Love And First Sight by Josh Sundquist

Love And First Sight ARC Review

Shoutout to HBG Canada for providing me this ARC copy in return for an honest review!

Rating: 3.5/5

Summary:

     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.

Thoughts:

     Before asking for a review copy of this book, I honestly thought the title was Love At First Sight, but it was actually Love And First Sight. Ergo, when I was reading the summary, I don't know where my mind was at but apparently it was in lala-land. So when I started reading, I got really confused at first, and I had to go back and reread the summary. So that was a great start. 

     This wasn't what I expected the book to be. It's a refreshing book for me because the POV is new and I haven't read a book quite like it. Yes it's contemporary and it's bound to be romance, but it was really cool being able to have a bit of knowledge about what it's like to be visually impared. I think that Mr Sundquist did a good job in interpreting it and it made it easier to understand. While reading this book, it really changed my perspective on things and it made the wheels on my head spin and more aware. Throughout the book, I was able to know what it's like to be in Will's head. I think that this is an important piece of the book that made it all come together. 

     I love Will's brain. I really do. He has a great sense of humour and despite his situation, he makes the best of it. His relationship with Cecily started in the wrong foot, but the more they spent time together getting to know what it's like in each other's minds and understanding one another, it just got better and better. The pace was going well and it paid off especially when he was able to see for the very first time and it was just so emotional (for me at least) and it felt like I was able to experience being able to see for the first time as well. Although I'm contempt with the ending, I really want more insight to what happens next in Will's life. Still, I enjoyed reading it and I want to be able to read more books like this in the future, because it is interesting, educating (if the author does it very well) and it gives importance to friendship, trust and the sense of belonging and having that connection with someone. 

Ugly Love, by Colleen Hoover Review

Ugly Love, Colleen Hoover 

Rate: 5/5
Summary:

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she knows it isn’t love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.
Never ask about the past.

Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.

Promises get broken.

Rules get shattered.

Love gets ugly.

Thoughts:

     Everyone knows my love for Colleen Hoover book, if not, then I'm letting you know now. This book did not disappoint. It went straight to the point and into my heart... Then it broke my heart, and fixed it, then broke it again. I felt so many emotions all at once I didn't even know it was possible. Miles Freaking Archer is a whole new category of book boyfriend. My emotions were so mixed up because I was really happy with him and rooting for him, then he does something that completely makes me mad that I almost feel like he did it to me rather than to Tate. 

     Tate and Miles' relationship started off as that typical relationship in books where the MCs make a deal where they sleep together and somehow not get attached (well we all know that that never really works out). Basically, Tate is staying with her brother Corbin, for a short amount of just enough to have enough saved up to buy her own apartment while attending school and doing her residency. That is when she meets one of her brother's pilot friend, Miles. They obviously become attracted together, but they never really acted on it until Miles joined Tate's family for Thanksgiving. Things go up and down from here but they eventually end up together (no surprise here).

     The book is told through both Tate and Miles' POV. This usually isn't something to make a big deal out of because some books do it as well, but it's a different case for this story. This is  because while Tate is telling her part of the story, the format of the text is written normally, compared to when Miles writes 

        his part of the story does 

       the writing style and

       format change.

     Just like
      this.

     In addition, Tate's POV focuses on the present and what's currently happening between her and Miles, meanwhile his is about his past with Rachel.
     Before everything with Tate, Miles fell in love with a girl named Rachel. However, their relationship was an odd one. They met at the school office and from the moment Miles saw Rachel, he knew she was special. But all that was crushed when they found out that their parents were also seeing each other, making them step siblings of sort. Still, the attraction between them won and they ended up together. Obviously their parents had a hard time with this, but somehow still supported them (this part kind of weirded me out but Colleen made it somewhat acceptable in a way). Rachel got pregnant and Miles was over the moon about it even though it scared him. They had the baby, but on the way home, they got into the accident and they fell over the bridge. Miles couldn't save both the baby and Rachel, so the baby ended up dying. This event broke Miles and Rachel moved away after this. Miles has a very complicated past which is why it was hard for him to take the leap with Tate since he truly did start to develop feelings for her enough to actually want her, but he had lost so much that he was scared to lose Tate too. I understood where he was coming from. He was scared that if he did let himself truly love Tate, she would disappear just like his first child did.
     Tate is a tough girl, I don't think I would've stayed with someone like Miles, especially if I end up being burned over and over again. I couldn't decide whether she was stupid, brave or just madly in love with miles, maybe all of the above. When they had the deal, Tate was just letting Miles use her as a distraction, and she was well aware of that but didn't do anything about it. It pissed me off because she was spineless and she deserved better, but then when she realised that he won't return her feelings until he gets over his problem, she moved on. I think that that was the tipping point for the both of them. Despite the fact that it was hard, she still did it. I also found myself feeling for her, because those moments when Miles just completely shut off took a hit on her. 

     On to the good parts of the book that made me cry so much. First of all, Miles confused me ( I'm practically repeating myself here .. oops)  because 80% of the book, I was rooting for him, then the 20% was me crying because he broke my heart so many times because he was being a jerk. I couldn't even imagine what it must've felt like to have those events happen to you. His first love was kind of out of the ordinary, but dang he would've been a perfect father, no matter the circumstances. But then there were times where his actions were just unacceptable. No matter what his reasons were, Tate did not deserve it. I am talking about THE SCENE WHERE THEY (Tate and Miles) WERE DOING IT AND HE WAS LIKE "OH MY GOSH, RACHEL" IN FRONT OF TATE!!!!! THAT SCENE KILLED ME. NO MATTER HOW MUCH I TRIED TO HOLD THE DAMN WATERFALLS BACK I COULDN'T SO I WAS LITERALLY A HUGE SOBBING MESS. And then there was that other time where HE FINISHED AND HE JUST LEFT HER THERE IN THE COUNTER AND WALKED IN HIS ROOM WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING TO HER AND SLAMMED THE DOOR. I was so mad at him during this time too. But then he redeemed himself in the end by showing up at Tate's new apartment right after getting punched by Corbin :') .
     One of my favorite parts of the book was Cap. He's so wise and clever that I wish he was my grandpa. I have a weakness with old people, they just seem so precious and fragile.
     I also liked the part where Miles's style of writing changed when his POV also changed to the present and normal format and how it changed again to how it used to be every time he talked about Rachel when their kid (Sam) was born. It shows that he was finally in love all over again ( even though he was already in love with Tate, but in an even higher level).  

                          Overall, I loved this book and I
                                  Totally encourage you 
                                                          To read it because
                                  It is AMAZING
          And I know that you 
          Will fall 
IN      
        LOVE