- My Rating: 5/5
- Goodreads Rating: 4.26/5
- Year Published: 2025
- Page Count: 319
“This is a love story with too many beginnings. I refuse to think about how it is going to end.”
Synopsis
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. 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. (Goodreads 2025)
“Why do adults do this? Why do they promise things they have no way of being able to deliver?”
My Review (Spoiler-free!)
What a spectacular story. I’m a sucker for a love story that spans decades. Broken Country, told through a dual-timeline (named, aptly, “before” and “after”) was exactly that, but with the driving force of a mysterious murder and a trial where it’s unclear who the person being tried is. The murder plot line was executed amazingly—I don’t read a lot of mystery, so I was happily blindsided by the ending, but I suspect it may be fairly predictable for lovers of mysteries. Luckily, the prose is so beautiful and the story so fast-paced that even knowing the ending, it’s a deeply impactful read.
These characters were breathtakingly real. They weren’t super likable, they made the wrong choices more often than not, and sometimes I wanted to reach into the pages and shake them, but those are my favorite characters to read about. I could understand precisely how they end up in the situations they do, because at their core, they’re human, and therefore fallible.
I’m sitting here staring at my keyboard because I’m just so in awe of this book. I have nothing more to add. Amazing, perfect, gorgeous, plus every synonym of amazing you can think of.
“But we are not who we once were. He is a father, and I was a mother, our identities as merged as they once were separated. You can never change back once you’ve had a child, even if that child no longer exists.”
Recommendation
I highly recommend this to any type of reader. Hall included a little bit of everything, so any reader can enjoy it. If you like mysteries, Broken Country is an incredible mystery. If you want a romance, Broken Country‘s love story will break your heart and put it back together. If you want a strong character study? Broken Country. Fast-paced plot? Broken Country. This book is the answer to all of your prayers.
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