Immortality: A Love Story
DANA SCHWARTZ
(Book 2 in The Anatomy Duology)
Synopsis:
Hazel Sinnett is alone and half convinced the events of the year before—the immortality, Beecham’s vial—were a figment of her imagination. She doesn’t even know if Jack is alive or dead. All she can really do now is treat patients and maintain Hawthornden Castle as it starts to decay around her.
When saving a life leads to her arrest, Hazel seems doomed to rot in prison until a message intervenes: Hazel has been specifically requested to be the personal physician of Princess Charlotte, the sickly granddaughter of King George III. Soon Hazel is dragged into the glamour and romance of a court where everyone has something to hide, especially the enigmatic, brilliant members of a social club known as the Companions to the Death.
As Hazel’s work entangles her more and more with the British court, she realizes that her own future as a surgeon isn't the only thing at stake for her. Malicious forces are at work in the monarchy, and Hazel may be the only one capable of setting things right.
Content:
Language: A few uses of minor language
Violence: Descriptions of various surgical procedures during the time period, with mentions of blood, pus, and other bodily fluids. The fantasy element requires the main character to reattach body parts that are falling off or else amputate them entirely. There are descriptions of corpses and rotten flesh. A character has lost an eye. Mentions of illegal and violent operations that took place in book 1. Poisoning, murder, gunshot wounds, beheadings, and conspiracy to murder are also mentioned and/or parts of the plot.
Sex: Allusions to sex, discussions of marriage, kisses, and a mostly fade-to-black sex scene (some feelings and thoughts are described but not explicitly).
LGBTQ: Two female side characters in a relationship. The FMC describes walking in on them in bed together with their dress pulled down to their waists as they kiss.
My Review:
PROS:
- The last hundred or so pages (SPOILER: Jack finally came back)
- For the most part, the ending. For some reason I wanted a bit more closure, but overall I'm happy with how everything turned out.
- Jack. Literally a whole star for him.
- I like Hazel too. She's an interesting character, although I do wish we'd gotten more of the Hazel from book 1 in here. She felt more like the standard YA heroine in book 2.
- The cover!
- The Companions to the Death were a cool concept. They definitely had the most interesting chapters.
CONS:
- The pacing was both slow and fast. It took over 100 pages for us to get to the events mentioned in the second paragraph in the synopsis, but the actual writing flowed pretty quickly. I've seen some people say this would've been better as a novella, and I agree. There just wasn't enough story to continue.
- SPOILER: the fact that we went the majority of the book without Jack, a main character and basically the only reason I was interested in a second one.
- The second love interest. He was a good character, but it bothered me that Schwartz decided Hazel needed another love interest after everything she and Jack went through.
- (I was also just generally bothered by how she handled the Jack and Hazel plot-line. I was happy with how it turned out, but everything before then was annoying and frustrating).
- The way Jack's story was explained was also extremely annoying. I feel like Anatomy was meant to be a standalone, but then the publishers saw its success and wanted another one. That lead to Schwartz coming up with some random round-about way for Jack and Hazel to get together, while also causing YA-typical drama.
- Anyone else find the princess to be really annoying?