my books. my life.

Title: Hemingway’s Girl
Author: Erika Robuck
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 352
Year: 2012
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Source: Personal Collection
Rating: 1/5

Summary (from publisher):

In Depression-era Key West, Mariella Bennet, the daughter of an American fisherman and a Cuban woman, knows hunger. Her struggle to support her family following her father’s death leads her to a bar and bordello, where she bets on a risky boxing match…and attracts the interest of two men: world-famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, and Gavin Murray, one of the WWI veterans who are laboring to build the Overseas Highway. 

 

When Mariella is hired as a maid by Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline, she enters a rarified world of lavish, celebrity-filled dinner parties and elaborate off-island excursions. As she becomes caught up in the tensions and excesses of the Hemingway household, the attentions of the larger-than-life writer become a dangerous temptation…even as straightforward Gavin Murray draws her back to what matters most.  Will she cross an invisible line with the volatile Hemingway, or find a way to claim her own dreams?  As a massive hurricane bears down on Key West, Mariella faces some harsh truths…and the possibility of losing everything she loves.

My Thoughts:

So this book and I didn’t really get along. I wanted to love it, so I kept reading when I probably should have put it down. But I read it painfully slowly. And even put it down for an entire year with less than 100 page to go. Very odd behavior for me as I will usually either DNF a book pretty quickly or push through.

I swear I had notes lying around somewhere, but they must have gone missing during the year and a half I was reading.

I think the problem is that I didn’t connect with Mariella. I didn’t really feel the attraction between her and Hemingway (perhaps because they call each other “papa” and “daughter”). And I didn’t feel the love at all between her and Gavin.

It was also one of those books where I felt like things were over-explained. My rule: either tell me something or show me something, but don’t do both.

This book and I did not click. But some other bloggers I trust adored it. So check out their reviews before taking my word for it: Anita Loves Books (5/5 stars); Devourer of Books (Highly Recommended); Jenn’s Bookshelves (Highly, Highly Recommended).