Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The Anatomy of Desire is an addictive, twisty courtroom drama sure to hook readers from start to finish. The characters are well-developed. The tension was taut throughout. The story is unpredictable. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys fast-paced legal thrillers. Be sure to check out The Anatomy of Desire today. Highly recommended!

Honestly this was an excellent book! It was not what I was expecting at first and took me a while to get into the storyline. Overall though it was written well and a great read.

There has been a surge in the last year of books about influencers but this one really wins it for me.

A woman so used to glamorous parties, exclusive events and wealthy friends ends in the witness stand, defending herself to avoid a life sentence.

Scintillating, and a complete must read.

Cleo Ray a fitness and wellness influencer flees the scene of a death and what follows is a social media firestorm and a prosecution case set amidst a small town and all it's prejudices.

I really enjoyed the different voices in the book as this gave a rounded account of what was going on and covered all sides of the court case. At times I felt that there too many voices and that they jumped too quickly as I rushed to keep up but I do feel like this was like the trial that was happening on social media where everyone has an opinion and things and opinions change at rapid pace. Although I didn't immediately warm to the Cleo, as the story unfolded and more was leant about Cleo Ray's past I found myself warming to her and understanding her better. A really enjoyable read that still has me in two minds about what actually happened at the lake.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Orion Publishing group for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Cleo Ray is a successful fitness instructor and social media influencer. However, she was once Claire Griffith, the quiet daughter of a highly religious family. She shed her past life and escaped to LA where no one knew her old name or her story. Her followers feel they know the real her but this is not the only secret she has been keeping from them.

When Cleo rents a boat with another female, Beck Alden, only one of them returns to shore alive. Was she murdered? Or was her death accidental? Were the women friends? Lovers? Fiancées? As the case begins, these questions are frequently asked online. But the ones asked most of all concern who Cleo Ray really is and just what she could be capable of.

I find any story following influencers so compelling to read about. I love exploring their lifestyle and the hard exterior they have been forced to build to survive it. I love, just as much, chipping away at it to expose all the dirty secrets stored away behind it.

This book did just that and so much more! The story unfolded through a series of transcripts from the court case, interviews with individuals involved, and newspaper clippings. The chronology was never straight-forward but it never became confusing and it only had me more and more eager to get to the truth.

This truth was revealed about half-way through the novel, with the following portion following, almost entirely, the court case and the final verdict given by the jury. These legal proceedings would not usually be of great interest to me but Dorn ensured my investment in this case and had me flying through the pages until the words 'guilty' or 'not guilty' were revealed.

The Anatomy of Desire is told in a series of podcast transcripts following a true life crime investigation unfolding in a quiet part of America. The case has taken the country by storm as it involves social media influencers, religion and same sex relationships, as well as secrets and lies by the bucketload.
Cleo Ray is a fitness influencer who is going places; her relationship with her secret girlfriend Beck is going swimmingly too, and Beck for one thinks they are engaged. But Cleo is also seeing someone else, Sonny, a male influencer, and she falls for him too. The book starts with the incident where Beck tragically loses her life, and Cleo flees from the scene.
The story unfolds as if it was being told in podcasts, with different characters and viewpoints emerging.
Its a clever way to tell a story, and i enjoyed reading it.

This is one of those books that really grabs you and doesn’t let go until you finish. Completely captivating and gripping! Quite intense, with some great twisty turns, chilling chills, thrilling thrills, and gasp worthy shocks! One of those books that will keep you glued to the pages, because it’s so well written, with phenomenal character development! Cannot recommend enough, don’t delay, grab today, as I promise it’s not one to miss!

Will buzz around platforms and use top Amazon reviewer number on release!

I think along with Malibu Rising, The Anatomy of Desire is my book of 2021. Brilliant, bold, insanely clever and just perfect. The narrative is set as a true crime documentary, and as an avid watcher of these it just increased my already huge enjoyment. Shocking, sad and a fascinating albeit fictional peek into the world of influencers!

