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Love #2

The Upside of Love

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Luke Matthews and Lily Gilmore are back in the final book of the Love Series: The Upside of Love.

Life couldn’t be more perfect for Luke and Lily. Luke was living life, happy, being with the woman of his dreams and owning his own bar. Lily was incredibly happy being with the man of her dreams and pursuing her career in photography. Everything was perfect until something from Lily’s past surfaced, causing Luke to think twice about their relationship.

Follow Luke and Lily’s journey as the discovery they make alters their lives and they learn that there are two sides of Love: the upside and the downside.

18 years and older

ebook

First published October 28, 2014

450 people are currently reading
3770 people want to read

About the author

Sandi Lynn

117 books5,458 followers
Writing is my passion and my mission is to provide readers with romance novels that will whisk them away into another world and from the daily grind of life - one book at a time.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
Profile Image for Vintage.
2,716 reviews723 followers
Read
June 2, 2019
Okay, I'm laughing.

The great, big, terrible misunderstanding, the angsty McAngst, the big bad evil, the reason for the hero's flouncing out?

Oh, it's Callie.

Too much screaming, and, oy vey so rom-com complete with a scene in the rain. These two have the maturity of sixth graders.
Profile Image for Sandi.
Author 117 books5,458 followers
October 30, 2015
Luke Matthews and Lily Gilmore are back in the final book of the Love Series: The Upside of Love.

Life couldn’t be more perfect for Luke and Lily. Luke was living life, happy, being with the woman of his dreams and owning his own bar. Lily was incredibly happy being with the man of her dreams and pursuing her career in photography. Everything was perfect until something from Lily’s past surfaced, causing Luke to think twice about their relationship.

Follow Luke and Lily’s journey as the discovery they make alters their lives and they learn that there are two sides of Love: the upside and the downside.
Profile Image for Stacy Chambers.
476 reviews2 followers
January 11, 2015
Well that could have definitely been better. I really liked Luke and Lily in the first book. I couldn't wait for this one to come out. Now I wish I could go back to anticipating this release. The fact that 90 freakin percent was about these two being completely immature dumb-asses annoyed the crap out of me. And then for it to just be resolved in the blink of an eye was stupid. I was definitely left feeling let down. This book could have been so amazing, I have loved the secondary characters from the beginning of the first book, but we didn't get enough of them. And the whole Cody thing was just ridiculous. I am SO very disappointed with this book.
Profile Image for Raffaella.
1,949 reviews302 followers
December 14, 2023
Maybe I’m a bitch and maybe I am beginning to need something more, but I didn’t like this one too.
I appreciated the secondary characters more than the main ones.
Those two are really not made for each other even if the book would want us to believe they are fated mates.
Fated mates my azz.
The heroine and the hero are doing ok, he’s bought a bar and hired a sexy bartender so the heroine is jealous as fug.
She has daddy issues, her father was a manho famous singer and she had to see her mother crying all the time while he screwed everything that moved. So she’s afraid that her bf will cheat on her an that he will leave her.
She’s also in therapy and this was the only good thing of the book.
Then it all goes to hell.
The hero finds a picture of him and his dead ex and remembers that it was her who gave them the tickets for the journey where his gf died and he leaves her because, hear this, he thinks she’s guilty for his gf death.
Jesus, I was dying with laughters! Seriously? Just because she gave them the tickets for a journey where they had an accident she is guilty? And so my teachers could be considered guilty for my firing years later because they gave me the degree in engineering? This man has issues with Aristotelian syllogism, no sh*t! The heroine is shattered and he leaves anyway because you know, he has to think. When he comes back of course the heroine doesn’t want to talk to him any longer. And who would? After how he behaved! And things go on longer because she doesn’t want him anymore since she would be a reminder of his dead gf.
And on and on it goes until the right amount of pages are written.
- slut lil sister who fugged her fiancé is forgiven! Because you know she and the heroines fiancé are really in love. WTF? She should have talked to her, told her that they were having feelings, not fug around and almost made her marry a nasty awful cheater! I hope he cheats on the sister too.
- the hero and the heroine are not a good couple. They are always insulting and running from each other and I don’t know how they could be together. They are immature and they are approaching 30.
- ow was in love with the hero but he was never interested and she eventually left without drama. Was it necessary? Meh.
This book was nonsense. If a guy I was with had told me he thought I was guilty of his gf death because I gave him tickets for a holiday well, he would have been a stranger forever to me from that moment. The World is full of good and sensible men.
Profile Image for Lu Bielefeld .
4,304 reviews639 followers
April 24, 2020
=====>April 21, 2020
3 ⭐⭐⭐ - OK decent reads.
=======================
Wow!! What a difference in perception of the story and the characters. I really changed my tastes a lot in the last years and I will avoid re-reading some authors.
I added shelves, which I didn't have when I first read the book.

