Thank you to #SimonSchuster and #NetGalley for the DRC of #BrokenCountry. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This is an engrossing and heartbreaking story about relationships - first loves, parents & children, marriage and brothers - and all the ways those relationships shape, break and save a person.

Set in the English countryside with a dual timeline (1955 and 1968), it centers on Beth, her husband Frank and their quiet, farming life. Beth is still grieving the tragic death of her son when her first love, Gabriel, returns. Soon Beth's whole world is turned upside down as she must face the consequences of her actions.

Part coming of age/first love, part murder mystery/court drama, this is a well written novel that will keep you turning the pages and thinking about the characters long after you've finished the book. Definitely recommend.

“It’s strange, the patchwork stories we tell someone when we want them to catch up, a shortcut to knowing us, as if such a thing were possible.”

The opening pages of this fantastic new novel drops us right into a trial…a farmer is murdered, and readers won’t find out who it is or why it happened until the final few chapters.

What spools out with the most amazing, lyrical writing is the past and present story of Beth, her husband Frank and her teenage love Gabriel. The English countryside in the 1960s is a character in and of itself and gave this book a perfect balance of sense-of-place and character study. Dripping with nostalgia throughout, the story of love, loss and life changing guilt took my breath away. The core protagonists are buoyed by a stellar cast of supporting characters, written with a brutal elegance I have seen in very few works of fiction. Typically I hand write a list of characters while reading, but Broken Country was so seamless in its dual timeline pacing, that I was able to simply immerse myself in the storytelling. What a gift to readers who consume many books and have an appreciation for an economy of words.

This novel will especially appeal to fans of Shelley Read’s Go As A River!

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for the early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ooo, this is going to be a buzzy book for 2025!

When a dog attacks their sheep, the Johnson’s have no choice but to protect their livestock. It sets off a series of events that will change all of their lives forever.

There was just something about the writing that had me completely enthralled. Beautiful but not pretentious and easy to read. Somehow encapsulating romance, family drama, mystery, and thriller elements, about halfway through I picked it up and couldn’t put it down.

This was very close to 5 stars for me, but I struggled to really love the characters of Beth and Gabriel. They are complex and flawed, and the decisions they make as teenagers are understandable, their struggles as adults are less so. Regardless, the story pulled me in and is likely to keep any reader hooked, and would be an excellent book club pick (I think it is going to be a celebrity pick, and I could see it being a movie/tv series as well).

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster.

Note - there are several bedroom scenes, but they are mostly brief and only involve a paragraph or two.

Wow Broken Country was a completely surprising delight to read!

After being offered an early copy, I decided to grab it because the plot sounded interesting. It sucked me in almost immediately and the only thing that stopped me from tearing through it was the fact that I was doing a scheduled buddy read.

I loved the time jumps in this book and how it always left you wanting a little more. The chapters were short and it helped keep the pace fast. The characters all felt real in that they were flawed and you could follow their line of thinking when they made decisions.

I was really surprised by a lot of things in this book, there were several twists I did not see coming! The end was so perfect it made me cry (and I rarely cry at books).

Highly recommend this one! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

4-4.5 stars
Drama, tragedy, mystery, and romance in an English village. Well done and sometimes heartbreaking, although a few of the decisions some characters made were hard for me to fathom. Just talk to each other, people! Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

This book is so good! I will admit that it took me a minute to get into it, but once I did, it was hard to put down. It's got historical fiction, mystery, and lots of family drama.

The characters are all so well developed, and I loved them all! I am a big fan of Diane Chamberlain, and this book reminded me of her. I will read this author again!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and give my honest review This is my first book by this author. Her book was a very sensitive and emotional story. It’s one of those books that grabs you and takes you on quite a ride. You will feel all the feels…….from love,to loss and learning to forgive. So get ready for a book that will leave its mark on you.

An epic and beautifully written love story! Beth is happily married living on the farm when her first love, Gabriel suddenly comes back in town with his son and is living on a neighboring property. Their worlds collide and the feelings resurface between them putting her in the middle of a love triangle with Frank who has been a steady and loving rock for her through the loss of their son and the man she always thought she'd be with forever. Gabriel. There are dual plotlines that take us back and forth from the present where someone is on trial for a murder back to the time when she and Gabriel fell in love leaving you to wonder who was murdered, who is the killer and will they be convicted. I loved, loved this book and recommend it to anyone who loves romance entertwined with mystery.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC! #BrokenCountry

What a dynamic book! This book is told in alternating time periods; before, 1968, and 1970 ish. The chapters are short and just hint at something more, so I found myself reading this much too quickly and yet not fast enough as I tried to figure out what had happened. What happened before and what happened in 1968 to get us to 1970 ish. How did it fit together? What happened? Also, was that the truth?

Ugh, this was such a great book. The pacing was amazing with keeping three interwoven plots going, and yet there were chapters where I was so frustrated because it didn't feel like it moved the story along but the problem was really me, or more depressingly, Real Life, that kept me from reading this in one sitting.

I picked this one from Netgalley and I'm thankful I did.

“Broken Country” is an emotionally gripping, heart-breaking story that will stay with you long after the last page is read. It’s a story about love, and loss, guilt, and remorse. It’s about the fragility of life and the consequences of our choices. It’s about learning to move forward and the possibility of second chances. “Broken Country” is all of these things and then some. It’s also a top read for 2025, setting the bar quite high for all those that shall follow.

Loved this book! I cant stop thinking about the story and these characters. Likely will be a top book of the year for me.

