Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
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.
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
Love in Focus was my first book by author Lyla Lee. Thank you to Hachette Audio, Forever & NetGalley for the ALC.
Love in Focus is a second-chance romance between Gemma, a Korean-American bi woman, and her college girlfriend Celeste, a Korean lesbian woman. There is good attention paid to the identities of each woman, as well as a fleshed out cast of side characters. I appreciated that the miscommunication of their first breakup was cleared up rather early on, even if there was still emotional fall-out for both characters to recon with.
I have seen reviews that were thrown off by the POV changing from first person in Gemma's chapters to third person in Celeste's shorter chapters. I have read a couple other books like this, and I think it is an interesting choice that can put the ownership of the story more in the first person character. I also really like both narrators for this project. They have distinct voices from each other and did good voice work when speaking for other characters. The story flowed with no noticeable awkwardness or fumbles in pronunciation or sentence structure.
I enjoyed this book, but overall, it didn't leave a super-lasting impression for me.
Love in Focus is a second-chance romance between Gemma, a Korean-American bi woman, and her college girlfriend Celeste, a Korean lesbian woman. There is good attention paid to the identities of each woman, as well as a fleshed out cast of side characters. I appreciated that the miscommunication of their first breakup was cleared up rather early on, even if there was still emotional fall-out for both characters to recon with.
I have seen reviews that were thrown off by the POV changing from first person in Gemma's chapters to third person in Celeste's shorter chapters. I have read a couple other books like this, and I think it is an interesting choice that can put the ownership of the story more in the first person character. I also really like both narrators for this project. They have distinct voices from each other and did good voice work when speaking for other characters. The story flowed with no noticeable awkwardness or fumbles in pronunciation or sentence structure.
I enjoyed this book, but overall, it didn't leave a super-lasting impression for me.
emotional
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
This was a sweet, sapphic, second chance romance. I loved the "story within a story" element that their work project helped to tell. It really seemed to reflect their relationship and help Gemma and Celeste have revelations about themselves and each other. The plot moved along at a good pace and felt balanced. There was great representation in the book with the Queer community and BIPOC characters, and just how love can look different in so many ways. Normally, I dislike third act breakups, but in this book, it made sense . I think it was a necessity to their character growth as individuals before they could ultimately be together.
I do think that Gemma's ex could have been used in the story more to really stir up drama, so that's a bit of a missed opportunity. And it was very odd to have Gemma's chapters in first person, but Celeste's in third person. The POV changing that way was jarring, especially if you're not a fan of third person narrative.
Thank you Forever Books and Netgalley for the advanced listener copy!
Release day 5.27.25
Tags:
-second chance
-queer/sapphic
-workplace
-forced proximity
Spice: 2/5
Dual POV
Gemma: first person
Celeste: third person
I do think that Gemma's ex could have been used in the story more to really stir up drama, so that's a bit of a missed opportunity. And it was very odd to have Gemma's chapters in first person, but Celeste's in third person. The POV changing that way was jarring, especially if you're not a fan of third person narrative.
Thank you Forever Books and Netgalley for the advanced listener copy!
Release day 5.27.25
Tags:
-second chance
-queer/sapphic
-workplace
-forced proximity
Spice: 2/5
Dual POV
Gemma: first person
Celeste: third person
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
"Love in Focus" is a queer Asian second chance romance about college exs (Gemma and Celeste) who find themselves paired up to work together on an extremely important work project. The pair parted on bad terms years before but will they be able to move past their history to make their project on love a success?
Gemma and Celeste are driven and confident at work but both FMCs are still tender hearted and hesitant to trust each other again that my heart just ached for these main characters. I found the dual POV and dual narrators (Natalie Naudus and Catherine Ho) absolutely captivating and truly brought Gemma Dan Celeste's characters to life.
The honest and vulnerable conversations, the sassy humor and the sizzling chemistry just made for such a feel good, happy romance perfect for summer 2025.
Thank you Hachette Audio for the advanced listening copy.
Gemma and Celeste are driven and confident at work but both FMCs are still tender hearted and hesitant to trust each other again that my heart just ached for these main characters. I found the dual POV and dual narrators (Natalie Naudus and Catherine Ho) absolutely captivating and truly brought Gemma Dan Celeste's characters to life.
The honest and vulnerable conversations, the sassy humor and the sizzling chemistry just made for such a feel good, happy romance perfect for summer 2025.
Thank you Hachette Audio for the advanced listening copy.