Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist Pages: 281
on January 3, 2017
Genres: Young Adult, contemporary, Romance
Source: Paperback ARC from Publisher
Love is more than meets the eye.
On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right?
As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a sweet but shy girl named Cecily. And despite his fear that having a girlfriend will make him inherently dependent on someone sighted, the two of them grow closer and closer. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life.
But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn’t meet traditional definitions of beauty—in fact, everything he’d heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together.
Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?
Love and First Sight is a young adult standalone romance by Josh Sundquist. This is the first novel I have read by Mr. Sundquist and I was so delighted by it. I immediately fell in love with the main character Will. I found him to be hilarious, bright and so personable. And his story was fresh, engaging and totally heartfelt. Love and First Sight made me think. What would I do in Will’s position? I honestly have no idea, but I loved that Josh Sundquist completely made me step into Will’s shoes and give that question some thought.
Will was born completely blind, and our story starts in high school when he is first attempting to mainstream into a normal high school. I loved watching his interactions with everyone on his first day. He cracked me up right from the first page. I really enjoyed Cecily and all of Will’s other friends as well, but Will was the star of this show for me. I was totally enamored with him and his story. In a way I haven’t been in a while. I loved the idea behind Love and First Sight. Will gets a crush on Cecily, and then he has an operation that allows him to have eyesight. Cecily isn’t what he expected. For me, I was soo curious to see what made Cecily stand out, and I thought it was very interesting with how Josh Sundquist decided to handle her appearance. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all.
The romance was very cute, but the most intriguing part of the story was watching Will, and his experiences, day in and day out. I also loved that Love and First Sight made me think about things I had never thought about before. Like the fact that some people who have had successfully gained eyesight after total blindness experience depression or even wish to go back to being blind. That fascinated me.
Bottom line: Love and First Sight is a truly unique young adult contemporary romance, and I can’t remember the last time I said that about this genre. I loved this book. Pain and simple. Will will capture your heart and will have you seeing and thinking about the world in a new light. I was so impressed with this book. I can’t wait for Josh Sundquist’s next novel. This is an author to watch out for.
Love and First Sight by @JoshSundquist is a 'truly unique YA contemporary romance' @TheNovl see why in @BookBriefs #Review Click To Tweet
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
danielle hammelef
You’ve made me want to read this book. I am also fascinated by “seeing” the world therough the eyes of a character who was born blind so everything is new.
Shelly W
I have not heard of this book or author. Looks good. Thank you for the review. I am not much of a YA reader but this review makes me want to read this story.
sam
I loved this book so much for many of the reasons you stated: so funny, loved Will, and I found it so enlightening. Great review!
Olivia Roach
This sounds like such a brilliant story! I’m adding it to my TBR right now! I absolutely love the sound of reading and enjoying this one. There arent enough YA romances with male main characters, for starters. And then with Will being completely blind – another factor that is unique and would make the story interesting! Can’t wait to read it; thanks for introducing it to me x
Victoria
Really great review! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Penny Olson
This book is new to me, and after reading your review, I want to read it. Love and First Sight looks thought provoking.