Love in Focus was absolutely adorable. It strikes a great balance between embracing cute, fun romance tropes and keeping the story grounded and relatable, I especially appreciated that the relationship isn’t portrayed as perfect from the start!
That said, I found myself wanting either more of Celeste’s thoughts or none at all; as it stands, her perspective felt a bit underdeveloped.
I listened to the audiobook, and I have to say it really brings Gemma to life, the narrator does an excellent job with the dialogue, making the entire listening experience smooth and engaging.
A perfect read for Valentine’s season!

This was a cute one, but fell flat to me in some parts! I love the second-chance romance trope and especially love that she was able to get back at her ex and make him jealous! This was (I think) my first sapphic romance, and it was definitely a fun one to start with. The audio/narrator/production was great! I definitely recommend listening to it!

Thank you to Hachette Audio & NetGalley for this ALC :

This was so good! I love second chance romance, I incorrectly thought this was YA but this was a sweet, spicy, story about a how people can grow and improve. Even if it feels like your taking steps back, it can help you get where you’re meant to be

**Review of "Love in Focus" by Lyla Lee**

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.25 stars)

Love in Focus by Lyla Lee is a delightful sapphic rom-com about second chances, modern love, and navigating life's complicated twists. The story follows Gemma Cho, a relationship advice columnist who's just had her heart shattered after a seven-year relationship ends abruptly. Cynical about love, Gemma is unexpectedly paired with Celeste Min, a world-renowned photographer and, incidentally, Gemma's ex from college—the one who got away after a painful breakup and abrupt move abroad. Sparks immediately reignite, complicating their efforts to keep things professional.

This was such a satisfying, steamy read that genuinely delivered on the romance front. I loved the representation of bisexuality through Gemma's character. Initially, I worried there might be some bi-phobia from Celeste, but I was relieved that Celeste ultimately accepted and embraced Gemma's identity without reservation.

One of the highlights for me was the thoughtful representation of queer characters of color. Gemma and Celeste's Korean heritage wasn't just a background detail; it was deeply woven into their experiences, adding meaningful layers to their love story. Additionally, Lyla Lee vividly captured the charm and vibrancy of San Francisco, which brought the setting alive in a way that beautifully complemented the narrative.

The audiobook was fantastic, thanks in large part to Nathalie Naudus, who perfectly voiced Gemma's inner turmoil, vulnerability, and growth following significant life changes and heartbreak. Her performance truly elevated my listening experience.

However, one element that didn't fully work for me was Celeste's chapters being narrated in the past tense. This choice created a sense of distance from Celeste's character and made it harder for me to connect emotionally, which was especially disappointing because, on a personal note, Celeste's situation—moving somewhere unwillingly to care for her mother battling cancer—mirrors my own experiences. I wanted to connect more deeply with her perspective, but the narrative choice somewhat hampered that.

Despite this minor drawback, Love in Focus was a thoroughly enjoyable and heartfelt story. It's a wonderful addition to the sapphic romance genre, and I absolutely recommend giving it a listen or read!

Thank you to Lyla Lee and Hachette Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ALC!

This book was really cute. It's a second-chance romance centered around main characters Gemma Cho and Celeste Lin. They’re ex-roommates, ex-girlfriends, and now... co-workers. Gemma is a romantic who recently went through a tough breakup, while Celeste leads an attachment-free life. When they’re assigned to work on a love-themed project together—with no way out—old sparks begin to reignite.

What I liked about this book:
I really liked the gentle, soft plot and the concept of building a love story around two people collaborating on a project about love itself. Both characters are Korean, and as someone not very familiar with Korean culture, I appreciated how much I learned—particularly about how LGBTQ romance is perceived and accepted.

Gemma is bisexual, Celeste is a lesbian, and they each have very different family experiences, which brought emotional depth and unique perspectives to the story. I loved the representation. Slight spoiler: I especially appreciated their push for inclusion and visibility for younger Korean generations. A key point in their project was that society rarely showcases openly gay, older Korean couples. Their effort to highlight that gap felt meaningful and hopeful.

All of the characters were enjoyable—the main couple, their friend group, and even the boss.

What I didn’t like as much:
For me, the story lacked some of the tension I typically look for in a second-chance or close-proximity romance. Some of the obstacles keeping them apart felt a bit artificial—like, “Why is this really such a big deal?” That said, I still enjoyed the softer plot. Even though it wasn’t packed with yearning, the heartfelt and tender moments were allowed to shine.

