Amber Smith
Amber Smith has published 7 books across 2 series. The recommended reading order starts with The Way I Used to Be (2016).
Amber Smith writes young adult and middle grade novels that explore themes of mental health, gendered violence, and LGBTQIA+ equality. Her debut novel, The Way I Used to Be, was published in 2016. Smith is also the author of The Last to Let Go, Something Like Gravity, and The Way I Am Now, and contributed to the anthology Our Stories, Our Voices. She is an advocate for social change, and her books aim to foster dialogue on important issues. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Smith now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her wife and rescue animals.
Shelf & Shadows
Order of Standalone Novels
- Tagsyoung-adultchildrencrimemysteryDescriptionWhat does freedom cost when it arrives in the worst possible way? Amber Smith's *The Last to Let Go* asks this question with unflinching clarity. Brooke Winters is poised for escape—new school, college plans, a future beyond her suffocating hometown. Then her mother kills her father. One hot summer afternoon, everything shatters. The details are murky. Self-defense or murder? Right or wrong? No one knows what really happened that day, and maybe it doesn't matter. What matters is that Brooke and her siblings are suddenly alone, navigating a year of impossible firsts without the anchors—however broken—they once had. Smith doesn't flinch from the mess of it: the violence that shaped this family, the dysfunction that lingers even after the abuser is gone. This isn't a redemption arc. It's survival. Brooke's journey through first love, first heartbreak, and her first real taste of autonomy is raw and complicated. She's not just learning who she is—she's learning how to exist in a world that never taught her she mattered. Smith writes with the kind of emotional precision that makes you ache. This is a book about inheritance, identity, and the brutal work of letting go of things you never truly had. It's provocative. It's necessary. It stays with you.Publication dateFebruary 6, 2018Amazon rating4.3/5Print length384LanguageEnglishPublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
- Tagsyoung-adultromancechildrenDescriptionWhat does it mean to find yourself when the world keeps telling you who you're supposed to be, and how do two people carrying the weight of their own transformations learn to hold space for each other? Amber Smith crafts a tender, achingly honest story about Chris, a transgender teen spending the summer in a small town where he hopes to simply exist without explanation, and Maia, a girl grieving her brother's death and struggling to reconcile the person she was with who she's becoming. Their connection unfolds with the kind of quiet intensity that sneaks up on you—two people who shouldn't make sense together but somehow do, drawn by the recognition that they're both trying to navigate the impossible distance between how others see them and who they know themselves to be. Smith writes their alternating perspectives with such careful attention to the specific textures of their inner lives that you feel the weight of every glance, every hesitation, every moment of unexpected understanding. This is a book that refuses easy answers or tidy resolutions, instead offering something rarer: a portrait of two young people learning that being seen—truly seen—might be the most radical act of all. Smith's prose moves with the rhythm of a long summer, unhurried but purposeful, building toward a conclusion that feels earned rather than inevitable, hopeful without dismissing the hard work of becoming.Publication dateJune 18, 2019Amazon rating4.4/5Print length400LanguageEnglishPublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
- Tagsmiddle-gradechildrenfantasyDescriptionEleven years old. That's the age when everything can fall apart at once. Sadie's best friend is gone. Her brother won't stop being insufferable. Her Gramps is losing his grip on memory. Then she meets a stray dog and discovers she can hear its thoughts. Telepathy. Real, actual telepathy. The dog's name is Dewey. The connection is instant, electric, undeniable. But Dewey gets captured and sent to a shelter, and Sadie's moms won't budge. They say the dog is dangerous. They say Sadie needs to prove she's responsible first. They don't understand that Dewey is running out of time, that the shelter has limits, that some friendships are worth breaking rules for. So Sadie hatches a plan. A jailbreak. Doggie jail, to be exact. It's the kind of scheme that requires courage, creativity, and a willingness to trust her own wild imagination—the very thing adults keep telling her to rein in. Amber Smith's middle grade debut is a story about the magic of connection in a year when everything feels disconnected. It's about fighting for what matters when the world says no. It's about a girl, a dog, and the kind of friendship that doesn't need words to be understood. Warm, hopeful, and utterly sincere, this is a book that believes in big hearts and even bigger dreams.Publication dateJanuary 4, 2022Amazon rating4.8/5Print length304LanguageEnglishPublisherRazorbill