====>Nov. 4, 2014
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Amazing!
======================
Eu amo esta autora e sempre estou seguindo o trabalho dela. Vale a pena ler!
Amei! Tem drama, romance, cenas quentes, personagens secundários maravilhosos. Realmente recomendo a leitura. O casal é muito fofo e cativam o leitor.
---------------
I love this author and I'm always following her work. Worth reading!
Loved It! It has drama, romance, hot scenes, secondary characters are wonderful. Really recommend reading. The couple is very cute and Captivate the reader.
Profile Image for Lexy.
1,093 reviews35 followers
February 28, 2020
I thought that this book was good as good as the first book
Profile Image for Kizzy.
1,062 reviews35 followers
November 13, 2014
After reading the first book, I felt I got closure from it. When I heard that we were getting a second book I was happy that we would have more Lily and Luke :) What a series of emotions I felt when reading this book.

It picks up a little after the first one. Lily and Luke are so in love and are too cute. Their friends are great. ( I always loved Sam :) )Things are going well for them..Luke with his bar, Lily with opening a photo studio, but I knew it was too good to be true. LOL..Bring in the girl Luke hired to work for him ( she caused a little angst..not too much) and the big bombshell which I figured out from the first book. Let me just say at that point Luke made me want to slap him.

My heart broke for the both of them because all of that did not need to happen. Anger is an emotion that will have you saying things you wouldn't imagine saying, in turn costing you more that you realize. I look at it as it gave them the time to figure out how much they mean to each other. This also gave Lily a chance to go confront her sister and ex fiance. They are lucky Lily even spoke to them after all the hurt they caused her. This made her insecure in parts of her relationship with Luke and in order to get past that,she had to make peace with what was done to her.

Luke finally gets his act together and decides to do what he needed to do. These two were getting on my nerves at times I just wanted to scream! I understand that love can't be all roses and sunshine and here you see just that..it can be heartbreaking and full of so much angst.

The trip to NYC? loved it all :) I was anxiously waiting to see what happened and it just brought a smile to my face. When you have that soul mate that's meant for you, fate has a funny way of bringing you together.

I have been a fan of Sandi's from day one and I look forward to more from her. I highly recommend this. Start with Love In Between and see how Lily and Luke first meet. You won't be disappointed.
Profile Image for Geetanjali.
126 reviews32 followers
August 12, 2016
The Upside of Love is the second installment and I hope the last in the Love series by Sandi Lynn.As far as sequels go this one was a disappointment and quite an unnecessary addition, when the whole story could have been neatly wrapped up in the first book itself.

It is my fault that I went ahead and read this in spite of my misgivings regarding the sequel;I was expecting some kind of magic like in the author's Forever series.Had it been published a year back when the contemporary romance genre was still comparatively new to me,when I would read anything and almost everything that got published,I would have appreciated it more.But now the story just seemed to be a drag filled with drama just for drama's sake.

Lily and Luke are living a happy life after realizing and accepting their love for each other in Love in Between.Luke is busy with his new bar and Lily is trying her hand at photography. Their group of friends are also happy and living their lives.Life is just peachy when out of nowhere Luke learns something about Lily's past and all hell breaks loose after that.Amidst this drama Luke hires a new personal assistant who is a knock out and thereby brings out the paranoia in Lily.The rest of the story is about the push and pull between the couple and finally how they resolve their issues.

In my opinion,Luke's discovery could've been added to the first book and they could've done without the juvenile drama they had going between them.Also,the final scene was so cheesy,reminiscent of the endings in the nineties rom-coms,it was yawn inducing.I am getting tired of the trend of churning out sequels in this genre when there is lack of a concrete story to keep the readers entertained.I feel cheated when authors tease us with promises of great sequels but fail to deliver and thereby,souring the original story and the characters.
Profile Image for Theresa Alberts.
838 reviews6 followers
November 5, 2014
I was anxious to get my hands on book 2 for this series and was excited that after waiting for a year and many release dates that were pushed out that it was finally released. Unfortunately the anticipation of reading did not live up to the story itself and I was highly disappointed. The story was rushed at times and I felt that there was some "filler" scenes that weren't really needed to move the plot along. There was so much potential here but it just fell short.
Profile Image for Julie Kirby.
920 reviews13 followers
November 6, 2014
Wow! That was a roller coaster ride, after reading one or two of the teasers, I guess we were in for an emotional ride.

