Amber Smith is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of books for young adults, best known for her The Way I Used to Be series.
Amber’s debut young adult (YA) novel, the New York Times and international bestseller, The Way I Used to Be (2016), was an Eliot Rosewater Award Honor Book, selected for the American Library Association’s Amelia Bloomer List and Texas Library Association’s TAYSHAS List, named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, a Cosmopolitan Best YA Book of All-Time, and nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in YA Fiction, as well as Connecticut’s Nutmeg Book Award.
The sequel to The Way I Used to Be, The Way I Am Now (2023) was an instant bestseller, debuting on the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestseller lists. It appeared on numerous “most anticipated” lists, was an Amazon “Best of BookTok” selection, received a Barnes & Noble exclusive edition, and was a Teen Readers’ Choice Award finalist.
Next up, The Way We Become, the third and final book in the The Way I Used to Be trilogy, will be out on October 6th, 2026.
Additionally, her sophomore novel, The Last to Let Go (2018), received starred reviews from Booklist and VOYA, was nominated for Maryland’s Black-Eyed Susan Award, was a TAYSHAS List selection, and named a most-anticipated book by B&N Teen Blog, Elite Daily, and Bookish. Her next book, Something Like Gravity (2019) was a Whippoorwill Book Award winner, received starred reviews from VOYA and BookPage, was selected for Kansas’s NEA Reading Circle List, and named an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year, and “most-anticipated” by BookRiot, NewNowNext, B&N Teen Blog, Entertainment Weekly, and The Advocate. Most recently, Fade Into You (2025) co-written with her wife, Sam Gellar, received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly.
Along with her middle grade debut, Code Name: Serendipity (2022), she also contributed to the nonfiction YA anthology Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America (edited by Amy Reed, 2018) which received a starred review from School Library Journal, was named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, and was a Eureka! Nonfiction Award Honor Book.
Amber grew up in Buffalo, New York and now lives in the Finger Lakes Region of New York with her wife and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats. Fueled by a lifelong passion for the arts, story, and creative expression, Amber graduated from art school with a BFA in Painting and went on to earn her master’s degree in Art History. She spent a decade working in the art and museum world where she began her publishing career in nonfiction, prior to the release of her first novel.
An advocate for increased awareness of mental health, gendered violence, and LGBTQIA+ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue.
When she’s not writing, she can be found shelving books and drinking lattes at the indie bookstore she owns with her wife (and fellow author) Sam Gellar, Protagonist Books & Coffee in Dryden, New York.
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Amber Smith is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several novels for young adults, including the international bestsellers The Way I Used to Be and The Way I Am Now, as well as the critically-acclaimed and award-winning novels, The Last to Let Go, Something Like Gravity, and Fade Into You, cowritten with her wife, Sam Gellar. Forthcoming in 2026 is THE WAY WE BECOME, the third and final book in the The Way I Used to Be trilogy. Along with her middle grade debut, Code Name: Serendipity, Amber also contributed to the award-winning YA anthology, Our Stories, Our Voices. An advocate for increased awareness of mental health, gendered violence, and LGBTQIA+ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue. She lives in Ithaca, NY with her wife and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats.