama and a murder mystery. And the characters are all so well developed, it was easy to become invested in their fates. The ending wasn’t a surprise. It played out exactly as I expected. But this wasn’t a book where I needed a big twist to feel fulfilled.
This would make an excellent book club selection. There’s so much meat her to discuss.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book

I don't always follow celebrity recommendations but in the case of Reece Witherspoon, she hooked me on this one! It's a love story that evolves into a mystery. Set in Ireland the story is about an Irish woman who fell in love early in life but the two were separated by family and distance. After a few decades both have moved onto their lives- but they cross paths when the former love interest comes back to the hometown. The chemistry is still there but again, obstacles! And then a tragic death- who did it and why?
This was one of my favorite books so far in 2025.

What happens when the love of your life appears after thirteen years, but you are married and still grieving the death of your child?

In 1955, Beth and Gabriel had an intense relationship that ended up broken because she found out he was with another woman.

in 1968, Gabriel and his son move back into the family home next door to Beth and Frank, and the feelings resurface.

Beth finds it difficult to resist seeing and being with Gabriel. Her husband Frank isn't blind to what is going through Beth's mind.

He can see how they react to each other.

What will happen with this love triangle and with all the events that occur?

This actually isn't a romance - this dual timeline read is filled with emotion, characters you won't forget, and events that will tug at your heartstrings.

The book was a bit slow at first, but the writing, the pull of the characters and their lives, and the tension, twists, and surprises make this book one you will not soon forget.

Tissues needed - especially in the ending pages. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

"Everyone played a part in the tragedy."

A heartbreaking story about marriage, loss, guilt, and a tragedy. Beth is married to Frank, living a small town life on a farm. She loves her life, loves her husband - but they have had a tough few years. They lost their son to a tragic accident just a few years ago and it's hard, to see past their own guilt and sadness.

There is also a before - we learn more about Beth and her first romance, the first man she fell in love with. He was new to their small town and matched her wit and loved to write, just like she did.

The story takes you through the past and now - as they work through a new tragedy. It isn't clear, at first, how these parts all come together. But the story is broken in parts and makes it very easy to start to piece in together. After Part 1, I found the story to be very fast paced. I wanted to know what happened and how this would all conclude. What an amazing story that broke my heart.