Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC. I will read pretty much anything about Ernest Hemingway, fiction or non-fiction. So I read this because it was about him, not Martha Gelhorn. And I would have to say I would have enjoyed it more had it not been told in the first person from her perspective, the 4 star rating is a rounding up, but the result is that I adore Hemingway regardless, and now I want to know Gelhorn separately from him. Same thing happened really when I read Circling the Sun, so I look forward to getting to know Gelhorn in her own right. McLain has succeeded again.

Paula McLain has given a voice to the somewhat invisible women behind powerful men and now we are able to glimpse the life of Ernst Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Their love story reads like one of Hemingway's war novels -full of passion, forbidden love and more than a little danger. She in many ways broke more rules and lived a more fearless full life than Ernst because she went willingly into war not only as the only female reporter but sometimes getting their before even her male counterparts. Marty Gellhorn would say that she lived life on her own terms and she far to independent to have lasted with the unpredictable love and ego of Ernst Hemingway. This is a love story but also a vivid picture of journalists in war. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

This is a story of the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Martha was the only wife to dump him; he didn’t like it.

But there is much more to the story than that. Imagine my surprise when I was reading the acknowledgments in Peter Matthiessen’s book, The Tree Where Man was Born, and there was Martha Gellhorn’s name! Yes, she was quite a woman. No wonder why Hemingway was attracted to her.

The book dragged with descriptions of every day life in the beginning; however, things picked up with the adventures of a very accomplished Martha and the sad end of her marriage.

I recommend this interesting book about a strong woman who knew and was true to herself: a woman before her time.

I think I'm in love with Martha! I'm a big fan of historical fiction and that love is only amplified when the historical fiction is about famous literary figures. Martha Gellhorn was Ernest Hemingway's third wife and for whatever reason, the one I knew the least about. She's also now my favorite (if it's OK to have a favorite ex-wife of a writer... It feels wrong, but I'm going with it). She was incredibly strong, independent, and talented and often overshadowed by her famous husband. The pair met as correspondents in the Spanish Civil War and fell in love. Hemingway ended up leaving his second wife, Pauline, so he could marry Martha (you may also remember McLain's book The Paris Wife, which was about Hemingway's first wife, Hadley) and their relationship was filled with lots of passion, both good and bad.

I'll admit I read The Paris Wife a long time ago and while I remember loving it, I can't completely compare Love and Ruin to it. However, I can tell you Love and Ruin involves more "adventure" as Martha is a war correspondent in several wars and we get to go along with her as she travels to incredibly dangerous locations. We also spend some time with Martha and Ernest at their home in Cuba and are given peeks into Martha's relationship with her mom and with Ernest's sons. My favorite part of the book was seeing McLain's take on Gellhorn's inner battle with herself on what she wanted out of her life and how to balance love and ambition. Every time I read a book about Ernest Hemingway's life, I both love him and hate him a little bit more. I have to say I love him a little bit more for falling in love with Martha, but I hate him for how he treated her and how apparent his jealousy was.

Thank you, Paula McLain, for giving us this beautiful look at Martha Gellhorn!

Wow, I am SO impressed with this book. The story is told of Martha (Marty) Gehllhorn, telling 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.

I find myself really liking historical fiction about literary characters and Paula McLain does an excellent job on this front. I first read her The Paris Wife - a story about Hemmingway’s first wife, Hadley - I loved this novel - it brought in many more historical characters of that time period. Her next novel picked up a character we meet in The Paris Wife, Beryl Markham. Another real life person I was not familiar with but was so glad to learn more about her after reading, Circling the Sun, an excellent novel involving living in colonial Kenya in the 1920s - and the life of Bery Markham who becomes a record-setting aviator - unheard of for the time period. This novel, Love and Ruin, was a great procession from The Paris Wife - about Hemmingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn. Martha was a writer and journalist in her own right and the novel follows them both as they write as war correspondents. Martha is with Hemmingway when they buy a house and live in Cuba. I found all three of these novels charming and they inspired me to look up and investigate many of the historical places and characters I meet through the novels.

