Julia lives for her work as a hedge fund manager but this leaves her time for nothing else, literally nothing else. When she gets close to her boyfriend Ciaran, she pushes him away straight into the arms of her flatmate and best friend, Reece and then decides she still loves him.
When she loses her job, she is lost completely, with having nothing to aim for or achieve she sets about on making a list of ten things to do before she dies encouraged by her friend Reece and sets out around the world to try and fulfil these dreams before her money runs out or her very sensible controlled side takes over once again.
We follow Julia around the world, Venice, Sicily, Tokyo, New York, Las Vegas, India and Hawaii as she completes her list. Along the way she meets Luke and hops that he will be the person that finally helps her get over Ciaran, but then Reece turns up with Ciaran at the most inopportune moments and causes waves for Julia as she is trying to find herself on this journey as well trying to complete her list.
In some ways this book is rather complex, there is much about the relationships of the four main characters, Julia, Reece, Luke and Ciaran but for me none of them jumped off the page and made themselves likeable to me. At times I wanted to shake Julia for being so uptight and felt that Reece was a toxic friend from the very beginning; I was proved right as the story progresses. Luke sweeps in and out of all their lives and he is as much as free spirit as Julia is controlled and contained. Ciaran was a bit of a wet weekend to be a knight in shining armour, although I cannot deny that he did have some availing qualities which helped Julia in her final quest of the last 3 things on her list.
Deborah Wright has obviously travelled and this is reflected throughout the book, the descriptions of all the places visited are captured not just idealistically and vividly but realistically as well. The places are more of a character than any of the actual characters themselves and this is what let the book down for me, that by the end I was actually irritated by it. It can be pitched as a beach read, and a distraction from everyday life and if that is what you after then you can do wrong in picking up this book. If you want more, look elsewhere.
I really struggled to write this review, because of the irritation the book gave me; like a niggling pain you can live with it, but you will be glad when it finally goes away. Part of me did not want to be so condemning when the other reviews on Amazon were all 5 stars – I gave it 3 but actually 2 1/2 would have suited it better.
The book reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, a “finding yourself” type of book. Even that book I did not find as enjoyable as all the hype that was put around it. This book has made me reflect on why I find the book an irritation or perhaps it is the cynic in me about reading any book where people are trying to find themselves? Perhaps there is a person secretly trying to find themselves in me? Perhaps I am thinking just too deeply about it and I should admit that this was not one of my favourite reads so far for 2011.
The Book Jotter 