Farsighted

by Emlyn Chand

Farsighted Series, Book One

Book Description

Alex Kosmitoras’s life has never been easy. The only other student who will talk to him is the school bully, his parents are dead broke and insanely overprotective, and… oh yeah, he’s blind.

Just when he thinks he’ll never have a shot at a normal life, an enticing new girl comes to their small Midwest town all the way from India. Simmi is smart, nice, and actually wants to be friends with Alex. Plus she smells like an Almond Joy bar. Sophomore year might not be so bad after all.

Alex is in store for another new arrival—an unexpected and often embarrassing ability to “see” the future. Try as he may, Alex is unable to ignore his visions, especially when they suggest Simmi is in mortal danger.

With the help of the mysterious psychic next door and friends who come bearing gifts of their own, Alex embarks on his journey to change the future.

MY THOUGHTS: 2 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

The book started off nicely for me and I really liked Alex. He’s been blind from birth, but doesn’t take anyone’s pity, and does nearly everything by himself. His mom still babies him a bit, and his dad always seems standoffish and disappointed in him. He did seem to have a lot of unmitigated dislike for his father, when I didn’t truly think it was deserved. Alex’s school year starts out not so bad when he gains not one, but two female friends–Simmi and Shapri. Simmi is sweet and helpful towards Alex, while Shapri is more outgoing and quick to speak her mind. Alex quickly falls for Simmi, so he’s pretty upset when he starts getting visions of her impending death.

I started getting lost sound the time he started having his visions. He’s been blind his whole life, and even expressly states that he sees no shapes or anything, there’s only darkness. So what are his “visions”, really? Obviously they can’t be visual? How does he know what he’s seeing if he’s never seen it before? My head really hurts if I start thinking about this too deeply.

I thought some parts were really drawn out, while others moved too quickly. The end was a complete disaster and left me very confused. Also, I felt the concept of Alex’s blindness was not uniformly handled. There’s one sentence where Alex’s dad abruptly throws a jacket at him, and he catches it. What? How?

I didn’t totally hate this, but I thought there were several cliches, including my pet peeve (I’m breaking up with you so you won’t get hurt). There were also just too many implausible and unrealistic situations that I won’t get into here. I know this was the author’s first novel, so maybe the series gets better from here.

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About the Author

Emlyn Chand emerged from the womb with a fountain pen clutched in her left hand (true story). When she’s not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm Novel Publicity Best known for her Young Adult novels, she is also developing a small, but devoted, following to her children’s book series and is beginning to dabble in other genres as well. Emlyn enjoys connecting with readers and is available via almost every social media site in existence. Visit www.emlynchand.com for more info. Don’t forget to say “hi” to her sun conure Ducky!

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5130837.Emlyn_Chand
Website: http://www.emlynchand.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/emlynchand
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/emlynchand

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