{"id":4062,"date":"2025-09-12T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4062"},"modified":"2025-09-12T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T05:05:00","slug":"the-way-i-am-now-by-amber-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4062","title":{"rendered":"The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Way I Am Now<\/strong> by Amber Smith<\/a>
on November 7, 2023
Genres:<\/strong> Young Adult Fiction \/ Romance \/ Contemporary<\/a>, Young Adult Fiction \/ Social Themes \/ Dating & Sex<\/a>, Young Adult Fiction \/ Social Themes \/ Emotions & Feelings<\/a>, Young Adult Fiction \/ Social Themes \/ Sexual Abuse<\/a>
Pages:<\/strong> 432
Format:<\/strong> Hardcover<\/a>
Buy on Amazon<\/a>
Goodreads<\/a> <\/p>\n

Eden and Josh never had a fair shot at a healthy relationship. When they dated in high school, they each had their own problems getting in the way of the deep connection they felt toward one another. Unbeknownst to Josh, Eden was carrying the burden of a devastating sexual assault, while Josh was dealing with his own private struggle of having an alcoholic father. Months after Eden and two other girls publicly accuse their rapist, Eden is starting college while her case goes to trial. Now when she and Josh reconnect, it seems like it might finally be in the right place at the right time for them to make it work. But is their love strong enough to withstand the challenges and chaos of college and the crushing realities of a trial that will determine whether Eden gets the justice she deserves?<\/p>\n

Eden\u2019s story will forever haunt me, and the first book genuinely never leaves my mind. This duet perfectly captures the life-long effects of a traumatic experience, as well as the struggles and pain that comes with healing. Getting to see Eden slowly mending herself back together, going to college, making new friends, and trusting herself to love someone despite her wounds, was so fulfilling to me. I was scared that the author would make Eden heal for a man so there could be a love story, but instead,\u00a0Eden healed for herself, while still learning to love in the process.\u00a0It was perfect.<\/p>\n

I rated this sequel 4.5 stars. I\u2019m so glad that the author went back and continued Eden and Josh\u2019s story. This sequel was beautiful and I feel like it was needed to represent the \u2018after\u2019 and how healing isn\u2019t linear.\u00a0I felt like having the dual POV was a really important part of this book because we got to see both the aftermath of Eden reporting her assault, and Josh\u2019s personal story. I also think adding Josh\u2019s POV was a great way to show his own struggles in supporting Eden. Overall this was a great unexpected, but enjoyable and important sequel that anyone who loved the first book should check out.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The post The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith<\/a> appeared first on Book Nook Buzz<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith on November 7, 2023 Genres: Young Adult Fiction \/ Romance \/ Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction \/ Social Themes \/ Dating & Sex, Young Adult Fiction \/ Social Themes \/ Emotions & Feelings, Young Adult Fiction \/ Social Themes \/ Sexual Abuse Pages: 432 Format: Hardcover Buy on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}