I really enjoyed Anatomy of a Boyfriend, and was eager to get myself a copy of Anatomy of a Single Girl and find out what the rest of Dom's story is. And after the amount of sexual content that is in the first book, I was actually kind of curious to see which direction the sequel would take, and I liked reading every moment of not only this book, but the series as a whole.

Anatomy of a Single Girl takes place several months after the end of Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Dom is no longer with her boyfriend, Wes, from the first book. Now, Dom has some weird feelings for her friend Calvin, but isn't too eager to get back into the dating game just yet. Then when she goes home and takes on an internship at the hospital, she meets cutie Guy and starts having a no-strings 'relationship' with him over the summer, while her best friend Amy, on the other hand, is the one with the boyfriend this time. I loved the story of Anatomy of a Single Girl because we get to see Dom grow and learn from her experiences, and even find out new things about herself. One thing about the way the story moves that I found interesting is that the actual sex scenes are towards the end of the book, whereas in Anatomy of a Boyfriend, they appear about halfway through. I liked this because it kind of shows a change in Dom's character, which is that she wants to be sure of herself, rather than thinking that she's sure and pretty much just rushing into things like she did in her first relationship with Wes, who, by the way, isn't mentioned by name.

As I'd said in my review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend,I think that the best part of this series is the characters. These are the kind of characters that are so complex, that it doesn't matter whether you like them or not because they have been written so realistically. Real people make mistakes, and rush into things without thinking, and get into fights over trivial little things such as what the other person plans to do in the future, and so do the characters. I think I like Dom more in this book because she has matured since the first book and doesn't really do things that get on my nerves anymore. But at the same time, she was still the same old Dom who was paranoid about getting STDs to the point that she makes boys get tested before they have sex and has her love for human biology. As for Guy, I would want him for a summer boyfriend. Or even a regular boyfriend. Either way, I want this dude for myself. He was funny, charming, and sweet, and shares my views on children, which is always a plus in my book. Well, he does have a pretty cynical view on marriage, but I still want him for myself.

While Boyfriend had the theme of first relationships and first times, I got more of a 'casual sex' theme in Single Girl, which I kind of liked because even in other YA books that deal with sex, I manage to get a pretty careful message of 'wait until you're with someone you wouldn't regret having sex with', which is kind of true but can be overbearing because there's nothing wrong with having casual sex with different people at all. It's how people learn about what they like and whether it's going to work out with people, and I think that's more of what I got here, which I'm very glad about. Because sometimes depending on where in the world you are, teens can get bombarded with lessons about abstinence and horror stories about STDs, but not about the real side of enjoying sex because a lot of the time, it does get associated with love rather than just enjoying yourself.

Normally at the end of a series that I really like, I would say that I would want to see more and what happens to the characters next, but I think that Anatomy of a Single Girl finishes off the series in such a good way that I'm satisfied with the series coming to a close. I think that I may give the Anatomy series a reread some time in the future, just to relive it all over again.

This was a short, fast read. I didn't love it, but I thought it was funny and very honest. I would highly recommend this book to teenage girls, but it was a little young for me, even though the main character was in college. I felt like all the characters, especially the main character, were immature, but I did find it humorous. 

Before I had to stop blogging, I had seen the Anatomy series popping up quite frequently around the blogosphere, but it never really sparked my interest due to me not really being into contemporary as much as I am now. And then one day, I read a couple of reviews and ordered a copy where it sat on my shelf until a few weeks ago when I acquired a taste for contemporary novels. I've always found books that deal with more mature subjects to be more interesting and sometimes more realistic. Anatomy of a Boyfriend definitely fit into the category of realistic contemporary due to its subject matter and execution, and I really enjoyed reading it.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend tells us about Dominique, and her first serious relationship with track star Wes, which soon starts to turn sexual. I thought that the story progressed at quite a steady pace, which was more than okay with me because these kinds of books don't need to be action-packed to be exciting. I think the most interesting part of the story as a whole were the sex scenes, mainly because they weren't anything like any other sex scenes that I've read. Instead of being erotic and steamy, they were awkward and anatomically accurate, which I found to be quite realistic for a first-time relationship. Not everybody knows exactly what to do and it's both scary and exciting at the same time, and Anatomy captured that feeling perfectly. However, there were a couple of moments towards the end of the book that left me thinking "what just happened" and I needed to backtrack a couple of pages to see whether I'd missed anything. Apart from that, I thought the story was great but I do wish that I'd read this book a long time ago because knowing that the sequel exists, kind of spoiled the ending for me. Whoops. But it can't be helped though.

