Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

 

Title:  Broken Country

Author:  Clare Leslie Hall

Narrated by:  Hattie Morahan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 57 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you!

What has been your favorite read of 2025 so far? I’ve read a lot of great books so far this year. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall was one of the best and will be on my top books of the year list.

One spring day in rural England, Beth, her husband Frank, and her brother-in-law, Jimmy, are tending to their sheep when a dog appears out of the blue killing the lambs.  Jimmy shoots the dog, but the owner of the dog, a sad young boy, Leo, and his father, Gabriel, appear.  Gabriel was Beth’s teenage love. Beth and Frank are in love, but there are some strains in their relationship because of the tragic death a couple years before of their young son, Bobby.  As Beth spends more time with Leo, her love starts to reignite for Gabriel.  As the Beth, Frank, and Gabriel become part of a love triangle, tragedy strikes.  What will become of them all?

My thoughts on this novel:

 

·       This was a nonlinear story set in the present of 1968 and flashing back to 1955.  There is also a setting slightly in the future at a murder trial.

·       I usually don’t like tales of infidelity, but it was a really good story, and I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook.

·       I do love a good love triangle, especially when it makes so much sense as this story did.  Beth was really conflicted and there was a lot that happened in their lives.

·       Nonlinear story line made this a brilliant telling of the story.  As facts came out from the earlier timeline, it changed the readers entire understanding of the present timeline.  I loved the way this was written.

·       The symbolism of the family oak tree was interesting.  When it stood the family was together, when it fell, the entire family was splintered.

·       There were shades of the classic novel, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, in this story.  Frank was like Gabriel Oak and Beth is Bathsheba Everdeen.  It was interesting after having recently read Far from Madding Crowd with my Classics Book Club.  They were both fascinating, well-developed characters.  I felt like I knew them and their world.

·       As the novel neared its conclusion, there was more to the court trial.  It was riveting and reminded me a bit of the courtroom drama of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

·       This was a Reese’s Book Club pick.

·       Hattie Morahan was a great narrator, and it was a fascinating audiobook to listen to.  There were many twists and turns, and very surprising moments that kept me wanting to continue with the audiobook even after I reached my destination.

Overall, Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall was a beautifully written drama with extremely well developed and complicated characters.  I could not stop listening to this audiobook.  It’s one of the best books of 2025.

 

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

 

Title:  First Lie Wins

Author:  Ashley Elston

Narrated by:  Saskia Maarleveld

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 16 minutes

Source: Checked out with Libby through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

If you had to move somewhere to start a new life with a new identity, where would you move?  I’m not sure myself, I’d prefer somewhere that has four seasons.

Evie Porter has a new relationship with a great new boyfriend, Ryan Sumner.  She moves in with him and life is going well . . . until it isn’t.  Evie Porter is a fake identity and Ryan is the mark.  Evie must keep on her toes to follow her boss, Mr. Smith’s, instructions as her last job didn’t end well.  As this job goes sideways, will Evie survive?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       The novel flashes between contemporary times and Evie’s past identities to show how she gotten where she is now.

·       I loved this book . . . but I especially loved not knowing what was going to happen next . . . . so I don’t want to spoil anything with a lengthy review.  It had a lot of twists and turns.

·       This story was riveting.  I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook!  It made me want to keep listening even as I arrived at my destination.

·       I would love to see this as a movie.

·       I enjoyed how Evie was a morally grey con artist that I was rooting for. 

Overall, First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston was a fascinating suspense thriller that I couldn’t put down.  I highly recommend it to all the thriller lovers out there.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Powell

Title: Slow Dance

Author: Rainbow Powell

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 11 hours and 31 minutes

Source: Audiobook Purchased from Audible

Do you like to dance?  My husband and I enjoy dancing, although we don’t get to do it too often with our busy kids’ schedules.

Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school and everyone around them expected them to get together.  Life did not work out that way and Shiloh went off to college while Cary shipped off to the Navy.  Over the years, the two keep passing back into each other’s life.  Is there a good time for a second chance at romance?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was the February pick for the Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the meeting due to work commitments.

·       I had a really hard time with this book.  The plot move very slowly, and I had a hard time connecting with the characters or even liking them as people. 

·       I read about 100 pages of the novel and then I switched to the audiobook version which worked better for me.

·       This novel had lots and lots and lots of flashbacks.  I am usually a fan of flashbacks, but there were just too many through too many time periods in this one to keep me enjoying the story.

·       This was a second chance romance which is one of my favorite tropes.  I did like that it showed a different type of couple with a divorced mother of two living with her mother and a single military man trying to take care of his mother and family as well.

·       This was a steamy romance, although most of the steam was the end of the novel.

Overall, Slow Dance by Rainbow Powell was too slow of a dance of a novel for me.  I read it through to the end, but really didn’t enjoy the characters or story.

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

 

What is your favorite book or movie that explores mother and daughter relationships?

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon is a delightful new novel that explores mother and daughter relationships during a murder investigation.  Lana Rubicon runs a powerful real estate empire in Los Angeles.  After she finds out she has cancer, needs treatment, and help, she moves in with her estranged daughter, Beth, and granddaughter, Jack in a coastal city three hundred miles north of LA.  While her relationship with Jack strengthens, Beth and Lana remain at odds.  Jack discovers a dead body while leading a tour group on a kayaking trip for her job, and quickly becomes the prime suspect.  Lana pushes all of her energy into solving this mystery to help her granddaughter.  Will she be able to solve this mystery and repair her relationship with her daughter?

I was not sure what to expect when I started reading Mother-Daughter Murder Night.  Were the mother and daughter committing murders, victims of murders, what exactly did the title mean?  The title is a memory that Lana and Beth have of watching crime shows together for a mother-daughter murder night.  Lana wishes she could bring those happy times back by solving this mystery.  I loved that.

