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Clare Leslie Hall, author of Broken Country

Beth and her gentle, kind husband, Frank, are happily married, though 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.

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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

March 2025

There are books that are hard for me to describe as all I want to say is “I loved it.” BROKEN COUNTRY by Clare Leslie Hall is one of those books. How is this for a description? One night I stayed up until 2:45am reading it, and when I turned the last page, I took a quick picture and posted it on Instagram with some praise attached. It is the first time that I ever have done that in the wee hours of the morning.

I am not sure what I loved the most. Was it the characters, the plot, the twists, the writing…or how all of these elements came together so brilliantly? If I am asked to compare it to another book, the easy reply would be THE PAPER PALACE, as it also is about a woman who has loved two men. But then I think of the way that the farm is so beautifully described, and I am pulled in other directions on how to bring readers to it. Oh, and it takes place in the ’50s and ’60s, the decades that set a tone themselves.

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