The narrator was fine for the first person POV chapters, but the voice for the third person POV chapters felt robotic.

Also, switching between first and third person really took me out of the story. It was an awkward shift each time and I didn’t ever see the benefit of this style.

For all these characters being in their 30s, they’re all acting really immature. This reads like a YA novel but they are not YA age. Overall, nothing was keeping me engaged with the characters or storyline. Everything was just flat.

Honestly such a cute read! I pretty much pick up anything Natalie Naudus narrates and I am rarely disappointed. Gemma and Celeste are such lovable and realistic characters that you can feel yourself relating to. I loved the couples interviews and especially the older sapphics as I agree with them, I never got to see myself growing old in media growing up. I loved Gemma’s growth and her working on herself for a bit before jumping back into a relationship. As a girlie who struggled with that myself I loved to see it. Honestly, a new fav of mine that will get highly recommended to everyone.

3 stars

This was a fine romance. I think there was a lot to enjoy in it I enjoy a second chance romance and I also really appreciated the bi representation and having both queer characters being Asian as both of those things are fairly hard to find in romance novels. I think the writing was well done and enjoyable as well, (with one exception, I did not understand the switch from first person in Gemma's chapters and third person in Celeste's. I am sure there is a reason for it but as a reader, I did not understand the point and it felt jarring to me.) However, I did have a couple issues personally with the story that brought this down from 4 stars to 3.

Pretty early on, Celeste comes off a bit bi-phobic by saying that Gemma moving on with a man months after their breakup is "a lesbian's worst nightmare." That statement was unnecessary and disrespectful to Gemma. And for Celeste to believe Gemma was in the wrong for moving on after she dumped Gemma via text after a year together and living together, moved out of the country without any explanation, and ghosted Gemma for MONTHS, and Celeste still being upset about it 8 years later is childish. Gemma did NOTHING wrong in that situation. I also don't think being in a new relationship months later is "jumping from relationship to relationship." And later in the book when Gemma decides to leave SF because she found out James cheated (and was fine staying in the city after they broke up) was a weird decision to me. I would've understood if she wanted to leave after the breakup but to decide you love the city but then find out he cheated and now you want to leave? Also, obviously he cheated! He was making out with someone in the office not even 2 weeks later! I also think the 3rd act breakup was silly and too long. I don't agree that everyone needs to be single to grow especially in a second chance romance with 8 years apart. Why are you wasting more time?? And for their year apart again, they only exchange happy birthday texts? I think they could have stayed long distance friends at least during that period otherwise the reconciliation made no sense to me.

Regarding the audiobook, Natalie is a fantastic narrator but she does tend to have a lot of breath noises. Maybe because I had it at 2x speed it was more noticeable to me but something I have always noticed with her. The 2 narrators also spoke at much different cadences/speeds. I would've probably bumped up Catherine even faster if it was a single narrator. I also think the third person for Catherine/Celeste did a disservice to the narrator since Natalie/Gemma was in 1st person. It made Catherine sound less connected to the character/story than Natalie.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ALC.

I listened to the audiobook for Love in Focus and really enjoyed it. The narrators did a really great job!

Love in Focus is a story about Gemma who just had her 7 year relationship fall apart and her college ex-girlfriend, Celeste, who comes back into her life due to a project they must work together at work. Gemma is responsible to write a series called Love in Focus for work and Celeste has been hired as the photographer.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Gemma and Celeste. From the very beginning, despite the complications, you can tell that these two still have feelings for each other. The problem is that Gemma is hesitant to start a new relationship, because her last relationship just ended it's hard to trust Celeste to not hurt her again since their relationship ended with her disappearing from Gemma's life. Not to mention that Celeste no longer believes in relationships.

I think that the characters were written extremely well and I really loved the whole Love in Focus series they work on. It features diverse couples talking about their relationships and it's super cute. Without a doubt I recommend this book!