This novel was all about family dynamics and relationships.  I loved the characters, especially strong-willed Lana and her equally strong-willed granddaughter Jack.  I felt at one with frazzled mom Beth trying to keep it all together.  I loved these relationships and would really enjoy seeing this book made into a movie.  The humor was fun throughout this book as well.

I enjoyed the cozy mystery aspect of this novel as well and wanted to know how it would end. I did guess the ending, but I enjoyed the journey getting there.

This is author Nina Simon’s debut novel and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.  I thought it was touching to find out in the acknowledgement section that Nina wrote this novel with her own mother as a project to divert them from her mother’s cancer and treatment.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley and William Morrow Books. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

 

Title:  A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

Author: Laura Taylor Namey

Read by:  Frankie Corzo

Publisher: Simon & Shuster Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 33 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Shuster Audio.  Thank-you! 

What is your favorite novel or movie with travel involved?

Lila Reyes has her life planned out for herself as high school ends.  She is going to take over her beloved grandmother’s Miami bakery, move in with her best friend, and have a happily ever after relationship with her boyfriend.  Unfortunately, her entire world implodes.  To help her out, her family decides to send her to England to stay with a family friend to reset.  Lila doesn’t want to be in England, but she soon makes a new friend in Orion Maxwell.  Orion’s family owns a local tea shop and Orion becomes Lila’s tour guide to England.  Will Lila be able to determine a new direction to her life?

I love books where there is a lot of cooking involved.  Lila is a master chef of Cuban food, which she learned from her beloved abuela.  She is able to use her skills to update recipes, save the day in England and impress new friends.  

This is a young adult novel, and the romance is clean.  There is some swearing and drinking in the novel.  I liked that the novel delves into how Lila has problems dealing with her grief and how she is able to work through it and mature while she is in England.  I also loved the romance in the novel and thought it was very sweet.  I most of all loved how Lila loved her family so much and was so proud of her Cuban – Miami heritage.

The only downfall of this book to me is that it took me a bit to get into the story.  I wasn’t quite sure what was going on in the beginning with Lila’s being sent to England.  Once I put the pieces together and the story progressed, I enjoyed it much more.

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Frankie Corzo. Corzo was a great voice actor and was Lila to me, but also had different voices for the other characters.  I enjoyed listening to it.

Favorite Quotes:

“She forgets that what she does in one small moment can affect tomorrow.”

“Thing is, when you put something back together it’s never exactly the same as it was before.”

“I’ve grown to find peace and acceptance in not fighting what I can’t control.”

Overall, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow is a fun young adult novel about finding yourself and perhaps love while on a trip to England.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Title:  Daisy Jones and the Six

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Read by:  Sara Arrington, Jennifer Beals, Arthur Bishop, Fred Berman, Benjamin Bratt, Jonathan Davis, Ari Fliakos, Holter Graham, Judy Greer, January Lavoy, Robinne Lee, Peter Larkin, Henry Leyva, P.J. Ochlan, Robert Petkoff

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 3 minutes

Source: Checked out on Overdrive from the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you! 

Daisy Jones and the Six was the May pick for the Rogue (aka FLICKS) Book Club.  I feel like I’ve heard about this book for so long, it was great to finally be able to read and discuss it.

Daisy Jones and the Six is told in a documentary style to discuss the band, how it got it together, and why it broke apart. The Six was a band that was started by brothers Billy and Graham Dunne in their suburban Pittsburgh garage.  They start to gain fame but explode into another level of fame when Daisy Jones joins them for an album and tour.  Daisy was a wonderful singer but is very much into the drug and alcohol scene.  She is just drifting through life before she joins the Six.  The band is volatile and hanging on by a thread.  Will they be able to make it through their tour?  What caused them to break up in the end?

I listened to Daisy Jones and the Six on audiobook and it was fantastic.  I don’t know how this would read as a physical book, but I love that they had a full cast of actors for all of the different characters.  There were a lot of characters.  I followed the main character storylines, but I would mix up some of the minor characters.  I thought it was hilarious on how one of them completely didn’t know what was going on the entire time and read all situations incorrectly.

Those that read or listened to this in book club seemed to like the story as well.  The one complaint was that it actually seemed like a real band and the book made you want to listen to the music, but when you went to look for it, you found out it was all fiction.  I would love to hear the songs.  I read that this was loosely based on Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.  I don’t know much about them, so this was all new to me.  I was overall amazed that these people could have survived the 70’s with their drug and alcohol use.  I really loved how the ending tied it all together.

Overall, Daisy Jones and the Six is a fantastic audiobook about the highs and lows of a seventies rock band.  The story will draw you in and keep you enthralled until the end.

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Lakshmi escaped an abusive arranged marriage and created a new life for herself in 1950’s metropolitan Jaipur. She uses her skills as a Henna artist and as a natural medicine healer to create a life for herself.  She has saved money and is having her dream house built.  Her entire world starts to change as a sister she never knew she had, Radha, arrives with the husband she left behind.  Will Lakshmi still be able to accomplish her dreams?

 I’ve gotten a bit behind here on reviews and will hopefully catch up soon!  I read The Henna Artist for the Page-turners’ Book Club April pick for the Kewaunee Public Library.  We had our discussion on it a couple of weeks ago.  The consensus was that we all enjoyed the story.  It was an interesting and unique plot and a look into a world that I don’t know much about.  I really liked Lakshmi’s perseverance and her desire to have a life on her own terms.

 Overall, The Henna Artist is great story of an independent woman in 1950’s India.

 Book Source:  Borrowed from the Kewaunee Public Library – Thank-you!