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. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy of this book.

Love and Ruin, by Paula McLain, tells the story of the few years in Martha Gellhorn’s long life when she met Ernest Hemingway, fell in love with him, and was briefly married to him. McLain wrote about Hemingway’s first wife in her previous novel, The Paris Wife. Gellhorn was his third wife and possibly the one with whom he was most emotionally entwined. Ultimately, as I understand it from reading this novel, the marriage didn’t work because of both of their temperaments. Hellman was a writer of stories first, a journalist second, and lastly, a wife. She needed the freedom to travel the world to find her stories, whereas Hemingway needed a wife who would be beside him, literally beside him, wherever he went and whatever he did. In other words, both of them needed to be allowed to be themselves, and these needs clashed.
It is a common problem in relationships these days, but during World War II, when the story takes place, it was anything but common. Gellhorn was a strikingly unusual woman for her time, and it is a pleasure to read about her determination to remain true to her perception of herself, no matter what it costs her. And it cost her dearly. The love she felt for Hemingway was enormous, as was his love for her. Still, the relationship ended in shambles.
In a sense, the love story is second to the story of World War II. The book starts with Franco’s rise and the Spanish civil war. I’m embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t known much about Franco before reading this book, so I was grateful for the history lesson. Gellhorn and Hemingway’s romance flowered while the bombs fell as they both were in Spain to write stories about the war. The scenes of their attraction in the midst of war were some of the strongest in the book.
The war moves on, as does the romance. By the time the war is ending, so is their relationship.
None of this is new. Hemingway’s life has been painstakingly examined by any number of authors. We know from the beginning that the relationship was doomed, but that doesn’t matter. The writing in the book is flawless. It is by far McLain’s most absorbing, most thrilling writing. The book is written in first person from Gellhorn’s point of view, and I found myself believing that McLain had stepped inside Gellhorn’s mind and was channeling her. Although Gellhorn lived to be 89 and wrote numerous books and articles, I haven’t read any of them. Truthfully, I can’t imagine that she could possibly have been as good a writer as McLain is. Even if she was, I feel sure she would have been proud of this biographical novel.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain is a fascinating book about Martha (Marty) Gellhorn, a young woman who can’t wait to get over to Europe to write about what is happening as WWII approaches. She met Ernest Hemingway on a vacation with her mother and brother to Key West and he encouraged her to go. She was intrigued and impressed with Hemingway. She wanted to use the friendship to help open doors for her career. But while in Spain, they have an attraction and she soon becomes involved in a romantic relationship with Hemingway. Of course he tells Marty his second marriage to Pauline is a shell and they don’t love each other anymore. Marty and Hemingway eventually move to Havana as Marty waits for Hemingway to divorce Pauline and marry her.

This book is mainly about Marty and her time with Hemingway. Growing up I always enjoyed reading Hemingway’s books. Now that I’ve read a few books about his life and about his marriages, he was a very selfish man who didn’t really care about other people’s feelings. If one of his wives wanted a career like Marty, he got very jealous and accused them of not loving him and would start an affair while still married to a wife and wouldn’t hide the affair at all. It was sad to see how he treated Marty when she wanted to go back and cover the war. He was very insecure.

Love and Ruin is very well written and brought Marty and Hemingway to life. I loved the times they were in Havana and I even did an internet search to see photos of their house. I was a little disappointed that Marty so freely gave the Havana house away to Hemingway when she was the one that purchased it and she was the one that did all the renovations. I felt like it was more her house.

I was very excited to get back into Ernest Hemingway's life after falling in love with McLain's other book, The Paris Wife. This new book focuses on Hemingway's third wife, the fierce and determined Martha Gellhorn. She's a successful writer in her own right and wants nothing more than to travel to far-off places and report on the ongoing military conflicts. Her fiery, ambitious demeanor often butts heads with her husband, and we begin to witness the tensions they create.

