So much more than a love story this novel is so compelling and confusing (in a good way) I really didn’t know how I wanted it to work out as you’re drawn to every character and understand their different positions. It was refreshingly different and although very sad in places I highly recommend. My only question was, what happened to the dog?

Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray Press for this ARC

Written from Beth's viewpoint, Broken Country charts her passionate love affair at 18 with Gabriel Wolfe, the handsome son from the big house in the village. He's due to begin his degree in Oxford after the summer and Beth is encouraged to apply for a place at one of the women's colleges there, reading English. Accepted, she dreams of Gabriel and their life together as students. But fate has other ideas.
Ten years later, Beth's life has changed beyond recognition. She is married to Frank, who runs Blakely Farm, where she lives with him and his younger brother Jimmy. She has totally embraced her role as farmer's wife, playing an indispensable and supportive role to the two men. Beth and Frank have a small son, Bobby, and she is happy and settled in her new role. But tragedy is about to strike, and these events, coupled with Gabriel's return to the village, have a huge impact on her and those around her, leading to even more tragedy.

Broken Country is a very addictive and emotional read. The descriptions of life in rural Dorset were brilliant - I grew up in rural Wiltshire, an experience which felt very similar. If there is one slight problem, it’s the construction of the story. The reader moves back and forth between 1955 (when Beth and Gabriel’s affair begins) to 1969. In between, there are also separate headings. I managed to navigate my way around this but there might be some who find headings without dates confusing. Other than this, however, it’s an emotional rollercoaster. Beth’s holds onto a naïve belief that their relationship is strong enough to overcome their different backgrounds . It isn’t, and I felt Gabriel was less than honest with her once he was at Oxford and distance and time changed everything.
Frank for me was the ultimate hero. A decent man who although losing so many of those close to him, made the ultimate sacrifice. I had expected from reading the synopsis that Beth would have been in an unhappy marriage, so that when Gabriel returned, they would automatically take up where they left off. That was not the case. Beth loved Frank, but had an irresistible passion for Gabriel which could not be ignored – one that I personally thought he didn’t deserve. Is there a happy ending? Well sorry, but you are going to have to read the book to find out.

My thanks to John Murray Publishing, the author and Netgalley for an ARC of Broken Country in exchange for an honest review. PS The new cover is wonderful!

Clare Leslie Hall ensures that the central characters in her latest novel, ‘Broken Country’, are fully formed in the reader’s mind early in the novel. Perhaps this is because of the carefully structured past and present episodes that make up the narrative. We understand very clearly both the teenagers they were and the adults they have become because we are side by side with Beth, Frank and Gabriel for over a decade.
The author asks us to sympathise with all her characters, even Jimmy, Frank’s alcoholic, wayward brother, and we do. Seen through Beth’s eyes we understand both his impetuosity and his specific loyalties. Clare Leslie Hall’s depiction of two small boys is also convincing: very different in some ways because of their upbringings, they are both sensitive, creative and loving.
Whilst this is first and foremost a complicated love story, it is also a court room drama. A man dies several years after a child, and in a very different manner. Who has killed him? Was it an accident? Who will be punished?
This is certainly going to please many readers – and so it should. Plot twists, passion, trials and tribulations, all set in the countryside. The author lives in Dorset and there are echoes of Hardy here! Nevertheless, ‘Broken Country’ is a little under-developed in some areas. I would have liked more focus on the landscape. The mainly 60s setting does not convince, other than through a few descriptions of Beth’s and Nina’s clothes. Beth’s parents play an important role and clearly influence her a lot, but they are very shadowy creatures. Likewise, Frank’s father.
A good read and it will be interesting to see what the author writes next.
My thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

A beautifully woven story of true love. The lives of Beth, Gabriel and Frank are told through alternating time lines. A very enjoyable moving read.

Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray Press for a review copy of this novel. Heartbreaking and wonderfully crafted, this novel drew me in from the start. Touted as a novel that compares with 'Paper Palace', it without a doubt has echoes of that novel, but it’s poignancy is more direct and the tension is carved from terrible consequences that build up at an inevitable pace.

Beth meets Gabriel one summer day while out on a walk. She is seventeen and he a year older, waiting to go up to Oxford when the fall term begins. Though they argue initially they’re drawn together by their love for and ambition in literature, but also something beyond definition, a chemistry that is unmatched, all consuming. But she comes from the local community and he’s from the big house, from a social circle she cannot feel comfortable in. And when people and separation put their love to the test it fails and Beth is devastated. It’s Frank that picks up the pieces, a farmer who has loved her since he was thirteen. Beth finds love and contentment with Frank, especially when they have Bobby, their son who becomes the centre of their universe. But his tragic death puts a hole in their relationship that seems impossible to mend. It’s then that Gabriel enters their lives again, after he returns home with his son after the breakup of his marriage. Beth finds him and his son impossible to resist and it tears her apart. It’s a tension that drives the novel throughout—the love of two men, one desperate love, one steady and deep, but now flawed. It’s about choice and consequences. Foreseen and unforeseen.

The novel really makes for compelling and compulsive reading. The three characters are carefully drawn and entirely sympathetic which only adds to the poignancy and heartbreaking quality of the narrative. The structure of changing between time frames helps drive the tension as well making for a need to read to the end kind of feeling. Recommended.

Imagine scenario that your first love is coming back stronger than ever and makes you realise that it never ended? But.. You're grieving mother that is happily married.. But are you?
"Broken Country" by Clare Leslie Hall is outstanding women's fiction that has it all. Marriage, affair, grief and your first love unexpected come back.. To top it up - there is also a murder. Immense story about strength of love, loyalty and family bounds. It's written masterfully and makes you feel you see everything as you would be there watching the story unravelling..
Brilliant book that will make you thinking about all of your own what ifs...

I've received my advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for the honest review. What a read

Hall has crafted an exquisitely beautiful book; it is both unashamedly romantic but extremely hardhitting as it deals with raw emotions such as grief, loss and romantic sacrifice. A compelling story about forgiveness, but most of all its about love with a vivid set of characters that will capture your heart.

I adored it.

It’s hard to convey how much this novel impacted me. I was thoroughly captivated by it and shall never forget it. It is beautifully written and tuned into the glories of nature, the fallibility of human nature, and the fragility of relationships. It’s down to earth with no holds barred, displaying the extraordinary beauty of the consummation of love so sensitively described. Socially, Gabriel and Beth are far removed, but they find a connection as teenagers and spend a hedonistic summer together until they become estranged through a misunderstanding. Beth marries Frank, a dedicated farmer. Tragedy stalks them, and the union wobbles. The loss of their son, Bobby, is the white elephant between them. When Gabriel reappears in her life, Beth is at a vulnerable point of time. The first cut is the deepest. Beth can’t resist the magnetism – like a moth to a flame. The consequences are dire.

I loved the descriptive passages of the village, the farm, the farm animals, and the wildlife. The imagery will remain with me. I devoured every word with a mix of immense enjoyment shadowed by the tragic incidents. I loved all the characters, which were so well-defined and with humour. The literary and musical references were nostalgic, personally, as they were set in my childhood and teenage era. I struggled with the lurcher incident despite understanding from all points of view the necessary but shocking action taken. The catalyst that possibly triggered events.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture.