Upside Down By Lia Riley

‘Upside Down’ is the first book in the ‘Off The Map’ series and follows the lives of American Natalia and Australian Bran.

Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying goodbye to painful memories and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she’ll pretend to be a carefree exchange student. Everything is going to plan until she meets a surly 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 slunk back 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 defences. He’s never wanted anyone the way he wants Natalia. A single semester abroad won’t cover something this serious. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Natalia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime . . . or if they were meant to live a world apart.

The story is primarily seen through the narrative of Natalia, who travels to Australia to study. She looks forward to leaving her life behind as the last few years have been traumatic for the young woman. Her sister Pippa, was tragically killed in a car accident, which resulted in her parents marriage to break up. Unable to deal with the grief, her mother runs off and find solace in holistic therapy with the aid of a young man called Logan, whilst Natalia’s father retreats into himself. Natalia sees Australia as a break, a chance to be herself and get away from the guilt that has consumed her as she feels responsible for Pippa’s death. In Australia, she meets Bran, a handsome young man with strong beliefs in the environment and is regularly protesting, which is how he meets Natalia The couple are drawn to each other, but don’t want to involved as they have both been hurt in the past particularly Bran. But the chemistry between the pair is much too strong and unable to stay apart, their adventure begins.

Natalia is an interesting character, never recovered from her sister’s death, she secretly battles mental illnesses particularly OCD, which is slowly taking over her life. Trying to hide it from the world, she lives her life with routines and mantras convinced that if she doesn’t fully act out all actions then something bad will happen. Bran, notices this about her and questions as to why she acts this way and she confides in him. Together, they are both broken, battling their mutual heartbreak and find support and fun in one another.

This book is an interesting and one I enjoyed immensely, as both characters were such passionate and vibrant, they made for entertaining reading, as they joked and tried to remain in the friends territory. Although the story’s main plot line is Natalia’s battle with OCD, I thought that part of the story was quite tame and not as noticeable as I was led to believe, although I did understand her train of thoughts at the time, as I imagine we are all victim to that type of logic occasionally. One thing that I enjoyed most about the story was the fact that Natalia had gone off to another country to rediscover and educate herself and with doing that, we were joining her on this adventure and also learning new things, dialect and history with her.

A fast paced and passionate story, that you could easily finish in one sitting, ‘Upside Down’ is a romantic and heart-warming tale about finding acceptance and love in life and I’m most certainly looking forward to the next instalment of this emotional adventure.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”B00LV9AEEQ” target=”_blank” ]Upside Down: Off the Map 1 from Amazon.[/amazon_link]