This wasn't as "happy" or fun as The Paris Wife, but I really enjoyed the world McLain created.

Even if you are not a fan of Ernest Hemingway (and I am definitely not), you will enjoy this book. I was not in search of another favorite author, but I found one in Paula McLain. “Circling the Sun” was my book club choice of the month, someone gave me a copy of “The Paris Wife”, and I had the opportunity to review “Love and Ruin” for NetGalley. I thoroughly enjoyed all three, but “Love and Ruin” completely pulled me in. Martha Gellhorn was an extraordinary lady, gutsy, intelligent, and willing to go after what she wanted despite the odds. The turbulent time period as seen through Martha’s eyes was easily visualized by the great descriptions and knowledge of the author. Her thoughts and internal struggles, though fictionalized, were vivid and relatable to many women, even in our time now. Thoroughly readable, believable, and entertaining, I highly recommend this book to my fellow readers.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain is a wonderful book. Her description of the war and dangers faced by Hemingway and Maude are amazing. She seems to understand their need for each other. We see Hemingway slowly falling apart. He grew depressed and so needy. I thought he would have kiiied himself at the end of the book. Glad he didn’t since she never would have recovered.

Love Love Loved this book. Love and Ruin follows the relationship between Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. The book follows their relationship from Key West, to the Spanish War, Cuba, Finland, China, Sun Valley and the beaches of Normandy, While Ernest is writing For Whom the Bell Tolls, Martha is working on her own novel and corresponding from war locations throughout World War 2. This was a very well written and captivating read. Upon finishing, I was immediately drawn to learn more about Martha and take a look at her novels and publications. Be sure to read the Author's Note at the end.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley.

Loved the way Gellhorn was portrayed. Her struggles in both personal and professional life. Determined to pursue her passion with the odds against her - female, married to Hemingway overshadowing her writing talent, the era attempting to fence her journalistic pursuits, always the compromising partner with a man who is accustomed to the world kowtowing to his needs, you know the road will be more than bumpy.

Gellhorn was a perfect example of the heart struggling with the mind. Her gut instinct told her to remove herself from Hemingway but the pull of the heart wins the tug of war. Both free spirits, independent, in the same field, including Hemingway's deepening dark side it is a wonder how this couple lasted as long as they did albeit with extended separations mixed with ambitions causing their ultimate fall.

Gellhorn is an empathetic voice, while Hemingway is portrayed as the misogynist, shellfish, pompous and cruel brute his reputation supports - at times he is warm and loving masking the fact he is a royal jerk, jarring the reader back to reality.

Gellhorn a fierce woman with plenty of drive leading to success in her own right.

Love and Ruin by Paula McClain tells the story of Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway's third wife - yes...third. If you don't already know much about Ernest, this book will shed some light on the "man" he was. I use the word man loosely because while he was a brilliant writer, everything I've ever read about him clearly indicates that he was a whiny, childish, self-absored prick. He possessed very few qualities that I believe a real man should possess - namely the fact the he was a philandering asshole, and no self-respecting man spends his time falling in love with other women while he's married. But, that's not really what Love and Ruin is about (although you learn a lot of this!). Love and Ruin is about another woman that loved this impossible man and how she poured everything she had into him and almost lost herself in the process.

Martha Gellhorn is a writer - she's a real woman as this novel is historical fiction - and on a trip to Key West with her mother and her brother stubmles into Ernest Hemingway's life. He's married to Pauline right now (wife #2 after Hadley - The Paris Wife - another amazing novel by McClain). He has two boys (three children total) and has somewhat settled down in Key West. After meeting Marty though, he finds a spark in her that seems to be missing from his life, and for her, he is her literary hero - her white whale - her giant of the page. And her fascination with him is real and binding.