I think the element that made Anatomy of a Boyfriend as great as it was was the characters and how three-dimensional they were. I couldn't really relate to any of the characters, but that's not necessarily important because I know people who have been in these kinds of situations. Dominique was a pretty complex person, to the point that sometimes I liked her and other times I didn't. At the beginning of her relationship with Wes (the whole flirting as friends stage), she got on my nerves a bit and was almost like a female version of the much disliked 'nice guy'. She felt like she should be rewarded with sex just for being friendly to Wes. While most relationships start off as friendships, most people don't give out sex as a thank-you-for-being-my-friend present. A lot of the time she was unreasonable and selfish, which she totally wasn't before she ended up with Wes. However, there were times when I felt quite sympathetic for Dom, despite not being able to relate to any of her problems at all. She both frustrated me and made me feel for me, and that's what I think makes her such a great character because real people are like this. In fact, this realistic feeling really contributed to how believable Dom and Wes's relationship was. There are quite a few books that deal with first loves being the greatest, most romantic thing ever, when they're actually more like Dom and Wes's: pretty awkward.

While sex isn't a subject that I've had hands on experience with (get it? hands on? look at me making dirty jokes in a review!), I do feel like I have enough knowledge (and cynicism) to know that first-time sex isn't like in films, TV, other books, or even, I do dare say, porn. It's pretty awkward, especially if both parties are inexperienced like Dom and Wes are, and I'm really glad that this book showed first-time sexual relationships in this way because, like I've said quite a few times now, it's how it actually is. And I'm mainly glad that the book has such a blunt and accurate portrayal of teenage sex because there are so many teens who still don't technically know what sex will be like or even technicalities (like the fact that your first time isn't supposed to hurt unless there's something going on with your parts or you're just not ready), so books with themes such as these can be kind of important.

Overall, I really enjoyed Anatomy of a Boyfriend. I enjoyed both the story and the characters, and I really enjoyed the way in which the usually mature theme of sex was executed. I'll definitely be reading the sequel!

Writing- 3
Storyline/Plot- 3.5
Characters- 2.5

Overall- 3

 

Title- Anatomy of a Boyfriend

Pages- 259 
Rating- 3 out of 5
Companion/Sequel- First Book(could also be read as a stand-alone)

Goodreads Synopsis-
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.

Positives-
1) I loved that this book deals with all of the firsts. From the first kiss, to the first time, it goes through everything. 
2) I loved how Daria wasn't afraid to make sex a big part in this book, because lets be real here, MOST teens do have sex and what Dom was thinking is what a typical teenager thinks.
3) I really liked Doms best friend Amy(Ames). She was the not-afriad-to-say-what's-on-her-mind, I'm-going-to-put-it-all-out-there, type of person. Whenever she was in the book I just found myself laughing, and I loved it.
4) This new guy we met, Calvin, seems like a potentially awesome character. I want more of him!
5) I like how the book was set up, into parts. It really worked well for the formatting of this story.

Negatives-
1) The main character Dom(nickname), annoyed me to no end quite a bit and I just couldn't deal. In fact whenever I decided to put the book down and stop reading for the day it was because she did something that just irritated me and I was just "okay enough for today"
2) Dom kept worrying about Wes's dog, Jessica. It just seemed like she was jealous of the dog and it crept me out to the max. I mean really? The dog? 
3) She felt too dependent on Wes, and she has only been with him for a few months. That really got to me, and I couldn't stand it.

This book is more in the New Adult genre. It deals with pretty much everything a typical teenager deals with and it doesn't leave anything out. Overall this book was just an okay novel for me, but I am interested in checking out the next book, Anatomy of a Single Girl.

She sticks her tongue at the dog and says "He's mine now bitch." I'm just saying, really creepy.