Broken Country

When I first read the blurb, it thought it was just another love story - loss, love, relationships and grief. Honestly, it didn't grab me. But thank God I gave it a chance, because this book will stay with me for a very long time. It's one of those rare stories that made me angry with the good characters and sympathise with the flawed ones. This kind of love story you don't come across easy, trust me. The story revolves around three main characters Beth, Gabriel and Frank. Beth and Gabriel the classic childhood sweethearts destined for heartbreak. And then Frank the steady knight who swoops in to save the girl already broken once. Years later Frank and Beth have built a quiet happy life with their son Bobby, until tragedy strikes. The grief of such a loss never really goes away, but they continue to try. Enter Gabriel(celebrity author) returning to his hometown along with his son Leo. Beth, Gabriel, Frank and Leo's lives get entangled into a roller coaster they cannot seem to switch off. Temptation, sacrifice, love, parenthood, relationships all swirled into one big pot. Beth still loves Gabriel, but she also loves Frank. It sounds that simple, right? The way Hall weaves this tale, is nothing short of masterful. Imagine a John Grisham tension blended with a Liane Moriarty's emotional depth It is a must read-I cannot say it enough.

This book is a historical fiction with romance and thriller. The book was itself good. It's just the love triangle of the FMC between her husband and her first love really annoyed me. It was nice to read the emotions she was feeling where she couldn't leave her husband and she can't forget her first love but the husband was really good which broke my heart.

After "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans, this is another book worth your time. Interesting from page 1 & not a single page where you feel bored. One of the stories where your heart goes out for each & every character, you laugh & cry with them, you get absorbed in their helplessness, despair & sorrow. This one is a masterpiece by Claire Leslie Hall!

Luckily received the book without any scratches on the cover or damaged corners despite the fact that the book was not bubble wrapped as usual.

⭐️⭐️/5 stars for me Infidelity is not cute. I said what I said 🙃 Whatever the reason, it doesn’t just hurt two people, it leaves a trail of broken lives behind it And Beth? I HATE YOU, BETH😭 I honestly don’t know what I’m missing because I still can’t understand the hype around this book. I knew somewhere around the 50% mark that this was simply not going to be the book for me, and unfortunately, the rest didn’t change my mind. The premise had so much potential, but the choices these characters made had me questioning everyone and everything. Still gathering my thoughts on this one, but one thing I know for sure: Beth, we are NOT friends 💀 Did you love Broken Country or were you just as frustrated as I was?

I’ve heard so much about this book but somehow the title was a deterrent. My advice to anyone who thinks the same - don’t. It’s a beautiful book filled with raw emotion.

The beauty of the book is the well-developed characters - the star crossed lovers, the interfering mother, the sacrificing husband. It’s a story about class, parenthood, guilt, and deep family ties. There is a nice twist towards the end, and all the loose ends neatly tie up together. By the end of the book, it will feel like a Bollywood movie plot though. It’s a pleasant read; enough to make you shed a few tears and sigh, if that’s your thing.

Clare has woven the plot in a very wholesome manner providing all answers to a tale with many twists and turns.

What a beautiful, complicated and emotional story. That ending, WOW. One of my favorite books this year, for sure !

Uma boa leitura!

I really enjoyed this book and read it in record time as I could not put it down!

Fesselnder Roman, in drei Tagen verschlungen :) sehr zu empfehlen!

Broken Country is the rare novel that proves love stories can hold the same tension as a thriller and the same precision as a mystery. It begins with the ordinary—a marriage, a farm, a small village—and peels it open to reveal all the danger that lies inside intimacy. Beth and Frank have built their lives in Dorset, their routines sturdy enough to keep grief at bay. But when Gabriel, Beth’s first love, returns with his young son, the past starts to hum under the surface. It’s less a triangle than an implosion. Love, loyalty, guilt—all the quiet storms that can undo a life. Hall’s writing feels effortless. But it's not. It takes skill to understand that emotion doesn't need embellishment. The tension is constant but quiet, the kind that works its way under your skin. Beth is not an easy woman to root for, and that’s what makes her unforgettable. Her longing feels dangerous: that urge to reclaim a self you lost along the way. Frank embodies decency; Gabriel, possibility. Between them lies the gap between duty and desire, between the life we build and the life that keeps calling us back. Through that, Hall asks what love demands—truth or endurance, forgiveness or honesty—and whether any heart can survive all four. Every act of love in Broken Country is tangled with blame, forgiveness, and the impossible wish to rewrite the past. The question that runs through both timelines is: Can love ever return to what it was before guilt entered the picture? That’s the heartbeat of this novel. Broken Country is a love story, and also a meditation on what survives when love and loss have stripped everything else away. It’s not an easy book—it’s better than that. It’s real. BookSloth often closes one book and immediately reaches for the next. But not this time. Some books don’t let you turn the page so easily. It wasn’t sadness exactly. She didn’t cry. It was something slower, deeper. Later, she made she peppermint tea, shelved it, told herself she was ready for the next read. But she was still thinking about Dorset, about guilt and grace, about how love can wound and heal in the same breath. Some books you finish. Others, like this one, stay with you. No tears, no gasps—only five sloths, breathing softly, not quite ready to move on.