We’ve all been there. You finish a Kristin Hannah book, and you’re basically a puddle on the floor. Whether it was the snowy trenches of The Great Alone or the heartbreaking sisters in The Nightingale, she has this way of ripping your heart out and then sort of handing it back to you, slightly rearranged. But long before she became the queen of historical epics, she wrote a little book in 2004 that a lot of newer fans completely overlook.
Things We Do for Love is that book.
If you’re coming to this story after reading her 2024 blockbuster The Women, you might expect a sweeping war drama. Honestly? It’s not that. It’s smaller. More intimate. It’s a "domestic" story that feels like a warm cup of tea with a shot of whiskey hidden in it. It’s messy, kinda frustrating at times, and deeply human.
The Heart of Things We Do for Love: It’s Not Just a Romance
People see the title and assume it’s a standard "girl meets boy" beach read. It isn't. Not even close. At its core, this is a story about two women who are both essentially "motherless" in different ways.
You’ve got Angie Malone. She’s thirty-eight, recently divorced, and carrying the kind of heavy, silent grief that only comes from years of infertility and loss. She moves back to her tiny hometown of West End, Washington—a place that rises and falls with the tides—to help run her family's Italian restaurant, DeSaria’s.
Then you meet Lauren Ribido.
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Lauren is seventeen, brilliant, and desperately poor. Her mother is an alcoholic who cares more about the next drink than her daughter’s future. When these two collide, it’s not just a "mentor" story. It’s a collision of needs. Angie has all this maternal love with nowhere to put it; Lauren has a gaping hole where a mother's support should be.
Why This Book Hits Differently in 2026
Back when this was written, the conversations around infertility and teen pregnancy were often shrouded in a lot of shame. Reading it now, you can see how Hannah was trying to peel back those layers. Angie isn’t just "sad" she can’t have a kid; she’s identity-less. Her marriage to Conlan collapsed because she couldn't see past her own empty nursery.
It’s a blunt look at how obsession—even the "good" kind, like wanting a family—can actually destroy the family you already have.
The Twist Everyone Argues About
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The ending. If you haven't read it yet, maybe skip this paragraph, but honestly, the "spoilers" are what make people debate this book in book clubs even twenty years later.
Lauren gets pregnant. Her rich boyfriend David is heading off to college, and his parents are... well, they're exactly what you’d expect "rich parents in a 2004 novel" to be. They want the problem to go away. Lauren decides she wants Angie to adopt the baby. It seems like the perfect, "everyone wins" solution, right?
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Wrong.
Kristin Hannah doesn't do "clean" endings. When the baby finally arrives, the biological pull is too much. Lauren takes the baby and leaves. She breaks her promise to Angie. She breaks Angie’s heart.
Most readers find this part absolutely infuriating. You want to scream at Lauren for being "selfish," but if you look closer, Hannah is making a point about the "things we do for love" (see what she did there?). Lauren’s love for her child outweighed her love for the woman who saved her. It’s brutal. It’s also probably the most realistic thing in the book.
Fact-Checking the "True Story" Rumors
You might see some TikToks or blogs claiming this is based on a specific true story. Let’s set the record straight: Things We Do for Love is a work of fiction.
However, Kristin Hannah has been very open about the fact that the themes were pulled directly from her life at age forty-three. She saw her friends struggling with IVF and late-in-life infertility while simultaneously seeing reports of rising teen pregnancy rates. She wanted to explore that "unfair" irony of the universe—where those who want kids can't have them, and those who have them aren't ready for them.
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The town of West End isn't a real place you can GPS, but it’s heavily inspired by the coastal towns of the Pacific Northwest that Hannah knows so well. The salt air, the damp wood, the "everybody knows your business" vibe—that’s all real PNW energy.
A Breakdown of the Main Players
- Angie Malone: The "Princess" of the DeSaria family who has to learn that motherhood isn't just about biology.
- Lauren Ribido: A girl with a 4.0 GPA and a 0.0 support system.
- Conlan Malone: Angie’s ex-husband. He’s the "one that got away," but he’s also a man who was tired of being second place to a ghost baby.
- The DeSaria Family: The loud, chaotic, pasta-making heart of the book. They provide the comedy and the calories.
Is It Worth the Read?
If you only like Hannah’s historical fiction, you might find this a bit "soap opera-ish." It definitely has those early-2000s Lifetime movie vibes. But if you want to understand her evolution as a writer, it’s essential.
You can see the seeds of Firefly Lane in the female friendships here. You can see the roots of The Great Alone in the way she describes the Washington landscape. It’s a "transitional" book. It’s where she started moving away from standard romance and into the "complicated women" territory that made her a household name.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers
- Don’t expect a hero. Every character in this book makes a decision that will make you want to throw the book across the room. Lean into it.
- Read the "Behind the Book" notes. If your edition has them, Hannah’s explanation of her own perspective on motherhood at the time adds a lot of weight to the story.
- Pairs well with Italian food. Seriously, the descriptions of the food at DeSaria’s will make you starving. Have some lasagna ready.
- Check out "Magic Hour" next. If you liked the "taking in a troubled stranger" trope in this book, Magic Hour is the natural next step in your Kristin Hannah binge.
The book basically asks one question: How much of yourself can you give away before there’s nothing left? For Angie, the answer was "everything." For Lauren, the answer was "whatever it takes to survive."
Whether you think Lauren is a hero or a villain by the end is up to you, but you definitely won't forget her. To get the most out of your reading experience, try to find the 2005 Ballantine Books edition, which includes a great reader's guide that dives into the Catholicism and family traditions used throughout the story.