SPOILER ALERT – STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS:
My biggest issue with the book was the anger Celeste harbored toward Gemma for moving on. Honestly, it knocked off an entire star for me. Celeste had been living with and in love with Gemma—they’d even talked about getting married—but when life got hard, Celeste left and ghosted her without a word.

I truly feel for Celeste and the things she went through, but you don’t just ghost someone under those circumstances. What upset me even more than the ghosting was her indignation. She threw it in Gemma’s face several times that Gemma moved on quickly and didn’t wait for her, saying some really harsh things. Thinking about it again still makes me angry. Realistically, that aspect drops this book below a solid four-star rating for me. Still, I loved so many other elements—especially the representation.

Outside of that issue, I genuinely liked Celeste, and I just wish the author had given her a better reason for that anger.

Overall:
This is a sweet sapphic romance with enjoyable characters, an adorable plot, and excellent representation. It was eye-opening for me in terms of learning more about Korean culture and how LGBTQ relationships are viewed. Overall, it was a really pleasant read.

Audiobook Feedback:
I received this as an audiobook ARC—thank you, Hachette Audio! I really enjoyed it. The production was well done and engaging. I loved Gemma’s voice. Celeste’s voice took a bit of time to get used to. It felt like a certain sultry tone was used to match her character’s vibe, which is smart—but it came across a little forced at first. I did adjust to it, though.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Lyla Lee for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love in Focus was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025—with a cover like that how could it not be—but having read it I'm left feeling underwhelmed. While the story hits a lot of sapphic tropes it read as kind of wishy-washy and I just felt like things progressed too quickly for it to be at all believable, even for a second chance romance involving a lesbian (no U-Haul jokes please). I guess maybe I wanted a little more bitter in my bittersweet buildup, and I just didn't get it. In saying that, I liked the characters, I just wanted more from them. They were well written, but I wanted them to be written about more. This book could honestly have been longer and I'd have been fine with that.

One thing this book does really well is it highlights queer people of colour, and Korean queer people in particular, throughout the story—from Gemma and Celeste themselves, to their families and friends, to the people that they're interviewing for their media piece. While the publishing industry is diversifying itself to a certain degree, it's still rare to see love stories about sapphic Asian characters on shelves in big box bookstores, so to see a book like this that is unapologetically about them is terrific. I hope it has a lot of commercial success!

Love in Focus didn't quite do it for me, but I'll be waiting for Lyla Lee's next book to see how her writing grows. I recommend the audiobook of this one. Natalie Naudus does a stellar job as always, though I don't think the second narrator was necessary.

This was so sweet and so beautiful and I loved it so much 💖
I loved the diverse representation!
I got kdrama vibes in the best way possible🥰

The chemistry was undeniable, there was so much emotional depth and the characters were very likable and relatable.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, Forever and Lyla Lee for giving me an advance listener’s copy of this wonderful book.

3.5 ⭐️ Rounded Up

This was very cute! Overall very cozy and not super dramatic. I enjoyed the focus this had on personal wellness and care. I also enjoyed the project Gemma and Celeste do together and the different couples they spoke to. My biggest issue with the story was change in POV for Celeste’s chapters. Gemma’s chapters make up a majority of the book and are told from first person present. However, it switches to third person present for Celeste’s which was really jarring, and felt more like I was reading a play script. It took me well into the book the stop hating the switch. That said, I liked the story itself well enough that I was able to push through that and still enjoy myself. Overall, it’s a nice quick read that touches on some deeper topics, and I would recommend it as a sort of palette cleanser between longer reads.
Catherine Ho and Natalie Naudus both did a great job with the narrations and I especially liked how they expressed emotion and tone.

I actually quite liked this depiction of bisexuality and sapphic romance. I liked how the author addressed topics like different cultures' relationships to queerness and the lack of representation queer people, especially queer people of color, face. However, I can already tell this book won't stick with me, hence the average rating. I didn't particularly dislike the main characters, but I also didn't feel connected to them much and in a sea of romance books couples, this pairing simply did not take the spotlight.

Binged this baby in ONE sitting. So good!!

A perfect read if you are looking to diversify your TBR (I swear sapphic romance is better than straight romance. Please quote me on that.)

The relationships? So achingly tragic and beautiful. The spice?? PERFECT 🥵

I love a good reluctant second chance romance especially when the ‘break up’ period is nearly a decade. The pent up tension and sheer need is unmatched.

