Love and Ruin: A Novel

This was one of the best books I have read this year, couldn't put it down. Martha Gellhorn was one amazing woman who I knew very little about and loved learning of her gutsy, brave and independent life. Paula McLain is a wonderful writer who gives so much depth to her characters that get fully immersed in their lives. Ernest Hemmingway was a dynamic person who must have been so difficult to live with and love, but love him Marty did. Wonderful book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn - probably the least known of his wives - as his wife - but noted for a spectacular career, after that marriage ended. Martha, a Bryn Mawr graduate, with hopes of being a writer, met Hemingway on a trip with her mother, to Key West. A chance encounter in that Key West bar in 1936, led to a friendship - on Martha’s part, an unforgettable brush with not only a famous writer, but a handsome man with the kind of adventurous life she sought.
Hearing about his plans to travel to Spain as a war correspondent, covering the takeover of Spain by Franco, Martha, with Hem’s encouragement, using a backpack and $50, joined him. There, they became lovers - and her taste for adventure became all-consuming. Her love of Hem and her need to endulge her zeal to be on the front lines of all wars, were in conflict.
Hemingway is portrayed as a man who does not do well alone, and his genuine love for Martha, compelled him to disrupt her plans, causing her to return to him, over and over. Even a marriage in 1940, with some very happy years together, writing together in a villa in Havana, were not enough cement to hold them together. Martha could not ignore her yearnings to return to the adventurous life. Meanwhile, Ernest’s career hit an all time high with “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, while Martha’s writing only garnered attention as Hemingway's wife.
In my reading preference for historical fiction, I’ve always particularly loved the novels that cause me to learn more about the main figures. In this case, I researched Martha Gellhorn, who went on to become one of the most celebrated female war correspondents over six decades. Her writing style was surprisingly very different than Hemingway’s, described as “spare and lean”. And her focus, was altogether different than that of other war correspondents - as she cast light on the victims of war, the soldiers, rather than the generals. In her own right, she was as strong a personality as Hemingway - and therein, lay the conflict between them.
This is a well-written, comfortable, engrossing read, and it is easy to be captivated by Hemingway and Gellhorn. Highly recommended!

McClain has done a nice job with a story of Gellhorn and Hemingway. Serious students of both authors already know the details of this relationship, and might enjoy a read that’s just this side of chick-lit. McClain credits a few of the lighter weight sources for background, and weaves a readable story. It’s entertaining, if not illuminating. But we don’t read McClain for authoritative insights. We read her because we like her style and convince ourselves we’re gaining insights. That we really are not doesn’t matter.

"For better or worse I was born a traveler, wanting to go everywhere and see everything"

I was not a fan of The Paris Wife, as the real life subject of the fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, tended to be dwarfed by the egocentric author and his glitzy inner circle. Definitely not so in Love and Ruin..... Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway's third wife, a remarkable women with an amazing life story, was more than a match for the author in every way. Since the story is told in the first person, we get a real sense of this women and the emotional turmoil in both her relationship with Ernest and life as a war correspondence. Love and Ruin takes us from Martha and Ernest first meeting in 1936 to the end of World War II in 1945.

Martha was raised in a prominent St. Louis family. After the death of her beloved albeit critical father, her mother and brother travel to Key West to spend Christmas. It is in a bar, that Martha meets Ernest Hemingway for the first time. Ernest is a world renowned author, married to his second wife Pauline and the father of three sons. Martha had already earned a name for herself after writing a collection of stories based on the people she met while a reporter for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Ernest is traveling to Spain to report on the conflict and Martha is able to finagle a pass as a "special correspondent" to cover the story for Colliers. It is the beginning of an illustrious career, as Gellhorn goes on to cover Russia's war against Finland in 1939, and World War II, where she was the "first journalist male or female" to land at Normandy on D-day. Love and Ruin also depicts the couples complex relationship, the extreme highs and lows of their 7 years together. Even after they married in 1940, Martha did not appear convinced their relationship would stand the test of time.... as remarked by a reporter covering their wedding the"pairing of "flint and steel". Eventually it is her independence, her competitive streak and refusal to abandon her ambition in a profession that she excelled at, that ended the relationship....but in no way ruined her. Martha "went on to become one of the twentieth century's most significant and celebrated war correspondents, reporting on virtually every major conflict for 60 years".

Love and Ruin is an extremely well written, well researched and fascinating book about an exceptional women who refused to be seen as " a footnote in someone else's life." Martha as a war correspondent wrote articles, novels and short stories about the utter devastation of war as described by ordinary people whose lives were forever changed.

I found myself thinking about Martha Gellhorn on and off the day after I finished Love and Ruin, almost as if I’d sat with her while she bared her soul about her relationship with Ernest Hemingway. Gellhorn was Hemingway’s third wife and his mistress for several years while he was working on a divorce from Pauline Pfeiffer. Reading this book made me feel as if I’d spent a long, late night with her talking about men, careers, and adventure.

Many Hemingway biographers have not been kind to Martha Gellhorn, often presenting her as having attached herself to Hemingway primarily to further her own career as a writer. Author Paula McLain comes down in the opposite camp, portraying her as deeply in love with Hemingway and struggling to make their relationship work while still maintaining her own independence, refusing, as Gellhorn herself said, “to be a footnote in someone else’s life.” Much as he loved women, Hemingway was not a man who was particularly kind to them, and it could not have been easy or simply opportunistic to maintain a relationship with him for almost ten years.

There were a few rough spots where McLain’s choice of words bumped me out of the story for a moment. Her pet amplifiers are “terribly” and “awfully,” and like ill-trained pets, they show up too often and sometimes where they’re really not wanted, with oxymorons like “terribly wonderful.” Likewise, there are occasional descriptions and similes that land with a thud: ballplayers whose “arms swept out as if they could fly. Maybe they could.” But I’d bet against it, and it adds nothing to the description. “Belgium, cold and benign as a surgeon’s table rising from the sea.” This one almost gets there; you can see what she was trying to do, but it forces you out of the scene as your mind wrestles with a view of a surgeon’s table rising from the sea, or a surgeon’s table being benign, or….

Love and Ruin makes no pretense at being biography; it’s fiction. McLain does a great job imagining Martha’s side of the relationship, trying to be a good and strong partner while maintaining her sense of self in the maelstrom of not only life with Ernest Hemingway, but a career as a war correspondent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it.

I really really really wanted to love this book but had some trepidation because of my aversion to Hemingway. (As an English major in college, I nearly delayed graduation because of the requirement to have a course focused on a major author and the only two choices that quarter were Hemingway and Henry James – EEEK!) Anyway, I did appreciate McLain’s Circling the Sun, and I was curious about Martha Gellhorn so, hoping that this would focus on her life and adventures as a war correspondent (and not be just her as Hemingway’s appendage, I happily received a copy of Love and Ruin from Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Martha was one of Hemingway’s wives, and their relationship and marriage happened during the time of the Spanish Civil War and into World War II. As a young woman in 1937, Martha/Marty, who has always bravely sought adventure, travels alone to Madrid to write about the Spanish Civil Way. Her special focus in talking to people the telling their stories of being caught in a horrific war. She was incredibly strong as she worked to make her name as a war correspondent, a field dominated by men, and she seized the opportunity (“Here I have the chance to write something meaningful, but back home I’ll just be offered the ‘woman’s angle” again”). She has this deeply held THING about her relationship with her father, seriously wanting/wishing to make him proud of her (sadly, he died too soon, shortly after expressing his disappointment in her, and IMHO she never really got over that).

Possibly due to this hole in her life, she is unexpectedly attracted to the older, married Hemingway when she meets in his bar in Key West. It was a bit creepy how he called her “daughter,” but she fell madly in love with him during their time in Spain, and they lived together in Cuba, where she set out working herself to a frazzle to make things perfect so he will choose her over his wife. Here’s where I started having trouble. He story was so interesting, except for the part where he kept telling her he was working on finding a way to be free to marry her and kept stringing her along, and she went along. This part was such a cliché, I really nearly put the book down…

They were both working writers with some success until For Whom the Bell Tolls was published, when he became hugely rich and famous, eclipsing her success. He’s a pig, confirming my prejudiced view of him, and she gets to where she has to make a choice: she can just give in to being only his wife, or she can forge her own path, which won’t end well (“…he would break my heart. I already knew that if nothing else.”) As it turned out, she also broke his, but he bounced back soon enough with the next one.

I kept reading because I really wasn’t sure how things turned out for Martha and I cared about her, even while she was taking forever to get to the place where being her own person, however that was, would be better than living with a man like him. Three stars, and not just because I don’t like Hemingway…there were just too many times where the “romance” was just one icky cliché after another.

This is the story of Ernest Hemingway's third marriage, to journalist Martha Gelhorn, and for the most part she is the narrator. Usually I knock off a book every few days, so the fact that this one took me two full weeks is rather telling. I found the first third really hard going. When they settle in Cuba, McLain seems to find her feet and it gets significantly better, but towards the end it loses its way again.

Here's the thing: if you’re going to write a novel about a real person, you need to bring them to life in such a way that the events of their life seem to unfold naturally. You want the story of their lives to feel like just that, a story, not a piece of narrative non-fiction. Paula McLain did this really well in "Circling the Sun", but this time I don't think she pulled it off. Martha Gelhorn never became a real person for me and her relationship with Hemingway never felt like it was founded on anything. The plot feels like it unfolds as it does because these were the real events, rather than unfolding because of the people that Gelhorn and Hemingway were.

We kept being told how strong Gelhorn is, but nothing in the book really supports that. When it opens she's 25, but she seems much younger. She's unsure, she's drifting. She hooks onto Hemingway and goes to Spain solely at his suggestion. You don't get any sense that she is an independent woman or even that she's particularly talented (though the evidence is that she was). At one point he says to her "I don't think there's another woman like you anywhere", but it feels like we're being force fed an impression that we're not getting for ourselves. Nor do you really get a sense of why she'd be attracted to a much older, overweight, self-centered man like Hemingway.

The narrative that I think the author was striving for is that Hemingway had a habit of marrying strong women and riding roughshod over them until they became submissive, but that Gelhorn refused to become submissive. However instead it just feels like a story about a starstruck woman who latches onto a famous man, does what he tells her and gets some success, then gets sulky when she realises she can't be as famous as he is. There's so much whining: "oh my life is so hard, oh my husband is more successful than me".

On top of that there are errors and anachronisms. There's a reference to F Scott Fitzgerald being in Hollywood in December 1941, but this is a year after he died. Another time, Gelhorn talks about "leaning in" to her career - 80 years before Sheryl Sandberg coined the phrase.

And PS: what a terrible title.

Paula McClain has made a writing career reimagining the lives of real women, either extraordinary in themselves or living in historically poignant times. This is her second novel focusing on a Hemmingway wife. In THE PARIS WIFE, the story revolved on Hadley, Hemmingway’s first wife and their life mostly in Paris. In her last book (and my personal favorite), she took a break from Hemmingway and featured Beryl Markham, the first aviator to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic, east to west. This latest novel centers on Martha Gellhorn, third wife of Hemmingway, and one of the most intrepid war correspondents of the 20th century and a solid novelist and short story writer. Their relationship and fallout—their private love and war—is told amidst the international wars of their time.

This is a hefty book at close to 400 pages, much of it amidst war. During the Spanish Civil War in the 30s, Martha and Ernest started their love affair, (although they first met in Key West and became friends), even though he was still married to his second wife, Pauline. It took several years for Hemmingway to finally get divorced from Pauline, but after he married Martha, more problems ensued when he beseeched his new wife to stop traveling as a journalist and instead stay home with him in Havana. But, Martha, as strong-willed and independent as her husband, was compelled to travel to war zones and write about what she saw. “How could a single day—or a single mind—hold two such vastly different realities? It didn’t seem possible, but here was Belgium, cold and benign as a surgeon’s table rising from the mist.”

Their relationship was ill fated from the start, with all the passion and fire of love and lust but doomed by different demons and demands. Hemmingway, an alcoholic, was often imperious and cold if Martha didn’t comply with his pleas. Eventually, they became competitive, and Ernest didn’t shy away from undermining his wife to get what he wanted, once trying to prevent her from traveling to a battlefront by hijacking her assignment from the magazine she worked for, Colliers. Gellhorn refused to settle for being a footnote in Hemmingway’s life.

McClain writes impassioned prose, peppered with strong, beautiful metaphors that convey the carnage of war and the ruin of a painful marriage. She showcases equally the private war of her marriage and the public wars on the world stage. “And yet here we were, anyway, hurtling through the dark toward each other under a hundred million stars, and set to collide disastrously. Logic wouldn’t save us and neither would the dwindling pile of days. We had all the time in the world to make a terrible mistake.”

The emotional facets kept me involved; however, as poignant as the wars were to Martha’s work, I experienced frequent weariness while reading. It felt redundant, the recurrent chronicling of blood and shells and bombs and tears. The push and pull, back and forth of Gellhorn and Hemmingway interrupted by travels to the front fatigued me, a static struggle that ran amok throughout the book. The story began to seesaw, a kind of infinite purgatory that was conveyed in the narrative. War at home, war abroad, moments of tenderness, and more adversity at home and overseas. Even the imminent events felt remote over time, a reiteration of clash and combat. Yet, McClain managed to keep me afloat with her passionate and confident prose, which occasionally flanked cliché, but surged with the vigor of the valiant.

“No matter what else happened going forward, Ernest and Madrid and this awful, marvelous war were tangled up together inside me, like the story of my own life.
“I wouldn’t keep them; I couldn’t. But they were mine.”

Many people have romanticized the life of Ernest Hemingway, admiring his great works but missing his many human flaws. One of these people, initially, was the woman who would become his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, or Marty. Through her eyes, we are exposed to the savage side of Hemingway as well as his tenderness. He is a justice fighter reporting alongside his young wife, a kind father, a generous animal lover, but, at times, he can become a depressed, angry man who struggles to find purpose and inspiration for his next novel. Marty too is a writer who wants to pour her life experiences and emotions into her characters, but her novels aren’t met with the same success as her husband’s. So she becomes a female war correspondent, sometimes to her detriment, and reveals the complexity of a woman’s desires for a successful career and a happy home, and the struggle of trying to balance both. Part narrative of the Pre-WWII Spanish war, part love story and tragedy, Love and Ruin is a raw and heartbreaking historical fiction, exposing war, death, and the things that give life worth. For discussion questions, similar reads, and an easy themed recipe of orange poppyseed muffins, visit HubPages.

It only took me a few paragraphs into Love and Ruin to remember why I loved Paula McLain’s earlier novel The Paris Wife so much – her writing is so good, she convincingly recreates people we think we have read and know so much about, whose work we have read and studied and loved and hated. She brings them alive in a way only a brilliant writer of historical fiction can. But she isn’t just a writer of historical fiction, because her work is a narrative of real lives, retold through her own mind, after deep research of their lives.

Love and Ruin is the story of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, written in the first person from Gellhorn’s perspective, interspersed with some paragraphs from Hemingway’s perspective. Hemingway, beloved, reckless, exceptional, toxic Hemingway: we know so much about him through his writing, his legacy, his contemporaries, but of his wives we know less. Or of most of his wives we should say, as Martha Gellhorn went on to become one of the most successful and well-known US war correspondents, work that she was already doing before she married Hemingway. Love and Ruin tells us a story of their relationship, beautiful and ultimately heartbreakingly impossible.

Love and Ruin captures your heart... I found myself thinking about it while walking around, telling my other half about it while we were eating lunch, trying to explain why my mind was in Cuba, why I admired Gellhorn so much, why I needed to revisit For Whom The Bell Tolls... It’s a beautiful novel, even if you don’t give a toss about Hemingway. It’s a wonderful capture of a time when the world fell apart, again and again.

Love and Ruin will be published by Random House on May 1st, 2018. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy!

I started reading this, and then started and finished three other novels before I could force myself to get to the end of this one.
Martha Gellhorn, despite actual historical evidence to the contrary, never became the living, breathing, strong-willed, INTERESTING, talented woman I was hoping for in this novel. I never connected with her as a person, as a woman (as I did in Paris Wife and Circling the Sun), and I struggled through this novel because of that. The author failed to imbue any outstanding intelligence or ambition in Martha's character, and the connection with Hemingway seems like something from a star-struck groupie instead of a supposed intellectual equal. Whatever magic (and they were wonderful reads!) McClain wove with Paris and Circling didn't work here.

