OK so I admit, I haven’t watched a great deal of Made in Chelsea. But when one of its stars, Lucy Watson, released her much anticipated literary debut The Dating Game, I could hardly be a dating blogger and not check it out. So I bought it. I read it. And here are my thoughts.

Overall, the book is pretty good. Although it doesn’t make any breakthrough revelations in the way books like He’s Just Not That Into You and Why Men Love Bitches did (if you don’t own those books now, buy them. They will tell you everything you need to know about dealing with men.), it covers an impressive amount of different aspects of dating in a readable format. The book is divided into chapters, beginning with being single, then moving onto areas such as first dates, navigating the early stages of dating, relationships, cheating and break-ups. Each chapter is then broken down into sub-sections, each with a list of advice points.

Although some of it is a bit simplistic (e.g. “Never date a friend’s ex-boyfriend”- if she doesn’t care, neither should you), her advice is overall pretty sound. The problem with the majority of dating advice is that the “experts” writing it are people you don’t want to be (divorcees, 40+ single), but Lucy is 24, attractive, successful, and has had several high-quality boyfriends. She knows what she’s talking about.

However, one thing that I have to note is that Lucy is speaking from a position of extreme dating world privilege. She is very attractive, and has access to high-quality men, so when reading the book you have bear in mind that her advice is coming from that viewpoint, and may not be applicable to your life. For example, one method she gives to meet new guys is “When I haven’t had any guy attention for a while, I’ll take a selfie and add lots of Instagram filters. It works every time- guys always come out of the woodwork.” This wouldn’t work if you’re not conventionally attractive. Also, she advises readers to multi-date until they become exclusive with a guy. She says “After I broke up with H, my first boyfriend of five years, I dated three or four guys at the same time.” This just isn’t an option for most women, and also you’re dating guys you see regularly that could get seriously messy. Personal experience: I’d say I’m attractive, but I don’t have access to guys I’m attracted to in my social circle, so I go for 2-3 year droughts in between guys. However, in all fairness, with the invention of online dating and Tinder this is becoming more plausible.

One thing I did like about the book was the positive attitude. This has been covered previously on 30 Dates, but I love her take on being single:

“It used to be embarrassing to admit that you were single. Now, if you say “I’m single”, it means you’re pretty hot and you’ve decided not to settle for some average guy. Instead you are taking your time to work out what you want out of life and who you want to spend it with.”

Whenever I feel shit about being along, I remember this passage and remind myself that it’s by choice. I could probably “get a boyfriend” if I wanted to, but I’m waiting for the right guy.

Lucy also approaches dating with just the right amount of bitterness. I find other dating books are very cynical about men, and while I can’t dispute anything they say, I come away feeling like I want to slit my wrists. Lucy makes us aware that there are bad apples out there, and gives advice on how to identify and avoid them, but there is a strong message that we deserve better and not to take any crap from people. She gives examples from her own love life, like “When I first started dating S, I found out that he was still sleeping with other girls. I told him I found it completely disgusting and that if he was sleeping with me, he should not be sleeping with other people. I told him I was an all-or-nothing girl, so we were nothing. I was never going to be a doormat- sitting around waiting for him to decide if he wanted to date me exclusively.” So although the need to be wary is emphasized, the overall message is one of empowerment.

So an overall summary.

You should buy this book if:

• You’re 15-25
• You’re conventionally attractive
• You are fairly inexperienced with men, and/ or have been messed around a lot and need a confidence boost

You shouldn’t buy this book if:

• You’re over 30
• You have baggage (kids, divorce etc.)
• You’re not conventionally attractive
• You’ve played the field, are hardened to the woes of the dating world, and know all this stuff already