I felt this was clearly a book of two halves - like the author had changed her mind about the book's direction halfway through.

Nell meets Charlie, a handsome Irish guy in a coffee shop and the book follows their relationship.

However, Charlie is suicidal following the death of his wife and Nell works for the mental health help line that he ends up calling.

The first half of the book was really slow moving and seemed to be an attempt at a romance, with lingering looks and agonising over when he's going to call back. However, the second half of the book picks up when the author stops trying to push the romance agenda and focuses on their friendship, character building and touching the themes of grief and mental health issues.

I preferred the author's first book.

What a beautifully poignant story of love, loss, and coping.

"Thank you for giving me something to hope for, something to smile about."

The premise and set up of this story was intriguing and somewhat unique to this reader. I thoroughly enjoyed Nell and knew instantly there was something more to Charlie, as frustrating as he was.

"Never let anyone make you work for something that makes you feel less than you are."

Their relationship had a lot of hurdles, and a lot of growth.

"This was going to be it. A second chance at the moment he'd screwed up before."

Overall, I was enraptured by their journey. My heart broke for Charlie and Nell could easily have been a friend.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy.

At First Sight by Hannah Sunderland appears to be your typical boy-meets-girl novel but it is quickly clear that this is not a common romance. What begins as a sweet and awkward first meeting is followed by a chance encounter, leaving the reader intrigued. With believable characters and charming dialogue, Sunderland engages her audience and creates a believable chemistry between her two main characters. Unfortunately, by the time key revelations are made, the reader is left with a very real feeling that the relationship has taken an unhealthy turn. A lovely relational start begins to veer into uncharted waters as one character reveals an emotional trauma and the other attempts to fill in the pieces. Although touching on important subjects like grief, mental health, love and friendship - the reader is left with a sense of dissatisfaction in the end. Overall well written but not a book this reader will be adding to her library.

At First Sight was an emotional read by Hannah Sunderland. Charlie and Nell and meet in a coffee shop, but then again when he calls Nell at work, and reveals he is fighting for his life. This novel will make you feel the power of grief, compassion, and second chances.
Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel.

The trigger warnings in this book did not bother me and I found Nell and Charlie to be intriguing characters with their own complications. However, this book moved too slow for me and I could not get into. Just ok for me. Still recommended for other readers though. Liked the cover too.

Thanks to Netgalley, Hannah SUnderland and Avon books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 4/1/21

ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.
At First Sight is full of drama. This is a slow burn romance but yet not a romance. There really wasn't any romantic elements between the two main characters. They were "in love" with each other and the story goes into depth detail as to how their tale plays out. This was not a winner for me and I doubt I'd read it again.

This book definitely isn’t your typical romance, but that is something that I actually liked about it. There is a lot of character growth and development throughout the book. This book deals with some tough subjects (see the Trigger warning), but I believe the author did it in such a tasteful way.

There is definitely more of a focus on the friendship of Charlie and Nell and their own healing than there is romance in this book. But I thought that worked for this one. I was really rooting for both Charlie and Nell in this book, I loved both of these characters.

My only downside to this one was that it wasn’t really grabbing my attention as much as a I would have hoped, especially in the beginning of the book. Once I got about halfway through, I had a harder time putting it down.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two strangers meet by chance but they never exchange numbers or surnames. However they end up connecting again, cause one of them needs help from the other person.

It was a quirky love story that deals with loss and grief through one of the main characters. There were parts that were funny and other ones that were emotional. I enjoyed the writing style and felt a connection with both of the main characters. It was thought-provoking read about falling in love and dealing with some heavy real stuff.

What I didn't like and why I only gave it 3⭐ it's because first I didn't find the love story between the main characters strong and explosive enough. And second, cause at moments it felt that all the situations in which the characters coincidentally were running into each other felt too unrealistic.

Overall it was an interesting enough read for me to binge it in a day. It has its imperfections but it's a good enough romance read.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

At First Sight dives into some pretty deep and dark topics. It does take a while to do so but it is definitely eye opening to see what the characters go through throughout this book. In it, you will meet Nell and Charlie. Both seem to be barely moving in their lives.. at least until they met each other.

I'm not going to say that their romance was easy because it honestly wasn't. These two go through a lot of ups and downs. Whether it's romantically tied to them or just tied to their lives in general. Again, it was really eye opening to see what they went through and how they handled it.

