Anatomy: A Love Story
DANA SCHWARTZ
(Book 1 of the Anatomy Duology)
Synopsis:
Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.
Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.
When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.
Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.
But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.
Content:
Language: A few uses of minor swear words.
Violence: Corpses are featured very prominently in the book, though usually not in a gruesome way (there are, however, the occasional semi-gory descriptions), mentions of blood, pus, other bodily fluids, etc. There are body dissections and discussion of anatomy, diseases, and similar instances. Illegal and violent operations also take place, and there are kidnappings and amputations.
Sex: Marriage is a semi-major topic in the book, but it is rarely thought about in a sexual way. There are also several kisses, though nothing beyond that. However, there is one scene that could possibly be alluding to sex, though it seems highly unlikely.
LGBTQ: Not present
My Review: I had a really hard time rating this one. I almost wanted to give it four stars, but in the end there were just too many things that bothered. I found some word choices and sentence structures to be jarring, sometimes even leaving the reader with questions in regards to continuity.
However, though the romance moved fairly fast, I loved Hazel and Jack. Hazel especially seemed well-developed. As a warning, there is a bit of a supernatural twist (I didn't know going in, so I was slightly confused near the end).
And the ending! I need the second one!