Everything I Know About Love was one of those books I couldn’t escape from for the longest time. It was constantly in the front window of every bookstore I passed, splattered all over BookTok, and recommended to me by so many girls in my life. At first I couldn’t help but think it was going to be a helplessly “basic” book, but I finally caved and decided it would be my beach read for an upcoming vacation. Although pretty early on I realized this would be much more than a harmless quick read. In fact, I would probably recommend this book to every girl attempting to navigate the confusing reality of being in your early 20’s. I could see so much of myself in Dolly, her stories, and friends, but especially in her style of writing. After a few chapters, I was almost angry that I hadn’t thought of writing a book like this first. Considering that everything she tells us is extremely personal to her life, it is so flawlessly written that most young women will undeniably relate to most of her emotions, experiences, and desires throughout these years of her life.

There’s so much to say about the different phases of her twenties that Dolly talks about throughout the book, particularly about her group of friends. Especially because going into it I was convinced a majority of this book would be about all the disastrous dates and triggering ex-boyfriends that led up to the moment when she finally meets “the one” to “settle down” with. Instead of describing this all too familiar journey that leads to a man being the end-goal for a woman, Dolly leads up to something that all women can agree is far more valuable and lasting: a real and supportive group of girl friends. Of course she includes all of her disastrous past experiences with men, as these are the types of stories that are too formative for any woman to leave out. But even including these terrible relationships with men as a part of her story, the point is that she doesn’t make them the central part of her story. Yes these experiences taught her important lessons about self-love, or how she should be treated, or what she’s looking for in a long-term relationship, but Dolly prioritizes the loyalty of her girl group above all citing her relationship with them as the main source that taught her the most about true love. Although every woman knows how hard it is to have a group like this survive through everyone’s different phases of life, Dolly constantly reminds us we must keep treasuring and holding on to them.

Everything I Know About Love is the type of book that I would only recommend to women, young or old, but only women. Men wouldn’t understand it and to put it simply, it’s just not made for them. For any woman deciding to pick up this book, you may or may not like it as much as I did, but if there is one thing for sure, you are bound to relate to at least one of Dolly’s thoughts or experiences. All the little details every girl loves or hates about growing up is so precisely captured in this book, providing each reader with universal lessons they may be too familiar with or just realizing for the first time.