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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Just finished Love in Focus by Lyla Lee, and it was such a soft, heartfelt sapphic romance! This was an ARC audiobook from NetGalley, and the voice actors truly brought the characters to life.
Set in San Francisco, this quick listen follows a photographer and a journalist navigating love, identity, and the pressures of being queer and Korean in a world that doesn’t always make space for both. It’s a beautiful second chance love story that explores therapy, staying closeted, and finding your voice through art and storytelling.
It’s tender, affirming, and had just the right amount of emotional depth. Definitely recommend if you're in the mood for a thoughtful, queer contemporary read.
Set in San Francisco, this quick listen follows a photographer and a journalist navigating love, identity, and the pressures of being queer and Korean in a world that doesn’t always make space for both. It’s a beautiful second chance love story that explores therapy, staying closeted, and finding your voice through art and storytelling.
It’s tender, affirming, and had just the right amount of emotional depth. Definitely recommend if you're in the mood for a thoughtful, queer contemporary read.
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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
A stunning story - my biggest gripe with many sapphic books is the lack of dominant bisexual women and the fact that they often upend their life for a women’s they’ve known a matter of months. Or with most second chance romance they’re married in a year. I love that this is something completely different! it handles the complexity of commitment issues and anxiety so well.
The chosen family and self love is a real seller to this books…it also has an excellent smut to plot ratio!
excellent job well done!
The chosen family and self love is a real seller to this books…it also has an excellent smut to plot ratio!
excellent job well done!
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:
Yes
It’s a cute and sweet story, which I’ve mostly enjoyed. I mostly liked both characters, but unfortunately it was missing a little bit more to the story for it to be really good. There wasn’t anything bad or wrong but it just didn’t work for me. I had high hope from the blurb and in the end it felt a bit underwhelming.
*I received an ARC of this book, this is my honest opinion*
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you Lyla Lee, Netgalley, and Hachette Audio | Forever for the opportunity to review this ALC. I think it's especially important to read books written by voices that are not similar to your own - so this was a great read for AAPI month as well as leading up to Pride month. A sapphic romance that drew out all the emotions loaded with 2nd chances, complicated feelings about family and identity, and the challenges of being part of the LGBTQIA+ community and also being of Korean heritage. All that said, this was just simply put, a really good second chance romance. The narration was very well done, I was especially impressed by the narrator who voiced Gemma. This is sure to be a hit when it releases later this month!
Thank you to netgalley and hachette audio for providing the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed love in focus! It's incredibly sweet, compelling, emotional and Celeste & Gemma have amazing chemistry.
I did not love the last book I read by Lyla Lee but this one totally enamored me from the start.
The writing style is direct and to the point and i loved both povs, the narrators really bring them to life.
Seeing Celeste & Gemma share parts of themselves with each other was delightful to read about.
I really liked how distinct each of them feel and what they bring into the relationship considering the baggage they already carry with each other.
Surprisingly it's pretty low drama and miscommunication which seems unusual with the second chance romance.
The background characters are so lovable. I adored Val & Chiara.
I really recommend checking out Love in Focus if you are interested, and definitely recommend the audiobook as a way to consume the story.
I really enjoyed love in focus! It's incredibly sweet, compelling, emotional and Celeste & Gemma have amazing chemistry.
I did not love the last book I read by Lyla Lee but this one totally enamored me from the start.
The writing style is direct and to the point and i loved both povs, the narrators really bring them to life.
Seeing Celeste & Gemma share parts of themselves with each other was delightful to read about.
I really liked how distinct each of them feel and what they bring into the relationship considering the baggage they already carry with each other.
Surprisingly it's pretty low drama and miscommunication which seems unusual with the second chance romance.
The background characters are so lovable. I adored Val & Chiara.
I really recommend checking out Love in Focus if you are interested, and definitely recommend the audiobook as a way to consume the story.
I found myself loving both Gemma and Celeste - both MCs are strong and career-focused women who are also miraculously in touch with their feelings and manage to communicate these things very well... a quality that is sadly missing from a lot of romance books. The fact that they more or less settled their emotional baggage/conflict from the past in one main conversation - of course revisiting it later as well - was so nice because I feel like this helped to avoid unnecessary drama.
The discussions around representation are incredible, especially focusing on the specific exposure to queer Asian relationships that both of our leads so desperately wished to see in their lives as positive images of what they could have.
This was moderately spicy and I loved the way these women cared for each other in pretty much every way possible. We truly get to see LOVE expressed through so many ways in this book - which is the point, and it works so well. From the sexual and romantic love, to platonic friendship love, and even familial love through Gemma's parents.
The reason this didn't get 5 stars: the final few chapters felt rushed - like the story was basically over but we hadn't had the full resolution yet so we had to jump forward in time a few times to fill in gaps? I don't live time jumps, especially when they come kind of out of nowhere.
ALSO - the chapters from Celeste's POV were in third person? And it was jarring to go from Gemma's first person POV to third person for Celeste. Celeste only had a few chapters anyway, but I wish they had been first person as well.
Thank you to Forever for the advanced copy of this title. My review is completely voluntary, completely my own, and always completely honest.
The discussions around representation are incredible, especially focusing on the specific exposure to queer Asian relationships that both of our leads so desperately wished to see in their lives as positive images of what they could have.
