Book Review: For the Love

She responds that the book is for the woman who is doing a terrible job at everything and cannot keep up with expectation. The Woman with deep, meaningful, wonderful community & is celebrating it or the woman who feels lonely in her own life and is craving a deeper community…” Basically, there is something for every woman in every season in life and I could not agree more.

For the Love is my first Jen Hatmaker book to read and I found myself chuckling along with her. It felt like Jen (yes, the style was so conversational, we’re on a first name basis) was just sitting on the couch with me telling stories from her life and what she has learned from them.

The refrain “for the love” comes as comic relief throughout the book. She uses it like the phrase “for the love of all things good…” Two of my favorites include “for the love of Moses” and “for the love of Palmolive.”

Jen uses this book to encourage believers, not to evangelize them. It is not stuffed full of Scripture but rather with her life. She divulges her intimate thoughts, including her internal struggle as to whether or not to agree to the recent television show. She even imitates Jimmy Fallon’s ironic thank you notes in several chapters, which are quite funny.

As much as I enjoyed the book, I would not recommend the book for a younger audience as she does discuss some intimate moments of marriage.

Toward the end, she directly addresses people who accuse her of not focusing on the Gospel. And its true, even this book has little emphasis on what Jesus has done. Instead, it assumes that we readers are believers with an understanding of that and pushes us forward to live a life showing this love to other people. This is a question I have wrestled with as I have prayed and planned in my writing ministry. We all need Scripture and we all need encouragement. Jen does a terrific job encouraging in this book.

If you’re looking for a comedic, easy read while your kids return to school, I highly recommend For the Love by Jen Hatmaker.