Well-written with lots of insight into addiction and the consequences. Her life and career path while certainly difficult along the way are both mighty impressive today. I love the author's current perspective on life and it's many paths to get you where you are today. Something was missing for me to feel fully engaged in the story though hence my rating of 3.5 (rounded down to 3 for GRs).

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I choose this book from NetGalley pretty much exclusively based on the title and then loved the description. The book was great. I marveled at Hardin's internal strength and how, despite some troubles, she was able to stay out of jail and put her family back together. I also marveled (thought not in a good way) about the injustices and inequities that inmates must face when they are released from jail. I also couldn't how my worlds collided when I read about Hardin ghostwriting Anthony Ray Hinton's memoir, The Sun Does Shine. I have not read that book, but I have read Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson's account of his spending years attempting to get innocent people out of jail, including Anthony Ray Hinton. I am now looking forward to reading The Sun Does Shine. and Hardin's book has given me a lot to think about in terms of forgiveness and thankfulness.

This was a really well-written memoir. It was a sad (gut-wrenching at times, infuriating at others) story, but it has a happy ending. Unfortunately, so many stories like Lara’s don’t end well. This is one woman’s story, but more than that, it’s a look into our country’s criminal legal system and how horrifically broken it is—how we demonize people so easily, how we give up on people so easily, how easy we make it for people to lose hope. This memoir was candid, funny, and taught me a lot, things that all the best memoirs do.

I enjoyed this book more than expected since I had never heard of the author prior to this book.

I found it to be captivating and her recant of her time incarcerated was fascinating.

I did find the last quarter of the book to be very rushed while also many parts being unnecessary.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

TW: heavy drug use, jail stories, attempt suicide

When I requested this book, I thought it was going to be more about her crimes ( white collar crimes are so fascinating to me). But I was surprised it was more about her time in jail.

Lara Love is an AMAZING author. I normally don’t like to read memoirs (especially about people I don’t know), because I prefer to listen to them. But this one was written so well. I think because Lara, herself, is an author… she did such a phenomenal job having you FEEL her pain. And hurt. And brokenness.

She 100% admits/ acknowledges every crime she’s committed - but you, as the reader, also acknowledge that she’s a hurting human, too. I wrestled with a lot of emotions during this book. And have come to my own conclusion that we need a little bit of reform when it comes to prison/ after prison. But that’s another story for another time ;)

I was so encouraged by Lara and how she rose from her deepest, darkest hour. How she beat the odds, even when she didn’t believe in herself.

This book does contain lots of drug use seriously LOTS, no description of sex but does talk about bunk mates having sex, and a description of Lara attempting suicide.

I can’t wait to pick up a few of her books she was a ghost writer for!

* I received a complementary copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

In this memoir, Lara Love Hardin recounts the many iterations of the woman she has been: soccer mom, opioid addict, identity thief (to support said habit), convicted felon, but then eventually recovered addict and successful literary agent/ghostwriter. It's the kind of memoir that is so well written (no surprise, she's been a successful collaborator on others' memoirs for years!) and with such occasionally bonkers things happening that I couldn't put it down - think the narrative drive and eye-opening look at what's under the surface of some people's lives of memoirs like Maid or Educated (and of course there are parallels mentioned to Orange Is the New Black, but I haven't read that one to give a detailed comparison). My mom taught for some time in a life skills program for ladies in recovery and through those stories I learned first-hand how a "regular" person could end up down this road and struggle to ever get back on track with life. This book is an engaging and moving example of one woman's life with this - though a "swing up" story as already illustrated in the subtitle ("A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing"). I loved that her recovery story came along with a behind-the-scenes look at getting into a literary agent job, and of ghostwriting with authors like Archbishop Desmond Tutu (!) - and I'm looking forward to the interview scheduled for Sarah's Bookshelves Live (which is where I got the book recommendation) to hear more from Lara. The road to recovery for an addict is so fraught - especially when there are kids and child protective services involved - that I was biting my nails as I read, just hoping she wouldn't go back to her old ways so that she could get out of jail and get her kids back. And then when she really did get clean, I was still on the edge of my seat with the story, reading about how difficult it is to jump through all of the hoops with probation, family court, drug court to be able to get her kids back. She was working SO HARD to do all of the right things and the system made it almost impossible - mind boggling. So I maybe wished for a bit more extrapolation on what could be done to fix this clearly broken system, because it's so frustrating to read about how hard it is for someone to get back to life when they're trying so hard but have these knocks against them on their record - but that's not really the point of the book. You get an inside look at one aspect of the justice/incarceration system like with Just Mercy or A Knock at Midnight, but it's not necessarily meant to be a social justice book like those. It's more a story of one woman's experience with the system, partly to illustrate for readers how though we are quick to judge, there's no black & white here - so many gray areas on when kids should be removed from parents' care and returned, or what are the "kind" of people who end up in jail - and to explore the idea of when someone can be considered to have paid their restitution and be forgiven (literally in terms of the legal/restitution system and more generally have a metaphorical clean slate in people's minds, being allowed to move past the worst of their past actions)... and just as importantly, how someone can have self-forgiveness when they've felt so much shame and have such a self-perception as being a bad person.

