Synopsis:
Marlo is a living her best life in sunny Sydney and avoiding thinking about her past at all costs. Avoiding thinking about the quaint village life she left behind in Britain. Avoiding thinking about that fateful Christmas Day.
When Marlo is unceremoniously ghosted by her part-time lover, she decides she’ll need to avoid the whole Christmas season. That is actually pretty easy in this country, because it’s so hot and so far away from anything that means Christmas to her. But Marlo’s flatmate Alex is determined to lift her out of her grinch slump and convince her that Christmas Down Under may be unfamiliar, but exactly what she needs to start her life on a new course. Alex, with his calm order and terrible Dad jokes. Alex, with his sparkling Christmas cocktails, his chiseled jaw and washboard abs. Alex, who’s going to turn Marlo’s Christmas wish list upside down.
Review:
Last year I read The Christmas Star by Kate Forster and I found it to be quite enjoyable but there was something missing. The Upside Down Christmas was exactly the same. Sometimes I love listening to short audiobooks, for obvious reasons, but I do think in this case it was to the detriment of the story. It really lacked depth and you were given no reason to like these characters other than being told they’re ‘nice’.
We all know I love a friends to lovers romance, but I need a real connection between them, usually a friendship spanning many years, for it to be believable. Unfortunately, Marlo and Alex have known each other just over a year so when you get to the epilogue, set during the next Christmas, it’s a little wild that they’re engaged (sorry for the spoiler but this is a romance book, you know this will happen).
Also, for most of The Upside Down Christmas Alex has a girlfriend so him doing all of these activities for Marlo was a little weird. They were lovely but also felt very romantic so the vibes were a little off for me. He buys her jewellery, plans a movie night with all of her favourite foods and takes her on a boat ride. All while having a girlfriend, which is a plot point that just wasn’t necessary.
Thankfully Marlo isn’t a complete piece of crap and does recognise that she can’t have romantic feelings towards Alex because of his girlfriend. But it still feels like a weird choice to make.
While we’re talking about Alex. He was nice. But that’s pretty much all you can say about him. Other than being a nurse, apparently knowing everything about Marlo and ignoring his girlfriend, you know next to nothing about him. I think a lot more time could have been spent talking about their friendship to give reason for why they’d move past platonic love. I don’t know, it all just felt way too rushed.
However, I did think The Upside Down Christmas was entertaining. I really enjoyed the festive activities and I do think Marlo and Alex would make a good couple, but that could just be because the author is telling me that.
The narration was much better than The Christmas Star, the fake French accent was horrific though. The Australian accents were OK, but as a British person I couldn’t really tell you how good they were. I imagine any Australian’s listening to this would hate them, which is far.
I’m going to give The Upside Down Christmas a very fair two and a half stars. The story was fairly entertaining but the characters lacked depth.
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