"This is a love story with too many beginnings. I refuse to think about how it is going to end."
Broken Country is one of those books that leaves a lasting impact long after you finish it. It is also one of those books where you know that something ominous is about to happen, but you don't know when or where and for this reason, I literally had a pit in my stomach for most of the book.
I thought that Beth and Gabriel's teenage romance was beautiful and heartbreaking. One thing that stood out was that all the characters were likeable. Caught up in circumstances, their vulnerabilities and emotions felt real. The author has truly done a remarkable job.

Every so often along comes a novel and you just know . . .

Beth thought Gabriel was the love of her life; for one long summer in her teens they were inseperable until Gabriel left to become the person his mother thought he should be leaving Beth in pieces. Frank was the man who picked her up and mended her broken heart and they've been happily married ever since. Then her brother-in-law shoots a dog which is worrying their sheep and, just like that, Gabriel is back in their life - it was his dog. Along with his son, Leo, the connection is made and Beth doesn't seem able to resist his charms . . .

Oh, this is such a wonderful novel. For me, it was a slow burner but so worth hanging in there and then, when it speeded up, I wanted it to slow down again. It's one of those books which lingers at the back of your mind long after you've finished. I know it's only the beginning of the third month of the year, but I consider that this will be a contender for my book of the year - yes, it's THAT good. Naturally, it merits all five sparkling stars and my very highest recommendation.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

I flew through this book over the weekend. It is such an addictive read and I think that everyone will be talking about it.

The book focuses on the love stories between Beth and Gabriel and later Beth and Frank. It is part love story and part thriller and will definitely keep your attention and will bring up lots of emotion.

I loved this book so much that I straight away purchased the authors two other novels and can't wait to read them!

Thank you to negalleyuk, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Broken Country is out today.

I saw lots of other early readers saying this was rip up me apart and break my heart in the best way, and yes, that’s exactly what it did.

Really, at the heart of it, this is about how humans think and act and feel and how love can influence those decisions in ways you couldn’t even imagine.

The story goes between several different timelines but was easy to follow. And it was very easy to read, whilst also being very difficult to get through (because of all the crying, of course). I quite literally flew through the story, desperate to know what had happened and what was going to happen.

It’s a very small cast of characters that the story centres around and I really felt that even within mere pages, I knew them so deeply and every emotion they felt, I was feeling.

This was a heartbreaker, and it’s just one you have to read and cry over to understand

I really enjoyed this story although I found it a little slow. This however didn’t detract from a proper love story. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, end up separating before meeting many years later. in the meantime girl has married someone else.

The narrative gives us an in depth insight into each of the characters and gives a great base for the story.

There are a few twists which I only worked out just before they happened and the story did keep me interested right to the last page

Beth was seventeen when she first met Gabriel & over one heady, intense summer, he made her think, feel & see differently. She thought it was the start of her great love story but when Gabriel left to become the person his mother expected him to be, she was broken. It was Frank who picked up the pieces & together they built a home very different from the one she'd imagined with Gabriel. Watching her husband & son, she remembered feeling so sure that, after everything, this was the life she was supposed to be leading. But then Gabriel comes back & all Beth's certainty about who she is & what she wants crumbles. Even after ten years, their connection is instant. She knows it's wrong and she knows people could get hurt. But how can she resist a second chance at first love?

Wow. Literally, WOW! This book is so outstandingly good, I don’t think there are enough words to say just how much.

This is a love story with the suspense & tension of a thriller, with a cast of characters you can’t help but love, connections built instantly from the very beginning, feeling every single emotion with them. The pace perfectly set, the POV cleverly switching from the summer they met to their lives ten years later, with the tension filled snippets of a courtroom trial also interlinked, the writer executing every element of this flawlessly.

I finished this in one sitting, I honestly couldn’t put it down but also didn’t want it to end. I was left with a ‘book hangover’ after finishing this, I just couldn’t stop thinking of how wonderful this story was. This is the pure definition of a book that you wish you could read again for the first time, many times over.

When a book receives a lot of hype, there is always the worry it can’t live up to it, but Broken Country not only deserves the hype, it excels itself on every possible level. This is a book that will stay with me forever, a story I have no doubt I will revisit time & time again. This is THE book of the year without question.