HIGHLY recommend this in audio or physical format. The narrators did a phenomenal job with their acting. They portrayed every individual character so well.

I also thought it was so unique that one MC was first person and the other was in third. I would LOVE to pick Lyla’s brain to see how she came to that decision!

Gemma is recently out of a 7 year relationship and she's done with love. When an exciting work project lands on her desk, Gemma is thrilled to be given a challenge. That is, until she finds out she'll be partnered with Celeste, her ex-girlfriend from college who broke her heart. They both agree to work together for the sake of the project, but as they work together they find it harder and harder to keep it professional.

I really liked the premise of this. It's a sapphic, second-chance romance with an interesting setting. It was cute, but it just wasn't quite as exciting as I wanted it to be. Celeste had a lot of hang ups about getting in a relationship that really didn't feel warranted. Their previous breakup also felt a little half baked. They were in love and wanted to spend their lives together, but then Celeste's mom got sick and she just left the country without saying anything to Gemma. I just felt like it didn't quite make sense.

Once they talked things through everything just moved very quickly and they started to get back together without much fan fare. I wanted more tension and more time to really build that chemistry together. Because of how quick everything happened, I didn't fully believe the romance.

Lots of potential, and I would definitely read this author again, but I wanted more from this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the ALC!

Thank you to Forever for access to the e-ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.
This book was giving me ALL the feels. Gemma and Celeste are such an amazing pairing, and reading about/listening to them both grow together and apart was honestly amazing. I love the way the author created their relationship, and how they kept on coming back to each other throughout the book. I love all the romance novels references, and I love the found family that was formed. Kiara and Val are the perfect found family for Gem. The narrators did a FANTASTIC job voicing Gemma and Celeste, and causing me to laugh so hard and tear up at different times. Overall I highly recommend this novel and the audiobook!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Celeste and Gem are exes. It's been 8 years and Gem thought she would never see Celeste again but a work project has thrown them back together unexpectedly. Their chemistry is still off the charts and with Gem recently single the sparks are hard to resist.

I loved this one. The audio was fantastic, and the story was fantastic.

Recommended!

I loved the queer Asian rep and how naturally it was woven into the story. That part felt meaningful and authentic in the best way.

But the two FMCs? Honestly, they were a little hard to root for 😭. I wanted to love them more than I actually did, and that made it tough to fully connect. It’s frustrating because everything else—the writing, the premise, the representation—was pretty solid. It just didn’t all come together for me emotionally.

Still, I appreciate what this book was doing and think it’ll really hit for some readers. Just wasn’t the one for me.

Love in focus is a cute second chance saphic romance of gemma who just got out of a romance with a coworker turned coworkers with another former love intrest eho work together on a project about other peoples love life.
I enjoyed this audiobook the narrators are great, theres a bit of an adresses negatives about being bisexual when gemma the main character joins dating apps.
This is a wonderful feel-good meduim paced plot. There is a good reperenstaion of culture and sexuality.
The character celeste (former love intrest turned coworker turned love imtrest) is kind of not it for me, she not great at communicting and kinda brash at one point telling characters to leave some men for her despite having no intrest in dating men and ghosting gemma without a word years ago
3.5/5

I definitely enjoyed this book, and as it is my first FF book, I don't have too many things to say. I Loved both FMC and Celeste more than Gemma. She seemed to be uncertain of what she wanted. The development of the relationship is smooth, and their love is loving. What I did not enjoy too much is how many times Masc and Fem were used to describe Gemma's friends. Second-chance romance is the best, I loved that the characters changed before starting the relationship again and had time to grow.

The San Francisco setting was so fun to read about and envision as Gemma explores and lives throughout the city! After reeling from an engagement, Gemma finds herself questioning love when she runs into and begins working with "the one who got away". I love watching characters grow over the story and this did that while having the idea of "love" as a baseline. The support by her friends was also 100 percent how it should be! I thought the story was sweet and reflective. Thank you to Forever Pub and Hachette Audio for an advanced listening copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Second chance romances are hit or miss for me. This one was good. I appreciated the fact that they both had time to grow and mature before reuniting. The tension throughout the book is great. Overall, I really enjoyed this one. The narrators were really good too!

As fun as it was sexy! The narrators really brought this book to life. I loved Celeste and Gemma's relationship so much. Their shared past added such a good layer and depth to the story. I can't wait for more from Lyla Lee!

I think having more YA sapphic romance is important! Letting young people read and understand themselves and others.

The narrators did a great job with the dual narration.