Sadly this book just didn’t grab as much as I hoped it would. I put it down and picked it up multiple times but I just couldn’t connect with it. Super bummed.

This book is unlike what I usually read. Two enjoyable characters find love even in a really hard situation.

It was completely eye opening to read about his disability and what it felt like to experience it. Since this was written by someone who hasn't' experienced this disability, I found myself questioning how accurate any of this was.

Was it supposed to be that sad? I really thought it was going to be more happy-go-lucky, but it turned out be way more sad than I knew I was getting into. Every time i picked up this book, I felt a weight on me. This is by no means going to take off a star, because I also admit I don't usually read books like this.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Will was born blind. He doesn't know life any different. But when he decides to step outside his comfort zone he leaves his blind school and goes to a public school.

While at the school he encounters a great group of friends but especially a girl Cecily. Cecily hasn't had great luck in the friend field let alone in the boyfriend field.

Cecily and Will form a great friendship that could turn into something more until Will has the option to get vision.

This book hooked me so dang quick and I flew through the book so fast. I love Will and all his friends. I love seeing the confidence that Cecily gained after being around Will. It is just all around a great novel.

I realized this wasn't a book that would work for me before I downloaded it. Clearing out my backlog of Archived, Not Downloaded.

I thought the book was engaging and insightful telling the story of Will a blind 16 yr old who wants the mainstream experience of attending a regular school instead of a blind school. Of course there is the HS crazy experience on top of being blind. Will becomes friends with Cecily and loves everything about her, but there are all kinds of whisperings behind his back which he thinks has to do with him. He has the opportunity of getting his sight through an experimental surgeries. If he gets his sight, what will he think of Cecily. Quick read! Liked the author's writing style as we get to see the sarcastic inner thoughts of Will which were funny at times. Great perspective of how sighted people treat blind people and how blind people navigate through life.

I'm not sure why I didn't include my review of this book when I first read it years ago but I didn't for some reason. :-( I love the premise and the precise description of Will's struggles to adjust to having sight. As someone who has vision it seems like being able to see would just be amazing and desirable so having that other perspective presented gives the reader something to think about.

Love should be blind after all.

Will was born blind, but determined to lead a ''normal'' life, he transfers to a regional high school and makes new friends proving that personality wins over disabilities. He then meets Cecily and falls in love. But can Will's miraculous eye surgery change his feelings for her, once he discovers that she is disfigured and failed to mention it?

I enjoyed how much the author researched on both the surgery and facing life with a sight disability. There were numerous things that I did not consider, the constant color comparisons that Will's friends would give him for instance, as well as, the process of the transplant. Instead of instalove, the author paced the story properly to allow both characters to fall in love.

Highly recommended.

Thank you so much to netgalley for sending me a copy of this book. I loved josh’s first book and was so excited to read this book. I fou s if to be so inspirational and you could really connect with the characters!

This book was charming and sweet, but never accomplished much more than that. I enjoyed the characters minus a few gross comments about women towards the beginning. The problem was this book never got much deeper than a surface level with the issues it dealt with. If it had been longer and able to delve more deeply into issues and conflicts it would have been a much richer story.

What made me pick this book up:
Jenn had it on audio and I had previously read "We Should Hang Out Sometime" by him and really enjoyed it. So I figured I'd check this one out too.

What did I like about the cover:
I really like the colors. But that's about it. I know it's supposed to be simple and all, and it's cute. But I would have liked to see a little more.

What made me read this book:
I needed it for a challenge, I don't remember which one now because this was a month ago. Oops. Anyway. Like I said above I had read his other book and decided this one might be good too.

What did I like the most:
I absolutely loved this book. Almost everything. Just about everything.

Let's start with the characters.
Will was just okay. I understand he's had a hard life with being blind since birth, and he has a lot of expectations about this experimental surgery. And I respect him for the most part. He has had it hard. If I was blind I don't know what I'd do. So for the most part he was likable. Except for what I'll mention below I didn't have anything against him.

Cecily. I love Cecily. She's very sweet and I see a lot of me in her. She's shy, self conscious, smart, and a photographer. She spends most of her time behind a camera.

I love his new friends, they're super geeky and have a good sense of humor.

I also love his parents. They seem like they really want what's best for Will, even if they are a little... naive? I guess. They try too hard sometimes and treat him like he's fragile.
And that's something I really like is through the book you can see how his mom grows into understanding who he is and allowing him to be more independent. By the end of the book you're like wow she really great.

The pace is done well, it's fast paced and a short quick read, but it really packs a punch I think. Even with it being short it has a lot in it that I feel is really important.

The humor in this is amazing. It's a really dry and self deprecating humor just like his NF book is. You can tell it's the same author the whole book.

I felt really happy while reading this book. I was rooting for Will and rooting for Will and Cecily together.

What didn't I like:
At one point he gets mad at his friend for not telling him about something. Something that shouldn't be a big deal but he makes this HUGE deal out of it. He acts like it was a personal attack against him. I just find it really petty, immature, and super annoying. I kept thinking dude just get over it the whole time.