He takes such an interest in her and her writing as she's recently published her first novel, too and acts as mentor until they both land in Spain covering the war with Franco; that's when mentoring ends and a torrid and long love affair begins.

McCain captures the essences of their tragic love that is reminiscent of Wuthering Heights to me - both characters are flawed, both are deeply disturbed, and both are dreadfully dependent on each other. Their relationship is painted as a series of desperate attempts to control one another under the guise of love and failing miserably. We watch as she loses herself in him and then as she attempts to regain the strength and passion she once had for writing, he steals away bits and pieces of her out of spite. I found myself in awe of and angry at them both! Her for loving a married man and pursuing a relationship with him with very little resistance, and him for...well, see everything I wrote above. BUT - there's also something uniquely dynamic about Martha Gellhorn and her gumption to persist against the odds, her love for Ernest no matter how destructive, her maternal passion for his children, and her eye for finding the story of real people during tumultuous times. McCain makes her both a hellion and a hero.

McCain's writing is flawless. She stirs the reader right from the prologue with forceful introspective ideas, "It may be the luckiest and purest thing of all to see time slow to a single demanding point. To feel the world rise up and shake you hard, insisting that you rise, too, somehow..." to giving the reader an understanding of hope with the design of "...a talisman we were braiding back and forth, repeating the words without variation until they were links in a chain of hope, or faith, or whatever lies between."

She also exposed the life of a writer in these pages and many of the lessons I've taken to heart. Ernest Hemingway's comment that "if you force yourself into the yoke before dawn, you can do whatever yo like after," and her analysis of the writer noting, "[that] 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 stream-bed, 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."

Love and Ruin not only gives insight into the life of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, but also into the life of a writer with all its disastrous beauty and dangerous liaisons of the heart and soul.

"The page was snowy white. It still held all of its secrets. There was nothing to do but begin."

I give this novel a resounding ☕☕☕☕☕ and recommend in to anyone that wants to real historical fiction done right. A truly great story - truly great writing.

I received this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Ruin will be published May 1, 2018. I'd reserve my copy now!

I am a great admirer of Paula McLain and her novels, particularly The Paris Wife, and was excited to hear she was writing another novel based on the life of the always fascinating Hemingway. This “historical fiction” focuses on his stormy relationship with his third wife Martha (Marty) Gelhorn, a writer and war journalist. In a similar vein to her first 2 novels, Love and Ruin features strong women who lose their identities to the powerful force of Hemingway and their love and attraction to him and his charms. This was a compelling read; spanning the years of the Spanish Civil War, WWII and beyond. It delved into Hemingway’s relationships with his second wife and sons and his restlessness which led to his marriage failing. Hemingway was certainly larger than life and the attraction women had for him was understandable.. It was also interesting to see who Gelhorn tried to carve out her own career and identity, difficult enough for any woman at that time, made even more difficult when living in the shadow of Hemingway.
I enjoyed this book and the exploration of Hemingway and Gelhorn and what I learned about the difficult live of a war correspondent,

While I enjoy McLain’s writing style; this book wasn’t a clear winner to me. I felt like a lot of historical details were thrown at me in a raw, unnatural way. I would have loved for them to have been worked into the storyline a little better but overall I did enjoy this book.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Ruin represents another step in McLain's view of the loves of Ernest Hemingway. The moment that talented, daring Martha Gellhorn casually meets Hemingway in Key West her life is irrevocably changed. Although Hemingway is married to his second wife, Pauline, the attraction between Martha and Ernest is undeniable and, eventually, undenied.

Gellhorn's work as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and World War II made her a famous writer. Her dangerous work for Collier's eventually caused an inevitable rift between the two since Ernest's jealous and selfish nature didn't allow another star in the family.