This. Book!!!

Wow. I am impressed. I really didn’t know hardly anything about this one going into it, and my heart ached for Lara. For everything she went through. For her fear. Anxiety. Shame. Openness. Care. Dedication. This was an amazing memoir. I didn’t realize she co-authored The Sun Does Shine, which is one of my favorite memoirs ever.

Please give this memoir a chance. I promise you’ll learn something.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is quite a memoir. It is amazing that Hardin went from convicted felon to ghostwriting bestsellers and lunching with Oprah.

There comes an insightful experience in jail when she realizes she had quite writing as a means of making sense of her life. She had turned to drugs and that stopped her writing. Now, in jail and detoxed, she starts writing again. She writes short stories, essays, letters for others. She later finds that empathizing with her prison mates as a writing advocate was actually honing her skills for a later career as ghost writer.

Her experiences after jail were heart breaking. There is certainly a lack of a good way to help people get back into society in a productive way. Way too many end up back in jail. Hardin got a break when she was hired by man who did not ask about her past and had trust in her when it did come to light.

The is a well written memoir revealing the horrors of drug addiction and incarceration. It is also a story of survival, given the chance.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing is exactly what the title promises. Lara Love Hardin has lived many lives and I’m so grateful that she decided to share them with us - writing with so much vulnerability and honesty, even about the things that she did wrong.

I loved The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton and have often recommended it - but I had no idea about the life of his co-author. I would put both of these books on a Must Read List about our justice system - along with Just Mercy and A Knock at Midnight. Our justice system has a lot of really big issues and it’s important for us to learn and find ways to help make change - including how we vote.

While that all seems (and is) heavy - I also need to tell you how very readable this book was. It feels like Lara Love Hardin is sitting at a table with us over a cup of coffee and telling us about her life - from the lows of addiction and incarceration to the highs of lunch with Oprah. I highly recommend this book and am thankful to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook. I also recommend the audiobook read by the author - I think memoirs are almost always best when read by the author.

My thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced copy of this e-book. And many thanks to Simon and Schuster and Goodreads for a copy of the paperback arc of this wonderful book.

Lara Love Hardin tells her story from her days growing up and not having the parental guidance she needed yet still made it to college and grad school. Her first "addiction" was her books (and I can totally relate to this!). But her later addiction was much worse - heroin. This cost her money, time with her kids, her marriage, and finally her freedom.

It was when she was in jail that she was given the name Mama Love by her fellow inmates. First one helped her and as she grew stronger physically and was able to help her fellow inmates, they came to look up to her as a mentor.

Her story, like most addicts, has steps forward and backward. Drugs, especially heroin and meth, are hard demons to get rid of in your life. But her love for her children and her determination brought her back to her books and writing and got a job at a literary agency.

Her life story is compelling and inspiring and I recommend this book. The audio is narrated by Lara Love Hardin, and enhances the book to read while listening to the author.

Lara Love Hardin was an unlikely drug addict. A married suburban mother raising children in a blended family, she had a beautiful home and a business. But an addict she was. Nothing, not even the horror of losing her children, could stop her from chasing that next high. (“𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘴. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘴.”)⁣
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This book is a mesmerizing and unflinching look at the illness of drug addiction and how it permeates our society. I simply could not put this book down. My heart ached for Lara and her children as they entered the criminal court and family court system in our country, which is in need of serious reform. Even when Lara inevitably slid back into using again, I was oddly uplifted by her struggle and the dignity with which she carried herself. ⁣
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I don’t know how Lara survived jail but she did. (𝘑𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 1950𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘈 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘥. 𝘈 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥. 𝘈 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘫𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘨.”)⁣
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Told with darkly funny prose, you can’t help but be in awe of how she survived the nightmare of this season in her life.⁣
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And once she was finally released and put on probation, that became a whole other set of insurmountable challenges to face. Our probation system is basically set up for people to fail, and I was so relieved when Lara was finally able to get a job and be reunited with her children.⁣
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This book is a must-read for everyone to understand how woman are treated in our criminal justice system and to understand the true liberation of forgiveness. 5 stars!⁣
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(𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.)

The Many Lives of Mama Love is a heartfelt memoir that will stay with you for a long time. Lara had it all, until she didn't. She had a life many only dream of, but somewhere along the line addiction grabbed ahold of her and held on tight until she lost everything including her youngest son, her home, and her freedom. She was charged with 32 felonies ranging from drugs to identity theft.

I won't pretend to understand addiction in any capacity, but I can tell you one thing... our justice system needs to do better. I realize that it's not the justice system that initially causes people to fall victim to addiction, but it certainly is the cause for repeated failures to get clean as she describes in detail what all she had to do to walk the straight and narrow to not end up back in jail as so many do. The system is set up to fail those that want to do better, turn their lives around, to the point that giving in to that "need" is the only choice they feel they have left. I've seen in it my own family over the last 10 months.

Lara doesn't give up, she bust her butt to do the right things, everything that is required of her, and still she lives in fear that one little thing can land her back in jail.