Wow, this book has it all, a masterful, gripping and fascinating and compelling uniquely intriguing story. This is a classic for the modern influencer age. I love love love love this brilliant book. It takes you on a journey from making you doubt everyone to the end where you just feel way too many emotions. It’s how your decisions be it wrong or right can affect what happens to you later on, and it doesn’t matter whether you didn’t intend anything to happen it’s how it looks and how it determines your innocence or guilt. This is one to watch and I know it will be huge. Fantastic

Anatomy of desire takes a known tale and gives it a little bit of a spin. The true story of the murder of Grace Brown first became the novel of the murder of Roberta Alden in An American Tragedy then becomes the murder of Alice Tripp in the movie A Place in the Sun and now has become the murder of Beck Alden in The Anatomy of Desire. All of these stories were handled differently making the reading or viewing of each one a slightly different experience. This story is updated. Added is a woman accused and prejudice of nonconforming sexuality.

It took some time to get used to the format While I often watch documentaries and read things with documentary style writing interspersed, there are only a few books I have enjoyed that use the format for the entire book. It takes a little longer to get immersed in this style. Once the trial started, I was all in. Knowing how the true story ended and the way the event was depicted in other takes on this same story didn’t offer spoilers. Other authors showed you the death of the characters and you know what happened and why the main character ends up a defendant in the murder. Here, you are going along with the trial. The death has occurred and it is up to the reader to decide what they believe or do not believe.

I was a little thrown by the ending. Not in a good or bad way. I just was not quite expecting it. I am so glad I finally got this ARC to download!

When I read that The Anatomy Of Desire was “told in the form of a true-crime documentary”, I was instantly interested. Told through a series of transcripts of recorded interviews, the story is told in an engaging and in-depth way, giving this thriller a modern and unique twist.

The plot itself is quite basic, but the crime at hand really suits this documentary approach as you gradually begin to piece together the full picture. Because this isn’t a case of did she/didn’t she? Instead, it’s about deciding whether you believe that Cleo had malice aforethought and if you would convict her as guilty or not guilty. This does mean that there aren’t many shocks or twists, but it does get your mind ticking.

Just like any other true-crime documentary, you get to see the story from various sides and in a fragmented way, as everything is examined from every angle and every person gets their say. But the documentary style is both a hindrance and a blessing. I absolutely loved the courtroom scenes and was gripped during this middle section, as Cleo is examined from both sides and the truth is finally laid bare. However, I found the before and after very padded out with detail and that the book felt much longer than its 320 pages when all I wanted was to get to the core of the story.

However, had I listened to this as an audiobook, I have no doubt that I would have been gripped throughout. The voices of each character feel very distinct, and Dorne has obviously gone to a lot of effort to make sure that no stone is unturned.

A reimagining of Theodore Dreiser’s classic novel of crime and punishment, An American Tragedy, I really liked the inclusion of the social media aspects which gave the story a modern twist. This fresh approach feels very fitting and Dorne examines it in a very insightful way. I especially liked the discussions around influencers’ celebrity status and how they can easily lose everything because of a possible misjudgement, which I found quite eye-opening.

Although I found the narrative a little heavy at times, I would still highly recommend this book and was impressed by its unique ideas. If you’ve got a few days to sit and give it your full attention just like you would a TV series, then you’re sure to enjoy playing judge and jury on this crime.

The Anatomy of Desire is a modern retelling of Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 novel, An American Tragedy. Here, successful You Tube influencer Cleo Ray and a young woman named Beck Alden take a canoeing trip on a quiet, remote lake. Beck is subsequently found dead in the water, foul-play is evident and Cleo’s involvement clear...

I haven’t read the novel upon which The Anatomy of Desire is based, so cannot comment on how successfully the modernisation of the plot and characters has been achieved. Taken as an entity in its own right, I really enjoyed the book; the story kept me captivated throughout and I whipped through all 300+ pages in just a couple of sittings.

LR Dorn’s writing style here is unusual and, I suspect, will not suit all readers. The tale is told via a series of interview transcripts in the style of a true crime docu-series, i.e. via 100% dialogue. This did take me a little while to become accustomed to, but didn’t detract from my enjoyment.

This is a book best enjoyed in audio book form, but a recommended read in any format.

