Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
It’s hard to say much about Broken Country without giving away its delicate mix of beauty and heartbreak.
It’s part romance, part thriller, part murder mystery—and somehow, all of those things at once.
A love triangle that never quite fades.
Broken Country begins with Beth and Gabriel, two countryside teenagers who fall hard and fast after a chance meeting near a quiet fishing lake. He comes from money. She lives off food scraps.
But for them, in that moment, none of it matters.
After high school, life starts pulling them in different directions. Gabriel’s mother, determined to see her son marry into wealth and status, feeds Beth a lie that drives a wedge between them.
It works. They’re torn apart, both lost without each other.
Now alone, Beth chooses Frank—her stability.
Frank is a former classmate and a steady sheep farmer who’s loved her since they were thirteen. Together, they raise their son Bobby and care for Frank’s troubled brother, Jimmy, on the family farm that’s sustained the Johnsons for generations.
“There can be no greater intoxication, no purer feeling, than the moment when you meet your child after all the months of wondering and hoping and dreaming.”
It becomes the life Beth always imagined: a family, a home, a sense of purpose. Her love for Gabriel fades into the background, tucked away like a cherished memory.
But Frank knows...
He feels it in the quiet moments—the shadow of Gabriel still lingering in her heart. And he’s haunted by it.
He keeps it to himself—because loving her means never making her choose.
But when Gabriel returns, everything shifts.
New truths come to light—and with them, the painful realization that the secrets that tore them apart were built on lies.
Do you think, Gabriel says, if we are careful, we could have this for a little while? Because, what we had before, you and I, it was more than most people ever have.
Beth is torn.
Frank is everything solid and safe—her home, her anchor. Gabriel is the unknown, the pull of something wild and unfinished.
Her first desire.
"I was right, our lovemaking is more than sex, more than love, it is pure, unadulterated nostalgia and there is nothing more intoxicating than that."
Broken Country shows us that sometimes, the most heroic act isn’t grand or loud—it’s loving someone enough to let them go.
One man’s sacrifice, made quietly and without expectation, becomes the story’s most selfless truth.
As the pages turn, the lines between love, betrayal, and loyalty blur. The deeper you go, the more tangled it becomes—and the more you realize: when it comes to the people you love, there’s almost nothing you wouldn’t do.
Broken Country is everything you crave in a twisted love story—gripping and quietly devastating.
And the ending? You will not see it coming.
(I love when that happens. Don’t you?)
Pick up Broken Country. It won’t disappoint.
Until next time,
Sheila
P.S. If Broken Country cracked your heart open, at least let’s make it a group experience—share this review and bring others into the heartbreak club.
