Love at First is about orphans and family, loyalty and betrayal, letting go and holding on. It’s about seeing (or not seeing) different perspectives.

At first. The novel opens with sight, and it’s easy to think that’s the point—Will’s love at first sight of Nora when they are young teenagers. Even though he couldn’t actually see her. He more heard her and felt her presence. After he looks up at her on the balcony and struggles to see her, it’s easy to think this is a story all about sight and seeing things clearly. But like the characters in the book, we learn it’s not about seeing clearly. It’s about seeing differently. A different perspective that heals two broken people.

There are so many different shifts in perspective throughout the story and among all the characters—a mixture of lovable and eccentric and delightful and funny family members (no one is actually related outside each apartment, but they become each other’s family, nonetheless). The characters come to see each other and themselves differently. The biggest change in perspective is how both Will and Nora come to see themselves through the trauma and grief that’s shaped them, and what they find is a home in one another. They learn, in the end, how to love one another without restraint because: “You don’t have to love the people the way you learned at first” (278).
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Yawn

Good bones, a few nice scenes, but mostly a bore. I’m not a big fan when books are all about a lightening strike of love and don’t really build up why / how people fall in love. I think the author did a slightly better job with the male friendship in the book than the romance but even that had a lot of unexplained leaps.

They also make a lot of references to the feud between the main characters but that’s hardly even a think except that the author tells you that it happened. It’s a blip. ( )

I absolutely adored our leads and their journey both individually and as a unit (LOL). Nora and Will are just how I like my leads to be aka not awful people! This story is about 2 people with differing opinions about a major issue and how they learn to navigate and find a compromise that works. It was done really charmingly and left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. The secondary characters were charming and full of life, and I will miss them all. I also vastly appreciate that there was no redemption of the truly awful (thankfully few) characters that cropped up.

A charming book which I enjoyed it immensely.

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the ARC ( )

I read this book because I was looking for another Kate Clayborn book. I also presumed this book came before Love Lettering, but now I think they might be standalones that just have similar covers?

The general premise that these two people who just get a glance of each other at a young age are somehow destined for each other I didn't love. It was interesting when they reflected on how things would have gone differently if they had actually met and interacted at that young age though. ( )

The community is what really makes this book shine. ( )