I usually don't like books where characters act selfishly wanton and then are wounded by the selfishness of others. McLain's successful The Paris Wife about the convergence of Hemingway, his first wife, Hadley, his infidelity, and his second wife, Pauline, is an example of a novel of mostly unlikeable people. Here, however, Martha is such a formidable independent presence that I ended up admiring her even as she stumbled. There are, however, numerous times where she is far too conciliatory toward Hemingway almost as an homage to his genius.

McLain's latest novel Love and Ruin Is a great read.

"It may be the luckiest and purest thing of all to see time slow to a single demanding point. To feel the world rise up and shake you hard, insisting that you rise, too, somehow. Some way. That you come awake and stretch, painfully. That you change, completely and irrevocably - with whatever means are at your disposal - into the person you were always meant to be."



As a fan of Paula McLain's previous works, I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her newest book, Love and Ruin, from Random House, in exchange for an honest review (thanks Random House!). I jumped into it right away, needing a break from my big YA kick as of late and hoping that some historical fiction / romance would be the cure.



McLain does not disappoint. She's adept at taking historical figures and fictionalizing them in a way that is loving and respectful, even when the picture she is painting isn't always beautiful. This time around her subject is Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, as she traces their love story from its illicit beginnings during his marriage to Pauline Pffifer through to it's (yes, you guessed it..) ruin. I had a passing familiarity with Gellhorn as a journalist, but didn't know much about her, at least in comparison to Hemingway, and this is a theme in the novel - the ways in which Hemingway's star burned so brightly that it drew everything to it while simultaneously eclipsing it. McLain's written about Hemingway before, in The Paris Wife, but here it takes a turn. While in that narrative, we watch through Hadley's eyes as their marriage crumbles apart, in this novel, we watch from Martha's perspective as she comes into her own as a writer, and Ernest begins to crumble. Martha was truly a woman before her time, and it's clear in the novel that Hemingway struggled with her strength and desire to cultivate a career and a life as a writer and war correspondent in a time period where she was breaking barriers and norms. Frankly, Hemingway comes across as quite the asshole throughout the novel, self absorbed, unable to empathize or see Martha's perspective, and petulant when he doesn't get his way. Even through these moments, it's made clear that their love was deep and real, even if it couldn't withstand the internal strain and external pressures placed upon it.



Overall, a really lovely read. I'm a fan of McLain's style, and after three excellent novels in a row (including Circling the Sun), I'm excited to see who's inner life she shines a light on next.



4/5 Stars.

Martha Gellhorn was the beautiful daughter of a prominent St. Louis doctor. However from an early age, she was interested in traveling the world. She also had engaged in several affairs with married men who promised to marry her but didn’t.

When Generalisimo Franco’s forces began their war for dominance of democratic Spain, volunteers from all over the world came to Spain to join the resistance. Among the volunteers was Ernest Hemingway, a novelist with several best selling books. Martha, who had been writing feature stories for magazines in the US, and had met Ernest while on a family trip to Key West where the Hemingway family lived.

He had told her that he was going to Spain to fight and suggested she come over to cover it as a news correspondent. Her mother had been friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Martha got a magazine to sponsor her and pulled other strings to get permission to go to Spain.

It was in Spain that Martha connected with and fell in love with the married Hemingway. The two wrote eventually became inseparable. The twice married Hemingway had tired of his wife Pauline and had been looking for someone new. Martha and Ernest eventually moved to Cuba and bought a home there. Both writers started new novels. Unfortunately Martha’s books were not as well received as Ernest’s books.

After several years together and the publication of the classic, For Whom the Bells Toll, Hemingway was able to divorce Pauline and marry Martha.

This story examines the relationship between Martha and Ernest. Although they both claimed to love each other deeply, they lived separate lives and were more interested in their careers. Martha wanted to be known professionally as Martha Gellhorn not Mrs. Hemingway. Ernest had many demons and could be cruel and demanding when he was not the center of attention.

I enjoyed the book but not as much as the author’s story of the relationship between Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, in The Paris Wife.