This was moderately spicy and I loved the way these women cared for each other in pretty much every way possible. We truly get to see LOVE expressed through so many ways in this book - which is the point, and it works so well. From the sexual and romantic love, to platonic friendship love, and even familial love through Gemma's parents.
The reason this didn't get 5 stars: the final few chapters felt rushed - like the story was basically over but we hadn't had the full resolution yet so we had to jump forward in time a few times to fill in gaps? I don't live time jumps, especially when they come kind of out of nowhere.
ALSO - the chapters from Celeste's POV were in third person? And it was jarring to go from Gemma's first person POV to third person for Celeste. Celeste only had a few chapters anyway, but I wish they had been first person as well.
Thank you to Forever for the advanced copy of this title. My review is completely voluntary, completely my own, and always completely honest.
emotional
fast-paced
3/5 stars - This was a sweet second chance love story with lots of reality making the story way more believable than some flighty romance reads. Loved the representation of queer and bi folk with Asian American and Hispanic women. I did have to look up if people really call San Francisco "SF" b/c that was weird to hear, I also found it kind of unrealistic to constantly refer to "my ex" in the internal narrations happening most of the time. Otherwise, the audio was good with narration by a range of voices and tones.
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
First, I want to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest review.
This was super cute and lighthearted. The characters are sweet and funny, and I appreciate the queer Asian rep.
However, the stakes were so incredibly low that I got bored and was neither invested in the story nor the characters.
This isn't a bad book by any means. If you just want a cute, little, lighthearted romcom, you would probably enjoy this! I would recommend it. It's just really not the book for me.
This was super cute and lighthearted. The characters are sweet and funny, and I appreciate the queer Asian rep.
However, the stakes were so incredibly low that I got bored and was neither invested in the story nor the characters.
This isn't a bad book by any means. If you just want a cute, little, lighthearted romcom, you would probably enjoy this! I would recommend it. It's just really not the book for me.
This was a cute read- and my fist from Lyla Lee. Mostly lower angst (surprisingly given the backstory) and with a sweet connection.
Love in Focus is a second chance sapphic romance. Celeste and Gemma had a fling in college...until Celeste up and ghosted her. Now almost a decade later they have reconnected in their late 20's. Gemma is a relationship columnist and her latest assignment pairs her with her ex Gemma- a photographer and the girl she dated in college until she disappeared. Now's the time to work through their past- but Gemma is fresh off an ended engagement, and Celeste is commitment.
Sapphic, big, and Korean main character rep, and I also loved a second chance with characters many years later. Though I felt like I wanted a bit more angst/drama- they kind of just move on from it pretty quickly. And if you are a fan of Lyla Lee's YA work (which I've not read but excited to check out)- this one definitely has some spice!
Overall, I liked this, though there were some narrative choices that kept me from connecting with both characters. I really liked Gemma- she was the most relatable and nuanced of our leads. She was also the character voice in first person and where we spend the bulk of our time, which definitely impacted my ability to connect with her. I found her charming and nuanced and a really beautiful character. Celeste on the other hand I never quite warmed up to- and the choice to limit her POVs and to have her in the 3rd person really kept her at a distance, and when we see her as the "wrong doer" that felt like a curious choice to me because I never felt like I quite "got" her. I also didn't love the end of book break and time pivot- just not my favorite narrative trope. But I did really love their romance and found it quite charming.
The audio paralleled my reading experience. I loved the narration for Gemma and found the performance to be quite endearing. And I also loved that we have two narrators to represent each woman. But the third person narration was even more noticeable on the audio performance, and while the narrator was great, she didn't quite capture the vibe I got from Celeste, but again that is perhaps my own limitation in connecting with her. But overall, super well performed.
Love in Focus is a second chance sapphic romance. Celeste and Gemma had a fling in college...until Celeste up and ghosted her. Now almost a decade later they have reconnected in their late 20's. Gemma is a relationship columnist and her latest assignment pairs her with her ex Gemma- a photographer and the girl she dated in college until she disappeared. Now's the time to work through their past- but Gemma is fresh off an ended engagement, and Celeste is commitment.
Sapphic, big, and Korean main character rep, and I also loved a second chance with characters many years later. Though I felt like I wanted a bit more angst/drama- they kind of just move on from it pretty quickly. And if you are a fan of Lyla Lee's YA work (which I've not read but excited to check out)- this one definitely has some spice!
Overall, I liked this, though there were some narrative choices that kept me from connecting with both characters. I really liked Gemma- she was the most relatable and nuanced of our leads. She was also the character voice in first person and where we spend the bulk of our time, which definitely impacted my ability to connect with her. I found her charming and nuanced and a really beautiful character. Celeste on the other hand I never quite warmed up to- and the choice to limit her POVs and to have her in the 3rd person really kept her at a distance, and when we see her as the "wrong doer" that felt like a curious choice to me because I never felt like I quite "got" her. I also didn't love the end of book break and time pivot- just not my favorite narrative trope. But I did really love their romance and found it quite charming.
The audio paralleled my reading experience. I loved the narration for Gemma and found the performance to be quite endearing. And I also loved that we have two narrators to represent each woman. But the third person narration was even more noticeable on the audio performance, and while the narrator was great, she didn't quite capture the vibe I got from Celeste, but again that is perhaps my own limitation in connecting with her. But overall, super well performed.