Saving Amy

Product Information

Amy Hope has never known love but a life full of hate, pain and abuse. At the age of 17 the only way she knows how to cope is alcohol and random sex, until one day she is lured into trying drugs. This is where her downward spiral begins, leading her to laying half-dead on the concrete and ending up in hospital. This is where she meets Dr. Richard Lewis and it is not the first time he is saving her life.

Since Amy didn't know Richard was a Dr. or even know his name before, she is surprised to find him tending to her. I swooned my freaking pants off, I got teary eyed, and I just felt so bad for Amy and her life and I was rooting for her and Richard from the very beginning. I really enjoyed this book, putting it in a simple way it was about a girl who lost all hope in living a 'normal' life, turning to self harming, drugs and alcohol, nobody should feel as worthless as Amy did :-( This is her story of learning to trust, love, and finally believe that maybe she could be happy! We are all Amy. Each one of us is in need of acceptance and the promise of hope. Saving Amy was created to fill the gap for those who need second, third and fourth chances in life. Individuals with “strikes against them”; felonies, addictions, poverty…Wonderful and moving story with a tortured heroin. I love this one and I'm going to read the other one. You are strong and courageous young woman. You're a survivor I am both privileged and proud to have met you" Amy was an incredibly strong girl. Having gone through the abuse and neglect that she experienced, she still wasn’t giving up. She had her weak moments, but that is understandable. What counts is that she did want a better life for herself. At times she was acting immature or irrational, but with her history it made sense. She wasn’t used to being loved, she wasn’t used to be able to trust and she wasn’t used to people being anything other than mean, brutal, abusive and hateful. The fact that she dared to love and dared to trust made her strength shine even brighter. I also loved her snarky attitude. Her thoughts and comments were at times laugh out loud funny, which was really needed with the dark and twisted nature of the story. This was my first Nicola Haken read and even though it was one of the heaviest books I have ever read I look forward to more from this author no matter the subject.

Whilst reading Saving Amy, I really found myself yearning to reach out for Amy and comfort her when she didn't have anyone. She kept her abuse a secret from everyone she knew, for fear that her powerful father would influence his way out of trouble and hurt her even further. The author did a brilliant job of giving the readers an insight into what it's like to be driven to the extremes Amy went to because of her situation - there are definitely moments where you feel your heart break for Amy. Saving Amy tells the story of a girl who didn't know what happiness felt like until she met her other half.This might sound like any other common book but it really isn't.Her struggle,her pain and everything she went through felt so real.It was obvious that she never had someone to love her,nobody cared for her and you can't imagine the relief and happiness I felt for her when she found someone who really cared and gave her things she never had before.Emotionally speaking. This book, oh my god this book, is real, raw and gritty, and if you can believe it after that it's also beautiful. It's not light, fluffy or easy to read and it may not be a book that everyone can stomach because it shows the effects of long term abuse and the ways in which a person chooses to cope. I can't even begin to describe the emotions associated with this book, I never would have thought that a book about abuse, drugs, and self harm would make it on my favorites list but it has. Mrs. Haken took me through a year in the life of such a beautiful yet shattered girl and I felt like I was right there with her. Living each moment, suffering each blow, feeling each cut, shedding each tear, and wanting nothing more than to be saved from the nothing that surrounded her.Everything you consider to be wrong with you are just the results of you trying to be strong for too long - trying to cope alone for too long." Saving Amy is beautifully written. I found myself lost in the story. At times I had to put it aside briefly as the intensity of the subject matter was a little overwhelming. The beatings Amy suffered at the hands of her father were quite graphically described at times and as a parent it was difficult to read, particularly knowing that her mother was effectively allowing it to occur. Richard sees something in Amy and becomes determined to help her, to help her escape the brutality in her home and to help her realize that there are other coping mechanisms other than drugs and harming herself. But is Richard doing this because he truly cares for Amy and wants to see her get better and succeed or because he is trying to fix the mistakes and regrets of his past. And are all the people the Richard is bringing into Amy's life through him beneficial for her or are they harming her deeper and in worse ways than her father ever could? The letters finally broke me and I was sitting there with a HUGE lump in my throat with tears falling down my face, being a parent myself I struggled to understand why any parent could allow their child to go through what Amy went through.

I felt her pain and I cried for everything she went through.It seemed like fate didn't want her to be happy.She wants to escape,get away from the parents that don't care for her,the mother that drinks all the time and the father that beats her.She wants to get away from a life without HOPE which is ironically her surname.And then she meets Richard.It's amazing how a person can change by receiving someone else's love.By knowing that even one person cares.

