Review: Upside Down by Lia Riley

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Grand Central/Forever
Number of Pages: 384

Synopsis:

"If You Never Get Lost, You’ll Never Be Found
Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying good-bye to the past-and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she'll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.
Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He's never wanted anyone the way he wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime . . . or if they were meant to live a world apart."

This is a book that took a little while to get into but once you do it really takes off. I particularly enjoyed this book because it took place in Australia. Australia is one of the places on my bucket list that is an absolute must see!

“People want to be with the sunflowers, those who rise and face the sky. Who prefers fungus, moss, things that grow in the world’s dank and shadowed places?

This book is just full of amazing, amazing quotes that I could just pull out for days. These characters are witty, cute, kind, and they have real demons. I am obsessed with characters who I can relate to, even if it is in the tiniest way. Characters become so much more real to me when I can relate to them, it makes the book a lot more vivid in my mind.

I could tell that the author put effort into making this plot something original. It wasn't another one of those books where the characters only have a little while to be with each other so they try to stay friends and fail, it had more to that. It wasn't exactly enough to blow my mind out of the water but I was impressed and pulled into the book. The depth and thought that went into creating the issues the characters faced were original and had a lot of thought put into them. 

“Pretending to be a normal, functioning member of society is exhausting stuff.”

Talia's dealing with a shit ton of issues just by herself and they are so real that it kind of hurts. She's a girl that deals with OCD and who lost someone very dear to her and she's dealing with the aftermath of it all. Bran on the other hand has trouble "trusting" girls--you could say. 

For the most part I really did enjoy this book. I did find it to be a bit slow the first chapter or so and then it was a little bit rushed towards the end but otherwise I really enjoyed this book. The characters were great, the plot was its own, and I fell in love with the cover and couldn't give up the chance to read this book. I judge books by their covers...sorry...

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars! 

*A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.