I am giving this a final rating of 2.5 stars. The only thing I really enjoyed about it was the accurate historical medical information in it, which was only in between chapters. I didn't mind the characters but they weren't anything special. A female wanting to be a surgeon or anything with a title during victorian society is not a new idea and therefore you knew it would never work out for her. I think I would have liked this book more if they hadn't thrown in the fantastical bits which I won't spoil for future readers. I'm not saying the book is bad, it just wasn't for me. The ending though, that ending was bad. It is very apparent that the author had no intention of writing a second book, and was probably either roped in by her publishers or is milking the cash cow.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Dana Schwartz presents Anatomy, which is a love story in many ways. Readers follow Hazel at the turn of the 19th century. She is to be married to a future viscount, but her true love has always been science. Hazel wants nothing more than to be a physician, but she finds herself ahead of her time. After being denied the ability to attend anatomy classes due to her sex, she decides to find her own way to study for the physician's exams. For that, she'll need bodies. Many of them.

Hazel strikes a delicate balance of being headstrong and independent without falling too terribly far into "not like other girls". In fact, it is abundantly clear that Hazel hasn't given much thought to other girls or to anything beyond her dream. As surface level as that might seem, I actually found that I liked Schwartz's choice to make Hazel a bit short-sighted. Jack, of course, was a perfectly charming addition to the story and I found I liked him best. Schwartz did well with balancing the studious portions of the story with the more action packed and tense, even if things did resolve too quickly and neatly for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time spent reading Anatomy and would say that it is similar in tone and content to Stalking Jack the Ripper and to The Corpse Queen. Fans of those series seeking more of the similar vibes will find it here, though for some it may strike too similar.

I look forward to future works from the author and am glad to have had the opportunity to read this novel early.

I'm honestly kind of conflicted about how to rate and review Anatomy: A Love Story. On the whole, I did enjoy the time I spent with it, and read it quickly, as it held my attention easily. The resolution is legitimately bonkers, in mostly a good way? (But also in a way that feels a little unfair to the reader, maybe? I suspect the unexpected last minute supernatural element felt more jarring to me because of how the book has been marketed than anything else, but I really didn't expect it going in.) Character development could be better, especially for Jack, who doesn't really have much discernible personality beyond being hot for Hazel - but it all moves along fast enough that that isn't a total dealbreaker. It does mean, though, that the romance feels pasted on, with instant chemistry built on too little. I’m mostly irritated that I kept stubbing my brain on both significant and trivial historical anachronisms, no matter how hard I try to not be That Reader. (I'm trying SO HARD, I promise.) But the resolution feels a bit too out of the blue, perhaps, and it’s all a bit vibes over coherency. On the other hand, it does nail the vibes (if you’re looking for the novel equivalent of that trivia fact about Mary Shelley losing her virginity on her mother’s grave, by Jove, this might just be the book for you)…so it’s got that going for it.

This is one of those books that, while I had problems with it, I can totally see other readers being way more into it than I was. Still, I had high hopes for this one, and despite more or less liking things about it, it was also a pretty frustrating read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advance review copy.