The Many Lives of Mama Love

✮✮✮✮

Aug 19

The Many Lives of Mama Love - Lara Love Hardin

my review : ✮✮✮✮

I wouldn’t classify this memoir as a beach read, but man, am I glad I read it. This is a story of hope, heartache, suffering, forgiveness, and redemption. I will be thinking of Lara Love Hardin long after finishing this book.

Lara Love Hardin is a soccer mom living in a million-dollar home in Aptos, CA, when she is arrested and charged with 32 felonies. She’s an addict who has been funding her opiate use by stealing from neighbors and friends. This is her story of addiction, recovery, and forgiveness. It’s simultaneously heavy and hopeful.

I finished this book teary-eyed and introspective. I found the writing to be excellent and admired her vulnerability and honesty. Lara writes an unflinching account of her addiction. This was the reminder I needed to be more accepting and less judgmental, to acknowledge the injustice of the legal system and how “good” and “bad” is not black and white.

I thought this was an excellent book and would make a great book club pick, as I believe it will inevitably spark great conversation.

Best paired with a warm slice of banana bread. My favorite recipe is Chrissy Tiegan’s, which I’ll share in stories.