Blog Tour: Jennifer Brown Guest Post About Abusive Relationships

I'm excited to welcome the fantastic Jennifer Brown as part of her blog tour with the Teen Book Scene today! Read on to find out more about her advice for girls in abusive relationships and some other books she recommends.

What is some advice you have for girls who find themselves in an abusive relationship? Maybe share some resources they can find or other books/films that deal with a similar subject.

While writing Bitter End, I was fortunate enough to get the chance to ask all sorts of questions from a psychologist about abuse and how to get out of an abusive situation, and we decided to include all of those questions in the back of the book. So there is lots of advice and resources in the back of Bitter End for any girl who is in this type of situation.

But probably my best advice is this: Love shouldn’t hurt. I mean, yeah, sometimes people who love one another say or do things that are hurtful and they later regret those things and may try to make up for those things and it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re abused by that person or that your relationship is forever doomed. What I mean is…love doesn’t leave bruises. Inside or out. And, yes, it can all be very confusing, but if you’re in an abusive situation…you kind of already know. You may not want to face it, but part of you knows that what’s going on is wrong. And you already know you’ve got to get out. You’ve got to find someone who can help you. You’ve got to have a plan and get someone to help you execute that plan and you’ve got to get out. Leaving is scary and sad and you may feel embarrassed or like your heart is breaking or the situation is impossible, but I can assure you that getting out is the right thing to do. The thing you must do.

I do have some other books I’d like to recommend. One is Crazy Love by Leslie Morgan Steiner. It’s not a novel, but a true story of one woman’s journey out of an abusive relationship. The other two are But I Love Him by Amanda Grace and Stay by Deb Caletti.

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Thanks so much, Jennifer! For more info on her be sure to visit her website and also check out the rest of the stops on her tour! I'll be posting my review of her debut, Hate List, next week!