Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)

Riveting story of love, family, life as a woman.

Disfrute mucho el libro del mes de Junio en el book club y es que, hay historias que no hablan solo de amor, hablan de las decisiones que tomamos, las pérdidas que nos transforman, que seguimos cargando durante tanto tiempo y las huellas que el tiempo deja en nosotros. Naturaleza y vida en el campo. Una historia muy emocional. Nostalgia y el peso del pasado. Personajes imperfectos y humanos. Creo que fue una lectura que me dejó pensando mucho después de terminarla y un vacío lector.

1.5. Rounding to 2 for per Good Reads.⭐️ ⭐️

What. ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH. Is happening to the world of literary praise these days? I swear anyone throw some words haphazardly on a page and it makes the NY Times Best Seller list overnight while readers grapple at their bookshelves for it. Is it me? Am I the drama??

Not sure how I have found myself here- partway through my reads for 2025 and hating myself more and more each book. I go in with high hopes: the world sings this book's resounding praise! And I am let down every. Single. Time.

Now onto the review.

I am going to come right out and say it: Jimmy was right. Beth is a selfish, bloody cow. Frank deserved SO MUCH BETTER. Gabriel was a melodramatic and watered down version of Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy. Comparing this to Where the Crawdads Sing is a FAR reach. This wanted to be in the same category but has unfortunately found itself residing amongst the wannabe's of Remarkably Bright Creatures and Atmosphere.

Now to each their own. But I was not the right nor intended audience for this. I do not like "cheating books", let alone one depicted to be a 'love triangle' which really just turned out to be two men- one fantastic and sweet and one rich boy who wants more from this quintessential life- falling for one self-centered, "woe as me", and quite frankly, terrible, woman. This book basically glorified and, dare I say, praised infidelity in the name of....nothing really. How can there be ZEROOOO growth among characters that have not only had a messy breakup, but got married, had children, and lived separate lives for 11 YEARS and be still hung up on high school fling? OOF that is embarrassing.

In the beginning, I liked this story line. The slow-burn of who it is on trial, and who died, and who done it, was propelling for me. The short chapters made this flow smoothly and the alternate timelines between past and present were easy to follow and honestly, well done. But Beth was insufferable. As soon as Gabriel came back into the picture she threw her whole marriage out the window with ZERO consideration of how her actions would impact others around her, and thought she could get away with it. And she ACKNOWLEDGED the harm her actions were doing, but *dramatic hand to the forehead* "just couldn't stop!" Barf.

We heard an awful lot about how "she loved two men", but I did not buy it. She scarcely talked of Frank in the same way she fawned over Gabriel, and every time she DID talk about Frank (especially once the affair was simmering to the surface) it was closely followed by "But GABRIEL is SO MUCH MORE!" It felt so disingenuous, and the fact she ultimately stayed with Frank at the end made no sense as a result.

It was nauseating how she, a grown woman, threw her whole life and reputation out the window for a high school first love. That lacked any real depth or perceivable devotion outside of the expected teen horniness, might I add. And then, come to find out, BOBBY is GABE'S child. That shocked me more than the 'twist' of Gabriel's son with his estranged American wife, Leo, killing Jimmy, Frank's brother. This only further infuriated me, though, because now you mean to tell me she ruined Frank's WHOLE LIFE and Bobby, the son he adored and MOURNED and was DEPRESSED over...WASN'T EVEN HIS??? AND HE KNEW THIS WHOLE TIME AND CHOSE TO LOVE THEM BOTH ANYWAY?? And Beth STILL did what she did to him?? Why I outta...

I could've guessed, but assumed that since Bobby died (crushed by a TREE??? Hello, traumatic death) it was to signify the 'death' of Beth's life with Frank. Which was intended, I believe, but made no sense considering how Beth latched onto Gabe and Leo as her literal 'surrogate family' while meanwhile knowing all along Bobby was still Gabe's child.

Beth being the person she is, is living her second 'dream' life, living out girlish fantasies with her high school lover and his son while her husband, who is devoted and caring of her and their farm, is supposed to act like nothing is sus about that. Excuse me, what? I think I just hallucinated how that is to be something we praise?? And I am expected to be emotionally invested in this woman? Or even, SYMPATHIZE with her? Somehow validate her feelings and actions? I would be hard-pressed.

The writing was pretty, maybe a little overdrawn in some ways and in some parts, but overall ok to read. But the contents of said writing had me audibly going "Omygosh WHY".

Poor Frank got the shaft end of EVERYTHING in the name of his misplaced guilt and feeling of responsibility, and meanwhile his horrible wife just gets to live her life and screw her ex-boyfriend. But then she, just, breaks up with him (Gabe)? "Because it's always been Frank"??? Sorry girl, since when? Because the last 250 pages you've been going on about how well your body's fit together, and how if 'things were different' you would have been able to live out your dream of being a wealthy aristocrats' wife and a poet, fantasizing about your new son and family (misplaced grief and a coping mechanism, but I digress), and all the years of sizzling passion between you and Gabe that Frank just can't understand. Yet Frank was the one that raised his child as his own, mourned him and thought it was his fault he died, took the blame for his brother's murder in the name of sparing another son and henceforth, 'righting his wrong', and was nothing but loving and devoted to her since he was 13. A fact mentioned no less than 4 times throughout each part.

I don't know. The storyline just wasn't for me, and the execution of said storyline, in my opinion was not done well outside of the fact that writing a morally challenged character like Beth was probably intentional. A given sense of humanity? A realistic rendition of how grief and love rekindled shapes us in both constructive and destructive ways? Possibly. Am I attempting to rationalize the poor quality of this story and its characters as means to validate it and make some stretch of praise, since this appears to be the same book every 5 star review read? Likely.

But as it stands I did not LIKE this book. One star for Frank and Frank only. Half a star for the writing that did tweak my heart strings on occasion. Otherwise, putting this one out to pasture.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is an unforgettable story that aimed for my gut and hit it! I am still thinking about it. I felt so many different emotions while reading this book! I was drawn to the cover and name of this book immediately. On a normal day, a random dog runs into Beth and her husband Frank's farm and begins to attack the sheep. Her husband's brother has to put down the dog. Beth is shocked to see that the dog belongs to the man she loved as a teenager (Gabriel) and he has moved back to town. His son Leo reminds Beth of her son Bobby, who died a few years earlier. Ever so slowly, Beth is pulled back into Gabriel's life. The tension between Beth and Frank begins to climb. What happens next is earth-shattering for everyone involved.

This novel is told in dual timelines which ratchets up the gut-wrench factor. It keeps you guessing and also has a thriller element, which I like. The romance and love aspect is more of a slow burn. It's like the author shows you both sides of the coin and I can't say more without giving anything away. The tenderness concerning the children made me tear up many times. This is a story that could happen in real life, to anyone you know.

Overall, I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars. When a book makes you feel almost every emotion in the book so to speak, and you still think about it days later, that's a winner for me. I felt so many emotions reading this book. You will love this book if you like Where the Crawdads Sing or authors like Kristin Hannah. I recommend it!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Such a surprisingly great story, worth the many positive reviews that inspired me to read it