Author: Clare Leslie Hall

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 9781668078181

An English farmwife must face her past when her first love returns to town. As she grapples with what she has now and what could have been, she’s torn between the memories of youth and her steady, quiet husband. Author Clare Leslie Hall brings to life the happenings of a small town in vibrant descriptions of the English countryside with a plot that is only so-so in her latest book Broken Country.

In the small British town of Hemston, Beth Johnson is happy as a farmwife. Well, mostly happy. She and her husband, Frank, lost their only son in a terrible accident a few years earlier, and they’re still coping with their grief. They have each other, though, and Frank’s younger brother, Jimmy, who is devoted to their little family. An imminent engagement for Jimmy with his longtime girlfriend, Nina, promises to bring happiness to the Johnson farm once again.

Then Gabriel Wolfe moves back to the village, and for Beth it seems like time has folded in on itself. When she was a young woman, she and Gabriel met on the expansive grounds of his family’s palatial home. For one blissful summer, they were everything to each other. Then Gabriel went to Oxford, and everything changed.

Gabriel’s mother didn’t approve of Beth at all, but Beth truly believed the love she shared with Gabriel would stand strong against all of the naysayers. She didn’t know her love would be tested by themselves. After a falling out, Beth vowed to turn her back on the entire Wolfe family. Frank, in love with her from the time they were kids, quietly stepped into the role of Beth’s companion, and she eventually found love with him.

But now Gabriel’s back, and everything is muddled again. Worse, he’s brought his young son, Leo, who would have been about the same age as Beth and Frank’s son had he lived. Despite knowing it’s a terrible idea, Beth finds herself taking Leo under her wing and teaching him everything she once taught her own boy. That doing so gives her an opportunity to be near Gabriel once again doesn’t escape her, and before either of them knows what’s happening they find their way back into one another’s arms.

Beth is beside herself with guilt but also relief. She and Gabriel work through the misunderstanding from years before, but finding resolution for that only brings more complications into their lives. Beth is still married to Frank and still loves him. Frank was her support through trying times, and Beth knows it would be wrong to end their relationship. But Gabriel had her heart first, and as she continues to spend time with him she realizes he’ll carry a piece of it forever.

Author Clare Leslie Hall sets up her book with a nonlinear timeline that doesn’t add much to the overall story. The novel opens at the start of a murder trial, but Hall takes her time revealing who’s accused of the crime and who died. Instead, she alternates moments in the trial with two other stories—the first of Beth and Gabriel in the early days of their first romance and the second of the time in the year leading up to the murder. All three stories converge eventually, but the writing device feels a little unnecessary.

Also unnecessary is the nonlinear timeline. Hall writes of small-town England with a practiced hand, and Beth and Gabriel’s romance from their early days is compelling. The periodic interruptions to go back to the trial and to the year leading up to it don’t build suspense; instead, they feel more disruptive than anything else. 

In the end, more discerning readers may find themselves frustrated by Beth as a protagonist. She essentially starts and ends the book in the same place. Even though she expresses guilt at her infidelity, after a while those feelings start to feel hollow. Beth reiterates for readers just how much Frank is devoted to her, and Hall shows him to be so in scene after scene. It’s somewhat baffling then just why Beth would repeatedly run to Gabriel. 

Frank’s passivity, while explained later in the book, might make some readers impatient for a while. The reason doesn’t feel quite strong enough to justify it. Also, marketing materials make it seem like explosive information is forthcoming, but the description is greatly exaggerated.

The book tries too hard to be a mystery and a romance all rolled into one. Readers who appreciate lovely descriptions of small towns might want to check this out. Otherwise I recommend they Borrow Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall.