Thanks Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and netgalley for this ARC.

McLain has another classic with this one. Hemingway like he's never been shown- flaws, grumpy, and bad behavior on display. But this one is really about Martha Gellhorn- the woman who defied him and lived her life just like a man of that time.

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.

Love and Ruin is the story of Martha Gelhorn, a prolific war-correspondent and writer, who also happened to be Hemingway's third wife. Gelhorn's life is absolutely fascinating, and Paula McLain's writing is top-notch--I love the precise and beautiful words she uses to propel the narrative forward. Gorgeous writing that flows! Recommended for anyone who enjoys biographies and stories about war. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the preview copy.

Martha Gelhorn and Ernest Hemingway had a tumultuous love affair that both built them up and tore them down. Working as war correspondents during the Spanish Civil War, they grew close in a way that war can foster. How they maintained that relationship was more complicated.

I absolutely loved this look at Hemingway's third wife, an inspiring woman in her own right. Paula McLain excels at describing how Hemingway was able to draw these women in before his demons broke them down, just as she did in The Paris Wife. Gelhorn inspires as a career woman who needs the freedom to work, to be her own person. How one does that while in a relationship with someone larger then life is the overarching question. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get lost in a novel.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC of Love and Ruin by Paula McLain.

McLain is back with another tragic tale of Hemingway's wives. Martha Gellhorn, a bright and talented writer, in the midst of the war, finds herself in the coveted company of Ernest Hemingway. Their relationship starts strongly as mentor/mentee, but quickly turns to romance. Finding herself in the overwhelming shadow of Hemingway, at the rise of his success comes with costly drawbacks for someone with as much ambition as Gellhorn. Is their relationship strong enough to withstand two hugely successful artists?

What would it be like to have a "Hemingway chapter" I wonder? It must be such an interested conundrum to feel the pride of the overwhelming success of your husband, while seeking your own overwhelming success. And Hemingway, just like the rest of us mortals, was deeply flawed, and not easy to be married to.

I like how thoroughly McLain does her research and how clearly she paints her pictures. It did feel a bit drawn out to me, but overall, good read.

This was a 3.5 Read for me and I’m certain I will be in the minority in this. There was so much I liked about the story. McLain tackles the fascinating relationship between Hemingway and his 3rd wife Martha Gellhorn. In love and with The Ernest Hemingway, Gellhorn struggles to stay true to herself and her profession. I found the historical fiction aspect interesting as they traveled the world as war correspondents. There were accounts of Gellhorn’s friendships with famous people such as Elenor Roosevelt. I found portions of the war stories did not hold my interest. I love McLain’s stories of strong passionate women that pioneered careers that were not available to women. Circling the Sun is my favorite!

I had a very hard time getting into this story. It isn't that it is poorly written, it is not, it is simply not for me.

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.

I love Paula McLain who is one of the few true gifted authors writing today. Simply a marvelous book, obviously extensively researched (even though it is a novel) and exquisitely written.

I had read one other book on Hemingway and then also read The Paris Wife. I was not sure that I wanted to read another book on Hemingway as I didn't like him that much as an author and certainly not as the person he appears to be in biographies. However, I thought so highly of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun (both wonderful books) that I decided to read it solely because of McLain.

I was not disappointed. Her imageryñ, descriptions and characteriztations, dialogue, in short, everything just flows from her "pen". and I was so glad I read the book. And, if I expected another book like The Paris Wife, it is not. The story about Martha Gelhorn is completely different (and is pretty much true as far as I can see) and revolves not so much around Hemingway, but about a woman in the 30's and 40's who didn't want to be just a wife and adjunct to the then already acclaimed star-husband Hemingway. It is a conflict set up by her own ambitions and on the other hand, her love for Hemingway.

Travel from Connecticut, to Spain, Key West, Havana, italy, France, London with Martha Gellhorn. It has been said she was the greatest war correspondent of the 20th 'century. And, , women war correspondences were unknown. .Itwas a man's world. Men, the likes of Ernest Hemingway. Careers collide and torrid love turns to ruins. A great read!

When I first started this, although I enjoyed the history of the Spanish Civil War, I wasn't all too sure I would like this. The writing seemed somewhat emotionless, matter of fact, pragmatic,but then something changed. I found Martha fascinating, and the descriptions of Cuba were gorgeous, and I settles into this novel. So much history is covered, Gelhorn determined to be everywhere and chronicle everything, all the while dealing with Hemingway and his mood changes,and trying to write her own book.

This was a read with Angela and Esil, and these are just some thoughts I posted during our discussion.
Hemingway was in many ways his own worst enemy. He was bipolar, his drinking didn't help, and he honestly could not be alone. He was,however, a talented man and did his best to love his sons.

Martha was amazing, such drive, all the places and battles she personally saw and wrote about. Glad she had the guts and fortitude to leave him, though she did love him. McClain did a great job here, detailing her inner struggle to be something for herself. Hemingway woukd have sucked her dry. She was the only wife who would leave him.

The author note was wonderful and how much she admired Martha shone through.

So I ended up liking this more than I thought I would and enjoyed watching Martha gain confidence and come into her own.

ARC from Netgalley.