Second Chance Romance
Sapphic 💘
Asian Rep
Photographer/Writer

Celeste and Gemma were such relatable and sweet characters that you couldn’t help but fall in love with. I normally don’t like second chance romance books but this one was different, the miscommunication trope wasn’t used has heavily and I really appreciated it. Their connection felt very authentic and I loved the spicy scenes between the two 🌶️🌶️
I’ll definitely be reading more by this author in the future!

Cute story with a bunch of spicy scenes! I really love that there are two Asian-American queer main characters. The second chances story was overall believable, especially with miscommunication being an issue in many relationships, though the reason why they broke up was a little less believable.

This was so cute!! I love a good second chance romance and this was no exception! Sometimes second chance doesn’t work for me because of the conflict that made the couple break up originally but this one was great because it was more of a miscommunicated ghosting and not cheating or anything that was irredeemable 🤷🏻‍♀️ I also think the third act breakup in this story worked really well because it wasn’t derived by miscommunication, it was mainly just timing and I loved that both Celeste & Gemma were able to work on themselves before they fully committed to each other! Just over all very cute with a handful of spicy scenes and an overall entertaining story! I also recommend the audiobook for this one, great narration!

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc!

this was my first book by lyla lee, and while some dialogue/descriptions were a tad too cringey and corny for my taste, overall i enjoyed this second-chance sapphic romance! (although the second-chance aspect came about due to a LACK of communication, not miscommunication, i still consider it miscommunication, which is my least favorite trope).

the spicy scenes were SPICAYYY!

as for the narrators, while i love natalie naudus and catherine ho, i felt ho was not the right fit for a romance as she doesn’t really change her voice/tone/inflection for other characters like naudus does.

Love in Focus by Lyla Lee is a heartfelt and refreshingly nuanced story that goes beyond the conventions of a typical romantic comedy. With a cast of relatable characters and emotionally resonant themes, Lee delivers a narrative that feels both personal and universally accessible.

What sets this novel apart is its depth. While it offers the warmth and charm readers expect from a romance, it also delves into identity, self-acceptance, and the complexities of relationships in a way that feels genuine and unforced. The characters are thoughtfully developed, each with their own unique voice and journey, making it easy for readers to see parts of themselves reflected on the page.

Lee’s storytelling is both compassionate and engaging, offering a powerful reminder of the importance of authentic love—both for others and for oneself. Love in Focus is a standout addition to contemporary LGBTQIA+ fiction, and a highly recommended read for anyone seeking a story that balances heart, humor, and emotional truth.

Love in Focus by Lyla Lee is a second chance sapphic romantic comedy that follows the story of our female main character Gemma Cho. Gemma is a relationship advice columnist who’s seven year relationship just abruptly ended and not amicably as well as her personal life her work life also takes a drastic change when she’s forced to work with her college ex girlfriend Celeste who she hasn’t seen or heard from in eight years!

I personally loved that this was dual POV being able to hear about the relationship and how it ended from both Gemma and Celeste’s perspectives was definitely interesting. However Celeste’s POV being in third person really threw me off and forced a distance between me the listener and her as a character making me unable to connect with her as much as Gemma.

Great LGBTQ+ representation throughout I really enjoyed listening to this it was nice and easy to follow along with and I think the narrators really helped bring this to life for me.

What an absolute joy to listen to! The audiobook of Love in Focus is not just steamy, sexy, and erotic. It is so much more.
Celeste and Gemma love each other, but their break in their early 20s leaves each woman a bit soul crushed. Celeste retreats into a rejection in the belief of love while Gemma hops right into another relationship to fill the void.
Eight years later, their paths cross again, and whoa, is it steamy.
But there is also a focus on love relationships. While working together for horizon magazine on a feature article, Gemma - the journalist - and Celeste - the photographer, interview many couples and the ways in which love grows, the ups and downs, the way expectations take a u-turn, and finally, with an elderly lesbian couple, both young women get to see the beauty of long term love and the cost they have to pay to have that love. It not only brings Celeste to tears, but the reader as well.
This elderly couple have what Celeste wants: love, commitment, family, and to grow old with the love of her life. In Korean culture, Celeste has had to conceal so very much of who she is. If not all of who she is. So when she sees this elder Korean couple unshackle themselves from the boundaries of culture, Celeste sees what she has still not done.
The novel explores removing stigmatized shame with one's sexual desires and choices, the tension between living authentically and yet holding family close, even when that same family rejects homosexuality, learning from one's personal histories as well as that of others, and seeking help when unravelling all of the hard is too much to do on one's own.
This novel is as rich as it is steamy.