Talk about easing us in gently, then bam! That was hard.

I thought that it was lovely that we got a glimpse of Ian and Rory, and admittedly I didn't place them immediately! then wondered if we were going to 'bump' into the Blacks.

Totally understood where Lily was coming from, once the whole story played out, sort of like having that all important ah ah moment.

It was difficult to read at time, wanting them both to be so happy and hoping that it was not going to be final.

Their so called friends! had me chuckling, so naughty! but they had their hearts in the right places.

It took Luke quicker to realise what he did was so very wrong, and felt for him every step of the way. Lily thought that she did everything she thought was the right thing to do, and it took one very serious conversation for her to make sense of everything that was going on.

Everything happens for a reason, I was so glad that they made it to New York, such lovely heart warming scenes.

Profile Image for Shona Reid.
119 reviews12 followers
November 4, 2014
The Upside of Love is the conclusion to Luke and Lily's story, it did not disappoint. Sandi always manages to make you feel exactly what the characters are feeling.

Luke and Lily love each other with everything they have, it isn't easy for them so much happens that their love and friendship is tested to the full. At times I was so made at Luke, I ended up talking to my kindle. Crazy right? Then I was crying and laughing, I couldn't keep up with my emotions, that was only one of the things I loved.

Lily has faced so much heartbreak during her life, so when her heart breaks again she struggles to keep it together. You feel her pain. I wanted her to listen to her heart, not her brain.

There's quite a few bits in the book I didn't expect that left my mouth hanging open, some were bitter sweet. Sandi's writing was beautiful as always, flowed perfectly. Brilliant conclusion to Luke and Lily's story, loved every word. Page turner and must read.
Profile Image for Sue Czarnomski.
787 reviews8 followers
November 18, 2014
Cliche'. I waited more than a year for this book to release and I was monumentally disappointed. While the big secret was obvious in book 1; Love in Between, I was excited for and anxiously awaited the big reveal in book 2. Not only was it anti-climactic, but the book took on a very "soap-opera like" feel. Trump Towers, Central Park, imaginary ghosts advising on love, I felt like I was reading a bad Meg Ryan / Tom Hanks screenplay. Is it possible to rush a book when it took more than a year to release?! Thats the feeling here. I loved the first book but can't recommend this one.
Profile Image for Paige.
362 reviews10 followers
November 6, 2014
Loved getting more Luke and Lily. Though I could predict the issue that was gonna cause them problems it was still such an enjoyable read. I loved watching Lily deal with the past that haunted her. She got strong towards the end. I loved the small moments with the side characters. Lucky still adds humour to the story. Loved the snippets of Rory and Ian. I like it when an author mergers characters from another series. It makes you get that little bit extra.
243 reviews1 follower
November 10, 2014
This was a great book!! Once I started I couldn't put it down!!! Great job Sandi!!! Hopefully we get a Novella about these two!!!
Profile Image for GuisBell.
1,299 reviews32 followers
September 10, 2020
La verdad es que no me esperaba esto, la historia dio un giro a lo retorcido de una manera horrible. Y otro que encima hay que felicitar a los infieles, es lo más ridículo eso de que soy infiel porque estaba predestinado, nos amamos por eso hacemos daño e intento casarme con otra persona y encima la ridiculizo el día de su boda porque el amor es lo mas importante, ridículos, eso que dicen amor es una burla hacia algo tan hermoso como es el amor, y para rematar a la historia tenemos a lo fantasioso...
Profile Image for Mar de llibres.
511 reviews16 followers
August 30, 2025
Me pareció más de lo mismo, pero esta vez Luke se enfada por una información que aparece del pasado y no es nada comprensible su reacción, así como la reacción posterior de Lily. No pueden vivir el uno sin el otro y luego no se pueden ver. No podían hablar y aclarar las cosas? Muy infantil. En fin, parecía que la autora no sabía desarrollar la historia sin que se enfadaran y rompieran la relación para volver a reconciliarse. Este constante tira y afloja me cansó y los motivos no me parecieron suficientes.
Profile Image for Stacy Hahn.
809 reviews12 followers
November 9, 2014
Luke and Lily have a love that is breathtaking. After both having had difficult past, Luke losing his girlfriend in a tragic accident; and Lily's fiancée cheating on her with her sister, they both deserved the love they gave each other. Luke only has eyes for Lilly and she is the love of his life. Nothing can tear them apart until past pain comes back and causes Luke to become unrecognizable. Grief causes him to do and say things he doesn't mean, but will it be too late to undo the damage he has caused?

