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Amber Smith is an American New York Times bestselling author of young adult novels.

Brought up in Buffalo, New York, she graduated from art school with a BFA in Painting before pursuing a Master’s degree in Art History.

Her debut novel, The Way I Used to Be (2016), was selected for the American Library Association’s Amelia Bloomer List of Feminist Literature and was also named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, while The Last to Let Go (2018), her second novel, was named a most-anticipated book by B&N Teen Blog, Elite Daily, and Bookish.

Other than being a lover of the arts, Amber is also an ardent advocate of gendered violence awareness, sexual assault, domestic or intimate partner abuse, and LGBTQ equality.

She currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her partner and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats.

More about Amber Smith

Genre: Young Adult

Born: 1981

Website: http://ambersmithauthor.com

Non Series

  • The Last to Let Go (2018)
  • Our Stories, Our Voices (2018)
  • The Way I Used to Be (2016)
  • Something Like Gravity (2019)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Last to Let Go

“How do you let go of something you never had?”

For Brooke Winters, junior year was meant to be all about change.

She is transferring schools and is already making plans for college so that she can at long last leave her family, her hometown, and put her past behind.

All that however changes one hot summer afternoon when her mother is taken into custody for killing Brooke’s abusive father.

Whether it was a deliberate act or one done in self-defense, whether it was justifiable or not, no one truly knows. What Brooke however knows is that she and her siblings are on their own.

It will be a year of firsts for Brooke—first love, first heartbreak, first dose of freedom and first year without parents.

As she grapples to come to terms with her identity, Brooke must face the shadow of violence and dysfunction that has haunted her family; to let go in order to find her true place in the world.

Author: Amber Smith
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1481480741
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books; Reprint edition
Our Stories, Our Voices

Twenty-one Young Adult authors share their extensive personal thoughts and experiences about being brought up in America as a female.

This collection of essays cuts across a wide range of topics, from the intersection of race and gender to women and weight, from first sexual encounters to the depredation of rape culture, from the aspect of being first or second-generation American to the role that faith plays in our culture, and practically everything else in between.

The book is meant to spread a message of hope and empowerment from strong women who have throughout their lives understood the immense power of words.

It features essays from Martha Brockenbrough, Jaye Robin Brown, Sona Charaipotra, Brandy Colbert, Somaiya Daud, Christine Day, Alexandra Duncan, Ilene Wong (I.W.) Gregorio, Maurene Goo. Ellen Hopkins, Stephanie Kuehnert, Nina LaCour, Anna-Marie LcLemore, Sandhya Menon, Hannah Moskowitz, Julie Murphy, Aisha Saeed, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Amber Smith, and Tracy Walker.

Author: Amber Smith
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1534408999
Publisher: Simon Pulse
The Way I Used to Be

Eden had always led a good and simplistic life. In fact, she was good at being good so much that not even the pressures of starting high school could change her.

Her entire world however comes crashing down that terrible night that her brother’s best friend rapes her.

What was once simple becomes sophisticated, and love is quickly overshadowed by hatred.

She is convinced that she is supposed to tell someone what happened but just can’t get herself to do it.

Instead, she chooses to bury it, and bury the way she used to be.

From freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year, this four-part story provocatively reveals the devastating effects of trauma.

Through all the misfortunes and insufferable pains of being an adolescent, it also highlights on the strength of one young woman.

Author: Amber Smith
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1481449366
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books; Reprint edition
Something Like Gravity

Chris and Maia aren’t off to the best of starts.

They may have been brought together by a car accident that could have turned fatal, but their encounters that follow aren’t any better.

Chris means well, but all his good intentions backfire. Maia on the other hand has a temper and it gets the best of her.

They are however neighbors for the summer, and despite trying everything possible, they inexplicably can’t stay away from each other.

Chris is transgender and is still struggling to overcome the terrible assault he survived a year earlier.

For Maia, she is still trying to come to terms with the loss of her older sister, and find her place in the world without her.

Falling in love may have been the last thing on their minds, but is it such a bad thing if it happened anyway?

Author: Amber Smith
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1534437180
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books