My letter “U” pick for the A to Z Challenge was THE UPSIDE DOWN CHRISTMAS by Kate Forster. This was a very quick and easy read with no real surprises. Marlo is a British girl living in Sydney with a gorgeous, funny, caring, and supportive flatmate named Alex. It’s December, and she’s being ghosted by her current boyfriend, so Alex (who coincidentally has a girlfriend that’s just not working out for him) tries to distract her by showing her all the fun to be had celebrating Christmas down under. Along the way, they – surprise! – discover they’re both better off ditching their current romances and acknowledging what they have with each other.

The story was simple, and the only thing really “Christmas” about it was the fact that it was December, otherwise, the holiday wasn’t much of a focus in the book. Marlo was a bland sort of girl, and the author made very sure that within the first chapter of the story we knew she liked Alex more than her jerk boyfriend – a boyfriend who strangely never liked her handsome, charming, empathetic male roommate. Go figure.

There was a bit of a subplot with Marlo helping a sick friend that pulled at the heartstrings, but this was an otherwise very predictable, slow-paced, closed door romance. The story was pleasant enough but I would have loved more development on the characters and plot. Three stars.