At First Sight by Catherine Hapka (Simon Romantic Comedies)

Description from Goodreads:

In At First Sight, when Lauren meets the perfect guy at the planetarium, she feels like the stars have finally aligned in her favor. The only problem is she met him in the dark and they never got a good look at each other… or got each other’s names.

Now, Lauren must take matters into her own hands and find the mystery guy before she loses him forever.

I was in the mood for one of those lighthearted, delightful little books with a cutesy premise and a swoon-worthy romance. Suffice to say, I didn't get exactly what I wanted.

At First Sight definitely has the cutesy premise down to pat. There's Lauren, the girl who constantly plays it safe, the one who perpetually lives in her effervescent best friend Britt's flirtatious shadow.

Then there's the mysterious cuter-than-cute guy wearing a Maybe There is a Beast shirt she spies across from her during the planetarium trip. During said trip, they have an insane connection and both of them know that this is the promise of something really special.

But oh my good gosh, they don't know each other's names! How will they find each other in that sea of fish? Simple! Facebook. Duh.

This came across as fresh at first. It came with some realistic teen dialogue, though some of the slang used got me a bit confused since I'm not exactly 'hip with the cool kids'. There were a couple of awkward bits but that's just a minor complaint.

The thing is, it got a bit tedious because of Lauren's internal conflict with the constant "No, I need to play it safe. Oh, but at the same time, I just want to break loose!" going on. Don't get me wrong, I'm cautious too, but I just thought this went on for far too long, the constant back and forth.

And what was the deal with Riley? I mean, I liked him, but I didn't really feel this supposed special connection. I was told about it, but it didn't make me feel it. And that twist at the end seemed very out of character--and very thickheaded of him too. By the end, I wasn't convinced; it was just too little, too late.

This book did have some redeeming qualities to it: I loved Lauren's parents, and I wish they could have been fleshed out a bit more. Britt, while typically boy-crazy, was a pretty nice character. And some of Riley's friends stood out because of their personalities.

Overall, I suppose it was a cute read at first that quickly turned tedious. Not exactly my type of romantic comedy, but there you go.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5