Reviewed by Lesley

TITLE:  Love at First Swipe

AUTHOR: Andrew Grey

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 102 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 4, 2024

BLURB:

Darby Wright has fought for his independence ever since he lost his sight as a child. But even now that he has his own home and a good job, his overprotective mother doesn’t believe he can handle himself. Darby’s determined to prove her wrong, but there are some things—like finding his guide dog’s potty accident—where an extra set of eyes would come in handy.

Enter See For Me, an app that connects blind clients with sighted volunteers. See For Me is designed for just this sort of emergency, and it’s through this app that Darby meets Reynaldo. Lust at first voice turns to more when Darby and Reynaldo run into each other at a local sandwich shop, where Renaldo seems as nice in person as he was in app.

With Reynaldo, Darby can feel his world expanding. Reynaldo doesn’t just support him but understands him and sees Darby as more than his disability. But will being with Reynaldo mean giving up Darby’s hard-fought independence, or will it mean gaining something more than he ever dreamed?

REVIEW:

If you like Andrew Grey’s books, then you will definitely like this. It is a well written, happy story, which with having read so many angsty books of late was a welcome bit of lightness.

Darby is a young independent guy who creates the music and sound effects for video games. He is also blind. He has slept in late because has gotten to engrossed in his work the night before and Rex his very well-trained guide dog has had an accident. Bitter experience has taught him he can’t find the mess to clear it up by himself. He has an app called See For Me which will allow him to connect to a sighted volunteer who can guide him to the mess. The only issue is last time he used the app a very sexy sounding volunteer called Reynaldo helped him cook his dinner. What if Reynaldo is the person he is connected with this time? He will get all flustered. Guess what? After Reynaldo has helped him clear up, they get talking and it turns out they live relatively close and like the same pizza place. It’s still a surprise when they both end up there for Saturday lunch and Reynaldo recognises Darby and Rex from their calls.

Reynaldo is a middle school guidance counsellor and an all-round nice guy. The relationship between Derby & Reynaldo is not all one way. Darby is there for Reynaldo when he is having a hard time as much as Reynaldo is there for Darby.

I find with Andrew Grey’s books that even his shorter stories like this still have character development in them and you still get to find out about the main characters family and friends. Darby has a really overprotective Mum who actually turns up at his first date with Reynaldo after Darby’s best friend Chris tells her about it. Thankfully his Dad is a bit more reasonable, and Renaldo is not easily scared off.

This was a really sweet love story a bit like a warm hug, and the best thing is there is an app like this that really exists!!

RATING:

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