I really wanted to give this a 4-star rating , and that is why I kept reading what felt like a listless recounting of a famous marriage. I wanted to like Martha Gellhorn, but for way too long she seemed to live for the approval of her dad and then her husband. I know of her as a writer and war correspondent risk-taker, so was disappointed that I didn’t see her become a fully vigorous and engaged character until she stepped away from her role as a famous novelist’s wife in the second half of the book.

I dove into this book expecting it to be Martha Gellhorn’s story but her famous marriage to her famous husband sidelined her, and if McLain had wanted to illustrate how easily a talented wife became the second banana to her famous husband, well there you have it. We’ve read about Hemingway and possibly read him as assigned high school reading, but who ha been assigned to read Martha Gellhorn? I really would have liked it this time if he were the second banana. Apparently his drinking was more interesting. This should have been more of her story.

I didn't like The Paris Wife by this author. So I wasn't sure if I'd like this book. But this story of the third wife of Ernest Hemingway is so different.

This is a story of Martha Gellhorn, a remarkable woman who “became one of the twentieth century’s most significant and celebrated war correspondents, reporting on virtually every major conflict for sixty years – from the Spanish Civil War to the Bay of Pigs, from Vietnam to El Salvador to Panama, where she covered the invasion at the age of eighty-one.”

As the story is told by Marty herself, it makes the story very credible. Her voice is raw. Right away she comes across as a woman of strong character, a true traveler at heart, who doesn’t necessarily want to be committed to one place. “It seemed imperative not only to be on the move, and feeling things, but also to be my own person, and to live my own life, and not anyone else’s.”

The author’s incredible writing reflects a true character of this remarkable woman. This is the first book, which makes me see Ernest Hemingway in a different light as a likeable person. This grasping story, evoking human emotions will linger with you long after you’re done reading.

At Key West, while with her family, Marty meets Hemingway. He encourages her to join him to go to Spain and report on war as many others will be doing.

In March 1937, she makes her way to Madrid. She travels with Hemingway to different towns lying in ruins, and to battalions observing and talking to soldiers. While absorbing all this, it evokes her senses, putting her objective writing in question. She admires Spaniards for their spirit, still dancing as they say: better to die on feet than knees.

Until the beginning of 1939 she travels between US and Europe and continues to report on the situation that the war is no longer a question if it happens, but when.

In February 1939, they travel to Cuba, where they change gears and each works on writing a book. Later she becomes his third wife.

While being in Hemingway’s shadow, Marty realizes how much she enjoys the challenges of being at front line as a war correspondent “…where things of real consequence were happening. That’s where I felt alive, and useful and involved.”

As she earns her respect as a war correspondent, and is gone for months at a time, Ernest keeps slipping into a darker and darker place as he doesn’t do well on his own. He needs a constant companionship.

As she continues to follow her passion and calling, their paths drift apart more and more.

@FB/BestHistoricalFiction

This novel, a fictionalized account of Martha Gellhorn’s marriage to Ernest Hemingway, isn’t as good as the author’s previous novel, The Paris Wife, which covered Hemingway’s first marriage. Much of this novel, although written in the first person, is “reportage”— it reads as if it’s Gellhorn’s dispatches from various war-torn parts of the world, rather than a novel.

The author does an excellent job, however, in showing Gellhorn’s struggles to be herself and have her own life and career while under the spell of the domineering, egotistical, controlling and stealthily envy-ridden Hemingway. She should have known better than to fall in love with a man who, while pretending to support her career as a journalist and novelist, in fact wanted her to give it all up for him. And he was furious when she refused. He also wanted her to have a child, which would have changed nothing in his own self-centered and self-indulgent life, but which would have effectively ruined Gellhorn’s career. The couple sometimes found themselves in competition with one another as writers, a rigged game that the ruthlessly ambitious, competitive and super-famous Hemingway invariably won; Gellhorn, while married to him, found it impossible to get out from under his shadow.

The book ends just as she leaves her marriage (the only one of Hemingway’s wives to leave him), with much anguish and knowing that Hemingway has already replaced her with Mary Welch. wish the author had taken her story further. At least we know that Gellhorn outlived Hemingway by 40 years and went on to become a famous journalist in her own right— and NOT as Mrs. Ernest Hemingway.

Although this book is about the relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, I enjoyed reading about her journalistic endeavors much more than I did her romance and marriage to Hemingway.

Martha first met Ernest on a holiday in Key West and from there they formed a friendship which turned into a romantic relationship that spanned from 1937 and the Spanish Civil War up until the end of World War II. Their relationship was consumed with writing, travel and quite a bit of alcohol.

Ernest is a bit larger than life and his needs seemed to suffocate Martha. Martha had an adventurous spirit and was not content to stay at home and be only a housewife. Ernest seemed to think that once married, Martha was to be at his disposal at all times. Ernest comes off as extremely self-centered. Having read Paula McClain’s earlier novel, The Paris Wife, I think it’s safe to say that Ernest was a successful writer, but an awful husband.

The book was a slow read for me and at times seem to drag on. I found much of the writing about Martha and Ernest to be filled with superficial content, such as what they were eating or how their writing was coming along. My favorite parts of the book were when Martha was on assignment in Finland and later in Europe--most especially her time in Normandy on D-Day. Martha’s life is wonderful as a story of it’s own. It’s a shame she often was known simply as one of Hemingway’s wives.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing- Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

I was thrilled when I heard McLain would be revisiting Hemingway in her newest novel since I was such a huge fan of The Paris Wife. She doesn’t disappoint in her depiction of Marty Gellhorn, Ernest’s third wife. Marty met Ernest as a wet-behind-the-ears war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, and when he took her under his wing, the chemistry soon blossomed into a torrid affair. There’s no denying that the circumstances of their experiences were what drew them together, because sustaining matrimony was more of a challenge when they weren’t surrounded by the chaos of war.

The middle part of the novel depicts their life in Cuba at the outbreak of WWII, and I appreciated the glimpse into the household of two writers. “… it had been my general understanding that if you were a writer, you pummeled your own soul until some words trickled out of the dry streambed, enough to fill a saucer or a teaspoon or an eyedropper. And then you wept a little, or gnashed your teeth, and somehow found the fortitude to get up the next day and do it again.” Though Marty had successes in her own right, she was often ridiculed for being Hem’s wife and riding his coattails, especially after his enormous success with For Whom the Bell Tolls. But Marty was ambitious and determined not to live in the shadow of her famous husband, seeking dangerous assignments and driving Ernest farther away from her with her independence (and he drove her away with his neediness and ego). Admittedly, I didn’t feel nearly as much compassion towards Mary as I had with Hadley, but I did admire her spunk and courage.

I found this an extremely interesting read as I knew nothing about Ernest Hemingway beyond the couple books of his I’ve read and his famous suicide. And I certainly have never heard of Martha Gellhorn. This is a fictional story of their real life relationship. She is his third wife and they met by chance on Key West. This follows their relationship from that point to seven years later when they have been married for five years and their relationship has completely crumbled and he is on to his next wife. She is a very independent woman for that era-1930s. She wants to become an author and is also extremely passionate about the various civil wars going on around the world. She becomes a journalist and follows Ernest to cover conflicts. The problem is she will always live under his enormous literary shadow. It’s been awhile since he’s published anything and he starts writing to publish his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. He’s flying high. It’s a constant party with unending food, alcohol, cigarettes, celebrities. When she publishes her first novel it’s a flop and she is compared to him. Ernest, in a very self deprecating manner, tries to show that if he helps her he can get her published; she will be a better author. She doesn’t want that. She wants to be appreciated for who she is. This somewhat starts the foreshadowing of what’s to come. I found it very interesting how the author portrays what is posssibly going through Ernest’s head that pulls him down into a black abyss. This book has actually made me want to read his other novels and to read some biographies of him. Sorry Marty. This was suppose to be about you and your accomplishments. Side note: she did live a life of traveling all over the world, covering wars and strife. She published many books, which I will keep in mind to evenylook up.

I knew nothing about Martha (Marty) Gellhorn before I started reading this novel but I learned a great deal about her and her marriage to Ernest Hemingway. With great detail about the time period surrounding WWII, Marty wanted to make her mark in the world as a writer and she would stop at nothing to do so.

As I read this novel, Marty’s fathers last words were always on the back of my mind and I had to wonder if perhaps, they were part of Marty’s driving force. They stung when they were spoken but I felt they were spoken out of love and the desire for Marty to aim high. Marty was a strong, determined lady, which not everyone appreciated in a woman in this time period. As her books went to print, she wouldn’t settle and be content with what she had accomplished, she wanted more.

Her idol was the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, and when she met him on vacation with her family, she was speechless. Thinking life couldn’t get any better, she discovered that Ernest actually had read her novel and he wanted HER autograph. Ernest was traveling overseas to report on the war and he asked Marty to join him. This sounded like a terrific opportunity for Marty: a chance for her to write and be with the famous writer, so she travels as Ernest companion.

With the front so close to their rooms, Ernest found himself at Marty’s door checking on her welfare. It seems innocent enough but before that trip was over, the two of them were in a relationship. Wow, if only Ernest wasn’t married with children.

Returning home, they both continued to write but the war was calling and they both left again to continue their coverage on the war. They are so right for each other and yet so wrong. As the war blazed away in the background, the lovers mixed their work with play. Ernest was leading two lives and he had to choose what life he wanted to lead and I knew someone was going to get hurt in the end.

Between writing books and stories about the war, Marty and Ernest passion and desire with each other took centerstage. Each character underwent a transformation to arrive at their final resting place.

I really enjoyed the details that the author included inside this novel. The emotions and the drive that the characters felt is relived through the novel and they created a momentum within the novel. I enjoyed reading this novel and I highly recommend it.

This author is such a good writer, Immersing you into the story from the beginning.
This story is a about the tumultuous life and love between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, who became his third wife and it was a romance that challenged them both.
When Martha and her family went down to Key West they met Hemingway in a bar and they became fast friends, he showed them around the keys and introduced them to his family, she was fascinated by him and they had a common bond of writing, he became something of a mentor.
He went to Spain to be a correspondent during the Spanish Civil war and Martha who wanting to be a reporter as well, found a way to go with credentials from Collier Magazine. Here they finally let their passion start, although Hemingway was still married.
They ended up with their main residence in Cuba, where Ernest had already been living part time to write. They bought a little farm and made it theirs, and here the two writers were able to be creative in their own spaces. Both became restless from time to time and would go off on their own to follow a story. Gellhorn loved being a war correspondent and had a gift of finding the human interest story in all of the horror around her.
It was a story that had me hooked from the start, the ups and downs of there relationship was fascinating to follow, each strong headed and at times not willing to compromise. I loved the family aspect of it, when Hemingway's sons would visit them, and the close relationship they all had.
There are a lot of wonderful characters in this book to read about.
I look forward to her next book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing group – Ballantine for the ARC of this book.

"It occurred to me that the reason What Mad Pursuit had failed utterly in the commercial realm was the same reason my father had despised. My choice of subject. My characters were more than "hectic," I saw now. They were trite and narcissistic."

Martha's revelation of why her first novel failed was a perfect reflection of how I felt about the Paris Wife, and how I continue to feel about Love & Ruin. I hated the Paris Wife, and it was because I hated the characters, especially Ernest Hemingway. While I may have been biased and carried my residual feelings for "Hem" to McLain's new book, the new heroine, Martha Gellhorn, Hem's third wife, at first didn't quite appeal to me either. While Hadley's lack of self confidence drove me nuts, Martha seemed, at least at the beginning of the novel, just as reckless, passionate, narcissistic and selfish as Hem, which was no better. .

The first trip to Spain to write about the conflict just seemed to be self serving journeys searching for ego validation and escapism from reality. These writers and filmmakers loved to feel important, and jumping into the front lines of another country's civil war gave them the adrenaline rush they needed to justify the excessive drinking and other bad decisions. I read this book over Memorial Day weekend, so I felt especially bitter because I felt that Martha and Ernest treated the war in Spain as their own little respite from reality. They returned to Spain twice more and used war coverage as an excuse to be together so he could continue lying to his wife and she could escape her mother's judgment. I wanted to believe Martha's compassion and empathy for the Spanish people, but I found it difficult, especially since each of her two returns to Spain didn't require contact with Ernest, and yet they coordinated together anyway.

The first third of the book, when they fell in love in Spain, was maddening; the middle part where they fell in love and settled into their own little version of paradise was boring; but the final third of the book representing the "ruin" of the love and ruin was vindication. While I found Marty immature at the beginning of the novel, I found myself cheering for her and celebrating her by the end. She was the only one of Hemingway's 4 wives that technically "left" him. She loved him, but she was also first and foremost a writer. Her first love was writing, and she couldn't replace that love with Ernest. She needed to be at the front lines of the war, and not just reporting on the daily military actions, but the heartbreaking stories of the individual people suffering from it. The last 50 pages of the book felt truly genuine to me, and I was finally able to connect with Martha's sincerity and her desire to tell the stories of the people. I didn't get that in the first half of the novel. If I did, this book would be a solid 4 stars, but because I felt slightly annoyed for at least half of the book, I can only give it 3. Don't get me wrong, McLain is a good writer, but please pick a different topic. Hemingway is a self-righteous ass, we get it, let's move on.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
Martha Gellhorn – Prior to reading this book, I knew little more about Martha Gellhorn than her name and connection to Hemingway. What a delight to get to know this amazing writer/journalist while reading Love and Ruin. Told in first person, it quickly became obvious that Martha Gellhorn was a powerhouse in her own right. Before she’d ever met Hemingway, Martha had published two books and traveled the world on her own. Writing and reporting were her passions and throughout this story, McLain made that clear. I appreciated that Gellhorn was willing to take some advice and even some help from Hemingway, but that she always followed her own instincts. Gellhorn’s relationship with Hemingway and her career as a war correspondent both began in Spain at the time of the Spanish Civil War, but with or without Hemingway, she carried on reporting from war zones.

Life of Writers – The contrast between the writing lives of Hemingway and Gellhorn was fascinating. During the years of Love and Ruin, both had periods where their writing was stalled. McLain made you feel the frustration of living with another writer who was writing like crazy and, for Martha, she also dove into the pain of failure.

“I piled the pages up and rested my head on them for a moment, saying whatever prayer it is writers have for the gifts that come from somewhere both inside and outside. And then I walked through the dark house to the pool and shed my clothes at the edge and slipped through the cool skin of the surface, plunging down and kicking hard, my mouth trailing bubbles. This too was a prayer.”

The balance of power between Gellhorn and Hemingway never quite tipped in Martha’s favor, but she, more than Hemingway, never lost sight of what was truly the essence of who she was, a writer. It was impossible not to admire the lengths Gellhorn would go to get a story. Despite being a woman she eagerly covered wars in the 30’s and 40’s.

History Lesson – I’ve read many, many books on WWII, but Love and Ruin covered parts I knew very little about. It was especially interesting to read about how journalists covered wars during that era. Like now, they were able to get remarkably close to the fighting, reporting on it and the human-interest stories created by war. I had never even heard of the Winter War that took place during 1939-1940 as Russia repeatedly bombed Finland and the Finish bravely fought back. Martha covered this war while Hemingway stayed at their home in Cuba.

That Writing – As in her other recent books, Paula McLain takes a woman, finds out everything she can about that woman, and then creates a character that is so full of life the reader feels like she’s a friend or a relative. She stays with the story and can beautifully turn a phrase. I highlighted dozens of passages, all gorgeous and rich in meaning.

“I didn’t want to cause trouble; I only knew what I knew. That Ernest could eclipse me, large as any sun, without even trying. That he was too famous, too far along in his career, too sure of what he wanted. He was also too married, too dug into the life he’d built in Key West. Too driven, too dazzling.

Too Hemingway.”

What Didn’t
Hemingway – There were very brief chapters told from Hemingway’s perspective and while they didn’t bother me, I thought they were unnecessary.

Occasionally Slow – Just that. Every once in awhile, Martha’s story bogged down just a bit with the history. I found this mainly true during the Winter War.

{The Final Assessment}
Love and Ruin is a beautifully told story of a strong, independent woman. Years ahead of her time, Martha Gellhorn tried to balance career with marriage. Being married to a famous, powerful man she was in direct competition with made her journey even more difficult. Like today, balance isn’t always possible. Ernest wanted a wife. Martha wanted a career. This is her story! I already trusted Paula McLain, but with Love and Ruin I’m even more devoted. Grade: A-

Note: I received a copy of this book from Ballantine Books (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn—a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century

In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man's wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart, and her own.