An interesting love triangle story with twists and turns. I got into this story right from the start and kept reading. It’s a great book.

This book is so well written, the characters are so vivid, the love is so vibrant, the tragedies are so devastating, and the twists are so surprising that the readers' emotions are dripping off of each page. It's a murder mystery, a coming of age story, a love triangle, and so much more. I read this straight through in one setting. I could not put it down. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced reader copy.

My thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me to review this outstanding read!

The synopsis says it all, so I won't repeat but share thoughts and opinions. This book had everything in it to hold the readers interest, but pulls at your heart. It is so well written and the characters have depth.

You will get an established murder, but not know who,. There's an animal death, lost love, found love, a tragic death, grieving parents, a love triangle, and a court trial. I finished this in 2 days.

My ONLY complaint was a choppy back and forth non linear storyline which was a bit confusing to follow. The flow was better toward the end and the build up.finally revealed the victim and killer. What an ending!

Wow! I finished this in 2 days and wish I had slowed down to savor it more. The depth of the characters made your heart yearn for the happiness of each broken and tender character. You will root for each one in their time. This story breaks your heart over and over again but somehow seems to glue it back before the next tear comes. Characters that I’ll think about for a long time.

I am utterly speechless because this book was such a ride! I was shattered and felt whole at the same time. What an incredible writing with so many unexpected curveballs, a true joy of reading. Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the chance to read this in advance

I devoured this book. I was so hooked, I couldn't put this down. The grief, the love, the missed opportunities, the guilt and blame over tragedy, the murder mystery, it all worked so well and was written beautifully. This one will stick with me for a while. This is sure to be a top book of 2025.

This devastating, beautiful, must-read novel centers on unrequited youthful passion that ends up decades later in a murder that wrecks innumerous lives in a small English farming community in Dorset. You cannot help but be swept up in the story, with your heart feeling as wrenched as the characters involved.

In the summer of 1968, local village girl Beth Johnson and scion of a wealthy Gabriel have intense intellectual and physical romance. Swept up in the each, they vow to stay connected as Gabriel heads off to Oxford in hopes of becoming a writer and Beth dreams of following him the year after as an aspiring poet. Gabriel’s family of course wants him to be with someone of his own class and actually brings American friends to stay at the mansion, along with their gorgeous daughter Louise, who also will be entering the freshman class of Oxford. As Gabriel’s letters to Beth start to ebb and then she visits him to discover he’s in a relationship with Louise, she returns heartbroken to home.

Beth marries kind-hearted farmer Frank and exchanges her passion about poetry for a deep love of Frank farming the family land along him, his brother Jimmy and Dad David. That is until their wonderful nine-year-old son Bobby dies tragically in an accident for which Beth blames Frank, and grief threatens to overcome them both and wreck their marriage. Two years after Bobby dies, separated Gabriel returns to live at his family mansion along with his eight-year-old son Leo. Beth forges a close bond with Leo, who deeply reminds her of Bobby and helps her work out her grief, as well as finds her passion for Gabriel reignited.

All this swirls towards violence and running alongside the stories of both timelines is a murder trial – yet we don’t know until deep into the book who’s the accused and who’s been killed.

Beth’s torn between two men, both of whom she loves in profoundly different ways, and this proves the heart-breaking core of the novel. The language often verges on the poetic as you’re plunged into a compelling and unforgettable morality tale about love and loss.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

The course of Beth's love life runs far from true. We know from the opening pages of the book that the end of this story is tragedy. Beth Kennedy's first love is deep and true, but short lived. She and Gabriel Wolfe have little more than a summer together. Their very different upbringings might have ultimately caused them to grow apart, but the sudden rupture of their affair, and Beth's quick marriage to a farmer leave both Gabriel and Beth missing what they never really had.

Despite their many questionable decisions, Beth, Gabriel, and Frank, Beth's husband, are strongly drawn characters. Hall is at her best describing the countryside and life in rural England. The twists in the plot are surprising, but retrospectively understandable.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This evocative and emotional offering by author Hall impresses. Admittedly it had me choked up several times. It is told in the past called “before” which appears to be in the era of the 50’s and in the present being 1968, ultimately ending in 1970. It was easy to follow the progression of the relationship between a middle class girl Beth, daughter of two teachers, and elite-class Gabriel from a wealthy family, when they meet as teens and fall in love. Yes this is a love story but not your run of the mill type. The construction and presentation of the novel is somewhat mysterious and has the reader wondering, as it doesn’t disclose the answers to a few key elements in the story line until further on in the novel. It is told from Beth’s point of view. I enjoyed getting acquainted with her and the other relatable characters, including the children. Frank, especially, is an admirable man that any reader will undoubtedly come to care for.

A sheep farm in England as the setting is easily imagined. The work that goes on is described in detail at times but not in a boring way. As a city girl, I found myself learning a few things about ewes, milking a cow, birds and even of children raised in that environment that can learn at a very young age.

This is not just a love story, but also a mystery, as secrets from the past and present unfold, covering the topics of grief, guilt, longing and acceptance of what is. This immersible novel will appeal to general fiction fans at various levels. Totally enthralling, I was drawn into this from the opening chapter. The ending will surprise many but I actually did anticipate a thing or two. This remained in my thoughts long after I finished the last chapter.

I look forward to more from this gifted author and am happy to recommend this. My sincerest thanks to Simon & Schuster via NetGalley for a prelim e-copy to peruse and to offer my review. Get your copy at your favorite retailer on March 4, 2025.