Review: Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ultimately liked this one but it took a lot to get there for me. Much of the book takes place in war zones and I didn’t find those pieces to be very enchanting. I’m just not that into war drama, perhaps? I liked the relationship parts of the book and the character study of this amazing woman in love with a challenging man. That is where this one really excelled for me. If you’re a Hemingway fan, you will definitely want to pick this one up. I’d give the reading experience as a whole a three but the book itself a four. It took a bit to really get into this one for me … it felt like the pacing didn’t pick up until about 100 pages in for me. I did enjoy what the book said about relationships and women’s roles in the various aspects of life (wife, mother, professional, friend, etc.). Their relationship felt very real to me during the reading of the book – there was obviously much love between them but there were other factors on the outside that ultimately impacted their relationship such as his success, her ambition, his lifestyle, her lifestyle, etc. I’m definitely glad that I read this one but I didn’t love it quite as much as her earlier book about Hadley and Ernest Hemingway.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book as an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.