Written by Daria Snadowsky, “Anatomy of a Single Girl” paints a relatable picture for teenage girls who believe that romance is the answer to personal problems. A sequel to “Anatomy of a Boyfriend”, this novel can stand alone and provides helpful insight for girls.

Eighteen-year-old Dominique Baylor is captivated by relationships, friendships, family and especially romance. Dominique’s first summer home after her freshman year at Tulane is an adventure. Set in Fort Myers, FL, Dominique juggles her relationships with her parents, best friend Amy, and Guy Davies, a junior at a nearby university, who is only looking for a summer romance.

Despite her reservations, Dominique invests all of her time, energy and hopes into the relationship. She sacrifices parental relationships and friendships for a relationship she doubts, and ends up splitting from.

While Dominique’s decision-making is sometimes flawed, she is a strong female protagonist who works hard as a student at Tulane and takes her volunteer work at her local hospital seriously.  She holds her parents in high regard and respects their opinion. Overall, Dominique is an applicable character for teenage girls who are also juggling school and relationships.

While this book has an accessible plot and protagonist, the writing is lackluster at best, making the book hard to get through.

“Admittedly, not having a boyfriend is a lot less dejecting when there’s a suitable prospect waiting in the wings,” Snadowsky writes.

The purpose of the novel is unclear because true moments of change are concealed by poor writing including poor sentence flow and word choice. Yes, the author attempts to inform readers that a girl doesn’t need a relationship to survive, but the writing isn’t concise enough to learn anything from. It is very easy for readers to take away the wrong perspective.

If you can keep an open mind, this novel is a fun weekend read. Personally, this is a novel that I would not choose to read again, but many other readers feel differently because of the entertaining, and relatable content.

Overall, this book deserves a C+, because of the entertainment Snadowsky brings readers with the positive relatable content. However, the novel does not deserve anything higher than a C+ because of vocabulary choices, sentence flow in the novel, and negative relatable content that could give teens the wrong idea.