Wow! What an amazing tale. And what an amazing writer. I'm not easily pulled into a book with any great depth and yet there are several writers who do that for me. Ms. McLain has earned herself a spot on that list. If you are looking for an awesome tale and are a historical fiction fan, do yourself a favor and read this one. I must go and add her previous Hemingway tale, The Paris Wife to my TBR list. Now you see why it never gets any shorter.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, NetGalley and of course, to Ms. McLain for an ARC of this great book in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was my first book by Paula McLain and it will not be my last. I have seen other reviews stating that Love and Ruin don’t compare to Paris Wife or Circling the Sun, so I am more than anxious to set my eyes upon those books.

I waffled a bit with my rating because while I really enjoyed this book, I also found myself skimming over many parts. I really loved Marty, she was a woman before her time. I loved that she was strong and she knew what she wanted for herself; that in the end, she chose herself. I understood her grief and loss, but she was just too much of a woman for Hemmingway to handle and she wasn’t going to let him hold her back.

I am not a big fan of the classics, so I have not read any of Hemmingway’s works and quite frankly, I don’t really know much of him as person. But I’ve got to say, he seems like a real jerk. I really did not care for him and just kept thinking that Marty was way too good for him.

One of the other struggles I had was the very descriptive war scenes. I know, its historical fiction, but like Marty, I wanted to human connection. I found myself skimming through the war passages, which is why I ultimately decided on 3.5 stars. The story of Marty Gellhorn is a good one, and I was completely captivated by her story.

I would recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction.

Thank you to the Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for my copy of this book via NetGalley

Good historical fiction tends to emphasize the “fiction” over the “historical,” and that’s as it should be. Fiction is a tricky art after all, and creating a viable novel—especially one whose main characters are well-known historical figures—requires acknowledging that factual material must sometimes take a backseat to the rigorous demands of good dramatic storytelling.

One of the things that quality historical fiction can do is to add to our understanding of history by coming at it from fresh angles. By offering a vicarious emotional experience of history that would be impossible to construct from the facts alone, a historical novel can give us new insights into the past, hinting at the sort of deeper truth that—along with entertainment value and the cathartic immersiveness—gives fiction its standing as an art form.

I found myself revising my opinion of Love and Ruin as I read on. At first (no doubt subconsciously prompted by the commercial-looking cover art) I was prepared to enjoy the novel as a light entertainment with a setting and characters I find intrinsically fascinating. By the final page though, I found myself touched and moved in ways that one associates with enduring literature. Yes, this novel is that good.

McClain has done her research. She can write her way out of any sentence, and has a wonderfully light touch. For me, the clear and slightly old-fashioned narrative voice was a plausible stand-in for that of Martha Gellhorn, a fascinating character who wrote quite a bit herself.

Even more impressively, Love and Ruin succeeds in pulling off that most difficult and rewarding of historical fiction tricks: it gives us deeper emotional access into true characters with whom we’re already familiar. It’s a kind of access that feels not only plausible but deeply personal, providing meaningful insight into the dynamics underlying the famous literary marriage that is the novel’s main subject. Love and Ruin increased my appreciation not only for Gellhorn but for Hemingway himself—and this was a very pleasant surprise.

In sum, if the subject matter interests you at all, I urge you not to miss this gripping, immersive, and deeply “true” novel.

4.5 STARS. Caution: there are spoilers if you don't know the story of Gellhorn and Hemingway. Paula McLain is one of my favorite authors. Writing is like channeling. Scratch that. Writing is channeling. Paula M has done this with her new book Love and Ruin. I loved The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun and looked forward to Ms McLain’s latest book which jumps a wife, from Hemingway’s first, to his third, Martha Gellhorn. It seemed as though it was a case of ‘what goes around, comes around’ for Fife, the second one who had, according to The Paris Wife, stolen ‘Hem’ from Hadley who did not deserve it. Life can be such a beach sometimes.
I Iike the way McLain portrays both writers. She captures their essence. I felt at times that Gellhorn was just as self-centered as Hemingway. Probably all writers are--well most, then. They sit in their own little worlds pounding out their little darlings and we can’t kill them can we? And when the criticism drops like a wet blanket they feel as though they’ve had their throats cut by fools who just don’t get it. I think Paula conveys the goings-on in the writer’s mind very well – as she, of course, would know only too well.
Part of the tale tells of Hemingway’s struggle in writing his masterpiece. Strange thing is, I tried once to read For Whom the Bell Tolls and could not get on with it. Shows what a moron I must be. When the dialogue of Spaniards resorted to Elizabethan English I was put off. Now it seems I must revisit that book and try again—and maybe I will get it. Hemingway certainly is one of my favorite authors. I loved The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises as well as his short stories. His writing from the twenties onward was groundbreaking.
Hemingway says to Gellhorn, ‘to write dialogue—listen’. I don’t know whether Paula M put these words in Hemingway’s mouth, or whether she found a real quote, but I know it to be true. When a writer listens, it becomes like taking dictation. I also enjoyed McLain’s description of Gellhorn writing ‘The End’ when she’d finished one of her novels and showing it as a great moment. To write these words is an incredible moment for a writer, especially for their first book, as is later holding the work in book-form for the first time. These were just some small things I enjoyed which Ms. McLain made real.
Paula McLain brought the section covering Cuba to life—the sea, the air and the landscape. She captured the feel of the Caribbean, Florida and Cuba. You see the smooth, warm water and feel the clammy air early in the mornings as the sun peaks above the horizon and hangs over the sea. Those were times I loved best myself. You savor the moment. You know it’s going to be a hot one.
I’ve stood in Hemingway’s house in Key West and seen his cats (their offspring). Now this book has made me want to visit the Finca, the house Gellhorn refurbished and made into their home in Cuba, I think a home where Hemingway was never happier—that is, until Gellhorn went off to traipse the battle fields of Finland and Europe. This he found disloyal. He needed her beside him. But two writers under one roof, each wanting the limelight and the adulation of the world’s readers were bound to have a falling out, eventually. And they did. Hemingway took his revenge, by stealing the sponsor of her war reporting. After all, wouldn’t any magazine rather have the great Hemingway sending reports from the war zones rather than Gellhorn? Even though by now, she was a highly respected war correspondent. It was all about ratings and the bottom line. Later, in London she learns of his new love—who would become his fourth and last wife. It's like a knife in the her heart. Shucks, so many women and so little time for ‘Hem’. But then later, his demons finished him off with a double-barreled shotgun before dawn at his house in Idaho. Was this another case of ‘what goes around, comes around’? Strangely, Martha Gellhorn finished herself off with a pill forty years later—likely due to her cancerous condition. All the trials, tribulations and suffering of life are made real. Congratulations, Paula Mclain.
I was awarded this book in a giveaway, so thank you Ballantine Books and thank you Paula McLain. I must have enjoyed this book. I started it Tuesday and finished it Thursday … and I am no speed reader.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain is a historical fiction book that focuses on on Ernest Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Martha was a respected and celebrated person with many accomplishments. She was a war correspondent for 60 years, and an author in her own right, but the times were such that Ernest Hemingway often overshadowed her.

The best parts of the book are Martha's travels as a correspondent, along with the descriptions of the Spanish Civil War, and the events leading up to WWII. She was very driven, independent, and adventurous, but was also empathetic and drawn to the untold stories of the suffering of ordinary people. She was at her best and most alive when she was at the front lines in the midst of the action, and her first-person narration was riveting. Among many other accomplishments she was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day, and was among the first journalists to report from the Dachau concentration camp.

Love and Ruin was the perfect title for this book. My one complaint is it got a little angsty at times when talking about their relationship and it began to wear thin. But it still gets all the stars for highlighting Martha's career and accomplishments.

I give this book 4/5 stars

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Ballantine Books via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this wonderful book.

Love and Ruin is a well done fictionalized account of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway's romance and marriage. Paula McLain is well versed in Hemingway's history, having already penned The Paris Wife, a fictionalized account of Hemingway's life with his first wife, Hadley. I read that novel when it was published and was interested in McLain's account of events, so seeing that she was writing more about Hemingway -this time focusing on his third wife - was intriguing to me.

Although I knew that Gellhorn we a well known war correspondent in her own right, I didn't know much about her life or her relationship with Hemingway. I appreciate McLain's account of things, realizing that bits and pieces are embellished or altered a bit for the sake of her story. This is my favorite type of historical fiction; I love reading something that piques my interest and makes me want to learn more. Love and Ruin certainly does that well.

There is a bit of Gellhorn's early life that McLain covers, but much of this book centers around the time that Gellhorn and Hemingway were together, only briefly covering the time period after their marriage ended. Readers who already possess a great deal of knowledge about Hemingway or Gellhorn may be able to be critical about McLain's account and her perception of this love story, but as someone with little background knowledge, I enjoyed it a lot, and wouldn't mind reading more about Gellhorn on my own, or reading another account of another of Hemingway's wives by McLain.

LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain is an intriguing work of historical fiction that chronicles the tumultuous relationship between journalist and writer, Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway met Gellhorn while still married to his second wife, Pauline. Ultimately, she became his third wife. Their story is told from Marty’s point of view and is set mainly in the 1930s to 1940s against the backdrop of war and uprising. On several occasions, Marty is right in the midst of the fighting, making her one the most “significant and celebrated war correspondents of the twentieth century”. Hemingway and Gellhorn marry at the peak of his career as a famous American author, while she is still struggling to gain recognition for her work. She refuses to live in Hemingway’s shadow and continues to pursue her travels and writing independently, which leads to much strife in their marriage. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of their home in Cuba and their many travels. The characters were very well-developed and believable, especially Martha Gellhorn herself. I felt I came to know her as if she was an acquaintance. LOVE AND RUIN is a beautifully written and captivating novel with a plenty of drama, romance and history. I highly recommend it.

Love and Ruin is a beautiful tale based upon the love affair of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, who was a war correspondent during a time when women rarely worked, yet alone traveled to Spain to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. As one can imagine, the love affair is a tumultuous one, which at times, was difficult to read about. When Hemingway publishes his most famous novel, To Whom the Bell Tolls, Martha is no longer on equal footing with Ernest and struggles with her decision to become a famous writer's wife, or to continue on her own career trajectory.
The author is masterful in developing the characters within the storyline, and the descriptions of FInland, Key West and Spain makes a wonderful backdrop. Ms. McLain makes us feel the time period by depicting culturally important events and styles. The book was written almost as a memoir, making you feel that there was more fact than fiction. I found the characters to be fascinating and found Martha to be a sympathetic figure, and was truly a story of her, not Hemingway's.
Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

BOOK REVIEW: #LoveandRuin by #PaulaMcLain
#PenguinRandomHouse
#BallentineBooks

Paula McLain, thank you for this wonderfully written story of the Historical Fiction genre.
"Ernest always said there was a season for everything. A season to love and to be loved. To work and rest your bones and your spirit. To dream and to doubt, to fear and to fly".
This story of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn is truly all of that and more. It is factual, complex, intense and full of charisma.... to a fault. It is a push and pull of the human condition; passion for career and country, love of self, and the love they held for each other. You will travel with Ernest and "Marty" through several war zones, not only the ones abroad but the ones right at home.
A compelling and intriguing read that will not disappoint as you delve deeper into the lives of two people who were meant to cross paths......and the joy and torment that ensues.

Such a disappointment. After adoring The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun- two of my all time favorites and both so brilliantly and evocatively written- this feels like a cheesy beach read. Somewhat flat but easy enough to get through...

We all know that Ernest Hemingway was a larger-than-life character, but until I read The Paris Wife, by this author, I knew nothing about his wives. I liked the book about Hemingway's first wife, so I was glad to see the release of this book, a well-written historical fiction about his third wife Martha Gellhorn. Gellhorn was also a writer of fiction and a war correspondent. She was a strong woman and makes a great subject and central character for this novel. Especially interesting is the time setting, the writing of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I learned much about what a writer's life is like: the struggle to find a subject or develop a plot and characters, working through blocks, editing and re-editing, then waiting to see how the project will be received. (I am more committed than ever to writing well-thought-out reviews.)

The portrayal of this marriage and the disintegration of the relationship for a variety of reasons is revealing about these people, and the intense scenes of covering the wars led to suspense. Paula McLain has done a good job of putting herself in the voice of a singular writer, who was influenced by another singular writer -- although Gellhorn would deny that.

If I’m perfectly honest I had never heard of Martha Gellhorn until I started reading this book. I also knew little about Ernest Hemingway beyond his home in Key West Florida, the six-toed cats he kept or his boat, Pilar. Of course, I knew his novels – though I have never read any of them. So you might be wondering what made me read a book about the life of a woman I’d never heard of before and her love affair with a man I knew little about? Truthfully, I crave knowledge and although this is a dramatised fictional account of Martha Gellhorn’s real life, the events that occur really did happen, so I was intrigued.

The book is split into six sections starting in January 1936 and ending in June 1944. Martha was an inspirational woman who from an early age knew she didn’t want to be tied down, she wanted to travel, to make a difference.

She wanted to be an accomplished writer and more importantly, she wanted her father’s approval of her writing, something he refused to give her, telling her there were two types of women in the world and she was the other kind. Harsh words for any young woman to have to deal with, but especially hard when said just before her father’s death.

Martha met Hemingway on a holiday to Florida with her mother and brother after the death of her father. He invited her to be a correspondent on the Spanish civil war. After getting a friend from a magazine to give her papers to say she worked for them, she made her way to Spain, meeting up with Hemingway and his associates in Madrid.

It was here that her love of journalism took off. It was also where she started to fall for Hemingway, even though he was married to his second wife Pauline at the time. The book follows Martha’s life and the love affair that the two eventually began. At the back of the book is a note from the author that give us an insight into Martha’s life after the book. It seemed to me that the love of these two people, even for a short while, haunted her for the rest of her life, as she avoided him until his death and then his name or anything to do with him afterward.

I found the book a slow read, yet so enthralling and interesting. I felt like a sponge soaking in so much information that I never knew before. How I’d never heard of this woman before is a mystery to me. She was one of the first female war correspondents, and an award-winning one at that. She also had an amazing life, one that I’m glad has finally been told, as it certainly deserved to be.

Book Reviewed on Whispering Stories Book Blog
*I received a free copy of this book, which I voluntarily reviewed.

Love and Ruin by Paula McClain is a 2018 Ballantine Books publication.

Vivid and pulsing with atmosphere- but a very challenging read.
Wow, Paula McClain can really draw a person into a specific time zone and leave them mesmerized by the political climate, the danger, the romance, and larger than life characters the book is centered around.

I loved ‘The Paris Wife’, the fictional account of Hemingway and his first wife. The suspense in TPW was on a more personal and emotional level. But, with Martha ‘Marty’ Gelhorn, the tension comes from a variety of circumstances, but emotion is pretty far down on the list.
Marty was an author and journalist in her own right. She was a well- known and respected war correspondent covering the Spanish Civil War. Falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a married man, was not on her agenda, but nevertheless she embarks on a long and tumultuous affair with him and eventually he leaves his second wife, Pauline, marrying Martha almost immediately after the divorce was final.
This book chronicles Marty’s life during her “Hemingway’ years, from their first meeting, to all the adventures they experienced and survived together, to their marriage, and the eventual breakup.
The author did an amazing job of recreating the atmosphere of pre-world war two, the Spanish War, the many places in which Marty traveled to, and of course Hemingway’s Key West and the home Marty and Hemingway purchased and renovated in Cuba.

She also created interwoven textures between Hemingway and Martha's struggle with her status as his lover, not his wife, and her own ambitions. The book covers the time frame in which Hemingway wrote and published ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and the way the success of that novel forced a wedge between them.
However, the book, as comprehensive as it needed to be, was a real challenge for me at times. I loved the history and felt the relationship development was very well done and realistic. But, Hemingway could be so disagreeable and downright mean. I didn’t care for Marty either on a personal level, disliking the way she acquiesced to Hemingway at times, and her apathy towards breaking up his marriage. So, despite all the rich details and the lush, dangerous atmosphere the novel captured so vividly.I often felt irritable with the characters. While this may be a fictionalized accounting of events, you still can’t totally rewrite history or make the characters likeable, if they really aren’t. Still, Hemingway, warts and all, is such an intriguing person to characterize and Marty, who held her own against his rising popularity in the literary world, perhaps threatened his ego more than anyone else he was romantically associated with. Yet, she did struggle internally with her role as his lover and wife, a common conflict, as her career dueled against the typical role for women, and eventually forced Marty into a fateful decision. I admired Marty’s journalism career and her bravery, however, and believe she was a trailblazer, influencing war correspondence for many years.

