“The Things We Do For Love” by Kristin Hannah
Published: 1/21/09 by Ballantine Books
Genres: Novel, Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Romance
Angela DeSaria Malone had her life all planned out and that plan did not include staying in her home town to work in the family restaurant. She married a handsome journalist and lived in Seattle, but as perfect as her life appeared to be she was missing something that destroyed her marriage…a baby.
After her divorce she moved home and did exactly what she never thought she would do…she started working in the family restaurant, DeSaria’s. She saw an opportunity to help revive the struggling restaurant and got to work trying to convince her family to make changes. One of those changes included hiring a new waitress. Angie hired a girl she met in a parking lot putting flyers on cars asking for employment, and again at the local helping hand store looking for a coat for her mother.
Lauren Ribido is a smart 17 year old girl living in a rundown apartment in the bad part of town with her alcoholic mother who cares more about her next party than paying the rent. While Lauren attends the private school on scholarship she must also work to pay the back rent that is owed to keep a roof over her and her mother’s heads. When her boss is unable to keep her on she heads out to a local parking lot to place flyers looking for a job. This is where Angie sees her for the first time.
When Lauren starts working for Angie at DeSaria’s both of their lives change.
“The Things We Do For Love” is a very good book by Kristin Hannah. I feel like the beginning of the book is a little disorganized because one paragraph y0u’re reading about Angie and the next you’re reading about Lauren before the two characters even meet. Once the characters came together it was fine so that part worked itself out. While I enjoyed the book it was quite predictable. I knew what was coming it was still a good story.
It is pretty good, but it isn’t a story I was fully invested in. For me it wasn’t about where the story was going it was the smaller steps along the way that made it a good story. I would give this story a 3 1/2 stars.