I honestly wasn't expecting so much drama in this book but I wasn't really surprised either. Ya know? From previous reviews on this book, I could see that people weren't happy due to not getting trigger warnings. Me? I'm okay with it all because it was an experience I wanted. Each and every character had some healing to do and it was just really cool to see it happening. Especially when you see certain characters at their lowest point. I just hoped that each and every one of them found happiness in something or someone.

They deserved it. Truly.

In the end, I am a little intrigued by what the answer was.. but I would be okay with any kind of adventure.

An incredible story of navigating depression, grief, loss, love, friendship. I loved how this was not your conventional love story - real-life ones never are.

Although the main storyline was very sensitive, this was told in such a thoughtful and delicate way.

As someone who writes about mental illness in my own books, I can't recommend this novel enough. Yes, this could be triggering, especially for people who are struggling with depression and the loss of a loved one, but there's a warning at the beginning of the book (which I greatly appreciated).

What I loved so much about this book was that it isn't just a typical romance. There's a deeper level to the characters and what they're experiencing emotionally. Like the summary says, this book definitely has similar elements to The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, and I appreciated the emotional journey we got to go on. This is my favorite type of romance novel, and I'll definitely be following Sunderland's career going forward.

The premise of this book was so intriguing, and the story truly delivered. Chances and fate fuel this story, but in a way that is idyllic rather than unrealistic. It was heartwarming and a joy to read.

When you take a look at the cover of this book, you think that it’s going to be a really sweet romcom. That’s what I thought when I started reading it. But it’s so much more than that. At First Sight is such a heartwarming story. I loved that it touched on real life topics and real life scenarios that people find themselves in or feeling. It made it that much better for me when I felt like I could relate to what they were both going through. All in all, I loved it and will definitely be recommending this to everyone.

This was a cute story. I was happy how their ending turned out. The characters were great. Their story was an unusual one but ended up great.

I enjoyed this heartwarming book. Well written and emotional read but life enhancing.

Nell meets Charlie - an unemployed widower - at her local cafe. He blamed himself for his wife’s death two years before and has yet to come to terms with life without her. Nell counsels those who struggle with life - she falls in love with Charlie and tries to support him with his grieving process. But the time is not right for their relationship. Both have to evaluate what they want from life and see whether it includes each other in the longer term.

One I will be recommending.

This was one of those books I couldn't put down right up until the very end . Nell works for a mental health helpline and enjoys helping people in trouble. Nell's love life is not running smoothly and she's having problems in breaking away from her ex.
One day when she is in the coffee shop on her lunch break she finds the only empty seat left and starts chatting to the man across from her. She has a natural rapport with Charlie and is instantly attracted to him. She fails to pluck up courage to ask him for his phone number and when she returns to the coffee shop he has already left.
This story is about grief, loss and starting again. It's about wanting to leave this life because you can see no way to be happy in it. It's also about fate and the strange coincidences that happen in life.
Nell is a kind, considerate person and I worried about her attraction to someone who was a long way from having the same feelings as she did. I could understand why she liked Charlie so much but I wasn't sure how it would all end .
I loved Ned who was always there for Nell and always will be. The ending was very poignant and I admit I did shed a tear. I would love to read a sequel.

At First Sight is a gorgeous love story, full of chance encounters, opening up to strangers, and the desire to just take that leap and go for it.

Charlie and Nell make for an unlikely pair; she is confident and talkative, he is brooding and introverted. Yet despite that, sparks fly right from the very start and it's clear that these two are made for each other - but of course, things are never that simple!

As the story progresses, Nell finds out more and more about Charlie, his life and his past. It becomes apparent that he desperately needs help, and Nell is determined to do her best for this attractive Irishman who suddenly appeared in her life.

Packed with love and loss, grief and heartache, this is a story which embraces the difficult feelings many of us try to push aside. It's okay to be lonely, to feel scared and uncertain, and sometimes, reaching out and asking for help is the best thing we can do. At First Sight tackles mental health and the stigma around it, as well as coming to terms with losing those you care about more than anything. For all its sweet romance, this is a story that gives an important message.

