Broken Country

A love triangle unearths dangerous, deadly secrets from the past in this thrilling tale perfect for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.

“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
• Published: Simon & Schuster Audio on March 4, 2025
• Genre: Romance, family life
• Listening length: 9 hours 11 minutes
• Dates listened: 9.19.25 – 9.22.25
• Format: Audiobook (borrowed on Libby)
• Narrator: Hattie Morahan
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• ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• 🌶🌶🌶

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Wow!! What a book! As much as I loved this book, I don’t think it would be for everyone. There are a few possible triggers for some people. I’m shameless and have zero triggers, so none of it bothered me. But if you avoid subjects of infidelity, child death/grief, pet/animal death, gun violence, alcoholism, or suicide ideation, you’ll want to avoid this book then. However, I think you’d regret it…to each their own, as they say!

Sometimes you get a chance, mere seconds, perhaps, when you can avert a tragedy before it happens. This is mine. My moment. My chance. But I don’t take it…Instead, I make a foolish choice, one that will turn all our lives into a horror show and keep me awake night after night with an endless parade of ‘if onlys.’

I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s writing style. The story is told from the FMC’s (Beth) POV with a dual timeline. The author slowly reveals Beth and Gabriel’s past relationship and history, while bringing the story to the present timeline with their new relationship and how it develops, as well as Beth’s history and relationship with Frank. Whether I agreed (or disagreed) with the choices that the characters in the book made, I could understand what led them to make the decisions that they did, and that helped add realism to the story for me. It definitely makes you sit there and think, “What would I have done?” The author very craftily slid her little plot twists into the story towards the end, and I never expected them. The story flowed so seamlessly and beautifully that I felt the heartbreak, the grief, the excitement, and the build-up all the way to the end. I won’t ruin how it ends for everyone, but ugh!! So good. I got a little bit teary-eyed at how it ended. Such a good book about betrayal, social divisions, grief, heartbreak, forgiveness, and redemption. Loved it!!!!