Date: August 26, 2025
Author: Clare Leslie Hall
Title: Broken Country
All I can say is… scandalous! I loved this book! There is so much I want to say and gush over but I’ll try to avoid any spoiler alerts.
As a young girl Beth knew Frank was in love with her and she even put it out there that she wouldn’t object to saying yes to a date with the handsome young man. Alas, he waits too long and loses her to Gabriel. The posh boy from the upper crust down the way.
Beth is eventually invited to a dinner party with Gabriel, his family, and some friends. She couldn’t help the jealousy that floods her when she realizes how close Gabriel is becoming with this beautiful girl, (I’ll call her Blond Hussy, from here on out) that Beth is now having to suffer through this formal dinner alongside. Not only that, but she is just now learning that when Gabriel moves away to college in the upcoming term, Blond Hussy will also be attending, and will sure to be offering him her hussy shoulder to cry on.
After Gabriel has been gone a month, Beth goes to visit. She notices that there seems to be a distance between the two of them that wasn’t there before, and that Gabriel talks a little too much of Blond Hussy, for Beth’s comforts. Plus, it was kind of weird that at the party they went to he introduced her as a friend, from back home, instead of as his girlfriend.
By the end of the weekend she has realized she no longer fits into his life and confirms this with a read-through of Gabriel’s diary. Could he really be falling for Blond Hussy? There seems to be no need to ask because the words she read were pretty damning.
Waiting back home with open arms to console Beth is Frank. They fall in love, marry and are forging a life together on their farm when suddenly Gabriel reappears years later with a young son in tow, reminding Beth so much of the little boy she herself had lost not so long ago in a tree felling accident.
Temperatures of old flames sparking anew are enough to ignite jealous tempers along with deadly intentions. You will never guess who gets shot, and definitely not who was behind the trigger.
I award this story an if-I-could-read-this-in-one-sitting-and-get-away-with-it-I-would-kind-of-book.
