Upside Down (Off the Map #1) - Lia Riley

 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 

Where to start, where to start? Yes, the beginning. 

Natalia ‘Talia’ Stolfi is heading to the land down under (yes, I am singing the song in my head).  This exchange student trip is in part to get out from under the cloud of despair she’s been living with for over a year since her older sister, Pippa died in a tragic accident.  Her best friends have put her on no contact island so that she must live in the moment while she is away.  Her therapist doesn’t believe it’s the best plan for her, since in addition to the grief that she is dealing with, she’s also dealing with her OCD.  She’s trying to keep herself under control with medication but the doctor truly believes she needs therapy in conjunction with the meds and won’t be able to do that if she leaves…but as we know from the blurb - away she goes.  Oh, and the best part is – they are all (friends, family, etc.) in denial that she even has any OCD issues. 

While in Melbourne, Talia steps out of her comfort zone and makes friends with another exchange student that lives in her building and a local hottie named Jazza (not too much going on upstairs but he seems to be nice enough and hot enough), what happens in Australia… except he’s not really doing much for her in the tingly way.  He’s just there.   

Jazza has an unexpected, rough around the edges, skinny but hot in his own way friend - Insert a *insta-attraction* circa something like J. Sterling would write.  You know, girl looks across the room, sees boy and already starts to feel things she’s never felt before.  (You have to be okay with that type of romance because otherwise it won’t work for you.  You just have to go with it.) 

Brandon ‘Bran’ Lockheart is also mending a broken heart.  He had a rough year, comes from a family that just doesn’t understand his way of thinking and well, I can’t tell you the rest of what he’s gone through because that would be a *spoiler.* I didn’t like him at first, but then you notice that Bran notices everything.  He sees her better than she sees herself and then you kind of want to see him not be such a jerk.  You hope that things work themselves out for these two broken souls.   

There were times when I wanted to throw things at both of them.  Talia, because she comes off as a little younger than she’s supposed to be, a bit immature and she definitely suffers from runaway syndrome.  Bran because he just can’t see past the things that have gone wrong to see that they could in fact go right if he is willing to take a chance.  And because, sometimes he is just a jerk. 

For me personally, I had a hard time connecting to the characters individually and even together.  Even though he wasn’t, Bran seemed so much older than Talia that I had a hard time figuring out why they would want to be together other than the physical relationship.  I think I needed a little more from them to really buy in.  It wasn’t the insta-attraction, it was more like the, why? 

Of course the last few chapters, everything inevitably blows up as it always will in these stories, seemed a bit rushed to me.  Since books two and three will also be about the same characters, I didn’t think there was a need to rush it and that’s how I felt – like we sort of rushed through the end.  I was kinda like, ‘hold up, wait? What just happened?’ I think I needed a little more. 

Instead of an epilogue the beginning of the next book is at the end, and to be honest that just left me with more questions than answers.  Will I read book 2? Probably, mostly because I’m interested to see how this story will turn into a three book series.