This book gives a clear and scriptural analysis of the effects of getting involved in romantic relationships before one is ready to consider marriage. It is written by a young person for young people. I feel that the fellowship is very helpful.
The item I liked best was the fellowship on the "blessing of singleness". Singleness may not seem like a blessing to a young person interested in romance but he or she has probably not considered it carefully. While you young and single you have more freedom than at any other time in your whole life, especially if you can complete your education without going into debt. By that time you go anywhere and do anything. That freedom is a great blessing if you are seeking the Lord and following His leading.
The Lord made most of us so that we need to get married and that is part of His will for our lives. But marriage is not just romance, it involves more responsibility and restriction than a young person has ever known before. Getting married is like getting a ball and chain shackled to one foot and having children is like having another ball and chain on the other foot. We are very blessed if we can trust our marriage to the Lord until we are ready to handle it. One Christian young person I know who insisted on getting married at 16 and ending up getting divorced while still a teenager remarked, "We didn't give ourselves time to grow up."
A young person dreaming about dating and falling in love may not be thinking about marriage at all, at least not in terms of restriction and responsibility. He or she has probably not considered the alternatives either. A short term romance leads to heartbreak and heartache for both. A long term romance that cannot soon lead into courtship and marriage brings in a lot of unnecessary temptations, restrictions and complications. In both cases the happiness is fleeting and the trouble and sorrow lasts longer.
What many young people think of as the other alternative is the most deceptive of all. They think we can be "just friends". Of course, in a general sense we may be friends, but this is where young people often fool themselves. They say that they are just friends and often believe it to be so when a relationship has gone far beyond that. Joshua clearly points out the things that indicate a relationship is moving out of the realm of "just friends" to something more than that. It is very helpful to know where the border is of territory you want to avoid before you cross it unwittingly. For instance, one young sister who angrily told the serving one who was trying to help her, "What's wrong with being friends with a boy?" became pregnant very soon after that. She was only fooling herself and refused to believe that a situation could get out of control until it did.
Parents and serving ones who try to preserve young people from the trouble that youthful inclinations can lead to are expressing their love and concern. While it is often true that the parents may not know how to help their children in a good way, it is at least as true that the kids often don't want to be helped because the real help becomes a restriction to the flesh.
I really hope that you would read this book and consider carefully what the author is saying. I wish I had had the opportunity to read it when I was in high school even though I never got involved in a serious relationship. I think it would have helped me pursue the Lord with less distraction.