- Tagsyoung-adultromancehistorical-fictionDescriptionThe title alone suggests a kind of dissolution, a blurring of boundaries between self and other, and that's exactly the territory Amber Smith navigates in this standalone novel. There's an intimacy here that feels both tender and precarious, the kind of connection that asks you to lose yourself even as you're trying to hold on. Smith has always written with a raw emotional clarity, and in "Fade Into You," co-authored with Sam Gellar, that sensibility deepens into something atmospheric and immersive, a story where the mood wraps around you like fog before the plot fully reveals itself. Without the usual markers to guide us—no series context, no synopsis to anchor expectations—we're left to trust the authors' hands, and that trust feels warranted given Smith's track record of exploring vulnerability and resilience in young adult fiction. The collaboration with Gellar suggests a merging of voices, a creative partnership that mirrors the title's promise of fading into another. This is likely a story about connection in its most fragile and necessary forms, about what it means to be seen and to see someone else completely. The prose will likely move with a lyrical, unhurried grace, inviting readers to sink into the emotional landscape rather than race through it, to feel the weight of every glance and unspoken word.Publication dateNovember 4, 2025Amazon rating4.4/5Print length448LanguageEnglishPublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
Order of The Way I Used To Be Books
- Tagsyoung-adultchildrenDescriptionEden is good at being good—until the night her brother's best friend rapes her, and everything she understood about herself fractures. She doesn't tell anyone. She buries it instead, along with the girl she used to be. What follows is a four-year chronicle of unraveling and reconstruction, told in the stark divisions of high school: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. Each year peels back another layer of Eden's trauma, revealing how violation rewires a person from the inside out. What she once loved, she now hates. Who she trusted, she now fears. The simplicity of her former life becomes a cruel joke. Amber Smith writes with unflinching precision about the deep cuts trauma leaves—not just the initial wound, but the way it spreads, infecting friendships, first loves, and the fragile architecture of identity. This is not a book that offers easy comfort or tidy resolution. It sits with the mess, the anger, the self-destruction that often accompanies survival. Yet beneath the pain runs a quieter current: the stubborn, unexpected strength that emerges when there's nothing left to lose. Eden's journey is brutal, but it's also a testament to the power hidden in the act of enduring. Smith has crafted a debut that matters—a necessary, heart-twisting exploration of how we survive what we're not supposed to survive, and who we become on the other side.Publication dateMarch 22, 2016Amazon rating4.5/5Print length384LanguageEnglishPublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
- Tagsyoung-adultromanceDescriptionCan love survive when the past refuses to stay buried and the future hangs in the balance of a courtroom verdict? Eden and Josh's story has never been simple, their connection always shadowed by wounds they carried alone—hers from a devastating sexual assault she kept hidden, his from the chaos of living with an alcoholic father. In high school, those unspoken burdens made a real relationship impossible, no matter how deeply they felt drawn to one another. Now, months after Eden has publicly accused her rapist alongside two other survivors, she's trying to build a new life at college while her case moves toward trial. When she and Josh reconnect, the timing finally seems right, the obstacles that once stood between them cleared away by honesty and distance from their painful pasts. But starting over means navigating the unpredictable terrain of college life while Eden faces the crushing weight of a legal battle that will decide whether she receives the justice she's fought so hard to claim. Amber Smith crafts a raw, unflinching portrait of trauma, resilience, and the complicated work of healing while holding onto hope. This is a story about whether love can be strong enough to weather the chaos of young adulthood and the relentless demands of seeking accountability, about two people trying to find their way forward when the past keeps pulling them back.Publication dateNovember 7, 2023Amazon rating4.4/5Print length432LanguageEnglishPublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
