Blue Ruin

Blue Ruin is a 1928 romance by the American writer Grace Livingston Hill, published by J. B. Lippincott Company and also issued in a large-type edition. It belongs to the body of inspirational romance that Hill wrote for a general readership in the early twentieth century.

Lynette Brooke and Dana Whipple have known each other since childhood, and the novel's tension is a difference of expectation rather than a lack of affection. Dana intends to become a preacher and assumes that Lynette, who has not questioned his plans, will make a suitable wife. The visitor from New York stays with Dana's family rather than with Lynette's, and what follows is a series of criticisms aimed at the woman he had assumed was already settled.

The arrival of a woman from New York changes Dana's behaviour towards Lynette, and the second half of the book sends Lynette to Europe with her family, where she has to decide what she believes about the man she left behind and about the faith they share. The novels of this kind usually end with the couple's beliefs and their affections settled together, and the distance of the Europe trip is what forces Lynette to reach the decision herself.