Review: Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton

Beautiful Exiles

by Meg Waite Clayton

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Key West, 1936. Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets disheveled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship—forged over writing, talk, and family dinners—flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they’re covering the Spanish Civil War.

Martha reveres him. The very married Hemingway is taken with Martha—her beauty, her ambition, and her fearless spirit. And as Hemingway tells her, the most powerful love stories are always set against the fury of war. The risks are so much greater. They’re made for each other.

With their romance unfolding as they travel the globe, Martha establishes herself as one of the world’s foremost war correspondents, and Hemingway begins the novel that will win him the Nobel Prize for Literature. 

Kritters Thoughts:  A historical fiction book that takes back to the time of Ernest Hemingway and the moments before he meets his third wife, Martha Gellhorn.  Martha is much more than one of Hemingway's wives and this book celebrates her life that she had before and during Hemingway.  

I went into this book a fan of Meg Waite Clayton and was ready to see what she would do to make this historical moment come alive and I have to be honest it didn't meet my expectations.  The book felt dry and just didn't move the way I wanted it to.  I didn't expect it to grip me like a mystery/thriller book can, but I have read many historical fiction books where the story flows so fluid that it is hard to put down in hopes to find out what is going to happen next.  

The big thing that kept me reading was the feeling of being behind the scenes in Earnest Hemingway's life.  I found seeing behind the scenes in his life more thrilling than Martha's story and her part of his story.  I wanted to feel more connected to Martha and to care about her and her future and I just couldn't get connected to her.  

Rarely do I have such a hard time with a historical fiction book because I get so excited to read and try to decide what is fact and fiction, but I just couldn't do it with this one.  I will not count Meg Waite Clayton out and will read her future books, but this one didn't strike a chord for me.  


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 62 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Little Bird Publicity.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.