The book is interesting, but on an emotional level it didn’t quite grab me in the same way ‘The Paris Wife’ did. Still, this a worthy fictional accounting of Martha and Ernest Hemingway, and is informative, and even thought provoking.

3.5 stars

Prior to reading this book, I had not heard of it but had heard praise for Paula McLain's novel, "The Paris Wife". Now, after reading "Love and Ruin", I know I will be picking up her earlier works as well.

For this novel and this particular story, Paula McLain did wonders combining both nonfiction and fiction. It was done so wonderfully that it was difficult to know what was real and what was not (both in the events and the characters). There were no blatant moments of falsity for the characters or the events that occurred during this timespan.

Additionally, Paula McLain created a historical fiction that truly was perfect (for me, at least). There were multiple stories that were going on at the same time which kept my attention. Sometimes with historical fiction, if too much of the novel is solely based on relaying historical events or facts, the story can slow down or I may lose interest. In this novel, as much as there were details on the events that were going on during these years, the main story was about these two characters (or even specifically, Martha). So although I was getting the story and information to create that historical background, I was also staying entertained with the characters.

After reading this novel, I definitely wish that I knew more about Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, both individually and more surrounding their relationship. I think that is a true exclamation of how successful this novel was. If a reader wants to go beyond that story and learn more on whom the characters were based, a novel was wonderfully done.

I will certainly be looking for more written by Paula McLain in the future because this novel is an example of just how talented she is as a writer.

***Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review***

This is my second Paula McLain book, and her 2nd book about one of Ernest Hemingway's wives. I really enjoyed her earlier work, "The Paris Wife" about Ernest's second wife, Hadley Richardson.
This book is about Hemingway's third wife--Marty Gellhorn who was perhaps the most interesting of his 4 wives.
I have to say that in the era of "MeToo" that the early half of this book was just painful to read. Ernest was absolutely that kind of guy who used his power and success to win young ladies (who he had just been calling daughter) to his bed. He was definitely of the "kiss them til they give in" philosophy. So it took a good while for me to like Ernest again.
I learned so much about the Spanish Civil war, and about Cuba and about other world events that Marty reported on as a journalist. I learned more about the background of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and about the meteoric success that this book was for Ernest. I also learned how hard it is in a marriage of two strong willed successful people for one partner to be happy and supportive of the other's successes. I learned about Hemingway's sons and what each of the boys were like.
Marty was a strong, determined woman. In life, she was one of the greatest war corespondents of her time. I really liked her. She was definitely ahead of her time--"Why must a woman decide between being a war corespondent and a wife in her husband's bed?"
Ernest's drinking and depression and mental imbalance are really heart-rending. What a difficult man he could be.
I was left feeling a bit morose at the end, but that's life for you--only fiction ties everything up with neat bows.

I was very excited about reading about Mart Gelhorn, a woman who had to push and sneak her way into war reporting. The best parts of the book were her experiences at different locations for war. She threw herself into and let herself feel the deeps of despair for the wounded soldiers, refugees and cared deeply about the victims of poverty.

At first it was interesting when she met Ernest Hemingway. Fate sort of threw them together. But she previously had relationships with married men and could not break away from them because she kept hoping that they would end well.
I felt very sad for her when she fell for him. Instead she fell for him. He cast a spell over her, he was larger than life to her and many other women. I lost patience with the middle of the book which concentrated on their relationship and wanted to tell her to "end it with him" but she let herself to be swallowed up by an empty promise of eternal love. I did not like how Hemingway called her "daughter" at the beginning of the romance. That should have been a red light to her but she ignored it. I felt I would have liked the book better if less time and space in the book had been spent on the relationship between the twp and more on her career.

She often had to decide between her passion for being a war correspondent and her relationship with Ernest Hemingway. I feel sure that things would not have worked out if she decided to stay home I enjoyed The Paris Wife but this book left me a little depressed.

Once again, Paula Mclain does not disappoint. I read The Paris Wife and thoroughly enjoyed it and now she is back with Love and Ruin.

Love and Ruin is the story of Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Martha Gelhorn. I knew nothing of their relationship before reading this historical fiction. This is the story of what happens when two very strong people, in basically the same field, try to love and live their lives together.

Martha was an upcoming young journalist and writer when she met Ernest Hemingway. She wanted to cover what was happening in Spain during the Spanish civil war. Her stories focused on the people and their personal stories. While being thrown into life or death situations, she began to fall in love with Ernest, even though he had a wife and children at home.

Martha craved the excitement of being in the action as much as Hemingway did. They were both such strong people, committed to causes, committed to their writing and committed to each other. There was jealousy on both sides and it was a relationship that was almost doomed from the very beginning. Too intense, too much in common, too much alike.

I really enjoyed this book. Martha Gelhorn was fearless in her pursuit of a story. I’ve read that Martha Gelhorn is portrayed as someone who latched on to Hemingway to further her career. Paula Mclain presents her more as an equal, at least in terms of drive and ambition. She became one of the greatest war correspondents in history.

I received an ARC of this book.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain 400 pages

Paula McLain burst onto the literary scene with “The Paris Wife,” and if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading that novel, grab a copy as soon as you can. In that novel, McLain wrote about famed author Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley.

After that book, she thought she was done with Hemingway. However, in a conversation at St. Louis County Library, she told the packed house that she had had a dream about him, after which she felt compelled to tackle the adventurous writer once again.

By this point in his life, Hemingway has had moderate success as a writer, but he had yet to write “A Farwell to Arms,” which catapulted him to superstardom. It’s 1936. Tensions are starting to run high across Europe as Hitler comes to power. The world is afraid another war is imminent. The Spanish Civil War, however, is in its infant stages

Hemingway loved adventure, and so did Martha (Marty) Gelhorn. A St. Louis-girl, she bucked the conventions of her upper social status. A writer herself, Marty published her first book, “The Trouble I’ve Seen” to rave reviews.

As 1936 turns to 1937, Marty and her mother take a trip to Key West, where she meets Hemingway. Although they were attracted to each other, Ernest was still married to his second wife, Pauline.

As the war in Spain heated up, Marty talked the editor of “Collier’s” to assign her to cover the conflict as a special correspondent. She also runs into Hemingway again, and their passion ignites. McLain follows the couple around the world, through their ups and downs, through 1944.

Much like “The Paris Wife” and Melanie Benjamin’s story of the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in “The Aviator’s Wife., I felt like a fly on the wall as I watched two authors try to write under one roof, two people with an adventurous nature coursing through their and two lovers love and fight.

The only downfall upon reaching the conclusion of “Love and Ruin,” is that readers have to wait for the next Paula McLain novel. Sure hope it’s soon. “Love and Ruin” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

McLain masterfully paints the larger world surrounding the protagonist without losing focus on the life she's telling us about. So often single-protagonist historical fiction loses clarity because an author uses too wide a lens to convey a sense of the times or too narrow of one to hone in on the character. This book is perfection though as Marty's life walks us through the beginning and mid 20th century from the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s through the Normandy invasion of 1944.

It's impossible not to cheer her on when she doubts herself or to be amazed by the gumption and grit she personally has. The danger she submitted to in order to get her story out is admirable and it makes a lasting impression. Hemingway's treatment of her and his other wives highlights the opposite end of the spectrum: a great talent for understanding fictional people which does not translate well to real life relationships.

At first I wondered why McLain chose to focus on this segment of Marty's life and not a part of it when she wasn't attached to Hemingway. These, however, are the formative years of Marty's life. In this time she finds her voice as both a writer and a reporter and makes a name for herself as both. She just happened to to that while involved with Hemingway; it's not because of him but his influence on her emotional state is a big factor in her growth.

As was with her life, her marriage with Hemingway was only part of the story. What I found most refreshing about the plot was that we are offered views of Marty in every piece of her life: as a daughter, an independent woman, a writer, a reporter, a wife, and a stepmother. All of these blended together round out this fascinating story of a very real woman with her own accomplished life.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Random House Ballantine, and the author Paula McLain.

In 1936, at the age of 27, Martha “Marty” Gellhorn is at a crossroads. Drawn to Europe by her unquenchable wanderlust, she earnestly pursues her writing career. But with some journalistic experience and a published (badly reviewed) novel to her credit, her ambition has yet to find a focus, much less notoriety amongst her peers. Much to the dismay of her parents, her personal life is littered with affairs with married men, and she finds herself being propelled forward by restlessness rather than a bona fide direction.

Until she meets Ernest Hemingway on a family holiday in Florida. Already on his second marriage, but a respected and well-connected author, Hemingway is eager to get to Spain and report on the Spanish Civil War from the battlefield. Inspired by his passion and in awe of meeting her literary hero, Marty decides to join the fray, wrangling press credentials and making the harrowing journey across the world. And in the war-torn countryside, her paradigm-shifting trip is shaped by the sheer gravity of the war, the brave souls she meets at the front lines, and the forged friendships with her fellow journalists. But most notably, her romantic destiny collides with Ernest’s in a way that would change the trajectory of her life.

Split into six parts and spanning over eight years, LOVE AND RUIN chronicles the life of acclaimed war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and her tumultuous romance with Ernest Hemingway. Set against the volatile world stage of the Spanish Civil War and World War II, it is a beautiful blend of fiction and fact. Paula McLain manages to cover a complicated timeline of events over the course of the novel, conveying the pertinent points without bogging the reader down with a litany of unnecessary facts. Even more of a feat, she casts light on the life of a woman --- flaws, triumphs and everything in between --- that shaped the historical narrative as we know it.

Much of the book centers on Marty’s relationship with Ernest, but I was drawn in by the romance of a journalist with a story to tell. Seeing this time in history through the lens of Marty’s journalistic eye gave me an entirely different, somewhat nostalgic perspective on the print media of the past. She put her life at risk to tell these accounts of war because she believed that the right words put into the hands of the average American had the power to shake them awake to the tragedies happening on far-off shores and change things for the better. And though she loved Ernest deeply, nothing could deter her from pursuing this calling.

Readers are taken through Marty and Ernest’s love story in different settings: the passionate beginning in war-ravaged Spain, their home base in humid and tranquil Cuba, and the hustle and bustle of the New York writing scene --- and each place is tangibly felt. A few chapters with Ernest’s point of view are interspersed throughout the book, a welcome look into the man behind the literary genius. This approach to the storytelling is a stroke of brilliance and adds a layer of insight into their romance that would be lacking otherwise.

McLain, whose debut novel THE PARIS WIFE focused on Ernest’s first marriage to Hadley Richardson, is a clear leader in the historical fiction genre. If I had one criticism of LOVE AND RUIN, it would concern the character development. Overall, I often felt that the emotions and romantic tension in the book were told rather than felt. And in a few cases, the revealing of Marty’s character seemed fragmented with references that appeared to come out of nowhere.

However, though the story is set over 80 years ago, the themes explored are just as relevant today as they were back then: Martha Gellhorn is a woman finding her voice and place in the world, despite the obstacles. And when faced with the choice of burying her head in the proverbial sand or staying engaged with the world at large, she’s an inspiration to face life head on, despite its challenges and atrocities, with courage, fortitude and --- even more impressively --- an open heart.

With prose as rich and complex as the historical landscape McLain covers, the past comes alive in her latest novel. LOVE AND RUIN is expertly written with well-timed pacing, wonderful descriptions, and themes that will inspire and stay with you long after the final page has been turned.

Reviewed by Amy Haddock

Far away, but not, too, long ago may be one of many ways to describe Paula McLain’s follow-up to her best seller The Paris Wife Love and Ruin. It is evocative as it is intriguing to the reader to see how Ernest Hemingway has fared in the over 15 year span after the Jazz Age of the 1920s and now in this novel he is on another excursion that takes him back to Europe with another world war on the horizon and another romance with fellow writer and soon-to-be Mrs. Hemingway Martha Gellhorn. The novel covers a the trans-Atlantic and Pacific and historic backdrop from the Florida Keys to Cuba to the Spanish Civil War and Africa, and even Russia and Asia before the story concludes of conflicts that will culminate and be a part of grand scale world war from 1936 to all out war by 1944.

As one reads Love and Ruin the creativity and imagination of McLain’s impeccable writing will keep all eyes on every page and the next. There is no doubt, the novel is a page-turner, and in the spirit and tradition of a Hemingway novel or of the like such as A Farewell To Arms or the novel he was writing about the time Love and Ruin takes place The Snows of Kilimanjaro or For Whom The Bell Tolls. Each possesses adventurous sentiment and offers insight to the landscape and the setting, in this case the historical backdrop and prelude and interlude of war. Based on the letters of Martha Gellhorn and Hemingway, McLain writes their story, especially of Gellhorn. She captures every thought and emotion that she experiences with and away from Hemingway and he calling her “Rabbit”. But always never missing a beat, her writing for Collier magazine that shows she being independent minded and strong willed with much spunk; at times may remind one of the likes of that type of woman such as Katherine Hepburn or Lauren Bacall, and probably several others of the period. But the most interesting part about this historic novel, it recreates not only the events but the lives of Hemingway and Gellhorn as history was being made; it also, suggests of a time that was quickly fading away, the adventure and quaint postcard images pre-1937 of places such that no longer be by 1939 or 1941.

If The Paris Wife may have conjured ideas of having the novel turn into a film, Love and Ruin certainly shares that for this reader. It is a story where one who may be fan of Hemingway’s works allows a much more intimate and somewhat lively tinge of the man and the women he fell in and out of love with during times of peace as well as during war.

Besides reading Hemingway's novels, I have never read any historical fiction based on his life. This was a first for me on the subject matter and a first time reading Paula McLain. She obviously knows her subject matter well and has done a ton of research about Hemingway and his life and loves.
I was first intrigued that the book took place during WWII (actually before WWII and through the war). I love books told during that time and that include a bit of history along with the story being told. But this was more than a story. It was about a woman that matched up to Hemingway and most any man in more ways than many woman did back in the 30's and 40's. Martha Hemingway, nee Martha Gellhorn was Hemingway's 3rd wife and this is her story.
Martha, aka Marty is the voice of this book. It is told from her POV along with a few small chapters of Hemingway brought in. I loved seeing a woman that paved her own way during a time that was mostly about men. She had a dream and went for it. She didn't let life or love hold her back. Which in some ways was a detriment to her relationships.
We follow the two through the starts of war in Europe, to Cuba, and many parts of the US. We get to see how life and their work affected their home lives and most important, their relationship with one another. The story left a little to be desired as far as getting to really see Martha and her written work in Europe (examples of her writing or seeing her success as opposed to the hearing about it the Author's Note would have been nice), but it at least let me see the strength of a woman and the desire to be better and equal to her counterparts. Even if I felt parts of the book were left unfulfilling, overall the feel of the book and the content of the book made up for it. The history was well researched and getting a voice from Hemingway gave the book the masculine POV that it may have been lacking otherwise.
Overall, a well researched book that will appeal to women that have a strength and need for reading about a woman that didn't care about limits. She was made to shatter those ceilings and make herself an equal. We need more of that now.

Paula McClain knocks it out of the park yet again. I enjoy her historical fiction when she writes about a very successful, way-ahead-of-her-time strong female. In Circling the Sun, McClain writes about Beryl Markham with such eloquence and respect. I didn’t sense that as much with Martha Gellhorn in Love and Ruin. The story is fascinating; Gellhorn was an extremely courageous and fascinating woman. It may be due to my preconceived notions about Ernest Hemingway and his history of being self-centered. But, this is a book about their relationship, not her life history. This is the main difference between the stories of these two women; McClain chose a different angle from what I expected.
After completing the book and flipping back thru the numerous more-detailed events of Martha’s brushes with war and death, I realized that McClain hit a fine line; she portrayed the love Martha had for Hemingway in such a light that it revealed the burden he truly was on her. While he was pouting her absence, she was tempting death and documenting the tragedies of war so the world couldn’t remain in its safe space and ignore reality. This was especially true when Martha was one of the first journalists to report the existing conditions of Dachau.
Martha was greatly affected by her day-to-day work, but for the five years she was in a relationship with Hemingway, she wasn’t free to fully devote herself to her career.
Hemingway was and will always be a colorful, creative person who devoted so much to American literature. But his sun pales and is a bit pitiful when paired with someone as headstrong and independent as Martha Gellhorn.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for making it available.)

