I was craving something light with some wanderlust in it. Delayed Departure seemed to fit the bill. It is a New Adult read about a college student, Bethany Beaumont, who goes on a study abroad trip to Turkey. While there she gets involved with someone and tries to deal with issues from her past.
The love story part was fairly standard. It was fun at times if a bit predictable. Despite the standard love triangle and Chick Lit vibe, there was also some more serious topics tied into the story such as sexuality, homophobia, alcoholism, prostitution, and rape. While I appreciated involving deeper topics instead of just fluff, some of them tied into the story more while others seemed just thrown in there. It muddied up the plot. There was even a suspenseful subplot involving some criminal activity, that was occasionally thrown in with the rest of the story but was anticlimactic.
There were references to the first book (which I have not read). I did not initially realize they were references to people and events from the first book and couldn't tell if those were things that would tie into this book (they didn't), so they just confused me and brought up things that were not resolved. And the subplot involving "confronting her past" was far-fetched.
The main character, Bethany, was definitely a poor little rich girl: loaded but with a rather predictable and not in-depth past. But what was the most frustrating was how selfish and irresponsible she was. On the other side you had her love interest, Adam, who while fun to read about was a little too perfect. He felt like a character designed to be a heartthrob rather than feeling like a real, complex person.
The romance was very predictable but admittedly still cute. Although there were parts that were toeing the line towards erotica. Lots of adult content. And being a bunch of attractive college students abroad, there was a lot of casual sex as well. It got too agnsty at times.
What the book did really well was the travel and cultural representation. That was hands down the best part of the book. Turkey's history and culture were tied in throughout the story. That aspect was interesting, accurate, and informative without info-dumping. The description of the sights definitely fulfilled my hankering for armchair travel, and the descriptions of the food were scrumptious. They made me hungry more than once!
I had mixed feelings about the book overall. Things wrapped up too cleanly and that took realism away. After all that angst, it was just too neat of an ending with ALL of the threads abruptly and completely tied off into one giant, pretty bow. Life is not like that. For a book that strove to talk about so many real life issues, that took the power away.
Delayed Departures is probably a good choice for someone looking for a New Adult romantic read with more substance than your average Chick Lit, but it is not outstanding. While I did enjoy it well enough, the story had a lot of conflicting aspects that made it hard to decide how to feel about it.
