Book Rewind ⋅ Review: The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

We are resurrecting our Book Rewind feature! Book Rewind is a meme where we review a backlist title to distinguish reviewed books that are in no way a new release. We noticed we tend to review almost all new or newly released books and wanted to have a feature to spotlight some older books that we either just read or are just reviewing because we never got around to it, or possibly didn’t blog back then!  We are thinking we will post this meme on Thursdays as a ‘Throwback Thursday’ kind of deal.

We totally encourage others to participate in the Book Rewind Review meme! Backlist titles need love too! Feel free to use our banner and be sure to link back to our page and tag us on social media so we can help promote your posts too!

Today we are reviewing The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett, which was released in November of 2015!

 

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

Category: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication: November 3rd, 2015; Feiwel & Friends
Purchase: Amazon

Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.

Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?

 

Review:

[book rating=5/5]

The first time I saw this book was over at Netgalley. I fell in love with the cover and just wanted to read it, but I got declined. When I finally read The Anatomical Shape of a Heart, I just wanted to smack myself. WHY, OH WHY DIDN’T I READ IT SOONER?

The answer is, because I was in a kind of slump. I finished Queen of Shadows and started Lailah, which couldn’t hold my attention and I was afraid that this book would throw me in deeper and it would tarnish my opinion. I was so wrong. Along with The Summer of Chasing Mermaids, this one is on top of my Best YA contemporary of 2015. I fell so deeply in love with the characters, the story, the message, just everything.

Bex, our heroine is an art student, with dreams of drawing cadavers, and with this, helping the medical world. While pursuing this dream, she meets mysterious Jack, who sweeps her off of her feet with his charms and attractive looks. The two of them slowly build a relationship, all the while keeping each other’s secrets and trying to help those, who cannot help themselves. But some secrets are just too big to keep and when they come out, it may destroy their relationship.

It’s hard to talk about a book you just loved so much, that you are at a loss of words. It’s also hard, because I don’t want to spoil anything. Bex and Jack are both artists in their own. Not in the conventional way. Bex does drawings of human body parts, while Jack is a graffiti artist with a purpose. Both of them are determined for their cause and that may be the case of why are they so drawn to each other.

While the story does not entirely revolve around Bex and Jack, they and their lives and families are the main focus of the story. Bex has her own problems with her overworking mother, absent father and wayward brother, while Jack has his secrets about his family, that if shed light on it, might destroy his father’s political career. But when they are together, those outside forces disappear. They get lost in their own little bubble of snark and swoon and artist dreams. You cannot help but be drawn to them, be with them in the moment and just want to get into their lives.

Probably my most favorite thing in The Anatomical Shape of a Heart is the romance. You can’t not fall in love with they way Bex and Jack are with each other. Yes, there were maybe a moment or two of cliche, but they get lost entirely between all the swoony moments. If you want to read a book where consensual sex is present in a sexy way, without anything overdone, crack this book open because this will be the one you’re looking for. I love that it isn’t a taboo between them, as I find it nowadays in many YA books. It’s time to realize that some teenagers are doing it and doing it in a safe way. Or if they don’t, books like these may help with it.

This story will just pull you in and even after finishing the last page, you just want to read more, because it’s not enough. Jenn Bennett is an author who is new to me, and after some browsing, I found that this is her first YA book. I really hope she writes more, because her storytelling is captivating and her characters are awesomely well-written. The angst and drama aren’t the main point of this book and that’s always a plus for me. I am not good with angst.

I am on the verge of gushing again, so I’m going to wrap this up quickly, before I spill the secrets. The Anatomical Shape of a Heart is a book you can’t put down. With its witty, funny and charming characters, an important message and an exciting story line, The Anatomical Shape of a Heart will be your favorite book of the year too. I am begging you to read it. Seriously. You won’t regret it.

*This review was originally posted on my now defunct blog on October 27th, 2015.