Anatomy of a Single Girl:

With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel toAnatomy 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.

In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.

First up, a big thanks goes to Daria Snadowsky for the copies for review. To read them as soon as they came in the mail was a no-brainer. I mean, what else screams summer like covers featuring demoralized dolls complete with witty, albeit slightly depressing, body part captions? And some in Latin, no less? Although the whole ‘single girl’ thing was a bit of a misnomer. Dominique Baylor was definitely copulating with someone in the series’ second book.

And when I say copulating, I mean copulating. Copulating excessively and without pause. Copulating for chapters on end. Copulating for two days straight. So. These books are many things, but G-rated is not one of them. 14-A wouldn’t even cover it. Be prepared to have the romance laid on hot and heavy.

But don’t get your panties in a knot; Dominique isn’t your average wanton ditz. She’s quite far from it, actually. Yes, our Dommie is a  true nerd, from the scientific trivial pursuit– think Mean Girls‘ Mathletes but without the lettermans– to the serious medical school aspirations. Can I be the first to say hallelujah? And to think that I thought my dreams of premed heroines would forever remain unrequited sources of unrelenting anguish! Quite frankly, the medical and scientific factoids were my favourite part of the novels. I’d take trivia over hot guy (Guy?) characters any day.

That’s not to say that Dominique didn’t  have her space case moments. Oh, she had plenty of them. I wanted to shake some sense into her in an extremely violent fashion rather periodically, actually, but then boy-crazy protagonists always bring out my murderous tendencies. Refreshingly, however, Anatomy and Anatomy don’t pretend to be anything but romance, desperate and lusty.

Second best part of the books? They’re companions! You don’t need to read the first to enjoy the second: fact that proved useful when, in a space case moment of my own, I grabbed Anatomy of a Single Girl to read after my summer school exam instead of its predecessor (don’t worry, guys, it was a reach-ahead). It was still better than anything I read in that class.

Besides which, the series’ realistic factor almost made up for Dom’s libidinous relationships. Novels are probably the only aspect of my life wherein I celebrate breakups. The more bitter the better, baby; lay on the heartbreak. I prefer that to riding off into the sunset, at least in romance novels’ case. So Dom expected every guy on the face of the earth to love her deeply and incontrovertibly, so what? At least they had the good sense not to commit themselves!

The series merits 2.9/5 stars. Really, it excels in its genre of literature; it’s just not my favourite genre. Oh well. Single Girl is definitely a prime example of a beach read, and who can’t use a bit of relaxation at this time of the year?

I’ll keep you posted,