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alexblackreads 's review for:

The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
4.0

This book made me cry. A lot. I identified incredibly strongly with Eden, and I was so sucked into her story and arc. I read this in one day and would have finished it in one sitting, except I got interrupted.

I did have some critiques. I think maybe if I hadn't identified with Eden as much as I did, this might have been a three star read for me. It felt very melodramatic at times and I found myself think it was too much at quite a few points throughout the story. There's only so many times the main character can run crying from a guy who's proclaiming his love for her before it feels just a bit ridiculous. It didn't really bother me, but I think it would have if I hadn't related to Eden as much as I did.

I also felt there was a fair bit of slut shaming that was never addressed or discussed critically. That bothered me quite a bit. The critique of slut shaming seemed to only include "it's bad to bully" and not "you shouldn't judge someone for having sex." I didn't think that aspect was well done at all. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.