Book Review: Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky

Anatomy of a Boyfriend (Anatomy #1) by Daria Snadowsky
Genre: New Adult (Contemporary Romance)
Date Published: January 9, 2007
Publisher: Delacorte Book

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.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend is the first book in the Anatomy Series by Daria Snadowsky. What impressed me most about this book is how realistic it seemed, for the most part. Now, I don't remember thinking and talking about sex quite as much in high school as these characters do. There was a lot of sex, and it started pretty quickly in the relationship. While I had friends like this in high school, this seemed a little more extreme than average. I felt like Dom's emotions were pretty realistic though. She was an emotional mess. What teenager isn't? From the start, I felt like Dom cared more for Wes than he cared about her. While I think he thought he was in love, I think he liked what he was getting physically more and in his head the feelings became one in the same. This was a book of firsts, and no matter how old you are when you get past these firsts, they can still be pretty exciting and pretty traumatizing. I felt like the author really captured this within her story, and she did so tactfully.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend by Daria Snadowsky was kindly provided to me by the author for review. The opinions are my own.

“Please don’t hate you??!! I hate that I love you. Loving you made me waste a year of my life. Loving you made me be passionate about nothing but you. Loving you made me take risks I never would have otherwise. Loving you made me give it up to you. Loving you made me neglect my parents and Amy. Loving you made me not care that my grandma just died. Loving you made me turn out bitter and hopeless like her. Loving you made me hate myself for being dumped by you. Loving you made me deluded, irrational, inconsiderate, and a liar. And because I love you, you’re always going to haunt me.

I’ll never be able to have another birthday without wondering how you’re celebrating yours. I’ll never be able to think another guy is more handsome, talented, intelligent, or worth loving than you, despite all your faults (and there are many). I’ll never be able to check my e-mail without praying I’ll find a message from you with the subject line I love you, Dom—please come back to me. Meanwhile, every corner of this city is laced with memories of us together, and I’ll never be able to leave the house without hoping and dreading that I’ll run into you. You stole Fort Myers from me, and I lived here first, you fucking thief. You actually may be one of my last thoughts when I die.” 

Check out my review of book two, Anatomy of a Single Girl.

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."

To learn more about Daria Snadowsky and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.