Anatomy of a Single Girl, by Daria Snadowsky

Author: Daria Snadowsky
Publisher: Delacorte BYR
Release Date: January 8, 2013
Format: Hardcover; 240 pages
Series: N/A
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Avg. Rating: ★★★★✩

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With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend is about life after first love--romance, sex, friendship, family, and the ups and downs of life as a single girl. 

After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one. 

The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered. 

 But I couldn’t avoid my future forever. 

After reading Anatomy of a Boyfriend, I was thrilled to here that there would be a follow-up. This book is shorter than the first, but it covers less of a timeline than the first does. And it's just as enjoyable, if not more so.

One of the very first things that I noticed about the story was that the writing and Dom was much more mature. It was a small point that may not have been necessary but was definitely a welcomed change, considering that Dom is older and it makes sense that she would sound a little older. And I do like the change of romantic interests and romantical situations - it's not just something that was written to sound like a repeat of the first book. Guy was a surprise as I was thinking it was going to be about Dom's guy friend, but having Guy wasn't so much of a bad thing. And of course Dom's best friend Amy is included in this story and takes a more prominent role in the book.

There is a couple of things that kept me from absolutely loving this book, though they're not so bad. Even though a shorter story is sometimes a good thing, I found that I longed for more story in this case. I think if there was more story with maybe some more characters, or a side-plot or just SOMETHING extra, it would have made this story much more enjoyable.There were also a few situations that felt a little forced to me to keep the story moving along but, like I said, it's nothing that really took away from the whole story - it's just me being super picky.

Overall, this was a great follow-up to Snadowsky's first Anatomy book and I definitely enjoyed having the opportunity to read it.

Rating: ★★★★✩
Source: Netgalley

Daria Snadowsky is the author of the novels "Anatomy of a Boyfriend" and "Anatomy of a Single Girl." She also contributed the essay "To Sir Anthony, With Love," to the anthology "Crush: 26 Real-life Tales of First Love."  

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Anatomy of a Boyfriend, by Daria Snadowsky

Anatomy Of A Boyfriend
Daria Snadowsky

Publisher: Delacorte
Release Date: January 9, 2007
Series: N/A
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
Pages: Paperback, 416
Source: Personal Copy
Rating: 4/5 (Avg 3/5)

Before this all happened, the closest I'd ever come to getting physical with a guy was playing the board game Operation. Okay, so maybe that sounds pathetic, but it's not like there were any guys at my high school who I cared to share more than three words with, let alone my body.

Then I met Wes, a track star senior from across town. Maybe it was his soulful blue eyes, or maybe my hormones just started raging. Either way, I was hooked. And after a while, he was too. I couldn't believe how intense my feelings became, or the fact that I was seeing—and touching—parts of the body I'd only read about in my Gray's Anatomy textbook. You could say Wes and I experienced a lot of firsts together that spring. It was scary. It was fun. It was love.

And then came the fall.

I read a lot of reviews for this book - both good and bad, which is pretty much what intrigued me enough to pick it up and read it. For all intents and purposes, I can see exactly why the reviews are so split in half. I can see why people would really like it, where others wouldn't like it at all.

The funny thing about this is that a lot of older (read: not teen) readers comment about the graphic sex in this book and the fact that this is a YA book with the two main characters having sex. Really, all I can say about that is that (1) the title of the book should have warned you right away, and (2) it's about time we stop trying to act like teens don't have sex. They do. Sorry to break it to you if you didn't know, but it just kind of happens.

Having said that, I can say that I personally had two things that irked me most about this book. The first being the main character, Dom. I understand that she's a teen experiencing her first love, but I can't say that I relate to her that much. Her whole character just screams desperate and clingy. The only thing I applaud her for is admitting up to these faults, but it still didn't make them any easier for me to digest. I think her mood swings also completely caught me off guard. One minute she'd be really hot with Wes and the next, snap!, suddenly he's the worse person on the face of the earth. She was selfish. She expected Wes to choose her over everything and blamed some bad [even tragic] events in both of their lives for him not completely doting on her 24/7 and them not getting more sexy time together. I wanted to smack her for not at least acknowledging some type of empathy and remorse for that. She also changed major things about herself because she wanted to feel closer to him, then completely changed back when things went awry. Altogether, Dom was a headache for me.

The other thing was that the actual love between the two felt a little distorted. What was described in the book was more like fascination and lust instead of real, true love between Dominique and Wes. The friendship felt real. The love? Not so much.

Despite those two major things, I did enjoy this read. Even though I couldn't relate to Dom, this did seem like a pretty accurate portrayal of first love for teens. Everything is so dramatic, yet vastly exciting because everything is so new. I don't think that the sex scenes were too bad. It's nothing worse than what I've heard described on TV for teens these days, so it shouldn't be so shocking. The ending of the book was a little unexpected. Really, I expected Dom's best friend's brother to play a bigger role in this book. I think it was because he was so hyped up through Dom's description. But you only see one scene with him that kind of leaves you scratching your head, wondering if you'll ever find out what the heck it was all about. A hint: you don't.

This book is rated a shaky 4 from me, though it's more like a solid 3.5. The writing was good and fit this story well. There wasn't too much overkill on description, rather it was more about character interactions and feelings. Overall, this book is worth at least giving a shot.

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