REVIEW Deborah Wright - Swimming with Dolphins

Goodreads synopsis: Do you ever look out of your window and dream of lying on a gorgeous beach with a handsome stranger? Julia Rothwell certainly does. But with a high-powered job as a Hedge Fund Manager, she barely has time to clean her teeth let alone go on holiday. Then the credit crunch hits and Julia is left with nothing but her redundancy pay. Her best friend Reece encourages her to draw up a list entitled: Ten Things To Do Before I Die. Top of the list is to sleep with an Italian. So begins a crazy, wonderful, rollercoaster of an adventure that sees Julia crossing countries and continents, and experiencing romance and heartbreak, sushi and surprises, volcanoes and gambling, and – if she can make it to the end of her list – swimming with dolphins. Join her on her unforgettable journey!
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Based on the cover and the blurb I had high expectations. I really liked 'Swimming with Dolphins', but after finishing it I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. 

The idea of someone traveling across the world after making a list is very appealing to me, I love making lists and I absolutely love traveling. The list Julia made is great and it made for some funny moments. I could really relate to Julia's anxiousness at first. While I love to travel, I've never done it by myself yet!

Even though it all sounds very good and the places visited are wonderful, the book just wasn't for me, because I didn't really like the characters. Especially Reece was just mean, and I noticed right away she wasn't as nice as Julia seemed to think (they are best friends). Then the two guys: Luke and Ciaran. I couldn't understand why Julia liked Luke! Ciaran, Reece's boyfriend and Julia's ex-boyfriend, was much nicer, but only during the last parts of the book. Luke is someone Julia meets while traveling. As I didn't like Luke, I didn't like the way he was with Julia during several times of her journey. That way, she didn't meet many new people and I just got irritated reading about him!

I love reading about people travelling and this book is no exception. I loved to read about the things Julia does and sees on her journey and the destinations really seemed to come alive, but I couldn't stand some of the characters and the ending just seemed a little strange.