Wow! What a book. I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t put it down. It pulls at your heartstrings beginning to end. Just brilliant.
Set in the 1960’s in a small English countryside town. A story of first love, grief, marriage, forgiveness and a murder trial. A love story but so much more than that. It’s an emotional rollercoaster.
With short chapters, a beautifully written and all consuming story packed with twists and likeable characters that pull you in. Detailed and atmospheric. I loved this author’s writing style which is passionate, poignant and full of characters that are so real. I look forward to more from @clarelesliehall
Highly recommend this literacy fiction. This book is definitely one of my favourite reads of 2025 so far.
With thanks to #NetGallery #JohnMurray #JohnMurrayPress for an arc of #BrokenCountry in exchange for a honest review.
Book publishes 4 March 2025

Thank you NetGalley and John Murray Press for this eCopy to review

I recently read Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, it is a gripping blend of romance and thriller, set in an English farming village where past secrets and present tensions collide.

The story begins with a seemingly simple event: Beth's brother-in-law shoots a dog that was attacking their sheep. However, this incident sets off a chain of events that unearths long-buried secrets. The dog belonged to Gabriel Wolfe, Beth's first love, who has returned to the village with his young son, Leo. Gabriel's return stirs up old emotions and memories for Beth, especially since Leo reminds her of her own son, Bobby, who tragically died a few years earlier.

Beth is happily married to Frank, a kind and gentle man, but their relationship is built on the foundation of keeping the past hidden. As Beth becomes more involved in Gabriel and Leo's lives, the village's tensions rise, and jealousy and old grudges resurface. The story toggles between the past and present, revealing the far-reaching consequences of first love and the choices Beth must make between her past and her present self.

I found Hall's writing very atmospheric and the characters were complex, and well-drawn. The pacing is excellent, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. However, some might find the constant shifts between past and present a bit disorienting. Despite this, Broken Country is a compelling read that explores themes of love, loss, and the impact of buried secrets.

Overall, I would recommend Broken Country to anyone who enjoys a mix of romance and thriller with a strong emotional core.

What started off as a beautiful, gentle love story, full of joy, wonder and hope for the future, brutally enmeshed me in it's pages until I sobbed out aloud and put the book down for a break. The story pulled me back in, the twists were totally unexpected and opened my eyes to the love surrounding everyone.

I can see why the rights have been sold as a film, the descriptions of the land and wildlife are glorious. I could see it all in my mind as I was reading.

This is a wonderful book. Full of tension, emotion and nostalgia I read it in a day which I rarely do these days and it is honestly worth the hype (again, don’t feel this that often currently). It’s completely gripping and a proper page turner while also being subtle, complex and nuanced. @clarelesliehall handles multiple timelines smoothly and I’m not going to say effortlessly but that’s how she makes it look. It’s heart breaking and doesn’t let its characters off the hook but also retains a sense of optimism, hope and forgiveness. TLDR it’s really excellent and you should read it but maybe wait till you’re feeling fairly emotionally resilient

If you’re looking for this year’s Where The Crawdads Sing or The Paper Palace: readers, meet Broken Country. This is going to be a smash hit.

The very definition of a pageturner, Broken Country brings us into the heart of rural England, a passionate love story, a marriage in decline, a love triangle and a dead body. But who is dead and who pulled the trigger?

Set in Dorset, we meet Beth, married to Frank, a sheep farmer who is loving and loyal to his wife through turbulent times. Life is peaceful until Beth’s first love Gabriel, a successful author with Hollywood credentials, returns to their village, forcing Beth to confront the past and feelings she thought she had buried forever.

This is a well-written, propulsive, addictive love story with the steam-rolling pace of a thriller. It’s an excellent addition to the rural noir canon and will sell like hot cakes. Is it a bit cheesy in parts? Did I see elements of the plot a mile off? Did I read it in two sittings? Did I cry at the end? Yes to all of the above.

A fantastic read that I’d recommend to readers who love a juicy, suspenseful tale that also manages to tug at the heartstrings. 4.5/5⭐️

*Many thanks to the publisher John Murray for the advance copy via @netgalley. Broken Country is out tomorrow 4 March.

Few books have stayed with me long after I have finished reading them, but this one has and I know that I will want to reread it again and again. You can feel all the emotions from Beth, Gabriel and Frank as their love story unfolds, slowly building up to its heartbreaking conclusion. Beautifully written this book is outstanding. And yes I will always be Team Frank.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Every so often, you read a book that you know you’ll still be thinking about in ten years time. As you get deeper into the story, the characters become more and more real and your enjoyment turns into investment…these people’s lives mean something to you now, you care about them like you do your friends and family. This is one of those books.