Thank you to NetGalley and Trapeze, Orion Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cleo Ray has the life she’s always wanted—a famous boyfriend, thousands of loyal followers and a glamorous circle of friends— but when she goes viral for all the wrong reasons, her dream life may be about to come crashing down.

Although it took a while to get to grips with the structure of the book, I was quickly hooked by the story, enthralled in the mystery and suspense by each and every line of dialogue.

As a huge fan of true crime podcasts and documentaries, I could easily picture the story being told in this way and it made the story more gripping as I wanted to find out whodunnit.

The story was well written and the characters were easy to distinguish from one another, their personalities shining through on the page.

The Anatomy of Desire is a must-read for those wanting an edge-of-your-seat thriller this summer.

I honestly really love the rise of social media in thrillers. I devour books with podcasts as a central medium, with influencers being suspected of murder.

The Anatomy of Desire tries to do this, but ultimately fall flat. The story is nothing new or fresh, it has been done before.

A Chaos Of Nightmarish Proportions…
A seemingly perfect life descends into a chaos of nightmarish proportions in this well compiled and original suspense. Relaying the narrative true crime documentary/ podcast style works well, maintaining a sense of mounting tension from first to last page. An addictive, binge worthy read.

So. I read this book in literally one sitting. A handful of hours. I might have gone cross-eyed and mentally living in Independence, California, but that feeling will pass. If you can say anything about this book, it's that it is entirely captivating. Told through the medium of a true crime podcast, it attempts to unravel the story of a gay relationship that ends in tragedy when one woman appears to have killed the other.

The format of the book is what saves it from being a bland, boring thriller. Because the plot is nothing new. If you've read a bunch of thrillers, you're not going to find a shocking twist or a new idea or concept in the plot of this book. But the podcast angle keeps it punchy and moving, it doesn't have time to get stuck in the details because it's moving so quickly. It's no surprise that the two writers have backgrounds in television, because this feels like something that's been adapted from a TV show or a movie into a book. It was almost inevitably go the other way.

But. When you take away the originality of HOW the story is told, the rest isn't great. As I said before, the plot is very familiar - there's nothing original to it. It's based off of another novel and reworked into a contemporary time frame. It's a real struggle to write convincing dialogue that also has to function as storytelling, and while there were good patches - the courtroom scenes are particularly good - overall, it's not brilliant. It's tropey and leans very heavily into familiar archetypes - the California influencer, the slow talking sheriff, the sharp female defence lawyer. The ending feels unsatisfying, as though no one was quite sure how to create an ending with a bang after the whole spiel of the court case.

Also, as some reviewers have pointed out, how the LGBTQIA+ characters were handled and discussions of bisexuality were...iffy at best, problematic at worst. Most of the characters don't get much development - which you would hope for, even in a book formatted like this. It felt like the energy plateaued for a while.

By far, the best way to consume this book is via audio. It features a full cast led by Santino Fontana and the excellent production really helps bring the book to life. It's just like listening to a true crime podcast.

What a fascinating and original thriller! The story of an Instagrammer accused of a heinous crime shows just how fickle this type of fame is and how quickly your alleged fans can turn on you.

I've been reading the same book for really rather quite some time and convinced myself I was just living a busy lifestyle right now, however, after resorting to a DNF I picked this little gem up and powered through it within hours - hooked within the first few lines!

I think if somebody had described Anatomy of Desire to me prior to reading it I would have said it wasn't for me but actually it just worked! The plot was addictive, the characters were enjoyable and I thoroughly enjoyed learning the story through multiple people's memories and points of view.

A very apt book for the modern day, social media obsessed world we live in.

I will certainly look forward to reading more books by L. R. Dorn!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review 📖

What an interesting concept. In the style of a podcast/documentary this brilliant novel unravels the story of Cloe and the social-influencing lifestyles of her group of friends. It’s a sad story which probably couldn’t have been told as little as 10 or 15 years ago at the time when social networking was in its infancy.

I found it interesting to hear the story from so many angles and directly from those involved, but without, for the most part, much in the way of unnecessary description of characters and places which is the norm in traditional story telling.

I didn’t feel that any of the characters came out off the narrative particularly sympathetically, but I was nonetheless engrossed in discovering the outcome.

A fascinating read and I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.