Review of For the Love by Jen Hatmaker

For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards by Jen Hatmaker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards was my first read by Jen Hatmaker, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

First, the Positives:
- It’s a quick, light read comprised of 26 short chapters (224 pages).
- Jen has a great sense of humor, making me laugh out loud several times throughout the book. (Her Jimmy Fallon inspired Thank You notes were especially amusing.)
- There were several bits I highlighted that resonated with me:
- I needed the reminder that it is okay to say “no”. I loved the picture of community she painted.
- I liked the chapter, “On Calling and Haitian Moms” where she writes, “If it isn’t also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn’t true […] Theology is either true everywhere or it isn’t true anywhere.”
- I also appreciated the chapter on Poverty Tourism, though it mostly reminded me of “When Helping Hurts”, I appreciate her getting the message out to those who haven’t or wouldn’t read “When Helping Hurts”.
- I appreciate her focus on loving God and loving people (since that is how Jesus summed up all of the Old Testament Law for us!)

Negatives:
- The chapters seemed disconnected to me and I felt like the book on the whole lacked the depth I had expected.
- She is writing to a more specific audience than I had anticipated, that is to married women with children. And as I am neither married nor do I have children, there were times where I was less engaged with the book. Sure, I can appreciate stories about her children and even her letters to them, but in a lot of ways I just feel like the book wasn’t meant for me to read.
- While I enjoyed reading about her “supper club”, I was also expecting less recipes and more on the topic of “fighting for grace in a world of impossible standards”.

In sum: if you already like Jen Hatmaker and her blog or her other books, I have no doubt you will like this one too. However, if you’re like me and you don’t fit her target audience, you might want to skip this one.

**Full disclosure, I received a free e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**


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