The writing is sublime, evocative and emotional. It’s literary fiction that’s accessible to everyone, no airs and unnecessary intellectualism, just the absolute best choice of words on every line. The universal themes of love, loss, regret, sacrifice, and family are woven together into a gripping story that doesn’t let go until the very last pages. It’s melodramatic but not maudlin, it’ll capture your heart for sure.

There are twists-a-plenty to keep the mystery lovers happy too. Some I figured out, others I didn’t. Even the ones I did see, I still wanted to see what the fallout would be and there were surprises there.

Absolutely awesome!

It’s a while since a book made me cry but I was in bits at the end of Broken Country.
This is a beautifully written story of a woman caught between 2 men, the wealthy Gabriel who was her first love, and Frank, the farmer who helped her put her life back together when her relationship with Gabriel goes horrendously wrong.
She loves them both deeply but the death of her son drives her from the security of Frank back to her first love, leading to a tragedy that will destroy them all.
The characters are brilliantly written and you can understand the motivations of them all. They are all in an impossible position and you know from the first page that it is all going to go horribly wrong. It’s an unbearably tense read, sometimes I had to put it down as I couldn’t bear to find out what would happen next.
Absolutely sensational, 5 stars at the very least.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the gifted e-arc.

Wow. What an amazing book. Definitely a 5 star read for me.

This heartbreaking, powerful story of a family with so many ups and downs which kept me captivated the whole way through. There was so much emotion in this; love, pain, anger, regret, sorrow, grief, heartbreak, happiness and so much healing. I am so sad that it ended. I felt like I could’ve kept on reading for ages! Loved Clare’s writing and the emotion and detail she put into the main characters, Beth, Frank and Gabriel will make them stay with me for a long time.

Hugely recommend this to anyone!

I think I’ve read my book of the year for 2025!.

From the first page until the last, this mesmerising story had me captivated.

The story was both beautiful and heartbreaking, that first love really has a hold on you as so many people will know.

It’s that age old question , do you go with the exciting kind of love that takes your breath away or the normal, steady love that lasts a lifetime no matter what?.

As I was laying in the bath reading the last few chapters, i couldn’t stop crying because of the most beautiful and heartbreaking moments that Beth, Frank and Gabriel go through when everything gets laid bare.

The ending was sublime and will stay with me for a long time, I need to read more by this talented author.

I knew nothing about this book before picking it up only that it has been well received by early reviewers.

I picked it up last night and just finished it through tears. What a read.

Would recommend going in knowing as little as possible and just let this story transport you back to rural England in the middle of the 20th century.

Beautifully written, a deeply moving , compelling and memorable book. I loved it.

I am struggling to find the words to describe this beautiful but heart breaking story.
What begins as a teenage love affair between two innocents from different backgrounds turns into tragedy and heartbreak.
I became immersed in the lives of these people, hoping and holding my breath as I turned the pages that all would turn out well.
This is a story which will remain with you for a long time. Events are slowly revealed, puces of the jigsaw fitting together that sometimes you wish they would fit elsewhere.
This is a new author for me but I have already ordered ‘Days you were mine’ .

A deeply moving story of how you can't go back in life, only try to keep finding a way to move forward, Beth falls deeply in love at a young age with posh boy Gabriel who dashes her dreams of joining him in Oxford and then disappears from her life. Frank is there to help her pick up the pieces, and they build a solid life together. When Gabriel returns, son in tow, we see the consequences of that early romance reverberate through Beth's life and the people close to her. It's haunting, it's bittersweet and it's really really sad, beautifully written and realised, set to stay with you in many ways.

Words cannot describe how much I have loved this book. It is simply stunning on every level. The writing, the plot. Perfection. I knew, only 20% through, that this was going to be a book that will be one I will tell random strangers on the street to read. I pre-ordered the Goldsboro special edition knowing I wanted a special copy of this on my shelves. This is more than just a romance, there's just so much to unpack. I have never, ever, cried reading a book and this book had me full in sobbing in the closing chapters. That just tells you how incredible the writing is, to evoke such an emotion from me.