"Deeply moving "family" story."

All her life, Angie Malone has been able to accomplish anything she wanted by hard work and perseverance. She goes about the business of having a child much in the same matter. When she's unable to conceive, her obsession with becoming a mother drives a wedge between her and her husband, and their marriage falls apart. Heartbroken, she returns to her hometown to be with her family and run the family restaurant.

Lauren Ribido also believes in the power of hard work. Although only a teenager, everything she has in her life is the result of her own efforts. Lord knows, her bitter alcoholic mother has never done anything for her. Lauren shows up at the restaurant looking for a job, and a friendship is forged between the two women.

This is a heartwarming, deeply moving story of what it means to be a family, and the discovery that what you've always wanted just might not be what you really need. Have plenty of tissues ready when you read this great book!

Reviewed by Tish Glasson
Posted June 4, 2004

Read an Excerpt

New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah "touches the deepest, most tender corner of our hearts" (Tami Hoag). Her last novel, Between Sisters, was chosen by CBS's The Early Show as one of the best books of the summer. Now she returns with The Things We Do for Love—a poignant, evocative story that celebrates the magic of motherhood, the joys of coming home, and the price we so willingly pay for love.

Summary

The youngest of three daughters, Angela DeSaria Malone was always "the princess" of the family, a girl who thought she knew how her life would unfold. High School. College. Marriage. Motherhood. That was how it had gone for her sisters, her cousins, her friends. But it didn't work out that way for Angie. She and her husband tried desperately to have a child; year after year, their perfectly decorated nursery remained empty. Finally, their marriage collapsed under the weight of lost dreams. After the divorce, Angie moved back to her hometown and rejoined her loud, loving, slightly crazy family. In West End, a place where life rises and falls in time with the tides, she will find the man who once again will open her heart to love . . . and meet the girl who will change Angie's life.

Lauren Ribido lives in a rundown apartment in a bad part of town with a mother who cares more about her next drink than about her daughter. At seventeen, Lauren knows that her aspirations in life may never come to pass.

From the moment they meet, Angie sees something special in Lauren. They form a quick connection, this woman who is desperate for a daughter and the girl who has never known a mother's love. When Lauren is abandoned by her mother, Angie doesn't hesitate to offer the girl a place to stay.

But nothing could have prepared Angie for the far-reaching repercussions of this act of kindness. In a dramatic turn of events, she and Lauren will be tested in a way that mothers and daughters seldom are. Together they will embark on an intensely moving, deeply emotional journey to the very heart of what it means to be a family.