An historical novel based on Ernst Hemmingway's third wife, who was an author and a well respected journalist. One of the first woman to cover war. So smart and she knew marriage to Hemmingway was a mistake, but could not say no.

We've been here before, nothing new

I normally love Paula MClain, and I adored the Paris Wife, but after 60 pages here, I gave up. I just could not get into it.

'Love and Ruin', this is an excellent read by Paula McLain. A nice sequel to 'The Paris Wife', also by McLain about Hemmingway's first wife Hadley Richardson.

I so enjoyed this book and it led me to read “The Paris Wife” about Hemingway & his fourth wife, Hadley Richardson and their love & relationship.

I read this for the Adult Reading Challenge; I was prepared not to like this book even though I love historical fiction; I'm not a Hemingway fan. But I really loved the book! Excellent writing makes you feel you are right there with Marty through all the wars,her struggles with finding herself & her love for "Rabbit." I especially liked her Cuba years (although I still don't want to visit), and the description of their home. Very descriptive and deep writing, great prose, and wonderful characters.

The tumultuous relationship between award winning war correspendent Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway is the focus of McLain's latest biographical fiction. Skillfully written, with iconic characters set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and WWII make for an exciting read.

I picked this up because I loved McLain’s other historical fiction books. I wasn’t interested in Hemingway’s private life, but after reading this I wish I’d read the book before visiting Key West and Havana. Although the saying “You go, girl!” wasn’t around when Martha Gelman was alive, she is the epitome of the expression. She refused to be a shadow to Hemingway’s fame. I had no idea she covered wars from Franco’s takeover of Spain to Viet Nam.

I've read - and reviewed here -2 of McLain's previous novels. As in The Paris wife (2011), the central character is one of Ernest Hemingway's real life partners. Plot and action through these 376 pages swirl around Martha Gellhorn Hemingway, during her incredible adventures and time with American Lit's "Papa", 1936 - 1945. A significant and celebrated war correspondent and novelist in her own right, Gellhorn was fiercely independent and a gifted writer. She sent first hand accounts to Colliers magazine during the Spanish Civil War, reported on Hitler's rise from Germany (1938), was the only woman present and dispatching at the D-Day Normandy landings. Often forgotten to history is her Dachau documentary, the first lengthy piece clearly describing the Nazi horrors there.
If that isn't enough to inspire a reader, there is the clear, yet evocative prose with which Paula McLain describes her hero's inner and outer worlds. We are there with her, in those places - in both her emotional landscape (which was passionate but troubled where Hemingway was concerned) and in the spectacular political and geographical landscape. .
While readers of historical romance fiction will gobble this lovely, high quality novel, there is something here to catch the eye of most serious readers.

Having read a couple of biographies of Hemingway, I found this fictionalized version of his relationship with Martha Gellhorn to be really interesting and realistic in terms of portraying the inner struggles Gellhorn went through in striving to be her own person while in a relationship with one of those 'big' figures of history. Also, because the book covers only the years of the Spanish Civil War and WW2, it is important historically as a way of remembering how damaging those struggles were, but how seemingly easy it was to see 'right' and 'wrong', whereas more recent wars have been harder to categorize.