I'm still on the fence because I really want to give this a shining 5-star rating but I also know that I have reasons for wanting to settle down for a 4-star rating instead. But let me just say this---this was one helluva read about a young woman's journey from self-destruction to healing and redemption. The author does a really good job in portraying the way a cutter thinks and feels, I am glad she did her research). The rest of this story needs to be spoiler free so you can really invest in the story. There are twists and turns that will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat. I love how the author didn’t give us a simple and easy cure for Amy. While love does heal a great deal, it isn’t the cure all. Richard’s motives for his devotion to Amy were sketchy to me for a while. I couldn’t tell sometimes if he really loved her or if she was his way of correcting past mistakes that haunt him. Amy was one brave young woman. For being raised in an environment that doesn’t promote love and trust, she saw something in Richard and trusted herself to go with him. I found myself sobbing with Amy when the truth about her family came out. I had to literally put myself in isolation here so I could get through the last part of this book.

This book has many dark parts to it. Between the abuse, the self-mutilation, Amy’s drug use and depression, etc, it’s a difficult book to read. My heart broke for Amy, and also for Richard and the demons he is struggling with. Nicola did a wonderful job writing the characters of Amy and Richard, as well as writing about the situations Amy finds herself in throughout the book. Amy was an amazing character, and so strong despite everything she was put through. Saving Amy was a very intense, emotional roller-coaster read, and I couldn’t put it down. Everything you consider to be wrong with you are just the results of you trying to be strong for too long - trying to cope alone for too long. Don't you think it's amazing that after everything you've been through - the violence, the fear, the isolation... you can still do this? He motioned his hands over our entangled bodies. That you can still feel? Still trust? Because I sure as hell think it's a miracle. I think you're a miracle" One night Amy decides to try coke for the first time and it makes her feel elated, floating, escaping. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) she ends up passed out in the middle of the sidewalk in an unknown place. You know this is a book when she wakes up and happens to be sleeping in a bed, in a very swanky apartment, that is twice the size of her home. Richard is a really nice guy, and he really cares about Amy and her happiness. Amy, however, is very self-destructive and doesn’t feel she is worthy of Richard’s love or his acceptance of her and her past. Richard is trying to help Amy realize her dreams and get better, but Amy doesn’t trust the happiness she’s feeling and sub-consciously starts trying to sabotage the relationship. I have never read a book that included such intense descriptions of self-harm before and I felt so unbelievably emotional while reading it. It was written in a way that made me understand and like I said I was right there with Amy. I felt every bit of her pain. There were happy moments too, even a few funny ones. And then there were the truly moving moments when Richard and Amy's love for each other shone through perfectly.

Fellow readers, if you’re looking for an abused, broken heroine that ended up with a family full of love and a beautiful and wonderful husband, I think this may just be what you’re looking for. ;) I had a few moments of silent tears and flutters in the stomach. I assure you, this is one of the good stories out there. Hello everyone. The countdown to Christmas is in full swing and so this week I thought I’d share some things with you that I’m not overspending on. Your TV and social media feeds may be filled with Christmas food, toys, games, clothes and all things festive but I’m here to remind you that you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy the festivities, writes Amy Grayland. I would recommend Saving Amy to anyone who is willing to venture out of their comfort zone, to anyone with an open mind and an open heart. And if I can get only one thing across is that this book is about so much more than a girl cutting, it was about a young woman's journey in finding herself in a world that she was never made to belong in. It's about learning to love not only yourself but others and letting them love you, and most importantly it was about healing. The path to healing for both Richard and Amy is not an easy one and they face many challenges along the way, this book is filled with twist after twist and will have you on the edge of your seat for most of the ride, but making it to the other side was a heart shattering, imperfectly perfect journey I enjoyed taking with Richard and Amy. Amy was connected with a Saving Amy Journey Partner when she left the shelter; someone to walk alongside and connect to resources, provide encouragement and support. Amy became employed and started to feel more confident. The thing is though when you're on a downward spiral, when all you want is to get away to just not feel, eventually you need more, more of anything to dull the pain, the drinking isn't enough, the cutting isn't enough everything is temporary and you want more, more of what you don't have, you want to escape not just from life but you want a completely different one, a happy one and Amy found that escape- that temporary happiness in drugs.