I didnt get a chance to leave a full review before the publication date, however I did read this one and gave it 5 stars

Incredible. This story realistically relates trauma from sexual abuse as a child, sexual assault, the difficulties these things bring to a teenage girl's life and her view of herself.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

This was heartbreaking and beautiful. It was an intense read about trauma, being in highschool and so much more.

This is a very powerful and gripping YA novel about trauma. It was very gut wrenching and heartbreaking while also being breathtakingly beautiful.

This was such a heart-wrenching, emotional read about a teen girl struggling under the weight of childhood sexual abuse--abuse she's kept a secret from everyone around her. But during a life-changing summer, she'll be forced to confront her past. Virginia felt like such a real, authentic depiction of a teen dealing with trauma; she made lots of terrible choices and was messy, and as she falls in love, she begins to address her trauma and take steps towards healing.

I really appreciated the theme of women/girls fighting to protect each other. Virginia isn't ready to confront her abuse until she discovers that the younger sister of the boy she's in love with is being groomed. This book really brought me to tears and I think it would be good to pair with a book like Speak to spark a conversation on how survivorship doesn't just look one way.

There is one big reason why I didn't rate this higher: the BIPOC characters were not fully fleshed out, and many of them were just vaguely described as "caramel" or other euphemisms for brown without any cultural details. It felt like they were maybe added in as an afterthought to make a mostly white book feel more diverse, without the actual work being put in to make them three-dimensional, nuanced characters. I just with more thought had been put in to the representation.

Overall, a solid book that I know many teens will relate to, though I wish they didn't.

I did not have time to download and read this book before it was archived, so I'm unable to leave a review.

Trigger warnings galore.

But honestly, this harrowing, heart wrenching read is honestly a topic that maybe needs to be explored more. Sexual assualt, child sexual abuse....these are real issues and they destroy real girls silently every single day - long into their adult lives. Some of the most "put together" people are secretly falling apart at the seems.

Be ready to be broken. The honesty of this writing is raw and beautiful. Heartbreaking and devastating.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read an ARC copy of the book. It was a great book, with a beautiful cover and a killer writing style. Can't wait to see more books from this author in the future.

Ever Since by Alena Bruzas

Virginia is lost after her best friend Poppy suddenly leaves town without a word to stay with her grandparents. While Poppy is away she starts to get closer to Poppy’s boyfriend Rumi… and now someone who previously got close to Virginia is trying to get close to Rumi’s younger sister Lyra who is 11, the same age Virginia was. Things begin to unravel further and further.

This book is powerful! It hits a powerful topic slowly for me. It took me time to get into this story properly. And ooft! Worth every moment. This is heavy, heavy, heavy so if you’re not sure - beware trigger warnings. If you love heavy YA - look no further than here!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group for this arc! I loved it! 😍😍

Such an amazing book! You begin with a character that is unlikeable, making choices most wouldn't agree with. But as you delve deeper into her and the past, you can see why things appear the way they do. It's such a powerful story about the impact of assault and trauma.

I was initially interested in this because of the stunning cover. I’m absolutely obsessed with it. When I saw this being compared to books by Nina LaCour, I was in.

This is the kind of dark, heartbreaking and trauma filled book that I love. It’s odd but books that I can relate to seem to help me process things that I never did.

This story was beautifully written. I liked that the author showed the aftermath of SA. Not everyone deals with it the same and showing some unhealthy coping mechanisms was genius.

I liked our MC Virginia. I just wanted to wrap her up in a hug.

Prepare to have your heart ripped to pieces. And please look up the triggers if you need to.

*thank you Penguin Randomhous for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

This is a story that does have a likable main character. This story doesn’t hav many moments for mailing or laughing. It’s painful and hard to read. And Virginia does a lot of thing that are horrible because of the horrible things that were done to her.

Not every victim is the perfect victim. That doesn’t mean their story is any less important. A complicated person is a real person. Thank you Alena Bruzas for sharing your story in the author’s note and for sharing a ficionalized version of too many stories out here.

*content warnings*
- sexual abuse, vividly deceive on the page
- alcohol and drug abuse
- partner violence
- child sexual abuse & grooming
- child neglect
- sexual assault
- online abuse
- explicit language
- verbal assault regarding being transgender
And regarding promiscuity

I really love Nina LaCour so I decided to give this book a try. This is exactly the kind of dark, trauma-filled, hard hitting book I love. Yes, call me weird but I had a rough childhood so reading these kinds of books actually helps me process things. I loved the story, the writing wasn't as flowing as I was hoping but all the other positives made up for it.

This story was a very beautifully written and realistic portrayal of cycles of abuse, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and the fallout of SA. This is book that I would make sure that one reads the content warnings before reading as it does deal with very heavy topics. These topics are handled well and with a lot of care, and you can tell that the author poured their heart and soul into the telling of this story.

Definitely check your content warnings for EVER SINCE by Alena Bruzas. It's hard to describe this book without giving too much away, know that Virginia is troubled by past traumatic experiences and acts the way she does in response. Though difficult to read at times, this is an important book that deals with the heavy topic of SA in a very thoughtful and candid way.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishing house for sending me this e-arc to read and review. This was a great book, I read it here a few months ago and loved it. The cover art is beautiful and the writing style is beautiful. I cant wait to see what else this author comes out with in the future.

I was interested and hesitantly hopeful for this novel, based on it's themes covered and description. I couldn't get into this one though. The characters weren't believable for me, and I personally don't enjoy stream-of-consciousness writing. If you do, then I'd suggest giving it a try though!

This book was a rare gem! I haven't read such a good YA contemporary book in a long time.

The ideas wer complex and beautifully executed, written so everyone can empathise and connect in some way to the story. It deals with the heavy topics it contains, such as sexual assault, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, suicidal ideation, in a shaking, impactful and rawfully painful way (in a good way, of course).
I have huge love for books that can make me feel helpless and this book did so incredibly - I could see all the unhealthy coping methods of Virgina, could feel all her trauma and I just wanted her to be happy. To be well.

I can't say much more without spoiling the book, but this book was a painful masterpiece, giving us the hard honest story of a girl on a scary path. I loved it!

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was really close to DNFing this book at the beginning but decided to press on. I found that none of the characters were overly likeable or developed enough for this story. I struggled with knowing who was who at a given moment. This book is also extremely heavy & I was glad that the author included trigger warnings at the beginning. I really wanted to like this more than I did because of the content discussed but I just couldn't really get into it.