A review by kaydanielsromance
Upside Down by A.M. Madden

5.0

I was so torn up over this book. The hopeless romantic vs. the practical person kept having a battle in my head and overall I was fighting for the love between these two men.

Cooper is twenty-eight and has only dated women his entire life, but with each failed relationship he knows something is missing he just doesn't know what. He was a hopeless romantic, but mostly he just felt hopeless as he continued to fail at love. Then one drunken night when he kisses Ricky (his sister's best friend), he could chalk that moment up as a drunken mistake, but when weeks pass and he can't stop thinking about it he knows he can't pass it off as a drunken mistake. 

The decision to pursue a relationship with Ricky didn't come easy, especially when he didn't like labels associated with the changes and emotions he was going through and the box society wanted to put him in, especially after twenty-eight years of being attracted to women Cooper knew his attraction to Ricky wasn't going away. It was powerful and something he'd never experienced before. He knew he wanted to pursue that connection more to see where it would go. That hopeful romantic knew what he wanted and he wanted Ricky.

Ricky was practical and had a tendency to self-sabotage his relationships. Years ago his first ever chance at love was with a man who wasn't out of the closet and Ricky still bore the scars of it, so he wasn't looking for a repeat in Cooper who was just beginning his journey out of the closet only to decide to duck back inside again. However, Cooper was tenacious and with each encounter was working his way under Ricky's skin.

The practical side of my brain was totally on Ricky's side. I understood why he didn't want to invest in Cooper if Cooper wasn't going to stick around for the long haul, however, when Cooper was being upfront and laying himself bare, the romantic in me had a hard time staying in the Ricky camp because....hello....it's love. 

I continually waffled back and forth between my two sides, which made for a wonderfully told story. Top that off with some steamy scenes and Upside Down was a great book.