It's all too easy to find yourself hoping for a happily ever after, but you will have to read it yourself to find out where Nell and Charlie's story takes them. The writing is compelling, the story real and honest, and this unlikely couple are sure to find a place in every reader's heart.

At First Sight is a beautifully written, unconventional love story about picking up the pieces and learning how to put them back together again.

I loved this!
Very unexpected considering that from the book cover i was expecting a cute romance but this book was so much more! I should have known considering that I was reading a piece of writing by Sunderland who had also surprised me earlier this year when I read her debut novel Very Nearly Normal.

First of, I would like to adress that I highly appreciated teh inclusion of content warning as this book deals with grief, loss, depression and suicide. I think more publishing houses should consider doing this as readers have clearly a need for it. That being said, I was sad to see some low ratings for At First Sight with the reason being that the readers where not prepared to read about these difficult subjects Sunderland writes about despite it being included in the very copy we received, AND receiving an extra email by the publisher about it after we got approved for this eArc.

Anyway, moving on to the story itself. I loved the characters and their development as well as Sunderland's ability to write about the above concepts in such a thoughtful, respectful and sensitive way. Incredible spot on and I wish more authors had the ability to do so when they decide to delve into such important issues. I also love her attention to detail on small everyday things we all do (well at least pre-Corona times). I selected the following quotes as examples:

'It looked as though I'd interrupted a deep thought which was lingering like fog on a wet autumn morning.'

'The messy bun sliding down the right side of my head like an icecream slipping from its cone on a hot day.'

'..and she wrapped herself up in these shawls and scarves like bandages, as she was trying to hold herself together with them.'

And of course, I am a sucker for Doctor Who references casually slipped in the conversation!!!

'Because I always found the Ood the sexiest of all Doctor Who creatures.'

And the inclusion of Irish characters was a definite PLUS as I love their dialect and, for me, made the conversations more lively.

I think I will be thinking about this book a lot and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is comfortable reading about such topics in such a down to earth way. I enjoyed every single one of the characters and I could really see this book being adapted for a movie. I think it is made for it and the screenwriters would have very little work to do to adjust it. I felt like watching a movie and it was awesome, tears and everything you know?

With her second piece of work that is At First SIght, Sunderland is definitely an auto-buy author for me. She needs much more attention than she has gotten so far and i hope for more people to discover her too!

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books for providing me with an eArc of At First Sight in exchange for an honest review.

SPOILERS ahead, proceed with caution!

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1. I want to know more about Charlie's uncle, Carrick, and Orlagh, the love of his life!!! A spin off maybe??
2. The twist about the bumber sticker made me cry so much!
3. Would also be great to have a sequel about Charlie and Nell in New Zealand!
4. I will never look at cold tea the same way again...

At First Sight by Hannah Sunderland an extraordinary five-star read. This will be one of those that will divide the audience, some will love it like me and feel it’s the best story they will read this year and some will hate it, and that’s as the author has taken on such an emotive subject, as it deals with suicide and mental health but wow they did it so well, I lost my farther to suicide and used to work on a charity helpline that wasn’t for suicide but had a couple of calls through of people on the edge and its such a fine line, you always wonder what could I have said different, what did they do once they hung up? Nell and Charlie have a moment and sometimes that is all you need, but as Charlie lost his wife, he is a lost man, how can he ever get over that loss, the suddenness of the death is what is most difficult to get over, how a moment can change your life in so many ways. So many moments to change the path we take. Sometimes its timing and sometimes its fate, if you are looking for thought provoking, challenging yet thoroughly enjoyable reading then you need this story in your life. I enjoyed this author’s debut novel, but this one has cemented my need to read more, I will be keeping a stalkery eye on for what we will get next.

This book was different to what I had expected, but notin a bad way. It is a love story with a difference.Quite slow moving but that works well in this case. Nell is a counsellor working at a telephone helpline charity. She is a bubbly personality most of the time, but has issues with her ex , Joel. She meets Charlie in a cafe and gradually they become friends though there are complications on the way.
At times sad, at times funny , the emtions in this book are well portrayed. As a reader, you understand what the characters are feeling and why. I don't know whether I would be able to come up with some of the solutions that Nell comes up with at different times in the book . You know that it is right, but when in that position you do not always follow the sensible course of action (emotions can get in the way) .
A thought provoking and intellegent story. I will look outfor more from this author .
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review .