This is my first Paula McLain book. I didn't connect with the narrator until almost halfway through the novel. It didn't feel like the period it was set in at first, either, but once the action got going, it read quite a bit better. The war sections were my favourite. As with other fictional novels about real people, this novel raised questions for me about how much of it was speculation extrapolated from and based on what we know factually about the person and how much was entirely the author's imagination of the personality. Martha Gellhorn was a fascinating person and for anyone who is unfamiliar with her, this book is a great starting point for launching an interest into learning more about her life via her writing. This book has revived my interest in reading some of Paula McLlain's other novels that are on my to-read list. If you are already interested in Hemingway, Gellhorn, Europe, the Spanish Civil War and World War II, this is your book.

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

I enjoyed reading this book. It was interested to see author's take on the affair between Ernest and Martha. I like the way the author captures both the strong independent side of Martha while also exposing her vulnerability with Ernest. I also appreciated the historical context presented with very illustrative descriptions of living in a war torn country during WWII.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the eARC of this heartbreaking book. After finishing Love & Ruin I had a hard time sorting out my feelings - the love story of Gellhorn and Hemingway is initially beautiful, but watching it fall apart was heartbreaking. Paula McLain tells the story of Marty Gellhorn, an amazing, gutsy, war correspondent and her relationship with Ernest Hemingway. Gellhorn was a woman who’s life reads like a novel- she reported from the Spanish Civil War, Burma Road, and Omaha Beach (to name a few!). While in Spain, she and Hemingway begin an affair which leads to their eventual marriage. It was hard to read about their relationship, because it is so fraught with problems, but Gellhorn is a heroine worth knowing. If you like historical fiction, and especially if you don’t know Gellhorn’s story, you should definitely read this book! Just know that the title is apt!

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!

Love and Ruin is a beautifully written historical novel about the life of Martha Gellhorn, wife of Ernest Hemingway. Recommended for fans of historical fiction!

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."

This novel tells a very powerful story. The heroine, Martha Gellhorn had an amazing journey as an author and war correspondent all over the world in the late 30’s and beyond. Her friendship and later marriage with Ernest Hemingway was good and bad. He liked to be in control and the center of attention and when that didn’t work he drank and could be abusive. Martha was torn between loving Ernest and his children from his previous marriages and her need to persue her writing..The book also takes you into the trenches of the second world war and her descriptions of the men and conditions of life there..Martha Gellhorn never gave up!

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.

As a lover of historical fiction, this book did not disappoint. I did not know much about Ernest Hemingway's personal life previously, and obviously, some of the story is fictional, however, it provided wonderful insights into his life with his wife Martha. Both were incredibly strong people with ambitions and great talent. I was amazed at Martha's drive to be at the forefront of wartime battles, no matter the danger or struggles she faced. She persisted and became one of the most important voices in journalism. Apparently, that was too much for Ernest to handle and it led to their struggles. I loved reading about their life in Cuba and the history the author provides about the war in Spain and Europe was a perfect backdrop for this wonderful love story.

Riveting account of the life of Martha Gellhorn, one of the 20th century's most significant war correspondents--concentrating primarily on her work during World War II and her tumultuous relationship and marriage to Earnest Hemingway. McLain brought Hemingway and especially Gellhorn to life. Gellhorn was a fearless, talented, passionate woman and it was a pleasure and inspiration to read about her life and accomplishments.

Love and Ruin was a gorgeous read, even though I'm not drawn to historical fiction or to stories of Great Romances. This was both, and Paula McLain did justice to the two towering historical figures of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. Even her writing style reflected theirs.

The story McLain captured reminds us that many independent, fearless women lived dramatic lives long before the Women's Movement of the 1960s, and that it's always been possible for strong, capable women to be felled by romantic obsession.

It also brings up the timely #MeToo question: Do we have to like and admire an artist to appreciate his/her work? Hemingway was a nasty scoundrel, but Martha -- admirable as she was -- had her own measure of self-absorption.

Still, McLain's well-written story is packed tight with the danger and thrill of the 1940s on three continents. Whether for the adventure, the romance, the history -- Love and Ruin is well worth your time.

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 adored the Paris Wife, so I was incredibly excited to receive this book. It started a little slow for my taste, and I honestly almost put it down. Mclain does such a wonderful job of really unfolding not just the characters but the times that she is writing about. Martha was overall an enjoyable character, though at times frustrating.

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.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC ecopy for my Kindle.
I enjoyed "The Paris Wife" and generally most books about and written by Ernest Hemmingway, but this one was just o.k. for me.
Martha Gellhorn was a wonderful writer and correspondent. Being the third wife of Hemmingway, she thought she was "the one." Sadly, Hemmingway was an alcoholic, had mental issues, and was completely self-absorbed. Gellhorn had her on "issues," too.
This book dragged on a little too much for me, but I did like the Martha Gellhorn more toward the end of the book.

I received and ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. I was a huge fan of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain so I was very excited to be given a copy of Love and Ruin to preview, and it did not disappoint!

Love and Ruin covers the relationship of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway from the beginning of their relationship while they were in Madrid covering the Spanish Civil War through their married life in Cuba and onto their eventual divorce. I felt like I knew quite a bit about Hemingway already but I thought it was really fascinating to look into the life of Martha Gellhorn, one of the first female war correspondents.

As all of Paula McLain's stories do, this one had me researching stories and photos of both Hemingway and Gellhorn. Their story reads like a great novel, but it is so much more interesting because it is based on a true story. The only thing that prevented a five star rating was at times it dragged a bit, but overall, I highly recommend 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 was a little slow going at first, the frustration that a woman journalist would not be considered as talented or capable as a male, then to prove that nothing would keep her from telling the history of the wars she reported about. This book showed her spunk and determination to be the best Martha Gellhorn she could be while also being the wife of Ernest Hemingway. She never gave up her ideal of being a writer even when judged by others and fighting to win the accolades on overblown merit.

They say “behind every great man there is a woman” and Paula McLain has taken up the standard of bringing those women to the forefront, no longer standing behind anyone. In her book Paris Wife we are introduced to Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife. In this book we are given the story of Martha Gellhorn, his third.
Marty stood behind no man and therein lies the problem. Marty was a strong woman in her own right, alone in Spain covering the Spanish Civil War. She found her reporting niche in the stories of the civilian victims of the war and her personal stories were heralded as some of the best. She and Ernest were in Spain at the same time and drawn together like moths to each other’s light. He was struggling and winning as he wrote the best book of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls. She was travelling and writing and establishing her own career in a man’s world as a renowned war correspondent.
Sometimes two strong personalities just clash. No one is the best, no one is dominant and sometimes strong personalities just need to be at the top alone. As World War II approaches, Ernest’s literary success puts Marty in his shadow always. She still has more to give the world and he needs to be the star that is shining. Someone’s heart is going to be followed and someone else’s broken. But it’s Marty’s career that spanned sixty years.
I appreciate Paula McLain’s books for introducing me to people I knew little about.