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.
ABOUT LIA
Lia Riley writes offbeat romance. After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, she scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. She counts shooting vodka with a Ukranian mechanic in Antarctica, sipping yerba mate with gauchos in Chile and swilling XXXX with stationhands in Outback Australia among her accomplishments.
A British literature fanatic at heart, Lia considers Mr. Darcy and Edward Rochester as her fictional boyfriends. Her very patient husband doesn’t mind. Much. When not torturing heroes (because c’mon, who doesn’t love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. Right now, Icelandic hot springs and Scottish castles sound pretty sweet.
She and her family live in Northern California.
Jaime’s Thoughts
Upside Down by Lia Riley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’ve heard some pretty great things about this series and it’s been on my to read list for a little while, so when the opportunity to read it made an appearance, I jumped. I’ve said it before, but I’m always looking for some new authors to enjoy in the New Adult genre and I had high hopes for this series.
Let’s start with the story.
Natalia Stolfi is heading down under… She’s been buried under painful memories and she plans to take the next six months to become someone else where no one knows about her past.
Bran Lockhart has just moved back to Melbourne to get his life back on track after his perfect relationship fell to pieces and turned into a nightmare.
Bran sees right through the façade that Natalia has put up and Natalia somehow manages to get under Bran’s skin, but will the wounds in their past continue to haunt them, and what happens when Natalia has to head back to California? These two have to decide if they’re meant to be together or live a world apart.
I have to say that I was totally interested in the why of everything with this story. The writing is well-done, the pacing of the story is good, (though the beginning is a little all over the place it gets much better as the story progresses), and while I had my suspicions about what happened with Bran and his ex, I didn’t really figure it all out. So that’s a plus!
Both Bran and Natalia are likable characters, but I found that I didn’t really connect with either and that’s the thing that really makes a book hit or miss for me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like them… not at all. It just means that I wasn’t connected to their story as much as I should have been. I’m not sure where the disconnect was for me either if I’m going to be honest with you. In fact, it was fun getting to know these two – their banter was great, Talia is sassy and a bit snarky and Bran is cynical and jaded… all things I usually find myself connecting with… just not so much here.
Where I think I struggled a bit, was the inclusion of the OCD tendencies that Natalia had. I felt like it really wasn’t fleshed out as well as it should have been… I almost felt like it was simply there to use as a plot device when needed, I just didn’t feel like for as bad as it was for her… enough to disrupt her life, that it wasn’t really portrayed that way here. Let me just also add that I don’t have OCD, nor do I know anyone with OCD, so it could just be that my mind has created this portrayal of it that isn’t true. Either way, I just feel like for this to be a main issue in her life, I didn’t feel like it was represented that way.
As with many other NA books out there, there is plenty of angst and heartbreak and romance and sexy times here… the relationship between these two progresses quickly and it’s passionate and intense, but I can’t say that I 100% bought it. Especially with the way their relationship/friendship actually starts and the cold shoulders they give each other… I think I just would have liked to see a bit more development between them as friends first to make it a bit more believable.
If you’re looking for a new voice in New Adult, give Lia Riley a chance. While I’m not sure I’ll continue on with this series of characters, I’m definitely interested in seeing what she does next.
Thanks to the author & publisher for a copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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