Paula McLain‘s latest novel, Love and Ruin, is simultaneously devastatingly tragic and eloquently beautiful. It shares the story of the passionate love affair and stormy marriage of Martha (“Marty”) Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway.

This is the story of how the married Hemingway seduced a much younger reporter, married her, then dumped her when she continued pursuing her career, while he sat home drinking. As he saw it, her accepting an overseas assignment meant she had left him.

Marty Gellhorn was truly a woman ahead of her time, working as a novelist and war correspondent. She became one of the first female war correspondents of the 20thcentury. On vacation with her family in Key West, in a chance encounter, she met Hemingway. He became a family friend and mentor, frequently calling her “Daughter”.

Prior to the publication of Hemingway’s blockbuster novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they were equals – both were struggling journalists and authors. After the publication of Bells, he was a legend. There was no longer equality in the marriage. Love and Ruindelves into Hemingway’s moody, depressive, narcissistic, and bullying personality. He is revealed as an insecure man-child who required an entourage of admirers, and demanded that Marty give up her career to be the wife of a famous man. As Marty’s byline became more well-known and sought-after, he saw her as a professional rival. Refusing to sacrifice her growing fame as a reporter, Marty traveled throughout war-torn Europe for Collier’smagazine.

Not only is Love and Ruina compelling work of historical fiction, it is a commentary on the competing demands of home, family, and work placed on career women not encountered by men. Additionally, the book gives the reader an up-close and personal view of the experiences not only of the soldiers, but also of people living in the midst of war, as well as alluding to the tragedies caused by untreated and personality disorders and depression.

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. As always, an honest review.

Love and Ruin centers around Martha Gellhorn, a spunky, ambitious, intelligent and confident journalist. She wants to travel the world in order to write about the significant events, especially the wars encompassing the world. The character of Martha is the fictionalized version of Martha Gellhorn, a real journalist during the 1930s and 40s. She was also the mistress and eventual wife of Ernest Hemingway.

The story is beautifully told. I really appreciated that the tale of these real life people was incredibly readable and not at all dull. The writing style flows well and makes for an easy seamless read that I absolutely flew through. The book portrays what it feels like to travel to a war zone to share the experiences with others through journalism. I truly felt as if I were hunkered down in the hotel, hearing the gunfire in the not so far away distance. The reader also understands Martha's desperation to share these experiences with the world, do them justice, and continue pursuing her journalism career.

Love and Ruin also tells the love story of Ernest and Martha, starting with their affair. Obviously these events were loosely based on real life, but I didn't really enjoy reading about their affair. Affairs in general have the potential to hurt a lot of people, so it's not exactly my favorite topic. Her relationship with Ernest Hemingway, a world renowned author, brings up a lot of things to think about. These topics include why do women get compared to men's work, but not the other way around? Why are women expected to change after marriage to suit their husbands, not mutual compromise? Topics that were relevant back then, and still now. I really enjoyed the character of Martha. She makes the story work.

Overall, I enjoyed Love and Ruin and would recommend it to people who enjoy complex love stories, books that make you think or historical fiction fans.

* I originally posted this review on Goodreads

Martha Gellhorn is young, ambitious and already a writer when she has a chance encounter with Ernest Hemingway in a bar near the home he shared with his wife and sons in Key West, Florida. That initial meeting would begin as a mentor that could help Martha pursue her career goals and soon became a passionate and dangerous love affair with the famous writer. Paula McLain, who wrote about Hemingway's first wife in her novel The Paris Wife, revisits that iconic legend in her newest novel Love and Ruin.

I first fell in love with Ernest Hemingway when I was a sophomore in high school and read A Farewell to Arms. It's one of the few books that I regularly reread. Later I would read more of Hemingway's works and would count For Whom the Bell Tolls as my favorite. The first thing that intrigued me about Love and Ruin and it's focus on Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway's third wife is that they spent their early romance in the midst of the Spanish Civil War which is the setting For Whom the Bell Tolls. Love and Ruin by Paula McLain tells their love story from Martha's perspective. A successful writer and an award winning journalist covering many of the wars from the twentieth century, Martha is a fascinating character.

Love and Ruin is intriguing and so well written that I was captured up in the tales of Martha's aspirations and energy. She is an amazing woman and frankly deserves to be known for her own achievements and not only as the wife of Ernest Hemingway. McLain gives her voice and power to tell her own story. The novel is romantic and dangerous and passionate as Gellhorn and Hemingway have their adventures around the globe.

I very much enjoyed learning more of Martha Gellhorn in Love and Ruin. Martha and Hemingway's tempestuous and ardent love story makes an exciting and raw novel and McLain does Martha justice.

Ms. McLain is a pretty good writer, but this novel about Martha Gelhorn seems divorced from reality. It is bizarre for the author to have Martha just sort of stumble on Ernest Hemingway - the most famous writer in the world at the time - at his favorite bar in Key West. Mind you, she had already had several affairs with married men and was desperate to be a famous writer herself, but showing up in that bar was a 'total accident'. Pretty wild. And then they just go off to report on the Spanish Civil War, and she has absolutely no interest in him - he's just a friend. She's an innocent until Ernest decides he can't keep his hands off her. Right, and pigs can fly!

It's also pretty funny that she never seems to use the term "Republicans" for the side fighting in the Spanish Civil War that she and Ernest supported. They have generally been referred to in history as "Republicans" but modern day politics rears its ugly head here too.

Martha Gelhorn was no innocent swept off her feet by passion and Ernest Hemingway. This novel would have been loads better if the author didn't work so hard to make this woman appear totally sympathetic. Maybe an anti-heroine with a little sympathetic thrown in. I have to say I found "The Paris Wife" a much more believable novel. This one disappointed.

Love and Ruin is a perfect title for a book about Ernest Hemingway and his lover and wife Martha Gellhorn. Theirs was an incredible love story until Gellhorn, a well recognized writer and war correspondent hit her stride and became a recognized success. No writercould compete with the demigod, Ernest Hemingway, and only a few writers were ever compared to him. To be a writer, an author, a correspondent in the heyday of Hemingway was to be delegated to perpetual second place, an eternal also ran. Every man wanted to be him and every woman wanted to have him, yet he ruined those writers whose lives touched his, like F. Scott Fitzgerald and to an even larger degree, Martha Gellhorn. Gellhorn and Hemingway met in a Key West and again as war correspondents in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. They had a four year affair and were married for another 5 years. Although Gellhorn was a well respected writer and correspondent, Hemingway wanted her to curb her career and give precedence to be his wife. Gellhorn, however, had no intention of being a ‘footnote in another person’s life’. The only one of Hemingway’s wives to leave him, she chose independence and her career over serving as a wife trying desperately to shore up the life, ego, and insecurities that comprised Ernest Hemingway. Neither choice - loving or leaving - was easy, but I don’t think that her choice brought her much happiness. Paula McLain did an astounding job of capturing Gellhorn in Love and Ruin. Gellhorn’s voice rang loud, clear, and so authentic that it would have been easy to believe it to be autobiographical. #loveandruin #netgalley

A chance meeting in a bar in Key West in 1936 began a friendship and ultimately marriage between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. Martha was a novice writer hoping to become famous. She couldn’t help being drawn to the charismatic Hemingway. Their friendship progressed through phone calls until Ernest announced his intention to go to Spain as a war correspondent.

Martha couldn’t resist the call of adventure. She followed Hemingway to Spain with fifty dollars and a backpack. Martha caught up with Hemingway in Madrid. She still saw him as a friend, but the attraction was strong and soon they were lovers. Being the partner of a famous man wasn’t easy for Martha, an independent woman who wanted her own career.

They married in 1940 and had happy years writing in Havana. Then Hemingway’s most famous book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, was published, and Martha found herself eclipsed by his fame. They struggled for awhile, but the marriage eventually ended in divorce and Martha went on to be a famous war correspondent.

This is a thoroughly engrossing book. I thought the author did an excellent job portraying two strong characters each striving for their own success, but trying to stay together. The book is fiction, but so well done that you can feel the tension of real people.

I did have trouble with some of the author’s descriptions. She seemed to be trying too hard to find unusual ways to describe what Martha was seeing. The descriptions were sometimes so unusual that they broke the flow of the story while I tried to figure out what she was trying to show.

On the whole, this is a very good book. If you enjoy fiction based on the lives of real people, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

This novel chronicles the journalistic rise of Martha Gellhorn and her relationship with Ernest Hemingway. Maybe I’ve just read too many books about Hemingway and those that he loved, hurt, destroyed, etc. but this book was just an average read for me.

Ms. Gellhorn was still struggling to find her career path when she and her family met Hemingway while in vacation in Key West, Florida. He convinces her to come to Spain with him and report on the civil war going on there, she is able to secure a press pass and joins him there. It is while here that she gets her first taste of war correspondence and she likes it. Ernest makes a play for her and even though he is still married to Pauline Pfeiffer with whom he has two sons, they begin a love affair.

The interesting part of this book for me was Ms. Gellhorn and her accomplishments. I was so impressed that I spent hours looking up files about her on the internet and it made for interesting reading. I found that she had such a long career that she covered everything from the Spanish Civil War, Vietnam, the wars in El Salvador and Panama. She truly had a love of traveling and getting the story out. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know that she had published novels, but I plan to check them out.

The love affair, then marriage and then “ruin” of her time with Hemingway seemed like a repeat of so much I had read about him and his exploits before that all I felt was relief when Martha finally divorces him and lives her own life.

Of the three books that I’ve read by Ms. McLain I think this is probably my favorite and I would certainly look forward to the next novel by this talented author.

I received an ARC of this novel from publisher through NetGalley.

Ballantine Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Love and Ruin. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Knowing next to nothing about Ernest Hemingway's personal life besides his propensity for drink and women, I thought it would be intriguing to read this historical fiction about one of the women in his life. Martha Gellhorn, a successful writer and correspondent in her own right, struggled to find her place in Hem's world. His jealousy and possessiveness of Marty's time helped to unravel their sometimes tumultuous relationship, but it was really insecurity that ruined their love affair.

Previously unaware of Martha's place in the journalistic and literary world, I originally thought that Love and Ruin included a fictitious character in a realistic world. The author does a good job of weaving a historical narrative with the real-life people who lived through the horrors of war. Where the book falls short for me is with regards to the details, as Love and Ruin gets bogged down in the middle because of this. Marty's life with Hemingway was only a small part of her total experiences and I would have liked to see the author get into more detail about her alone. Love and Ruin was very readable, with an overall quick pace and well drawn characters. Readers who are familiar with Hemingway and his personal life may get more out of this novel than those who are unaware of the nuances of this famous writer's life.

I would have given this book 5 stars were it not for certain tics in the writer's stye. At one point, one of Martha Gellhorn's novels gets slammed by a reviewer for "having a Hemingway accent." I could say the same for Love and Ruin. The text is riddled with the use of "fine" and "true," as we'll as the adjectives "terribly" and "awfully." I'm not 100% sure of this comes from the author reading too much Hemingway, but it detracts from an otherwise FINE novel.The author has done remarkable research, recreating not only Martha Gelllhorn's intense and ultimately rocky romance with Ernest Hemingway, but boldly venturing into war zones to find heartfelt stories on which to report. I suspect, however, that most readers will be more interested in the love story here than the account of Gellhorn's journalism. This is a shame, because these part of the book are fascinating, especially when the characters visit Spain and China.

It's not my place as a reader to pass judgment on the love between these two real people; many other women would have sprinted in the other direction from Hemingway, since as their love affair progresses, the man becomes increasingly selfish, drunken, slovenly and childish--and he's already fallen out of love with two wives. But not Martha. She honestly loved the guy, and a reader wishes the two of them could have found common ground.

My favorite character is Edna Gellhorn, Martha's wise mother, who says, "Trust your intuition. That's what it's there for." That line is going to stick with me.

Reading a novel by Paula McLain is a great assignment…an assignment filled with the joy of reading her beautiful and poetic prose, meeting her always interesting characters, and finding myself in another time and place. Love and Ruin did not disappoint.

Hemingway takes another wife may not be what you think you want to read, but told by Paula McLain it is a beautiful story. That is with the exception of Hemingway’s treatment of women, especially his wives. His marriage to Martha Gellhorn proves to be no different.

However, the descriptive language of the novel, especially the details of the Spanish Civil War and the role played by the characters in the book, make up for the fact that Hemingway is himself, no matter which war is being fought. Gellhorn is young and enamored of Hemingway’s fame and his large and strong persona. Young girls found him attractive and mysterious. Gellhorn was no exception. Her dream of working as a journalist also made Hemingway an effective mentor and help in getting her work published.

I have not read all of McLain’s books, but I do respect her work as a great writer. When I find an author who transports me to the time and place and action by painting pictures with words, I always come back for more. McLain is one of those writers.

5 this is exactly the kind of historical fiction I can sink my teeth into stars to Love and Ruin!

Love and Ruin is exactly the kind of historical fiction I can sink my teeth into because of the time period, the characters, the flawless writing, and the tumultuous love story between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway.

I related to some aspects of Martha Gellhorn’s character right away. She wants nothing more than to please her father with her writing and for him to see her as a success. Even after his death, this drives her and propels her forward. Martha is a strong and unusual woman, especially for her time. The Author’s Note provides further insight into Martha’s life.

Martha Gellhorn, a journalist and award winning war correspondent arrested for going to places “in the field” where she was not allowed, is both intriguing and inspiring to me. What transpires in her marriage and its resulting falling apart had me transfixed. Gellhorn and Hemingway compete for jobs, vying for attention and acceptance. At this point, Hemingway’s life is becoming more unwound and unstable. The love and obsession between Martha and Ernest was palpable and electrifying, and as is the case with many marriages and affairs, sometimes from the greatest of highs, the greatest of lows are found in the end.

Overall, Love and Ruin is a beautifully written account of the non-traditional love story between a formidable woman and a formidable man.

Thank you to Paula McLain, Random House/Ballantine, and Netgalley for the ARC.

4.25. Fascinating read. I like historical novels and this one did not disappoint. I read and liked The Aviators Wife, and Circling the Sun by Paula McLain so I was eager o read this book. The novel is centered around Martha Gellhorn, a writer, war time correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and World War II and wife of Ernest Hemingway. She was ambitious, independent and a true trailblazer for women in what traditionally was a male profession. As a fan of St. Louis, I was even more engrossed as she was a St. Louis native with strong ties to the area. Ms. Gellhorn was a gutsy lady, butting up against the male entrenched correspondent profession, and doing quite successfully but not without some setbacks. The novel also was interesting in providing an intimate look into the very complex character of Ernest Hemingway as well as their complicated relationship, admiration between the two but also very competitive. The novel showed the atrocities of war through the sometimes terrifying front line role of war correspondents while also illustrating the softer and romantic life Gellhorn and Hemingway had residing in Cuba in the 40s. I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and Fran review. I highly recommend this novel.

Paula McLain is back with a vengeance! Her next book, Love and Ruin is about to be released and it is awesome. I love her work and this tale does not disappoint. This is the story of Martha “Marty” Gellhorn, a talented World War II war correspondent and author. She was also Ernest Hemingway’s third wife. The novel covers the tumultuous years of her life that she spent with Ernest as she struggled to be recognized for her own talent and to be the wife to a man who was very talented but also very troubled and demanding.

The story is told in the first person by Marty. This allows the reader to be in her head, to feel and see what she does. It is easy to be swept up in the emotions and romance of being with Ernest and the pain and sorrow as their relationship fades. The reader feels her warmth as she gets to know Hemingway’s children and feels as if they are her own. You also get a glimpse into her thoughts and despair as she witnesses the horror of war seen from many fronts. This style brings Marty alive to the reader!

As with all Ms. McLain’s books, you won’t be able to put this one down. It brings the main character to life and keeps you turning pages as you witness the path that her life takes. You become emotionally invested in Marty’s life and experience her difficulties. Because of the adult situations that may be difficult for a young reader to understand, I recommend this for young adult to adult readers. Make sure you pick this one up, you won’t be disappointed!!

