On the eve of her thirty-first birthday, after yet another painful breakup, Tamara Duricka Johnson decides it’s time to overhaul her dating habits. When a friend jokingly suggests that she embark on a “dating project,” inspiration strikes: In honor of turning thirty-one, she vows to go on 31 dates in 31 days—and to resist the urge to turn each date into her next potential relationship. There are rules, of course: she can’t spend more than $31 per date, each date must be at a new location, and no second dates until the very end—despite how much she may like the guy. Instead, she’ll have to wait for the 31st date, where she’ll get to pick one of the thirty men to go out with a second time.

Some dates are awful, while others are amazing—but all of them help change her attitude about dating and men in general. She opens up to the world around her and develops a handful of crushes, making it difficult to decide who will be the lucky final date. In the end, though, she realizes there’s only one man of the entire thirty that she can see herself marrying—and one year later, she does.

Chatty, fun, and confessional, 31 Dates in 31 Days is a beguiling exploration of the nature of relationships, as well as a road map for navigating through difficult times. In sharing her story, Duricka Johnson takes readers on a funny, sometimes painful, but always entertaining journey that offers astute insights into the modern dating scene.