How I Was Before

All Eden wants is to distance herself from the past.

Eden has always been good at being good. She likes books, she likes bands. She has a knack for many things. She is curious. Starting high school changed none of that in her. It was just another step.

However, on the night her brother's best friend rapes her, her world is turned upside down. What was once simple is now complex. What Eden used to like — who she liked — she no longer likes, she hates. What she understood as truths now seem like lies to her.

She knows she should tell someone what happened. But she can't. As a solution, she buries the past. She buries who she used to be.

But Eden does not know the strength she carries hidden in her heart

Author Amber Smith's provocative debut tackles the deep wounds caused by trauma, but also the strength of a young woman dealing with the almost unbearable disappointments and pains of adolescence.