I had previously read two other novels by Paula McClain, The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun and even though part of this new book Love and Ruin had topics and scenes that had to do with war and its destruction, which I normally don't like to read about, I felt this novel was more powerful to invoke strong feelings and I felt that this book was more effective in grabbing my attention and keeping it until the last page.

The story of Love and Ruin takes place from 1936 to 1944 but so much happened during that tulmilous time.The novel is centered on Ernest Hemingway and his third wife Martha Gellhorn, an inspiring writer. During their marriage, Hemingway reached the top of his fame after having great success in the now famous book For Whom the Bells Toll. Gellhorn was fiercely independent, volountereed to go to war zones to write about it and was certainly ahead of her time as a woman and at times she struggled not to loose her identity since she was married to a famous man. Her ambition and Hemingway's sometimes collided as it seems that Hemingway would have preferred a wife to stay put and ultimately it resulted in betrayal. Hemingway's alcoholism certainly complicated things.

If you are looking for an historical novel to immerse yourself in, I would put this one on your list! This is a gripping novel during a tulmulous time in history beautifully written with passion and insight.

4 stars
Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for sending me this e ARC.
This book is a fictionalized story of the relationship/marriage/divorce between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Martha was Hemingway's 3rd wife. They started an affair while Hemingway was still married to his 2nd wife. Until I read this book, I was not aware that she wrote several books, in addition to being one of the first woman war journalists. She covered wars from the Spanish civil war to Vietnam and Panama.
The book describes Hemingway as a very selfish man. He may have been a brilliant writer, but he was also an alcoholic and an insecure womanizer. Gellhorn was mesmerized by his brilliance but rebelled against his domineering need for her. When she went off on a war reporting assignment without him after several years of marriage, Hemingway found another woman and divorced Gellhorn. Gellhorn was the only 1 of his wives to leave him and he never forgave her.
Some quotes: Spanish civil war siege of Madrid "Since the previous November, when Franco had locked his sights on destroying the capital, nearly every day had brought fire and death. But most Madrilenos had still refused to leave."
Martha on Ernest and Martha's first sexual encounter: "The trees bent in and the whole night did, too, and whatever part of me could usually hold to reason was washed away."
Martha on ending her marriage: "In moments, I'd been kicked out of love and was alone again."

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain is an historical fiction novel about Martha Gellhorn. I love historical fiction and had heard good things about Paula McLain’s books, so I decided to give it a try. I have to admit, I was feeling some trepidation about the book for about the first 20 pages and then I was drawn into the story completely. I knew little about Martha Gelhorn prior to reading, however I found myself looking up information about her life as the book progressed. Paula McLain has written a book of such quality and passion that you are totally enthralled with “Marty”, always wanting to know what is next.

I admired the writing of Paula McLain. I enjoyed reading about Ernest Hemingway and how he was such an integral part of her life. Mostly I admired the strength of character and the audacity to conquer a male dominated world that Marty had. The story followed the rough outline of her life, however the conversations, letters and connections were fiction. The fiction and the nonfiction rolled so smoothly together that it was hard to remember what was known and what was imagined.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain was a fabulous read. I enjoyed the book tremendously. I admired the subject matter, the writing, and the weaving of fiction and nonfiction. I will add Paula McLain to my authors I like. I will continue to revisit the strength of the story and the portrayal of the main character in the future as well. Love and Ruin is a five star read!

I must confess I started the Paris Wife by Paula McLain, but didn't finish it. After reading Love and Ruin, I need to go back and try it again. It was the content, not the writing that I had a problem with. There are some similarities in Paris Wife and Love And Ruin. They are both stories about Ernest Hemingway, his love life, infidelity, his marriage and again infidelity. Love and Ruin is the story of Hemingway and his third love and marriage to Martha Gellhorn. She became one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century. Beginning when she met Ernest in late 1936, traveling to Madrid and later to the Spanish Civil war with him. She covered every war that broke out in her lifetime, until 1990's when her health began to give out. She wrote several novels, novellas and two short stories during her carrier. Two of her novels she wrote and published before meeting Hemingway. The detail in which Ms. McLain writes takes you on an unforgettable journey. She captures the subtleties of this complex relationship. Putting into words their deep emotions and volatile love affair. As Paula McLain wrote about Hemingway, it could be said of her. “a brilliant painter of people in his “her” work.” It was due to Paula”s excellent writing that I was able to rate this book so high. I received a copy of this book from Random House Ballantine Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I want to thank the publisher and author for gifting me with a digital copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was so excited to get my hands on this as I had read The Paris Wife and loved it. Ms. McLain is a very talented writer and has obviously put a lot of time into researching the Hemingways for her novels. I learned so much about Ernest Hemingway and his wives. I don't agree with how he chose to live and how he treated his wives, but I thoroughly enjoyed learning his story and how his novels came to be. Wife number three is the focus of this novel and her story alone is a fascinating read. She also didn't make the best decisions in her relationships, but she was a strong, brave, independent woman who paved a path for women in journalism. I want to look up her writing now, both her posts for Couliers magazine about the Spanish and World Wars and her novels. McLain did such a good job of allowing us to see the Hemingways as people with strengths and flaws as well as a look into their literary legacies. I don't like how their story ended and was disappointed in the end of the novel- but not due to Ms. McLain in anyway. My disappoint and sadness lies fully on Ernest and Martha. Great read though that I would recommend to others.

I love all of Paula McLain's books. She has an unparalleled ability to get to the soul of her characters. The dialog, once again, is excellent. She also gets to the heart of the dilemma faced by women with ambition of any era. I felt like I was right there along with Martha, from first meeting Ernest and all the way through her war reporting and finally the breakup of their marriage. While The Paris Wife was also excellent, I particularly enjoyed learning more about Martha Gellhorn. She was ahead of her time in any ways. It also gives you another glimpse at Ernest Hemingway's character, deeply conflicted, but perhaps more likable after reading this book than before.

Much has been written about Ernest Hemingway and his wives but no-one writes about them better than Paula McLain, whose new novel is about Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. I thought that this author's debut novel, The Paris Wife, was a wonderful book; it told the story of the young Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. The author beautifully captured Hadley's voice. When I started Love and Ruin, I wondered if Ms. McLain would be able to again capture the essence of an historical character...she does!
Martha Gellhorn and Hemingway initially meet in Florida. They become closer when traveling to Spain during the Civil War, a war which is hearbreakingly portrayed in the novel. Hemingway and Gellhorn travel together to Cuba, Florida, Europe during WWII, Utah, etc. with each locale coming alive. World events unfurl in their presence.
This is also the story of a relationship; what is it like to be in the orbit of a truly charismatic person? Is that enough? How does one maintain a sense of identity? Gellhorn, a writer and reporter of merit, struggles as a relationship of equals becomes less so. There is love and yes, ruin, in the coming together and apart of these two historical personages. The reader is a witness to the joys and struggles of this couple.
I highly recommend Love and Ruin. It is one of the finest historical novels that I have read.

Wow, I am SO impressed with this book. The story is told of Martha (Marty) Gehllhorn, she tells us of her life, her love for travel, being a journalist covering stories in multiple countries, several wars and military conflicts. She was a most remarkable woman, always with a pen and paper, and a desire to write and tell the true stories that were happening and affecting the real people, getting right up front and near the fight. She also had a great capacity to love, and she did love Ernest Hemingway. This book chronicles her life before, during and after Ernest. The writing was superb, the way the story was told, you could feel the love between the two, and also the struggles they both were having. Marty was a highly independent driven person that did not want to lose her identity. I learned a lot about Martha, Ernest, and how life would have been as a journalist during those times. I admired her tenacity, courage and her desire to succeed. I don’t remember the last time I read a book that I felt such a loss when the story ended, not only from the content, but from my time now over with Marty. This was an amazing book. I highly recommend.
I thank Net Galley and Random House Publishing/Ballantine Books for allowing me the opportunity to read this advanced copy for my review.

4.5 stars

This book focuses on Ernest Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Martha was a respected and celebrated person with many accomplishments. She was a war correspondent for 60 years, and an author in her own right but the times were such that, to her chagrin, Ernest Hemingway often overshadowed her.

The best parts of the book are Martha's travels as a correspondent, along with the descriptions of the Spanish Civil War and the events leading up to WWII. She was very driven, independent and adventurous, but was also empathetic and drawn to the untold stories of the suffering of ordinary people. She was at her best and most alive when she was at the front lines in the midst of the action, and her first-person narration was riveting. Among many other accomplishments she was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day and was among the first journalists to report from the Dachau concentration camp.

Martha met Hemingway in Key West, and we follow their courtship, affair, and eventual marriage. Hemingway was a brilliant author but in his personal life he was needy and petulant, a bully who demanded his own way. There are only small sections of the book devoted to Hemingway’s POV, and they were very well done. With Martha’s independent streak and travels that kept her away from home for long stretches, it was inevitable they would crash and burn. Love and Ruin was the perfect title for this book.

The best of historical fiction sends me to the internet to research events and people. This book did exactly that. I read articles on Martha and watched a few videos and also looked up some of the wartime events I was unfamiliar with. What an amazing woman. Highly recommended!

*I received a copy of the book for review from Netgalley

In Love and Ruin, Paula McLain presents a fictional account of Martha Gellhorn's rise to journalistic fame in the context of her infamous relationship with Ernest Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War through WWII.

Masterfully written and well researched, McClain gives the reader a heroine with such depth you feel you know her. The setting for each local is beautifully rendered, from the tropical paradise of Martha's home in Cuba, to the bombed-out devastation that was the aftermath of Normandy. There were times when McClain's scenes gave me physical chills. Despite the fictionalized nature of this work, one could be convinced that the story McClain presents is about as close to true as possible.

I found the short scenes that featured Hemingway's point of view distracting, and would have preferred not to be pulled out of Martha's story, but that was infrequent and brief in the context of the whole novel. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. At a time when there is more than enough WWII historical fiction to go around, the lens through which the story is told is fresh and unique and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it.

I received a free advance e-copy of this book and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. Another great piece of biographic historical fiction by Paula McLain. This is the disastrous love story of Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Martha Gelhorn. She is a war correspondent and novelist and Ernest encourages her to write. During their life together he wrote ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls.’ They were happy together at the beginning and also through the first years of their marriage. Then things fell apart. Her life had grown stale. She had a yearning for the adventures of the old days and she felt overshadowed by Ernest. She is independent. Ernest is a man who doesn’t do well alone. He is competitive and becomes jealous of her writing success. They are both stubborn and selfish. The author tells a fascinating story honestly and beautifully with a great deal of historical detail. Martha had a huge impact as she cleared the way for women in the field of journalism. ‘Love and Ruin’ is a very well written novel with excellent character development and well worth the read. I look forward to reading more from Paula McLain in the future.

I read The Paris Wife earlier this year for a book club and really enjoyed it, so when I found out the same author was writing another book about another one of Hemingway's four wives I knew I had to read it. In addition to learning about Martha Gelhorn's life and her relationship with Ernest Hemingway in Love and Ruin, I love that the reader also learns so much about history and the way of life at that time. Marty Gelhorn is a young writer and journalist when she walks into a bar in Key West with her mom and brother. The other patron at the bar is Hemingway and the rest is history.

I love, love, love this book. It is definitely a slower read for me than most other books. I feel like reading it is like an afternoon down a lazy river and the end of it finishes with low-level whitewater rapids. It feels as real as can be and makes me feel that McLain did the best job when researching for this book. Neither book paints Hemingway in a favorable light but it does feel really honest. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Hemingway or lady adventurers, because she goes on some wild rides.

OVE AND RUIN” BY Paula McLain

“Love and Ruin” by Paula McLain is an amazing, captivating, intriguing and intense novel. The Genres for this novel are Fiction and Historical Fiction, with an essence of Romance. The timeline for this story is before and during World War Two. The story takes place in Spain, Cuba, and Europe, as well as the United States.

I appreciate the historical research that Paula McLain has done to vividly describe the destruction of war. The author describes her characters as complex and complicated. Martha Gelhorn, an author and journalist and Ernest Hemingway, an author have an intense and stormy relationship.

Martha Gelhorn is portrayed as an ambitious, active, and dedicated journalist reporting atrocities of war. Ernest Hemingway is portrayed as a moody, at times ego-centric author. During the time of their relationship Ernest Hemingway writes one of his greatest novels “From Whom the Bell Tolls”. There seems to be competition and rivalry at times between the two authors.

I would recommend this novel to readers that appreciate the genre of Historical Fiction. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

I was hoping to love this book, but sadly, I can't say that I did. The story itself has the potential to be fascinating. Unfortunately, instead of being riveted, I felt like I could put the book down at almost any point in the book and never pick it up again. It took me a couple months to get through it. There are some good lines in the book, but that's balanced by poor ones. Honestly, I think the author's writing style just falls short for me. This is the second book I've read by this author, and it seems to be a persistent issue. I love her choice of subject matter, though.

A warm and sincere thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will be honest and tell you that prior to reading this book I knew nothing about Martha Gellhorn or any of Ernest Hemingway's wives. And what a shame that is! Love and Ruin was a wonderfully researched novel that painted Martha just as she was, a fiercely independent and intelligent woman who fought for her chance to tell the world of injustices and war. It is clear that she loved Ernest very deeply but not more than she loved herself, and what a wonderful thing that is. I yearn to know more about her. From now on when I am asked the question "If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?" my answer will be Martha Gellhorn.

I loved this book! It reads like an autobiography rather than a novel. Martha Gellborn felt out of step with her life until she went to Spain to cover Franco’s takeover of the country. As frightening as it was, she felt alive. Ernest Hemingway was also a correspondent, and his magnetism drew Marty in. Their lives became enmeshed for almost a decade; turbulent, passionate and very rarely boring. Ernest wrote his masterpiece, As the Bell Tolls, while with Marty. When her book was published, the reviewers panned it as echoing him.
Marty was a war correspondent who needed to be at the front of most wars, from 1936 until her death in 1998, to inform the world of the ordinary people whose lives were impacted. She went to Europe in the first days of WWII, before the US became involved. Very often, she was the only woman correspondent there.
Her love of war journalism cost her dearly. She and Ernest were too strong for each other. In a time when women were supposed to be “the little woman”, Martha Gellhorn was more a force of nature.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is my first book by Paula McLain, and I think she is a very good author. I liked her style of writing. She drew me into the story right from the beginning and her descriptions of all the different countries were so realistic. This is the story of Martha Gellhorn, a famous war correspondent. Her career begin in 1937 when she went to Madrid to cover the Spanish Civil War. While she was there she met and fell in love with Ernest Hemingway. Eventually they get married, but their marriage does not last long because he is threatened by her need to be successful. I know it is important that she was married to Hemingway, but I hope she can be remembered for all she did. She risked her life many times for the sake of reporting what was going on in war torn countries. She continued to follow her career path all of her life, and became a great journalist (even though she was a woman). Highly recommend!

This book was about Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn - someone I didn't know about but soon was to.learn all about. Martha was on a trip with her mother in Key West when they stumbled upon Hemingway in a bar. They became fast friends and then lovers while he was still married to his 2nd wife, Pauline Pfeiffer. Martha made a name for herself as a female war correspondent even though there were those who felt she was riding Ernest's coattails. She had to prove herself even though her writing was very different than his and others in her field. She wanted you to feel all that the victims of war and the soldiers that fought it.felt instead of just reporting of the war. Both she and Hemingway were very headstrong and as hard as they fell in love and thought they couldn't be whole without the other, was as hard as Hem left her and divorced her. He couldn't deal with her love of adventure and the need to be out where the action was. He enjoyed being the center of attention and her life no longer fit with his. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and recommend it.

Love and Ruin by Paula Mclain is the saddest yet heartfelt story of two people. Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn were so in love with each other yet so broken. Both placed their careers over their relationship. Every time they got back together and fell apart again, it broke another piece of what was left of their hearts. I felt the love they felt when together. But the two were too stubborn too fierce to fit perfectly together. Like two jagged puzzle pieces that fit but won't work due to chipped edges. The title fit this book in every way. Their love was ruined from the beginning. It tore them further apart then bringing them closer. Career obsessed and workaholics neither one wanted to sacrifice their work for their love. Truly, a sad story all around...overall, I recommend this literary novel to all readers. It was entertaining to follow. 

I received this copy from the publisher. This is my voluntary review.