He acts like he doesn't want people to treat him differently or that he can do all this stuff even though he's blind, and that's great. Except that at the same time he throws fits a lot and acts like people should treat him differently because he's blind. It feels like he wants it both ways and that just can't happen.

But that's really it.

Oh and in the synopsis it says that his friends lied to get them together and that's not really what happens.

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
Yepp.

Overall this book was awesome. Great humor, good characters, good pace.

I have tried to read this title at least four times, but never find myself engaging with it in a way that made me finish it. It seems like it will be enjoyable for the right audience, but that is not me.

*ARC received by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book! It is written for a YA audience, but touches on themes that were fascinating and very mature in a way.

The premise of the story is that a 16yo boy, born blind, has to decide if he’d like to take part in an experimental surgery which may give him partial or full sight. He’s comfortable in his own skin, rather independent and his other senses are sharp. If he has the surgery, it comes with so many risks!!!

As a sighted person, it is difficult to grasp the reality of what it would mean for a person born blind to imagine life the way we see it. They don’t understand colors, shapes, letters, visual perspective or on and on....

The author did an AMAZING job putting the reader in the shoes of Will, and making you think..... what would I do if faced with his choice?!?!

I really did not like this book’s treatment of disability and difference. The male lead character was so jerky and immature at times that it was difficult to line him, let alone care about him. Not my favorite for sure.

I really enjoyed this book, I like Sundquist's sense of humor that he puts in his novels as it really does make you like the story and the characters more.

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

Honestly, I had no idea what this was about and expected a cute romance from the cover. And it did have a cute romance, but that was not what this book was about. The protagonist, Will, is blind and has decided to mainstream into a school for sighted, which is a daunting task since he's gone to a school for the blind for his school career.

I thought Love and First Sight was short and sweet. I liked Will and his attitude on life, even things were going tough for him. I appreciated how real his relationship with his parents was, and the togetherness they had. I already liked all the friends he made, and how they were all unique, but a great group. The love interest was also a friend first, before anything, and it was great to see their relationship grow.

I really thought this book was great, there wasn't anything I didn't love about it and enjoyed the story thoroughly. I highly recommend it to contemporary lovers, especially if you are looking for something a little different, that doesn't shove the romance in your face.

In Love and First Sight Will Porter, who has been blind since birth, decides he wants to be mainstreamed at a new high school and learn to live in the sighted world. Told exclusively from Will's point of view, the reader navigates the challenges with him as he is bullied, develops friendships and ultimately falls in love. When he is given the opportunity to undergo a dangerous surgical procedure that may restore his sight, he is conflicted, but proceeds. The depiction of the recovery process is heart-wrenching in its detail and leads the reader to understand Will may be better off blind. The slow painful process and uncertainties about his recovery, as well as his disorientation as his sight returns, are not something one would expect to read about in a YA novel. Any time a seemingly simple decision is revealed to be anything but, it gives readers an opportunity to think about what they would do in the main character's place. The author, Josh Sundquist, (We Should Hang Out Sometime) is a ParaOlympian and motivational speaker, who is no stranger to adversity. He survived cancer and the amputation of his leg at age thirteen and is the first person to be named to the US Paralympian Ski Team and the US Amputee Soccer Team.

This book was extremely cute, and I loved every minute of it!

Love and First Sight is a very fast read. I flew through it in a day, because every time I reached a new chapter I simply had to know what was going to happen next. It isn't even that this novel is action-packed or filled with plot twists; the characters and what they're going through was just so interesting, I couldn't get enough of it.

Will is transitioning at school where he's the only one without sight. I've always had the greatest respect for how the visually impaired navigate a world that isn't really attuned to their talents. Will can easily memorize routes through school, how many steps and turns it takes to get him from one close to another, but if someone was guiding him for instance they wouldn't realize he can't orient himself by visual landmarks.

I loved how not everyone in the book knows how to handle Will, because it isn't a glossed-over representation of his life. People fail at explaining things to him because they compare one visual to another when he has no reference for either. They don't understand why he can't simply imagine colors. But he finds himself a great group of friends who, though they make mistakes, keep pushing toward a better understanding of Will.

The interesting concept here--that an experimental surgery could potential restore someone's sight--completely captivated me. Will's thoughts are an emotional turmoil and it's easy to follow his progression from elation, to uncertainty, and worry. Will's been blind his entire life, so to think that could all change completely rocks the foundation of his world.

I can't wait to read more by this author! His writing was very light and fun, a good counterbalance to the heavy topics here. I can't recommend this book enough.

This book did not blow me over with its story or its writing, but there was something comforting about reading it. I think it was the humorous touches that made me interested.

This book gives a good idea about living with a disability with the clever twist about what beauty in the eye of the beholder is really about. Told with touches of humor and romance, this book will give thought to all who read it. Well done.