Lily has been through so much and wants to protect her heart. She is beyond hurt and angry and she pushes Luke away again and again. She feels like she has to do this to protect him because only bad things come from her. Her stubbornness knows no bounds but it is no match for fate.

I could not put this book down! Sandi pulled me in and I felt every raw emotion each character felt. My anxiety level was through the roof wanting things to be alright between Luke and Lily. I love how the story ended and we were all able to see the upside of love!
Profile Image for Jeanie Robinson.
145 reviews2 followers
November 6, 2014
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!


She did it AGAIN! Made me fall in love with Luke! All over again.... if that was even possible! Heartwarming. Gut wrenching. I cried. I laughed (out loud) I wanted more. I couldn't stop reading (to the point I was cooking with the darn kindle glued in front of my face) I love Lily, at times I felt like I was her! Does that even make sense? And um, Cody? YEAH.... Bitchs gotta go!!!!!! Loved this Story.


Thank you Sandi! For always warming my Heart!!!!! <3

"Clear your mind and see the truth for what it really is, not what you think it is"
Profile Image for ✮ rach ✮.
688 reviews113 followers
Read
June 26, 2016
DNF so no rating.

I am obviously too old to read this shit!



Profile Image for Yesi Ovando.
301 reviews4 followers
November 8, 2018
1.5

No me gusta la forma de escribir de la autora. Sinceramente creo que sera el ultimo libro que lea de la autora.
En gusto colores
Profile Image for Becky.
361 reviews
November 5, 2014
Cute story. Please excuse my droning...it's late ...am so glad The author pulled together the issues from book 1 and had it all come together in book 2. I am also glad that Lily, the main character was a little less whinny and a little more strong. (although she couldn't make any life changing decisions without the help of her shrink).
I also don't think it was necessary for the main character, Lily to think that EVERY male she came into contact with was "hot". It was a bite over kill. And made her seem flakey.
Another problem I had was that I didn't get enough info on the situation with Cody to hater her enough. I feel that that issue was just over looked. If it makes sense...she needed to either be more sneaky...or there needed to be more of an explanation as to what really happened with her and Luke. I felt as though that whole thing was just brushed over to quickly. It was significant. And the core of some drama.

I didn't like that Luke claimed that he LOVED Lily soooooo much and would do anything for her but he gave up so easily so many times!!!

He made up for it in the sweetness factor and taking care of her.

Something i really liked and because it was unique-(this is why I gave it and extra star):
The serendipity aspect of the ending and the fact that the author did not have the characters come together because of a TYPICAL car accident...so cliché! There was meaning there and I think I felt the most feeling at this point in the book.

Over all a cute story and one I am glad I read.
Profile Image for Selenia.
123 reviews2 followers
November 7, 2014
Loved the story of Luke and Lily........I think it is a sweet love story and one that is sweet and romantic. Destiny has a funny way of doing things with a person.......though I have to say that Lily was grading my nerve a bit but in the end, she seen the light.....This story is about 2nd seconds and looking at things as some say with the glass half full? Choices and reactions to some things.

I love Luke and Lily and how no matter what true love wins

I loved this story though said that it ended but still loved it none the less.
Profile Image for Sarah - Vanilla Twist Reads.
325 reviews12 followers
November 4, 2014
Wow Sandi has done it again we first met Luke and Lily in Love in Between both were healing from broken hearts. The Upside of Love contiues their journey but throws in some bumps and twists a long the way and leaves us wondering if they can heal. We also get to see more of their frends. This book reminds us that things happen for a reason not that we understand them when they do but as we grow and heal the reasons become clear. Live your life and be thankful for your family and friends. ♥♥ will definitely read this series again in the future. ♥♥
Profile Image for Shannon Bickert.
51 reviews11 followers
November 6, 2014
I was so excited waiting for this book to come out since reading the first one and absolutely loving it. This book didn't do it for me like the first one. I was expecting all kinds of drama and suspense during this read. Their were so many opportunities to play this story line out better but in ended up being all dead ends. The ending was left wide open and I'm hopeful that Sandi will continue on the series and finish Luke and Lilys story. I still will read anything Sandi Lynn writes, she is an amazing writer, this one just didn't do it for me.
Profile Image for Cristin Boykin.
393 reviews6 followers
November 9, 2014
Wow!! I read this book in just hours. I fell in love with Luke and Lily in the first book and the love continued in book two. I will say this couple goes through some things and I was pissed off at Luke for his reaction and then Lily for bring childish and stubborn. I did however feel that the ending was a little rushed and would have like go see more of their future, but this didn't take away from my rating of the book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews

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