Paula McLain has written another outstanding novel about, what appears to be, one of her favorite subjects, Ernest Hemingway but also introduces Martha Gellhorn, a very strong and independent young writer.
Like her previous novel, The Paris Wife, McLain uses the voice of Hemingway's love interest, in this case writer/journalist Marty Gellhorn, to tell the story. Unlike The Paris Wife, if my memory serves me correctly, the reader is now exposed to Hemingway's thoughts, through italicized chapters, which makes him less of a predator cad and more of a sympathetic, complicated and troubled sort of man.
Marty first meets Hemingway by chance in one of his Key West haunts while traveling with her mother. He is cordial and charming as he gives them a tour of Key West and then to visit his home and family. As an accomplished author he offers his help to the struggling young writer even arranging connections for her to reach war torn Madrid to cover the front lines for Collier's. He'll be there too, of course, to help a friend film a movie to raise money for ambulances.
Marty is conflicted when Hemingway makes advances towards her. She's met his wife and sons, after all. But being Hemingway she can't hold him off for long and their illicit love affair commences.
Mclain's clear and concise writing takes their years together to the Spanish Civil War, happy, lazy days in Cuba, sailing towards the gulf stream on Hemingway's fishing boat, Pilar. With the advent of World War II, their relationship sours, Gellhorn has the opportunity to report from the European Theater leaving Hemingway alone to wrestle his demons but he's a vindictive character and has a talent for getting things his way. As the title of this novel implies, all good things come to an end but what a time it was.
McLain's writing is top notch and gives those with wanderlust an enjoyable read through an historical era and for those who want to more clearly gain some knowledge into Hemingway's troubled soul something to chew on and consider.

Martha Gellhorn, a struggling writer in her late 20s, and Ernest Hemingway find love amidst war in the Spanish Civil War both are tested by their literary success....and though their story is complete fiction....you will find this tale entirely believable and will even wish that it were true. Ms. McLain brings the people and conflict and beauty of Spain to life through Martha's eyes and imagines a love story that makes complete sense with Hemingway's history and love of adventure. As Martha tries to forge her own literary path, she is forced to decide between her love for Hemingway, already a bright star and burning brighter....and the career she also loves. Martha's decision will condemn one of these loves. Beautiful to read, a complete pleasure to imagine the excitement and fear and courage, you will find yourself routing for Martha, no matter the direction she turns.

This is a fascinating book about Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway's third wife. Having read enjoyed The Paris Wife, I was looking forward to reading Love and Ruin. Martha Gellhorn was an amazing woman and war correspondent, and I learned quite a lot about her and even more about Hemingway. The research done by Paul McClain must have been extensive to write such an incredible book. I enjoyed reading Love and Ruin and thought it was very well written.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance reader's copy. All opinions are my own.

From the author of The Paris Wife, comes another novel about Ernest Hemmingway. This time told through his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Martha is an author, who meets Hemmingway by accident while on a trip to Key West with her family. She keeps in contact with him and decides to go over to Spain to cover the Spanish War. Hemmingway is married to his second wife at this time during the time they first start their relationship. Both Martha and Hemmingway are very independent people, their eventual marriage pretty much seems doomed from the start. I loved this book as much as the Paris Wife. However, one thing that bothered me was that Martha was portrayed as being lovesick and broken hearted with her split from Hemmingway. From what I have read, she was the one who left to cover World War II without him and eventually ended their relationship.

I love Paula McLain's books. I have read The Paris Wife several times; it is one of my top ten favorite books. I liked Circling the Sun, about Beryl Markham, much better than Markham's own book, West With the Night.
McClain's newest book, Love and Ruin,is equally as good. It tells the story of the romance and marriage of Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Marty Gellhorn. I loved the first person narrative from Marty's point of view. It made her story more intimate. There were a few chapters that switched to Hemingway's first person point of view, but I didn't like them as well. I felt that this was Marty's story of her life and their life, so his thoughts were a bit intrusive.
McClain's descriptions, whether of war or nature, are always very vivid. Some sentences, I thought, echoed Hemingway's style.
I learned a lot about a remarkable woman I had not heard of before.
This is a definite "yes" for your TBR pile!
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book.

Wonderful book!
Paula McLain gives an accurate historical perspective and makes the people come alive as you read.
Martha Gelhorn was a truly remarkable person - a world traveling war correspondent for 60 years, with a gift for seeing the personal aspect of how war affects the everyday life of average people. She knew Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a great influence on her.
Gelhorn was a hard drinking, strong woman, who was more than a match for Ernest Hemingway, as his third wife and a prolific writer.
McLain's book inspired me to order a copy of Gelhorn's novel "Liane". I also watched the HBO movie, "Hemingway & Gelhorn" after reading "Love & Ruin", because I couldn't get the characters out of my mind.
Highly recommended reading!

Thank-you to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and the author for providing a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Love and Ruin, author Paula McLain tackles her second book about one of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. This work of historical fiction centers on Martha (Marty) Gellhorn, who eventually becomes Hemingway’s third wife. I read and really enjoyed McLain’s book, The Paris Wife, about Hadley Richardson, Hemingway’s first wife, not long after it was published in 2011. So I was really looking forward to reading the author’s take on another of Hemingway’s wives. McLain once again delivered a good solid story that seemed historically accurate, and spurred me to do a bit more research about Hemingway and Gellhorn on my own. To me, that’s a sign of a good historical fiction. She captured my imagination and made me want to learn more, and see more of the main protagonists.

The book opens with a description of Gellhorn’s early life before she meets Hemingway. She’s a struggling writer who unexpectedly meets Hemingway when she and her mother and brother venture into a bar in Key West while on vacation in 1936. A friendship ensues from that chance meeting, and Hemingway encourages Gellhorn to travel to the Spanish Civil War, and meet up with him and his group of journalist/writer friends who are planning on reporting on the war from inside Spain. In 1937 Marty Gellhorn gets a press pass and travels by herself to Spain. She eventually meets up with Hemingway’s cadre of friends. In Spain, she finds comradery, and her own untapped talent for capturing character sketches of everyday folks facing the horror and hardships of the war. She eventually succumbs to Hemingway’s romantic advances, and they become lovers despite his current marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer with whom he has two young sons.

The rest of the book swings between the tension of Marty’s work, her desire to find her place as an author; and Hemingway’s growing success as an author. The more Hemingway succeeds, the crueler he seems to become in understanding Marty’s need to work. He becomes more demanding, and less accommodating as he drinks more and more, and struggles with undiagnosed depression. He wanted Marty to just caravan around the world from their home in Cuba, to Sun Valley, Idaho and while away the days with drinking and fishing. While Marty loved her ‘Rabbit’ and all three of his sons, this was not enough for her. She continued to accept assignments from Collier’s magazine that sent her to the front of war zones and armed conflicts. She did her best work in those situations, and paid the price at home for accepting the jobs.

In this telling, eventually Hemingway becomes too cruel to bear, and the couple divorce. Marty calls this time her ‘Ruin’. As I stated at the start of this review, after I finished the book I had to go do some research about Marty Gellhorn on my own. I was impressed about all the great work that she did in the most dangerous zones in the world. I like that she didn’t simply cave in to Hemingway, but followed her own path despite the eventual consequences that had on her marriage.

I think that McLain delivered the goods with this book. I’m giving it a solid 4 stars.

In Love and Ruin, Paula McClain once again weaves effortless historical fiction, telling the story of Martha Gellhorn, a renowned war correspondent and Ernest Hemingway's third wife. In McClain's hands, the tumult, horror, and atmosphere of the 1930s and 1940s come to life vividly through the story of two writers passionate about one another and their writing. Gellhorn is a fascinating character through whom to witness a world gone mad and to struggle to find her own place in the world, on her own terms and on her own two feet. I loved this book, did not want it to end. The atmosphere, the crackling tension, and beautiful prose combined to create a book that I did not want to put down and that kept me up way past my bedtime. A wonderful, wonderful story from a master of historical fiction.

Love and Ruin beautifully retells the disastrous love story of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Full of rich detail, vivid description and interesting characters, LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain is a must read for those who enjoy historical/biographical fiction. The novel follows Martha Gellhorn, celebrated war correspondent and writer, as she meets famed writer Ernest Hemingway in Key West. The two novelists develop an immediate friendship and Hemingway becomes a mentor for the up and coming Gellhorn. While both are covering the Spanish Civil War, they fall in love and begin a tumultuous affair. Moving to Cuba, the couple marries (Gellhorn is Hemingway’s third wife) but their happiness is not long lived. The rise of Nazi Germany and its increasing encroachment on democratic Europe mirrors the destruction of their marriage. Gellhorn, while supportive of Hemingway’s career, feels overshadowed by her husband and chafes against the traditional expectation that she has to give up her career now that she and Hemingway are married. Instead of the mutually supportive marriage that she envisioned, Gellhorn finds that Hemingway is competitive and jealous of her success.

I found LOVE AND RUIN to be historical fiction at its best. Full of rich historical detail, the novel takes the reader to Spain, Finland, even the beaches of Normandy. Told with unflinching honesty, but in beautiful prose that is a joy to read, McLain balances the light and dark elements of this story with a deft touch. Both Gellhorn and Hemingway are shown as larger than life personalities. Both are driven, charming, and vivacious with impressive talents that bring the horrors and outrage of war to their readers. Both are also stubborn and selfish and, in the case of Hemingway, trying to deal with the internal ravages of mental illness. I found both characters to be fascinating. I did not know anything about Martha Gellhorn before reading this book. When I finished the novel, I wished that I had learned about her sooner. She was a remarkable woman with a unique voice and I very much enjoyed getting to know a little bit about her. I highly recommend LOVE AND RUIN to those who enjoy historical fiction or are looking for an engrossing summer time read. This is a strong 5/5 stars for me. Thank you to Ballantine Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. My opinions are my own.

I won this book in a goodreads giveaway in the kindle format.

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway in the kindle format.

This is a historical fiction novel covering the relationship between Hemingway and his third wife Martha Gelhorn. It starts with the beginning of the Spanish civil war and ends with the end of World war 2. I have to admit I liked the authors previous book the Paris Wife better than this book. Martha was a fiercely independent person and a journalist. She became one of the premier journalists covering the above wars, she concentrated on the individual stories of the people fighting in these wars that she met. As in the Paris Wife and from many other books and also see it in this book that Hemingway is a very needy, selfish, self centered individual and can be very revengeful when he does not get his way or you fall out of favor with him. I felt that the author did a excellent job of portraying who Martha Gelhorn and how her relationship with Hemingway began and then deteriorated over the course of their marriage. I wish she had continued more in depth with Marthas life after Hemingway.

I enjoyed this story more than "The Paris Wife." Marty, Hemingway's second wife, is more appealing to me in this book than his first wife. Marty is protective of her independence, though deeply in love of course. (I think a great many women of that time would have had a difficult time resisting Hemingway.) He was a man's man, but she was not the type to give away so much of herself that she would shut down and serve him. If all this is based on truth, I was especially affected by her close relationship with Hemingway's sons. And I was enlightened by her female war correspondent struggles. I would like to have explored more of that aspect of her life. I am definitely going to check out some of her books. This is a worthwhile read and more relatable to today's woman in my opinion.

Very much enjoyed this latest book by Paula McLain. Gellhorn was a brilliant journalist covering war torn Europe for major magazines and a published novelist when she met and became the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. Her respectable and established career received the Yoko Ono treatment from the world of publishing. In book reviews she found her writing compared to her husband's work, often not favorably. In spite of all her accomplishments, she had to fight to remain relevant. Eventually, Hemingway tired of her ambition and began to compete with her for assignments. Placing her in an untenable position she was forced to make a choice. Considering Hemingway's track record as a husband she probably made the only choice a woman of substance could. Excellent descriptions what it was like to cover Europe in war time and of life in Cuba before the revolution.

Paula McLean adds to the story of Ernest Hemingway by telling the story of Martha Gellhorn, his 3rd wife. Beyond Hemingway she develops an astounding literary career with her reporting.
What is different in this story is that there is more mention of Ernest’s children- his boys which add interest to this historical novel.
There are insights to Hemingway’s character and his need to be loved, worshiped and cared for. This is fiction but it still gives an interesting insight to these characters.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain is the story of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Set in Spain in the 1930's, the story had a great sense of place. I found the time period to be the most interesting part of the story. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I expected a great read. The character of Martha Gellhorn was difficult to connect with and her life with Hemingway was not as interesting as I expected. It seemed that the book was written about a detour in Martha's life that she had to overcome to come back to herself and develop her career further. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

I was pleased to be able to read Paula McClain’s Love and Ruin about Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gelhorn and Ernest Hemingway. I had a love/hate relationship with this book. When reading about Martha’s adventures as a correspondent, I was in awe of her courage to get “the story” behind enemy lines during a time when journalists were men. It was difficult to read about the relationship between Martha and Ernest. At times boring, and I found myself wanting the writer to “get on with it.” It is definitely a good read when focused on Martha’s journalist adventures.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I listened to on the Audible audio version. It's no easy task to do so much research and then embody the character in a first-person, fictionalized narrative. It's quite a feat for a novel to cover war and not bore me silly, so I very much appreciated that. I would give this 4.5 stars; my only slight quibble is that knowing what I do of Martha Gellhorn, a 20th-century figure who shouldn't be forgotten, is that she seems to me to have been much more headstrong from the start. But perhaps Paula McClain wanted to show more character development, which is understandable for a novel. Overall, highly recommended! Now I'm motivated to read The Paris Wife.

This was a great work of historical fiction. Coming after The Paris Wife, where we read about Hemingway’s marriage to Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives, this to me was even better!

Martha Gellhorn is a well-known name in journalism and I loved her fierce independence and the way she knew herself so well. Instead of getting lost in the shadow of the great Hemingway, Martha was the one that got away. The one that left him and made her own star shine so brightly. I have great admiration for this woman and this was a very good look at two passionate people and the ups and downs of their relationship, but this was truly Martha’s story.

What a great story!

Netgalley/Ballentine Books May 01,2018

I first started reading this book without knowing anything about it except, well, it's Paula McLain. 'Nuff said. We are introduced to the heroine without knowing her name until some pages later when, to my delight, "Gellhorn" appears and I realize the author has moved on from "The Paris Wife" to the next installment in Hemingway's path of destruction (hence the title "Love and Ruin"). But, Martha Gellhorn is a fighter. She pursues her career with passion and determination even while under the shadow of her larger-than-life husband. McLain paints Gellhorn in vivid detail, doing justice to this remarkable woman. The finale ends with VE Day and left me wanting to know more about this innovative and trailblazing war correspondent who produced an amazing body of work against all odds. The author's notes briefly recapping the rest of Gellhorn's life make me hopeful for another book about the decades of adventures which followed until her death in 1998.

I had absolutely no clue about Martha Gellhorn, her achievements or her fascinating life.

I love to read about the women pioneers who paved the way for others and this one did not disappoint at all!

What a sad time she had always being compared with Hemingway (as if there were any connection other than their marriage).

His stealing of her Collier's job was horrendous, abhorrent and just plain atrocious!

I loved reading this book and learning more about these people. I love the series of the wives of Hemingway by this author.

Thanks to Random House Ballantine and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Beautifully written. This book tells the story of Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gelhorn, from her point of view. Martha was a writer before she met Hemingway, and throughout their relationship, she tries to keep her own identity and get her writing out from underneath his shadow. He is married when they meet, and Martha struggles between knowing she is breaking up his family and the strong love the two of them have. The historical nature of the book takes us all over the world before and during WWII, as Martha is not only a novelist but a war correspondent. I loved reading how strong Martha was and about the amazing experiences she had, while still having some vulnerability because she was so in love with him.

I enjoyed this book, no more or no less than her other books. In my wisdom of old age I could see that Ernest and Marty were headed toward a mess and would not "live happily ever after". All of the characteristics that later made Hemingway unattractive to Gellhorn were always evident, she was blinded by love. Marty was so driven and competitive that I know she too was not easy to live with. We have a perfect picture of 2 talented and brilliant people who are self-centered and driven, and never meant to live together. The war scenes are brutal. And the 2 writers consumed monumental amounts of alcohol. Although I knew how this story ended I read eagerly to the last page

Love and Ruin is the story of Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn. She appears to be the most independent of his four spouses as she lived life according to her own terms, no matter what the costs. THe best parts of the book are the author's descriptions of Gellhorn's travels. She was a correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Her affair with Hemingway turned into a marriage that didn't last. In many ways Hemingway was a spoiled man who expected the women in his life to shower him with attention and praise. Gellhorn pursued her own interests, which makes her far more fascinating than him. Another well researched and well written book by Paula McLain. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance read.

