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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's such a sweet romance!! The characters are very well fleshed out and the narrators did a perfect job at portraying their personalities.
It also deals with some serious topics, making the romance more realistic, I quite liked that since it made the characters more relatable and flawed
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!
It also deals with some serious topics, making the romance more realistic, I quite liked that since it made the characters more relatable and flawed
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Infidelity, Lesbophobia
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for the review audiobook of this book! Our main character Gemma is a newly single bisexual woman living in San Francisco. She is is assigned an exciting new project at work, but she has to collaborate with a photographer, her college ex girlfriend Celeste, who left one day and never explained why. Most of the chapters are first person POV from Gemma's perspective but we get a few chapters in third person POV from Celeste.
Love is Focus was such a wonderful read, I couldn't put it down! A sapphic second chance romance, uh yeah sign me up immediately. I think one of the strongest aspects of this book was Gemma's friendship with Kiara and Val. The way they are there for her when she is going through this break up but they can still joke around with her felt so refreshing. I find that sometimes side characters and friends feel so flat in romances but this was a pleasant surprise. I also loved the diversity of all of the characters thought the story, including the couples being interviewed for the Love in Focus news story. The chemistry in the spicy scenes was really great and they all felt distinct and not repetitive.
I wish we got more of Celeste's point of view to round out their relationship, especially since some of the conversations between the two of them when discussing the past and their feelings for each other now fell a little flat for me. But overall I had a wonderful time and would definitely recommend!
Love is Focus was such a wonderful read, I couldn't put it down! A sapphic second chance romance, uh yeah sign me up immediately. I think one of the strongest aspects of this book was Gemma's friendship with Kiara and Val. The way they are there for her when she is going through this break up but they can still joke around with her felt so refreshing. I find that sometimes side characters and friends feel so flat in romances but this was a pleasant surprise. I also loved the diversity of all of the characters thought the story, including the couples being interviewed for the Love in Focus news story. The chemistry in the spicy scenes was really great and they all felt distinct and not repetitive.
I wish we got more of Celeste's point of view to round out their relationship, especially since some of the conversations between the two of them when discussing the past and their feelings for each other now fell a little flat for me. But overall I had a wonderful time and would definitely recommend!
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
thank you to netgalley & hachette audio for providing me an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review <3
HAPPY PRIDE MY FELLOW GAYS WHOOHOO (yes this is being written after pride SHUT UP).
i majorly loved this. i love love loved this. this was SO fun. holy shart.
can i first just say… whooooo boy was this a lot smuttier than i was expecting. actually lowkey i wasn’t expecting smut at all. but what i got….. Woah. that shit is still on my mind a month later. props to lyla lee because goddamn the only other book to do that to me was the god forsaken knotting in bride (kill me kill me kill me kill me). anyways yes this was absolutely peak sapphic smut. if anything alone read this for the lesbian sex. HELL YEAH LETS GO LESBIANS.
ok so what else in this book ate? gemma was a great protag. i really liked her personality, and it was easy to empathise with and relate to her. her dialogue always felt natural, and her decisions didn’t feel contrived or forced for the plot. i really liked as well the fact that throughout the story, you had the photography plot guiding the romance. it added some nice tension, as well as a timeline for the speed of their relationship, and kept the book grounded. the chemistry between gemma and celeste was….. 😼 ok but seriously like. the minute they first met (in the present day), i immediately felt like they had suchhh good chemistry. dare i say the best chemistry i’ve seen in a romance book from the first encounter (ok first encounter covered in the book that is). the sexual tension between these two was fucking craaaazy and had me hooked immediately, and boy did this book not disappoint (insert 2010-esque cringe biting lip emoji). i also really enjoyed the discussions surrounding being bisexual and the pressures that comes with, difficulties surrounding just being queer in general, and the intersectionality between being queer and asian. obviously i can only relate to the lesbian part but i found the conversations very meaningful, and delivered with a tact a lot of books flop on. extra shout out to featuring an older poc sapphic couple with a nonbinary partner… holy air ball!!!!!
now i hate to add a “but”…… but i did find some parts of this story that i didn’t really enjoy. for one, i couldn’t connect with celeste at all. she always felt cold to me, and i can’t really put into words *why* i couldn’t gel with her, but idk something about her felt… off-putting to me? idk i really couldn’t warm up to her, even in scenes where she is honest and raw about her emotions. i also really really hated the discussion around why gemma & celeste originally broke up, and although it wasn’t a big thing after a while, it bugged me the rest of the book. the whole miscommunication trope was resolved as “ok we’re actually slightly at fault for our break up, oopsies”, but like…. no? gemma very much did nothing wrong in my mind, so it felt weird every time it would be brought up by celeste and be painted as something gemma did wrong…. like ok yeah she moved on a bit fast… but then that’s not an issue with her not communicating with you celeste!!! idk that really annoyed me. i blame my autism giving me an insane sense of justice. the thing of celeste saying she “doesn’t do relationships” when with gemma also annoyed me because it was paradoxical.. you won’t have a relationship with gemma because of gemma. ok. sure i get past trauma’s will still hurt but the reasoning felt stupid! and the epilogue….. i fucking hate the third-act break-up trope with all my being, and the epilogue felt like it was rushing to get to a point where it became a non-issue, and then yay everyone’s happy and oh ok the book is done. like why did we just speed-run all of that. genuinely one of the most rushed chapters of a book i’ve ever experienced.
anyways, i did really love this book, minus all the flops gemma and celeste’s relationship had. a lot of that enjoyment may have come from the sexual tension but hey it was pride month. let a nonbinary freak be freaky about fictional lesbians. i loved reading this and seriously had a good time. i will say tho, i think i would’ve maybe had a better time reading this versus audiobooking it, simply because the voice given to any character other than gemma broke me out of my immersion. imo multiple narrators would’ve worked better, but hey that’s just my opinion idk shit about audiobooks. anyways add this to ur tbr. if you dont ur homophobic (/j).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes