Exploring by Starlight

I really enjoyed Anatomy of a Boyfriend, and was eager to get myself a copy of Anatomy of a Single Girl and find out what the rest of Dom's story is. And after the amount of sexual content that is in the first book, I was actually kind of curious to see which direction the sequel would take, and I liked reading every moment of not only this book, but the series as a whole.

Anatomy of a Single Girl takes place several months after the end of Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Dom is no longer with her boyfriend, Wes, from the first book. Now, Dom has some weird feelings for her friend Calvin, but isn't too eager to get back into the dating game just yet. Then when she goes home and takes on an internship at the hospital, she meets cutie Guy and starts having a no-strings 'relationship' with him over the summer, while her best friend Amy, on the other hand, is the one with the boyfriend this time. I loved the story of Anatomy of a Single Girl because we get to see Dom grow and learn from her experiences, and even find out new things about herself. One thing about the way the story moves that I found interesting is that the actual sex scenes are towards the end of the book, whereas in Anatomy of a Boyfriend, they appear about halfway through. I liked this because it kind of shows a change in Dom's character, which is that she wants to be sure of herself, rather than thinking that she's sure and pretty much just rushing into things like she did in her first relationship with Wes, who, by the way, isn't mentioned by name.

As I'd said in my review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend,I think that the best part of this series is the characters. These are the kind of characters that are so complex, that it doesn't matter whether you like them or not because they have been written so realistically. Real people make mistakes, and rush into things without thinking, and get into fights over trivial little things such as what the other person plans to do in the future, and so do the characters. I think I like Dom more in this book because she has matured since the first book and doesn't really do things that get on my nerves anymore. But at the same time, she was still the same old Dom who was paranoid about getting STDs to the point that she makes boys get tested before they have sex and has her love for human biology. As for Guy, I would want him for a summer boyfriend. Or even a regular boyfriend. Either way, I want this dude for myself. He was funny, charming, and sweet, and shares my views on children, which is always a plus in my book. Well, he does have a pretty cynical view on marriage, but I still want him for myself.

While Boyfriend had the theme of first relationships and first times, I got more of a 'casual sex' theme in Single Girl, which I kind of liked because even in other YA books that deal with sex, I manage to get a pretty careful message of 'wait until you're with someone you wouldn't regret having sex with', which is kind of true but can be overbearing because there's nothing wrong with having casual sex with different people at all. It's how people learn about what they like and whether it's going to work out with people, and I think that's more of what I got here, which I'm very glad about. Because sometimes depending on where in the world you are, teens can get bombarded with lessons about abstinence and horror stories about STDs, but not about the real side of enjoying sex because a lot of the time, it does get associated with love rather than just enjoying yourself.

Normally at the end of a series that I really like, I would say that I would want to see more and what happens to the characters next, but I think that Anatomy of a Single Girl finishes off the series in such a good way that I'm satisfied with the series coming to a close. I think that I may give the Anatomy series a reread some time in the future, just to relive it all over again.