A review by izzyreads13
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I personally really enjoyed this book, it can be very fast pace at times as it does skip around a lot in my opinion but it’s not by any means hard to follow. I feel in love with the realistic aspects of the book, watching Eden and Mara grow up and become almost completely different people from the start of the book. 

I think this book beautifully showcases how such traumatic events can really shape someone’s world and I enjoyed the journey this book took me on. With complex and interesting characters you can’t really get bored in the story, so much happens, so many things change and occur that it’s easy to immerse yourself in the contents of the book. 

This book is very content heavy and anyone looking into reading it should be aware of the triggers, but if you’re fine aside from that I heavily recommend this book. There’s some romance, a lot of character development, navigation through life and things of the sort.

Overall in short, I really enjoyed the realism of this book, the way the characters move and progress is very realistic and I enjoy how when Eden, our main fmc really messed up, others around her didn’t just let her pass because of the fact that she was the main character. She faced real backlash for some of her actions in the book that really made it feel like nonfiction rather than fiction and I enjoyed every part of it. 

I hope this review helped you possibly choose to get into and read this book and I know that personally, I can’t wait to read the sequel, “the way I am now”. Happy reading!
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