Swimming With Dolphins

by Deborah Wright

[Leah]

A couple of years back I read The Rebel Fairy and Under My Spell by Deborah Wright and I enjoyed the way she added magic into her novels, it reminded me of Cecelia Ahern. Unfortunately, though, Deborah’s last book came out in 2006 and it didn’t seem as if she was going to be returning any time soon. Until I spotted a new novel by her called The Celebrity Mother which was due out in 2010. I was then even more surprised to find another novel up on Amazon due out on 2010 by Deborah called Swimming With Dolphins. It sounded fantastic and exactly what I’d like to read so when I received a copy I got stuck into it almost immediately and it was fantastic!

Swimming With Dolphins is a book that will appeal to a lot of people, because who doesn’t want to write out a list of 10 things they’d like to do before they die? And that is exactly what Julia finds herself doing when she is made redundant from her job in the City. She writes a list of 10 things she would choose to do should she be dying and sets about fulfilling them all. It ranges from telling someone she loves them, to kissing a girl (and seeing if she likes it, as per the Katy Perry song!), to swimming with dolphins and she embarks on her journey looking to come out of the other end feeling not only fulfilled but hopefully gaining some life experience from it after spending so many years concentrating solely on her career. It’s fantastic and I was sucked into the plot immediately.

What I liked best about the book was Julia’s hesitance when it came to her list. Because she has spent the past however many years chained to her desk, suddenly zooming off across the world for an adventure isn’t exactly what she would have chosen to do, and we’re with Julia every step of the way as she sets about doing all these wonderfully crazy things. Along the way, she meets Luke, a bit of a free-spirit and they seem to hit it off, which helps to soothe Julia’s heart after being secretly in love with her best friend Reece’s boyfriend, not to mention Julia’s ex anyway, Ciaran. There’s all sorts of mayhem that goes on during the book, as Reece and Ciaran and Luke tag along on Julia’s adventure and she makes a new friend in Lesbian Lucy, and it truly was like a whirlwind adventure. Not a page passed without some kind of action and I was totally swept away, wondering where it would all end and, more importantly, who Julia would end up with!

I absolutely loved Julia. She was hesitant about her trip at first but really got into the spirit of things and even when the first thing on her list went awry she still didn’t let it get her down; she thought about going back home but decided to carry on. I liked that about her, and I liked living vicariously through her adventures, I’d never be brave enough to do something like that. Julia also seemed so real to me, because she had many ups and downs throughout the book but she stayed true to herself whilst trying to complete all 10 items. Reece, Julia’s best friend, was the one who pushed her into doing the list and I thought it was nice of her to do that, but as the book progresses, Reece isn’t as good a friend as I imagined and by the end of the book I totally disliked her. As for Luke, the guy Julia meets as she’s headed to Italy, I didn’t really know what to make of him. He seemed completely lovely at first, but he had a bit of a shady past and I went off him a bit, because he just seemed completely fake. As for Ciaran, Julia’s ex and Reece’s current boyfriend, I liked him. I didn’t like him at first as he and Julia argue a lot, but he’s the only decent one out of the lot and really came into his own during the last quarter of the book.

I thought Swimming With Dolphins was written really well, told entirely from Julia’s point of view and I thought it was perfect having it written like that. The book takes place in many stunning locations, including Italy, Sicily, India, Las Vegas, New York, and all were written so descriptively that it was as if I was there, alongside Julia as she had her adventure. Honestly, Deborah Wright has managed to transform herself from an author who adds magical aspects to her novels to becoming a very good travel writer, making the destinations her characters visit seem realistic. I applaud her for that, and completely admire how she manages to describe places succinctly (I should know, I’m rubbish at it). I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I truly had no idea how it was going to end. However, I was very satisfied with the ending, and I found it really sweet and it summed up the book perfectly. Despite being released in November (which baffles me, I have to say), it’s the perfect Spring or Summer read and Julia’s adventure is one you really want to be reading about because it’s a corking adventure!