Found this picture https://www.google.com/search?q=marth....

Not long after Martha Gellhorn’s overbearing father passes away, she commits to following her dream of becoming a travel journalist and war correspondent. She wades through uncharted waters, using natural-born instincts, a bit of luck and lots of chutzpah. She was an inspiration.

By chance, the young Gellhorn crossed paths in 1936 with 10-years older Ernest Hemingway and the two agree to meet in Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War, with Hemingway serving as Martha’s mentor. McLain has addressed Hemingway in a memorable way. I found it refreshing that she delved into lesser known aspects such as Hemingway’s wartime involvement, adventures beyond America and volatile relationship/marriage with Gellhorn.

This book is well worth the price of admission just to learn about Gellhorn and her long impressive resume. By the end of her life (she died in 1998 at 90 years old), she had covered virtually every major war during her 60-year career, traveling to war-torn countries beginning as a naive young woman with no real plan and only a few dollars in her pocket.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Love and Ruin byPaula McLain. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. It had nothing to do with the author's writing style which I found to well executed. This reader couldn't get interested in the story about Lillian Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway.

4+ stars.
A good work of historical fiction for me is one in which the author perfectly sets the stage of what is happening around the characters not just with what is specifically happening with them. Starting with the prologue and continuing throughout, Paula McLain does a fabulous job of depicting the time and all of the places and what was happening in the world not just in the private and sometimes not so private world of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Even with this broad view of the world with the Spanish Civil War, Paris and London and other places before and during WWII, and even though this is a fictional account, I felt as if I were reading a memoir. Because of this intimate perspective that McLain creates it’s easy to admire Marty’s independence and desire to do “something”.

Another sure sign of a good work of historical fiction based on a real person for me is that I want to know more about them and I want to get a feel for how well they are portrayed. This was another strength of the book as I found myself taking time to read some online accounts of Gellhorn’s life. They reflect how she is portrayed and what we are told about her in the Author’s Note: “Martha Gellhorn went on to become 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. “ She also wrote novels and essay collections.

The book mostly covers the time that Gellhorn was with Hemingway and while I love several of his novels, there were times it was difficult to read about their relationship. He is portrayed as the scoundrel we know that he could be - cheating on his wives, drinking, needy and self centered. A talented writer with so many issues. Even though Hemingway was married, the truth is that she was a clearly in love with him. I found her to be fascinating, mostly when she is on her own away from him, as she experiences the horrors of war when she goes to Finland, talks to the Russian pows or on Omaha Beach. She really had some guts to do this, in particular at a time when this was not what women did. At best a biographical novel can give a feel of who the person is and I felt as if I got to know the woman Gellhorn was. While Hemingway is, of course a big part of this time in Gellhorn’s life, this was Martha’s story. Thanks once again to my reading buddies Diane and Esil , whose perspectives I always enjoy hearing.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Ballantine through NetGalley.

I just found this book slow and if I’m being honest it was boring. Going into this book, I really didn’t know much about Hemingway and nothing about Ms. Gellhorn. Perhaps if I knew more about these two I would have been more interested. If you’re a Hemingway fan or a fan of the author you may enjoy it more. I really wanted to love this because it sounded so intriguing. In the end, it just wasn’t for me. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to preview it.

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.

Love and Ruin is the beautiful new novel from best selling author, Paula McLain. She is probably most known for her novel "The Paris Wife" about Ernest Hemingway's first wife Hadley Richardson. However, the journey did not end there, McLain has moved on to capture the life and love of Hemingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn.

Martha is a captivating character, a female journalist who threw herself into the dangers of countries on the brink of war. She is trying to find herself in the midst of great upheaval and tragedy. As Adolf Hitler is beginning to show his power in Europe, Gellhorn ventures to Spain who is in the midst of fighting their own civil war. She is there with fellow writers and her idol Hemingway. In those life or death moments they begin to fall for each other and start an affair that will last years. Gellhorn has some success as an article writer but when her novel falls flat she grapples with her own insecurities as she watches Hemingway's star power continue to rise. Her career ups and downs mirror her relationship with the elusive, and very married, writer. Can they ever find the true peace they are after?

Mclain has captured the heart of these characters showing compassion for their anguish and missteps and celebrating their triumphs. Her work is always a joy to read with characters who stay with you long after the final pages.

{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.

Having read Paula McLain's previous novel, The Paris Wife, the story of Ernest Heminway's first wife, Hadley I was intrigued to read about Martha Gelhorn, his third.
Although I wasn't very fond of her at first, Martha grew on me until I was insationably devouring chapters as the book progressed. Martha was as much of a force to be reckoned as Hemingway. Infact, in McLain's telling of this tale I found her to be the stronger of the two. Hemingway had a heck of a time accepting exactly how strong she was and ended up turning his back on their relationship.
Paula McLain has once again written a fascinating tale of a woman who persevered through trying times, self doubt and public criticism. I can't wait for her next novel
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this advanced copy

Love in Ruins depicts the life of war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and her marriage to Ernest Hemingway. Gellhorn and Hemingway led exceptional lives and McLain illuminates them and their joys and conflicts well. The novel soars when showing the difficulties Gellhorn faced as a female journalist and writer.