Josh Sundquist

In his debut novel, YouTube personality and author of We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sundquist explores the nature of love, trust, and romantic attraction. 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 charming, quiet girl named Cecily. 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? Told with humor and breathtaking poignancy, Love and First Sight is a story about how we related to each other and the world around us.

Love and First Sight

Nico N.

Will Potter has been blind his whole life, when he finds out about an experimental operation that could make him see it makes him ecstatic, but with his new friends, and budding romance, as well as the complications that could occur, it may make the transition from complete blindness to site much harder.

All in all I didn't care about the characters. The mother was annoying, Will was only slightly better then an actual teenage boy, and the rest of the characters were just there. I didn't care about the friendship group that he developed, I feel like I could count on one hand how many times he and the others interacted properly before the end of the book. Cecily was a bit different, on the front that she was the love interest and so there had to be multiple scenes with just her, but even then I could only like her slightly more then the other characters.
I am glad that the author took the time to explain the healing factor that was involved, unlike several other pieces of media who just magically cure the protag. So props for that. I can't say anything about good disabled rep, as the disability I have is different to the main characters, but I can tell it was researched and not just slapped on the page like it can be.

The writing was fast pace, It probably helped that the author didn't have to write visuals for over half of the book, as I noticed a lot of times before the surgery, it would go form dialog to dialog instead of including other things that would clog this story, left us as visionless as the main character sometimes, even after he had the surgery there was still this effect.

Over all I think the writing was either lacking or the book could have been longer. I get why people think around 300-450 to be the sweet spot for romance books.

sydney

I have read We Should Hangout Sometime and I loved it. Josh has a very captivating way of telling a story. I did not know how that would transfer to telling a fictional story. It transferred wonderfully.

It was a cute story like most romances set in high school. You could tell where it was going, but you still wanted to read it to see how it happens. The book was well written and I can't wait to see what Josh will write next.

Ley Stanton

do yourself a favor, read this book.
first off, the descriptions were absolutely beautiful because they show you a new perspective on the world. being blind is not just about not being able to see, especially if you are born blind. its about literally not knowing what anything looks like, you only have your touch, smell, and hearing to tell you about the world. that changes everything.
second, the characters in this felt so real. they had flaws, they made normal mistakes. they texted with emojis and made stupid puns. but they were real friends who said stupid things and actually apologized later on.
this book showed me what ya contemporaries would look like if the authors had actual teenagers in mind when they wrote the book. your first relationship won't be perfect but that doesn't mean things won't work out. no, the blind don't normally get their sight back. no, parents aren't just going to let you go cross-country on a whim to see your kinda-girlfriend because you had a fight. but that didn't make me love this book any less.
honestly, i texted a bunch of people after i finished them raving about the book because its so uncommon for me to enjoy a ya contemporary and i just wanted all of them to read it too. so, please, go read this.

Nadine 

I have a whole group of teens who will really like this young neuro-romance with a "born-blind" protagonist. It will fit in nicely with their brain unit. The story was interesting, particularly the way it made things more understandable from the sight-impaired viewpoint. It made me reconsider things like silent electric cars, using objects to explain objects etc.
Thinking of Oliver Sacks works on blindness and brain wiring this story's time compression didn't ring true, nor did the lack of guiding therapy for the post-operative days. But it would probably be a good launch point for further investigation and research.

In his debut novel, YouTube personality and author of We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sundquist explores the nature of love, trust, and romantic attraction. 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 charming, quiet girl named Cecily. 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? Told with humor and breathtaking poignancy, Love and First Sight is a story about how we relate to each other and the world around us.

Lauren Attaway

In one sentence, I would describe this book as "An interesting twist on a traditional teen romance novel."

At the start of the novel, the main character Will explains that he was born blind and now wants to attend a traditional high school instead of the school for blind he has always attended. He starts the new high school and over time he becomes friends with Cecily, a girl who it is obvious to the reader has a startling physical trait of some kind. Not to give away any spoilers, Will eventually learns about a surgery that may offer him the chance to see, and he also learns what Cecily would not want him to see about her. 

This is a very straightforward teen love story with a dash of blindness education thrown in. I would recommend this book, as it taught me a lot of tidbits about visual impairment that I think most people don't really even think about. I'd bookmark it for romance readers/teenagers. 

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Tiffany Engler

This book kind of didn't go the way I thought it would. But then again, it kind of did. If that makes any sense at all?

Will is exactly like how I imagined him. He's witty and can take jokes about being blind. He's also misunderstood by most because he is blind. He's very underestimated. 

He decides to go to a mainstream school to help him basically become a mainstream teenager. He doesn't want to go to school with the blind anymore. He wants to blossom out into the world.

It goes the way he wants, for the most part. He makes new friends and even an almost girlfriend. 

Cecily is not who his friends said she was. They didn't quite explain to him about her looks correctly. They intentionally left out one major thing.

From the synopsis, I thought he would have freaked out more than he did. I honestly thought looks were going to be really important to him.

I should have known better. I think that's why the synopsis is a bit misleading.

I feel like this book could have been better. Especially after he gets his surgery. It was kind of slow paced and pretty boring at times.

I loved the idea of the book though!!

Becca Futrell

Maybe I should just give up on reading YA Contemporaries, because they rarely make it past three-stars for me. 

I just.. -- I don't like Will, the main character. I thought I did! But as the story progressed, he ended up annoying me more & more. Lately, I feel as if I've become way too nit-picky on books, but I truly felt like this one had some issues & I just couldn't deal with them.

marinda 

This was one of those books that I wasn't really expecting anything life changing from. Boy, was I wrong. You never truly realize what you have until you read from the perspective of someone who lacks the thing. Things seem brighter to me now. I have a different, more appreciative perspective (for lack of a better word). It was a fairly quick read, but definitely worth it.

Jessica Nottingham

I first discovered Josh Sundquist by reading his memoir, and giggling the entire way through it. I'm not generally a non-fiction reader, but I devoured that book. That meant that when I found out that Sundquist had written a YA book, I knew I had to read it. I couldn't wait to see how his wit and honesty translated to a fiction novel.

First off, I have to give credit where credit is due. It's very obvious from the first few pages of this story that Sundquist did a tremendous amount of research on visual impairment, and worked hard to make sure that he was accurately portraying Will's day to day routine. Pair that with a lovingly crafted character, complete with Sundquist's signature wit, and you have a story that is a joy to read. I fell in love with Will, and the rest was history.

When the experimental surgery came into the picture, I found myself riveted. Everything was described in intricate detail, but it never felt overbearing. Instead, I found myself in the same situation as Will. Wondering if the surgery would be worth it, cheering him on when he was doing well, and lamenting with him when things weren't going well. His parents were so wonderfully supportive, if a little over involved at times, and there was this whole aura of growth and love to this book. It was a happy place to be.

Even if the friendship turned romance hadn't been a main portion of this book, I would have still loved it. Still, I couldn't help but fall for the slow growth of Cecily and Will's relationship. Cecily's acceptance of Will, her ability to open things up for him with wonderful analogies, tugged at my heart strings. I knew that fight was imminent, and of course I was right. What is YA without teenage tension? Still, it all felt so perfect. Not a single sentence of this book felt out of place. It all worked to build up Will, and show how amazing a person he was.

I'd highly recommend this for your reading list! If it's not there already, it's well worth a second look.

Love and First Sight

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