If you liked The Paris Wife you will like this book. This is the story of Hemmingway’s third wife, another somewhat depressing tale of a great love that falls apart mostly due to papa H and his weaknesses. He clearly felt deeply about the women he fell in love with, but he also had a great need to be the center of attention which unfortunately did not jive with the independent and charismatic women he fell for. McLain is a good writer, well researched and well written, again.. my only problem is how depressing the whole lot ends up being. I much preferred reading Circling the Sun. The story didn’t end much better for the heroine (maybe this is a trend for the author??) but I enjoyed the story more.

Paula McLain's latest biological fiction novel returns to a familiar subject for the author, Ernest Hemingway - or more accurately one of his wives. And while the novel is a lush and evocative retelling of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway's love affair - the best word I can think of to describe it is languid.

At the beginning of the novel we're introduced to Martha Gellhorn, a spirited young woman with aspirations to be a writer. She's spent some time jaunting around Europe, has written a failed book and is now working on another. Marty is an interesting enough character on her own, but her story wouldn't be complete without Hemingway's larger than life persona - their affair, marriage and artistic competitiveness, the last of which ultimately lead to the demise of their relationship.

This book is beautifully written, the descriptions of Spain and especially Cuba are vivid to the point of verging on atmospheric. McLain does an absolutely spellbinding job of creating a real sense of place and time in her work. It's a truly engrossing novel that swept me away with Ernest and Marty. That said, this book is a languorous retelling of Gellhorn and Hemingway's lives together that seems to linger just a little bit more than it should at points.

Fans of McLain's earlier work should enjoy this story, told from the perspective of Hemingway's third wife - one who was not content to simply be a domestic accessory and instead demanded to stand on her own as a person and a writer. She's an admirable subject, and I felt in many ways the woman in whom Hemingway met his match. Hemingway was said to be a charismatic man - who was not known to be kind to women. He was a serial cheater who happened to be a brilliant writer. For someone like Martha Gellhorn, a young aspiring writer with her sights set on a successful career of her own, it's easy to see how she fell in love with Hemingway. It's just as easy, though, to see how she found herself in his shadow - eclipsed by his work. McLain does such an extraordinary job of allowing us inside Martha's head - sharing her insecurities, her triumphs and sadness with such ease. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the world through her lens.

I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction who enjoy character driven novels that read like a letter from a friend. I'm excited to see what Paula McLain does next.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for providing a free advanced egalley for me to review.
All thoughts are my own.

I loved "The Paris Wife" so I was really looking forward to reading this book. Although I've read almost everything Hemingway has written, I knew very little about Martha Gellhorn other than her labeled the homewrecker of his marriage to Pauline. The author masterfully gives a powerful voice to a woman who had accomplished so much in her own name: a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War, a journalist, a novelist, a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. Unfortunately for Martha, she was also in love with Ernest Hemingway and this fact appears to have overshadowed all of her individual accomplishments. He was jealous of any of her assignments, though she was expected to accompany him anywhere at the drop of a hat. Eventually, she decided that she was not going to conform to this role, even though that was the norm for a wife at the time.

Ms. McClain does a wonderful job of describing the events Martha experienced; her feelings as she saw a little boy blown to pieces in front of his mother by Franco's army was something that really brought the reality of war home for her. After reading this book, I wonder what might have been for Martha had she not allowed Hemingway into her hotel room in Spain. I believe her love for him was truly her ruin and this book captures this in painstaking detail.

** Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. My review is voluntary.

Returning to the life and loves of Ernest Hemingway in his guests, Paula McClain focuses on the only woman who ever left him in this well-told tale of his wartime romance and marriage to Martha Gelhorn, as celebrated for her career as a globetrotting journalist as he was as a novelist. Both their love affair and their professional failures, triumphs and rivalry get equal space in this tender and passionate fictionalized biography; any woman who had ever had to choose between love and work well find this much more involving than the Paris Wife, though both reveal the author's true fascination is with Hemingway rather than either of his wives.

I don't have an adventurous bone in my body so I couldn't identify with Martha at all; but I admired her spunk and determination. She was naive, though, if she really thought Ernest was interested in her only as a friend.

The writing is excellent as expected from McLain, with detailed descriptions and insights. One almost forgets that this is fiction. It seems so much that Paula McLain was a fly on the wall observing all that happened.

McLain is definitely a master of historical fiction. I wonder who will catch her interest for her next book.

I didn't know anything about Ernest Hemingway other than writer, cats, and Key West before picking up this book, which is the story of his third wife, Martha Gelhorn. I did look her up online and read more about her and Ernest, who was a much more morose figure than I knew at first. I think it's fascinating to read behind the scenes stuff of these larger than life characters who traveled the world during wartime to write about it. The book is a bit slow at times which made it hard to read, but it has incredibly developed characters.

What a very different spirit than The Paris Wife, which had such a quality of innocence, adventure, and young love. Truly a beautiful romance that endured beyond time.

Love & Ruin has a grittiness that reflects a different time in history filled with war and conflict, more mature characters in their 30-40s age and people who were colleagues embroiled in their callings. They were swept away in their mutual love of adventure and writing. Marty loved her work as a truth-telling journalist as much, if not more, than she could ever love Hemmingway. While Marty is not as endearing of a character as Hadley, I do understand where she is coming from and why for her there was really no other choice than to move on. McLain's story further taps into an ongoing reality that illustrates no one (women or men) can have it all…AT the same time. Life is full of glorious tradeoffs we choose to make.

In both books I learned so much about the writing process, in fact, McLain's books help demystify how writers approach their craft. I have the utmost respect for the discipline, searching, and passion it takes to be a writer.

Bravo Paula McLain!

Paula McClain does it again with the wonderful story of what it takes to survive in the same orbit, albeit temporarily, of a world revered artist, in this case Hemingway. Martha Gellhorn is a great story of the struggles women have to obtain credibility in this a mans world. Perhaps it is poignant I finished this novel on a day where a women’s voice is again muted by an angry male in a powerful position. Love and Ruin is a great reminder on the distance we still have to travel as a society.

Fantastic! Marty Gellhorn was an amazing woman with perseverance, drive and journalistic talent that surpasses any era, let alone the war zones of 1930's and 1940's that she lived in! I was riveted to adventures she undertook to understand the people affected by war. That she had a love affair with Hemingway adds a layer of complexity, especially when the relationship is a true dichotomy of 'love' and 'ruin'. The writing was superb and rich with details of dramatic settings and wrenching emotions. Paula has hit a pinnacle as I have enjoyed her other 2 historical fiction books, but this one is just MAGIC! KUDOs and keep forging for the perfect story that exemplifies your heart for writing.

The more I read about Hemingway the less I like the man. This book just adds to my opinion. This is an okay book but not as enjoyable as THE PARIS WIFE. I read the book on audio. The narrator was fine. but I never really got involved int the story. At the end I was ready to move on to another book.

Paula McLain continues her fiction about the wives of Ernest Hemingway with a novel about his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, in a novel titled, Love and Ruin. Martha couldn’t be more different from Hemingway’s earlier wives: she’s a courageous and talented journalist with a successful career. Her independence from Hemingway leads her to escape his shadow. Fans of McLain’s historical fiction are those readers most likely to enjoy this latest novel.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

If you love modern historical fiction based on true stories this is the one for you. This is the story of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. Martha Gellhorn was his third wife. The two started their affair when he was still married to his second wife. Martha Gellhorn was an author in her own right. She was also a war correspondent. The legendary Hemingway overshadowed much of her career. After I read this, I want to know more about Gellhorn and the other Hemingway wives.

The author of THE PARIS WIFE takes on the story of Martha Gellhorn, a war correspondent and Hemingway's third wife. Being married to a man larger than life while reporting in war-torn countries proves to be an impossible situation. My sympathies lay with Gellhorn, a woman who wanted to have her career while sharing her life with Hemingway, but he wouldn't or couldn't deal with the arrangement. I enjoyed reading the book but not as much as I loved THE PARIS WIFE.

By the author of The Paris Wife, this is the fictional account of the relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. It took a while for me to get into this book, but once I did, I enjoyed it. I thought the chapters focusing on Gellhorn’s experiences as a war correspondent were more engrossing than the relationship between these two writers. But, perhaps that is because that is when Gellhorn, at least as portrayed by McLain, was the most self actualized.

I received an advance copy of Love ad Ruin from Net Galley. I am a huge fan of Paula McLain. I have loved The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun. This book cemented that I will read all of Paula's books.
The story is about Marty Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway as they progress through being journalists, authors and finally a married couple. It is fiction with historical events mixed in to tell their love story. I won't go into the plot line chapter by chapter but I will ask to to read this one. You won't be able to put it down.

I received an advance review copy of this book. All opinions are my own. Awesome! This book was absolutely awesome from the very first page until the last word. I love reading about strong women who are determined to forge their own paths even if it means sacrificing something that means so much to them and Paula McLain's portrayal of this story is rich and vivid. So definitely pick this up and be prepared to be as dazzled as I was. Happy reading!

This was a fascinating look at Hemingway's third wife, Martha and their relationship even as Hemingway was married to his second wife. Although he was portrayed as a selfish man, their history is engaging--especially if you are a fan of his books--which I am! I don't always love historical fiction as it can seem like "reporting" to me but this was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed it immensely!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

I found Love and Ruin to be endlessly fascinating. Keeping in mind the time in which she lived, the boundaries that Martha Gellhorn pushed and the doors she kicked open are astounding. What really struck me though is that no matter how independent and forward thinking, she was still plagued by the ingrained expectations for females of her generation. Her constant internal struggle to fulfill her career while feeling guilt at not living up to the "traditional" wife ideal was really the heart of the story for me. Martha is my favorite of Hemingway's wives mostly because she wasn't afraid to push back against him, but in the end she still got ground up pretty well when their relationship came to its inevitable, agonizing end. Paula McLain does an amazing job of making you feel as though you're right there in the midst of all the action.

I didn't know much about Martha Gellhorn before reading this fabulous story. The novel chronicles the life of Martha Gellhorn the writer,the journalist and the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. Martha was a remarkable woman who paved the way for women in journalism. A heroic and highly independent woman that I truly enjoyed getting to know. Masterful and beautiful.A truly amazing read.
Novels & Latte

Being a fan of historical fiction, I can say this one certainly did not disappoint. I enjoyed the Paris Wife and knew I needed to read this once it was released. I was not aware of Martha Gellhorn or her great accomplishments. Given the time period, she was able to find her way in a man's world and succeed and is considered to be a Great War correspondent of the 20th century. This book was well written, kept your interest and was filled with interesting historical facts.

The Paris Wife has been on my LBR list for a while and I haven't gotten to it yet :( SO, when this copy of Love and Ruin, by the same author came my way, I knew I had to read it :) A fascinating and slightly disturbing book about Marty (Martha) Gellhorn (Ernest Hemmingway's 3rd wife) and Ernest Hemmingway. Marty strikes me as being fearless and Hemmingway Brilliant and a bit of an a$$ :/ Wonderfully written, great historical fiction! #13Books13Weeks

One could almost feel what it was like to be in Spain as a war-correspondent during the Civil War amidst all that chaos and also being in love with Hemingway. Gellhorn blazed the way for the women war reporters who followed in her footsteps as she tried to have it all, romance and career. A wonderful, wonderful read!

The story just sucked me in. I felt as though I was in the room with Marty and Hemingway. Amazing! I knew very little about Hemingway’s life before I read the Paris Wife. I was astonished at his behavior and how all these women put up with him. That said, it’s fascinating to read about the life he had and the women he shared it with. One of my favorite reads of 2018.

Paula McClain woos us with gorgeous writing in her newest novel — a Valentine to Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent and Hemingway wife #3. She recounts their passionate but doomed coupling, set against exotic locales in Spain, Cuba and Key West. Highly recommended.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

No one writes about Hemingway’s wives better than Paula McClain. “The Paris Wife” to me was better, as I got tired of Martha Gellhorn’s constant complaints. However, McClain’s writing is beautiful and I felt like I was right there in Cuba with the colored houses and the salty sea and all the cats.

You wish you could meet and talk to Martha. How hard to be a woman journalist let war correspondent in the 1930-1940s. It’s often hard to be taken seriously as a working woman the last 30 years. I cannot imagine what it would have been like then. Nor can I imagine what it was like to be married to Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway’s third wife,Martha Gellhorn. This story digs into the amazing life of one of the first female war correspondents. She took the road way less traveled. Independent and knowing what path she needed to follow to fulfill her dreams. Strong woman protagonist.

This historic novel was very well written. I read the first book called the Paris Wife and enjoyed both of these books. I am somewhat fascinated by Ernest Hemingway but even more by the time that these books took place. Europe between the 2 wars was very turbulent times and the author did an excellent job writing about it.

I've read many books I famous couples and would rank this one with the best of them. Me McLain has brought life to the characters while keeping the history interestin, a hard thing to do. I'm looking forward to her next book!

This is a good historical fiction read about Hemingway and his third wife. I was not as enamored with this book as I was with The Paris Wife. I received a copy from NetGalley and this is my honest review.

This story was far more interesting than I expected. I loved the settings, could feel the ocean breeze, smell the mango trees, hear the artillery fire. The love story held my attention even though I knew how it eventually ended.

Read Paula McLain's "Love and Ruin" in two or three seatings and really enjoyed it. She really brings these rwo stong characters to life ... it's amazing their marriage lasted as long as it did. McLain seemed to really capture the dark essence of Hemingway and perhaps explain why he ended up taking his own life. Like "The Paris Wife," it's beautifully written and a real page turner.

Paula McLain always does a great job of bringing her characters to life & Martha Gellhorn is no exception. I loved her passion, grit & determination to be her own woman. Everything she did she did with her whole heart, including loving Hemingway which seems like it was never an easy thing to do. I loved learning about their tempestuous relationship both in the midst of war & in Cuba.

I enjoyed the story, the writing was very good and held my interest. It was easy to see how difficult is would be to not lose yourself to Hemingway’s overpowering personality. However, Sometimes the story would jump from going to bed in one country then morning in a different country with no transition , which I didn’t care for. But the biggest fault was inaccuracies. She mentions the countries of “Holland, Belgium, and The Netherlands”. While The Netherlands is sometimes called Holland, It is NOT a separate country. She also mentions a boat ahead of them in the (English) Channel that is headed to the West Indies - impossible! Maybe if it was passing them heading the other direction. These small errors made me question the research.

Great book! Let’s see whats not to like? Ernest Hemingway. World War II.
Paula writes a great tale of both Martha Gelhorn and Hemingway.
Martha and Ernest come alive in Ms M Lain’s book. I have recommended this book to all my friends.

I love Paula McLain’s historical fiction and always feel like it’s so well done I start to believe it’s real. In this novel, McLain moves on to Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn and follows her struggle between being independent and going after her own dreams as a writer and her love for Ernest Hemingway. McLain’s writing and descriptions of places are just beautiful. Definitely a must read if you enjoyed The Paris Wife.

I loved this book! I recently visited their home in Cuba and could visualize the action there. I loved how sometimes in the book we hear Hemming’s voice. What a chance to hear about a woman who had only been a name to me before. I was sorry to have the book end.

I did not finish this book. After 100 pages, I could not read any more of Ms. McLain pretending to be Martha Gellhorn, who would never have written the pathetic excuse of prose written by Ms. McLain. Who would have the unmitigated gall to write a novel about Martha Gellhorn, a truly gifted writer, in the first person? Really!! Awful, awful!!

Confession -- this is not the type of book I usually read, what appears to be literary fiction/romance. But I am a Martha Gellhorn fan, especially her nonfiction, so I was curious to see how Paula McLain approached her life in the form of fiction. I am impressed with how she seemed to capture the writing voice of Gellhorn -- McLain must have studied Gellhorn's writing carefully to be able to capture her voice so well. However, I'm afraid I lost interest early on, and that is likely because I simply have low tolerance for novels that aren't mysteries or thrillers. I'm not proud of that, but there you have it. If you enjoy literary novels that take place in places like Paris and Cuba and in exciting times such as the Spanish Civil War, then you may very well enjoy Love and Ruin.