- Tagsyoung-adultnon-fictionromancecrimeDescriptionWhat does it mean to rebuild a self after it's been shattered? Amber Smith returns to the question with unflinching clarity. This is a book about aftermath. About the slow, unglamorous work of becoming whole again. Eden carries the weight of trauma like a second skin. The assault that fractured her world in *The Way I Used To Be* still echoes through every choice, every relationship, every attempt at normalcy. Smith doesn't offer easy resolutions. Instead, she maps the terrain of recovery with surgical precision—the setbacks, the small victories, the moments when healing feels impossible and the moments when it feels within reach. The prose is spare. Direct. It mirrors Eden's own struggle to find language for what she's endured. This is not a redemption arc tied up neatly. It's messier than that. More honest. Smith understands that survival is not a destination but a daily practice, and she renders that truth with the kind of emotional accuracy that stays with you long after the final page.Publication dateOctober 6, 2026Print length400LanguageEnglishPublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
Frequently Asked Questions about Amber Smith
Amber Smith writes two distinct series and several standalone novels. The Way I Used To Be series should be read in publication order: The Way I Used To Be (2016), The Way I Am Now (2023), and The Way We Become (2026). The standalone novels can be read in any order, as they are not connected. The standalone books published so far are The Last to Let Go (2018), Something Like Gravity (2019), and Code Name: Serendipity (2022). Fade Into You is scheduled for 2025.
A good starting point for Amber Smith's books is The Way I Used To Be, published in 2016. This novel is the first in a series and introduces many of the themes and narrative styles present in her other works. Alternatively, readers can begin with any of her standalone novels, such as The Last to Let Go from 2018, as these books do not require prior reading of other titles. The choice depends on whether a reader prefers to start with a series or a self-contained story.
Some of Amber Smith's books are part of a series and are best read in order, while others are standalones. The Way I Used To Be series, which includes The Way I Used To Be (2016), The Way I Am Now (2023), and The Way We Become (2026), is intended to be read chronologically to follow the character development and plotlines. Her standalone novels, such as The Last to Let Go (2018) and Something Like Gravity (2019), do not need to be read in any particular order relative to each other or the series.
Amber Smith writes both standalone novels and series. Her standalone works, like The Last to Let Go (2018), Something Like Gravity (2019), and Code Name: Serendipity (2022), are independent stories that can be read individually. She also writes series, most notably The Way I Used To Be series, which includes The Way I Used To Be (2016) and The Way I Am Now (2023). Fade Into You, a collaboration with Sam Gellar, is also a standalone novel scheduled for 2025.
As of 2023, Amber Smith has published six books. This includes three novels in The Way I Used To Be series: The Way I Used To Be (2016), The Way I Am Now (2023), and the forthcoming The Way We Become (2026). She has also written three standalone novels: The Last to Let Go (2018), Something Like Gravity (2019), and Code Name: Serendipity (2022). The novel Fade Into You is scheduled for release in 2025.
The first book Amber Smith wrote was The Way I Used To Be, published in 2016. This novel marked the beginning of her writing career and introduced readers to the themes and characters that would later be explored in its sequels. It is the first installment of The Way I Used To Be series. Prior to this, Smith had not published any novels.
Amber Smith's most recent book is The Way I Am Now, which was published in 2023. This novel is the second book in The Way I Used To Be series. It continues the story from the 2016 novel, The Way I Used To Be, and explores further developments in the characters' lives. The next book in this series, The Way We Become, is scheduled for 2026.
Amber Smith primarily writes young adult fiction, often exploring themes of trauma, healing, identity, and relationships. Her novels frequently deal with complex emotional journeys and personal growth. While her books often focus on realistic contemporary settings and character-driven narratives, they are classified within the young adult genre, addressing the experiences and challenges faced by teenage protagonists.
Pintip Dunn
Coming soon
We verified the reading order for Amber Smith's books by cross-referencing official publication dates, ISBN databases, and publisher catalogs.
Last verified: July 2026
Shelf & Shadows. (…). “Amber Smith Books in Order.” Retrieved …, from https://www.shelfandshadows.com/authors/amber-smith