My heart goes out to Lara. I'm so dang proud of her for turning her life around, for not being another statistic. She proved them all wrong.

The fact that she co-wrote one of the best memoirs I've ever read (The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton) was just icing on the cake. That book left me gutted, much like her own memoir.

Labeled “The Neighbor From Hell” by the town newspaper, Lara Love Hardin tells the story of how she was able to change her life around from addict, thief, convicted felon to trusted mother, successful author and productive citizen. The transformation was a difficult road made all the harder by a broken justice and correctional system that had departments who simply failed to communicate with each other. This book was very well written and engaging. While it was not written with the express purpose of exposing cracks in the justice system, her experience highlights the shortcomings of our prison systems and procedures. It also highlighted the difference just one person can make to encourage and instill hope in someone who desperately needs it. Fortunately she had several individuals who were able to do that for her when she was at her lowest. I was especially touched reading the sections about her friendships that were developed with other women in jail Even if you don’t typically enjoy reading biographies I think you will be surprised by this one. #netgalley #TheManyLivesofMamaLove

I really enjoyed the themes of love and redemption in this story. Typically I don’t read memoirs but both the cover and the description really grabbed me for this one. I felt personally connected to the author by the end of it and would be excited to read another book by her in either the memoir space or a novel.

Laura Love Hardin's memoir is a testament to the power of story to heal the writer in the act of telling, and to change the reader in the act of reading. Following Hardin as she hit rock bottom in her life was no easy read, but it was both eye and heart opening. I raised my family in Santa Cruz County, where Hardin's memoir is set, and lived there for 25 years, familiar with the courthouse, jail, and communities she names. And though we lived at opposite ends of the County, the connection of place illuminated the struggles Hardin recounts in a personal way. I know people who've struggled with addiction, and my patience has been tried when their efforts to quit failed. I grew up the daughter of a sheriff, and once thought the justice system was just, and that when a person finished serving their sentence, they were free to start over without encumbrance. Hardin's experiences, recounted in exquisite and excruciating detail, shattered every illusion I still held about the process of overcoming addiction, as well as the ramifications of having a criminal record. Through Hardin's difficult journey, the reader comes to see that the opioid epidemic and the policies we make about criminality and punishment are never theoretical, but have deep and lasting impacts on real people in real places.

Wow, what a journey. I appreciated Lara’s unflinching honesty and self-reflection. My heart broke for her and also rooted for her the entire time. Lara is a gifted writer, which makes this memoir hard to put down. I learned a lot and felt connected to this amazing woman and mom.

Are we defined by the worst thing we've ever done? This is the question Lara Love wrestles with after struggling with drug addiction, stealing, losing custody of her son, and eventually going to jail.
This book is a story of redemption and love. Not only do we see the personal story of Lara, we also see the many flaws of a justice system devised to stack the cards against you. It's powerful and moving.

backyardroses_
THE MANY LIVES OF MAMA LOVE

Lara Love Hardin's memoir about her fall from PTA mom to prison shot caller. The story hooked me from the beginning and I read it so quickly. If you liked Orange is the New Black you will love Lara's book. On sale today

Even if memoirs aren't your usual genre I would highly encourage you to give this one a try. Lara's writing is captivating and self reflective. You can't help but root for her.

Many thanks to @simonbooks for the ARC and congratulations to @laralovehardin on her amazing memoir ❤️

tw: addiction, suicidal thoughts

A Shocking, Truthful Commentary – Blazing Memoir

From the very first page, I knew this author could write. She grew up absorbing every book, reading and reading, escaping into a different world to ignore her reality.

I was shocked at the opening scenes and then the transference of pain and abuse became worse on every page. Lara Love was a young woman with five male children and an exhaustive life of trying to make things work while she depended on drugs and lies. She did love her children, but she could not provide for them with love or money. Drugs got in the way, and to attain this life, she would steal credit cards and cash, from anyone, including her friends.

It's a sad commentary on our penal system, the disrespect to women is off the charts. But there is nothing that could be done to help the petty criminals and their suffering children.

It is hard to believe she survived the “Tombs,” and survived the humiliation of being poor, a woman and an addict. Lara Love is a smart woman, street smart and intellectually brilliant. She knew becoming an addict would destroy her family and herself. But she did become the brightest woman in jail; that it no honor but she became a survivor.

What was heartbreaking to me is that no adult family member tried to help and love her. She became a winner, all by herself. Her intellect saved her, she is lucky.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

4.5 stars - Free ARC from Net Galley: This book pulled me in from the very start. Following Lara’s addiction fueled plunge from soccer mom to desperate inmate had me riveted. Her story of losing her kids, acclimating to jail, clawing her way back so she can gain custody of her youngest child was powerful. The description of the competing probation requirements was jaw dropping. The final portion of the book outlining how she found her niche, how her writing career took off and the kindness of Doug and a few others who accepted Lara as she was kept me turning the pages to the end. This is a powerful and ultimately uplifting memoir. Lara’s insights have me examining my own prejudices and judgements as I honestly don’t know that I could be as trusting as Doug. Highly recommend this memoir!!