The rules of seeing is a real eye opener of a tale about 2 women who meet when they need each other most, Jillian Safinova (Nova) has been blind since birth, working as an interpreter for the police she heavily relies on her other senses, and is now faced with an operation which will enable her to see. While in hospital she meets Kate an architect and the story follows them as they help and guide each other through some major changes in their lives.
A beautiful story, well written and inspiring.

I'm not sure where to start with this book. I loved Nova's story and believed in her character trying to come to terms with suddenly being able to see, and did start to look at things e.g. cars in a different way. However I found the rest of the story; the on / off relationship with Kate and Tony's violence more difficult. He, Kate's mother and friend Vi seemed very one dimensional with no real reason for their actions. It felt like a real hotch pitch of genres and I wish the author had just stayed with Nova's sight and maybe her relationship with Kate.

A really beautiful read. Brimming with love and attraction. I really enjoyed this tale about finding yourself when you didn't realise you were lost.

A real five star read.

I purchased this title from Amazon as I thought I had not been selected to review it.

This book is fascinating, engaging with the two main characters of Karen and Nova. Karen, an architect, a loner in a bizarre controlling marriage meets Nova who is recovering from having her sight restored and they meet at their healthcare appointments.
The tale that follows is amazing! Seeing, from Nova's perspective is so well described giving a true insight about what must be considered.
Without giving away the tale there are many ups, downs and surprising turns.

This is a great read and I cannot wait for Joe's next book. I loved The Rules Of Seeing.

I found this book haunting in that the emotions do just keep coming back. I found both characters realistic although I struggled to actually like Kate. I felt like the second half of the book lacked the precision of the writing of the fist half - it just wasn't as polished. But it us a very good read.

Not entirely sure what to class this book as,thriller,drama,love story?
It seemed slightly all over the place.
Such a good original idea,to restore someone's sight,and all the added complications of seeing that I hadn't ever thought about.
I wish the book had kept more with that,rather than throwing in Tony being totally loopy despite seeming perfectly fine for years.
Some good bits,but didn't quite live up to its promise.

This was a very thought provoking book at times when dealing with all the complexities of discovering sight, when you're an adult who's been blind from birth. It made me realise how complex communication between two individuals, or between an individual and the things around them, can be. Very confusing at times.

It has two very complex main characters, Nova who is given the gift of sight and then struggles to decide exactly what it is she wants, and Kate who is dealing with a very dark and abusive relationship. How they find each other, and overcome both their own fears and hopes, and how they work together to cope with the outside world.

I liked the book at lot. It felt a little bit slow at times, but the rest of the story more than made up for this.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Nova was born blind and after an operation her world changes. This is about 2 peoples different perspectives. This was an ok read

Slightly disappointed in this book. I expected more! Original story which is why I’ve given it a 3 star,not my cup of tea though unfortunately. I think the book needed to have been shorter,it seemed to have been dragged out a little bit too much

This is such a beautifully written book.
I would totally recommend this book to family and friends.

A charming and unexpected read about friendship and love.

An interesting concept and some interesting thoughts and perspectives - especially with regards to “the rules”.

A book I’ll be recommending to others due to its originality.

4.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins and Joe Heap for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

A difficult subject, clearly and simply written.
I can often tell how a story is going to turn out, but I had absolutely no idea about this one; Kath and Nova kept me guessing all the way till the end, with their unusual love story.
Such a very interesting book, it made me think a great deal.

The Rules of Seeing tells the story of Kate and Nova. Two women who are both blind in different ways suddenly open their eyes to life around them and then everything changes. Nova was born blind and then her brother, a doctor, hears about a procedure that will return her sight. Kate is married and blind to her own circumstances and what her life has become until she ‘falls’ and has to cope with a severe concussion and then a battle with agoraphobia. The two women meet and as their friendship grows into something more, they both realise the need to be able to see things as they really are.
This beautifully written book had me enthralled from start to finish. The concept of knowing everything then, gaining another sense, and having to relearn everything you thought you knew , was incredible to read. The beautiful layout which allows yountomstep out ofmthe story and into Nova’s thoguhts was truly inspired. What an incredible debut novel

3.5⭐️
Nova has been blind since birth and has the opportunity to have an operation to repair her vision. She is understandably anxious and her anxiety proves to be justified as the journey to sight is a very difficult one. She meets Kate, another neurology patient, a very complex character and they begin a mutually healing and very heartwarming relationship.

Nova’s story is fascinating and the author does an amazing job of ensuring the reader empathises with her. I have never thought so much about ‘seeing’ and how much we take things for granted. However, this was a book of two halves for me – I found at times the narrative was long-winded and the story suffered for it. Kate’s story was dealt with in a sensitive way but somehow didn’t engage me as much as Nova’s
The relationship between Nova and Kate was convincing and sweet but some of their scenes could have been cut to allow other parts of Nova’s story to emerge.

I’m glad I read The Rules of Seeing and think Joe Heap has real talent, this is an impressive debut and I will happily read his next novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this novel the story was told in a great way by the author Kate and Nova's characters were so interesting and made this a great read

This is a story of two very different women who meet up and create new lives for themselves - changing completely from their old selves. One woman is facing an abusive and criminal and psycho husband and the other seeing for the first time having been blind from birth. Both these are really great ideas for a story. They meet serendipitously and form a bond that heals them both. The story of their relationship is played out slowly, rather too slowly for me. I found myself longing for the ex husband to actually do something. He was always lurking in the background but so passive. By the end I was flipping pages and almost missed the final and quite short episode - entirely expected. I really warmed to this book initially. I liked both Kate and Nova and was pleased that they got over their early distancing but after a while the relationship conversations were too detailed and Nova's rules of seeing became something that my eyes simply scanned over. If this had been shorter and more tightly written with less intense dialogue I would have loved it.

I'm not quite sure what the main premise of this story was. As a narration about what it must be like to see for the first time having never had any vision at all, I found it fascinating and so insightful bringing up notions which I had never considered such as our concept of depth of field when we view things near by or further away and transparency. This aspect of gaining sight was so well thought through and written about, however the under lying story-line of the marriage (abusive?) was not given enough voice or consideration as for me this niggled away and did not have enough power to drive the book forward. Could be so much stronger a novel with this aspect of the writing resolved.

I was sent a copy of The Rules of Seeing by Joe Heap to read and review by NetGalley.
The thing I liked most about this novel was the description of sight and the way that something so fundamental that most of us take for granted is so very different, confusing and complicated for an adult born blind but with medical intervention is now able to see. The relationship between the protagonists, newly sighted Nova and recent acquaintance Kate, became a little tiresome for me at times and I also thought that the threatening passages with Kate’s husband Tony could have had a little more tension. Overall the story seemed rather too drawn out, though having said that I did enjoy the book, enough for 4 stars, and I’m sure that certain elements will stay with me for quite some time.

Utterly thought provoking! loved it ! This book made me think about the world differently, One everyone should be reading.

It’s taken me a while to review this book as was not sure what to say. There is a lot of content to this book and almost two stories going on at once. I enjoyed the journey of learning to see and definitely made me think differently about something I take for granted. The other story was about relationships. It is worth a read but definitely different