Quick Pick book review: Love and First Sight, by Josh Sundquist

• Opening lines: Vice Principal Larry Johnston extends his hand.
  
  To clarify: I don't see this. I hear the swish of his shirtsleeve.
• Reason I picked up the book: I'm a fan of YA novels, and this one sounded different since it focuses on a teen who has been blind since birth.
• And what's this book about?
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.
• Favorite paragraph: But if there's a chance I could gain eyesight, I mean, come on. Plenty of people go from sighted to blind. But how many people can say they've gone from blind to sighted? And how many details does most of the world take for granted, colors and shapes that I would be able to notice and appreciate? Normally, you learn to see for the first time as a baby and don't remember it. But getting eyesight for the first time as a teenager, when you can observe and remember every moment of the experience, that's much more than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It would be like winning the lottery. I could live a thousand lifetimes or a million lifetimes and not get the chance to try something as cool as that again.
• Recommended for: Anyone who likes YA stories, or stories about people overcoming obstacles.
• Something to know: The author, Josh Sundquist, is a YouTube star, although I've never seen his videos. Interestingly, he struggled with an ailment of his own - bone cancer - at age 13. Also, this was originally titled Sunrises Get All The Hype, but the name must have changed at some point to Love and First Sight, which I actually prefer.
• What I would have changed: Nothing. 
• Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
• Where can I find this book? Click here to pre-order - this book will be out on January 3, 2017.
  
  *Disclosure: I received a galley of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.