Love and First Sight: Review and Giveaway

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Title: LOVE AND FIRST SIGHT

Author: Josh Sundquist

Pub. Date:January 3, 2017

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 281

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads

 

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?

 

Review:

I had not ever read a book that dealt with blindness before but Josh Sundquist has such a way with words that I found myself swept away in this story. I rated this story as 4 stars based on my enjoyment after finishing. There were a few things that kept me from giving a higher rating: the pacing was a little off and I personally felt some of the decisions the characters made could have been expanded on to help develop the story more. Yet, overall, I really enjoyed the world Josh created. To read such a heartwarming story about someone with a disability caused me to open my eyes (no pun intended). I now have a new way of thinking about people who are born blind. I would highly encourage this book to others.

About Josh:

Internationally-Known Motivational Speaker

Josh Sundquist is a bestselling author, motivational speaker, and Paralympic ski racer. He has spoken across the world to groups ranging from Fortune 500 companies to inner city public schools to the White House.

Cancer Survivor

At age nine, Josh was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and given a fifty percent chance to live. He spent a year on chemotherapy treatments and his left leg was amputated. Doctors declared Josh cured of the disease at age thirteen and he took up ski racing three years later.

Paralympic Athlete

He trained for the next six years and in 2006 he was named to the US Paralympic Ski Team for the 2006 Paralympics in Turino, Italy. Today, Josh represents the United States in international competition as a member of the U.S. Amputee Soccer Team.

Bestselling Author

Josh’s first memoir, Just Don’t Fall, was a National Bestseller in hardcover and is now available in paperback and audiobook. It was been translated into German and is also available in an Australia/New Zealand edition, for which, as it turns out, no translation was required. His second memoir We Should Hang Out Sometime, which is about his adolescent dating disasters, is under development to become a movie. His debut novel Love and First Sight will be published in 2017.

YouTube personality

Best known for his viral hit “The Amputee Rap,” Josh has built a YouTube channel with over 25 million views and two-hundred-thousand subscribers. In 2010 he was a winner of both the YouTube NextUp and YouTube On The Rise contests.

Service

Josh served a two-year tenure as the National Spokesperson for the Combined Federal Campaign, an effort that raises over $300 million dollars a year for charities. He has been featured on the back of Doritos bags nationwide for his work on behalf of amputees.

Media

Josh has been featured on CNN, USA TODAY, and NPR, and in many other less-famous and important sounding media outlets.

Education

Josh received a degree in business from the College of William and Mary and a Master’s in Communications from the University of Southern California. He lives with his wife near the beach.

Introducing Josh at a speech? Need a photo or bio for your conference program? You’ll find everything you need over at Meeting Planner Resources.

YouTube | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Snapchat | Instagram |Goodreads

 

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of LOVE AND FIRST SIGHT, US Only.

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Rafflecopter Link:

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Tour Schedule:

Week One:

2/6/2017- BookHounds YA– Interview

2/7/2017- A Gingerly Review– Review

2/8/2017- Actin’ Up with Books– Guest Post

2/9/2017- The Hardcover Lover– Review

2/10/2017- A Dream Within A Dream– Guest Post

Week Two:

2/13/2017- Eli to the nth– Review

2/14/2017- Literary Meanderings– Interview

2/15/2017- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review

2/16/2017- Wandering Bark Books– Guest Post

2/17/2017- Just Commonly– Review