Two hearts. Twice as vulnerable.Manhattan, 1850. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy socialite and a nameless immigrant, Cora Lee can mingle with the rich just as easily as she can slip unnoticed into the slums and graveyards of the city. As the only female resurrectionist in New York, she’s carved out a niche procuring bodies afflicted with the strangest of anomalies. Anatomists will pay exorbitant … will pay exorbitant sums for such specimens—dissecting and displaying them for the eager public.
Cora’s specialty is not only profitable, it’s a means to keep a finger on the pulse of those searching for her. She’s the girl born with two hearts—a legend among grave robbers and anatomists—sought after as an endangered prize.
Now, as a series of murders unfolds closer and closer to Cora, she can no longer trust those she holds dear, including the young medical student she’s fallen for. Because someone has no intention of waiting for Cora to die a natural death.
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5/5 stars. I won this book in Goodreads giveaway. For my honest thoughts and my review. This book is amazing. I can tell you one thing had me thinking. There are so many twists to this story. This book is taken place in the 1850’s Young Cora is living a double life and has been since the day she was born. Keeping the secret of having two hearts. And not having many friends to trust. In fear that someone will tell her secret. But Cora learns of sometimes the people close to you can hurt you too. Cora befriends a man named Theo Flint who has taken to Cora. Cora digs up body for different doctors to examine them. But someone is killing these people before their time Cora learns. This book is amazing and dark and twisted and I loved it perfect for reading. Being Halloween is around the corner. Highly recommend this book!!!!
I read this book with delightful little chills. The world came alive for me with every page. I loved the fun of a woman who also passes as a man, and the way Kang has woven a mystical tone together with the earthy, creepy reality of resurrectionists and street people. Beautiful writing, suspense and mystery, twists and turns all the way to the end. Highly recommended.
Cora is living a very different life as a Resurrectionist a.k.a grave robber for anatomists and medical schools prior to the “The Anatomy Act” in 1800s. It’s a dirty job in more ways than one. Cora has 2 hearts and unscrupulous people would kill to get their hands/scalpel on her. There are rich character lives of many different backgrounds. The twists within the mystery are excellent.
Lydia Kang has risen to the top of my favorites list for her expert handling of difficult topics within historical fiction mysteries. I read 3 of her books in one week!
This was quite good. I became aware of this book from a few positive reviews and once I read the book’s summary, I knew that I would have to give it a try as well. This was one of those books that I liked more and more as I read. It really didn’t take too long before I reached a point where I didn’t want to put the book down. I really had a great time reading this book.
Imagine living each day with the knowledge that you are worth more as a corpse than you are alive. That is exactly the situation that Cora deals with every day. Cora was born with two hearts which makes her very valuable. A fact that she has worked extremely hard to hide. She leads a double life posing as her twin brother, Jacob, when fitting. Cora/Jacob helps support her family by acquiring bodies for research and dissection along with her team.
Individuals with unusual physical features start dying at an alarming rate and bodies are disappearing before Cora’s group gets the chance to try to get their hands on them. Something is obviously going on and I had a great time trying to figure it all out. Just when I thought that I knew how things might go, something would happen and I would realize that I was completely wrong. I loved that this book kept me guessing. There were several mysteries happening at the same time and I found them all equally interesting and quite complex.
I thought that the characters were very well done in this book. Cora was smart, tough and resourceful and I found her to be really easy to like. I liked the fact that she was able to really put on a different persona when she was acting as Jacob. Theodore Flint really shook things up a bit in this story and I loved what his character brought to the story. I was never quite sure who should be trusted or which characters would prove to have their own agenda.
This was my first experience listening to Saskia Maarleveld’s narration and I think she did a fabulous job with this story. She really brought the story to life and did a great job with all of the character voices. I think that she was able to express a lot of emotion into her reading which made it possible to really feel what the character is going through at the time. I found that she had a very pleasant reading voice that I found easy to listen to for hours at a time.
I would highly recommend this book to others. This book had a girl with two hearts, a double life, some grave robbing, a rather complex mystery, a fantastic 1850’s New York setting, and even just a bit of romance. I found this to be a highly enjoyable read and cannot wait to read more from this talented author.
This book had a lot of things going for it. A strong female lead, a bit of romance, unpredictability, a fascinating historical backdrop in 1850s New York City, and the gruesome yet fascinating history of grave-robbing. The author’s writing style is enviable, though at times I felt the writing style itself was a tad stronger than the plot. The middle kind of dragged a bit and needed, in my opinion, a bit of variety to keep my interest. But I did not see the ending coming. The lead up–in which the main character fakes her own death–was difficult to read in a good way, and the reveal of the hidden villain was a shocker and deliciously creepy.
Wild story!
December 31, 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Girl with 2 hearts, body snatchers, Dr.’s and students dissecting the bodies. Crazy times but this stuff really went on! Freaky good read!