When Gemma's fiance breakups with her out the the blue, she never expects her college ex to come back into her life. While they work on a project about love at different ages, will these too find love again after almost a decade? This second chance romance was a nice way to pass the time.

I did understand that Celeste and Gemma have a lot of feelings towards each other, however this did not make up for their lack of chemistry outside of the bed room. Their interactions fell flat and stale unless they were about to make-out. While I did enjoy the overall story and did root for them to end up with each other, I wonder if it would have been the same if they never reconnected.

It did irritate me how in her inner monologue, Celeste was really biphobic. She hated that Gemma got with specifically a man after they separated in college. She makes this kind of dig a couple of times and never grows past this. I wish this part of her personality was taken out or she learned to accept Gemma's identity, something that is a big part of her.

Gemma Cho, a relationship advice columnist, is cynical about love after her seven-year relationship ends. Her career gets a potential boost when she's paired with Celeste Min, a renowned photographer, for a piece on modern love. However, Celeste is Gemma's ex from college who broke her heart. As they work together, sparks fly, and they struggle to keep their relationship professional. Gemma wants to fall for Celeste again for the sake of her heart and career, but she's unsure if Celeste will reciprocate her feelings this time.

This was a highly anticipated read for me! The marketing says this gives “Delilah Green Doesn’t Care” vibes and it absolutely does. This was insanely cute and really well written. I will recommend it to everyone.

This was a very quick read. I read it in one day because it kept me so engaged. My only complaint is the 3rd act break up was made worse by lack of communication which drives me nuts.Overall I forgave it because it was still a healthy reason why they broke up and a healthy way they got back together.

In the book, they talk about how much it means to see older diverse sapphic women as part of a photoshoot Gemma and Celeste were doing. This made me think about how much of the WLW books I read are about white women. I hope that this book brings more diversity in reading not just in general, but in queer literature.

4.5 ⭐ 2 🌶️ 5 🎧

This was so cute. I was instantly drawn in by the cover, I love illustrated romance covers and then I knew we'd have an FF romance, Asian (Korean) representation, opposites attract and a photographer, just a few of my favorite things! And it did not disappoint.

Gemma and Celeste dated seriously in college when Celeste up and left one day, leaving Gem a bit broken... She ended up finding James, who in turn, wasted almost a decade of her life with his absolute nonsense (okay, I'm projecting after the fact, but the point still stands). When they're forced back together for a work project, sparks fly and tension ignites in this second chance romance.

But my favorite part wasn't that they just fell back into their old habits. No, both Gem and Celeste worked on themselves in and out of therapy and found themselves drawn back together again to ultimately find their happily ever after.

The audio was great. Catherine Ho and Natalie Naudus were both spectacular in this audiobook and I loved this listen.

Thank you so much to Hachette Audio for this advanced copy!

I liked this book, but wanted more. I kept waiting for the main characters to have chemistry. It was a second chance romance and just maybe needed more time for the story to develop.

Quick, fun LGBTQIA+ book! Took a bit to get into as I was expecting more depth from the characters, but found they fell flat at times. The narrators matched the characters perfectly and I loved hearing their Korean pronunciations. Sadly, the side characters felt very one note and was hoping to see more from them as well. Overall, I enjoyed this book but was left wanting more.

✨✨AUDIO BOOK REVIEW ✨✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️story
🌶️🌶️🌶️ I don’t know spicy chapters
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ narration

✨Review about narration✨
Narration was dual. I loved the voice actor for the FMC Gemma I thought she did a really great job with her voice acting and conveying the emotions of the characters using her voice. The voice actor for Celeste the other FMC was great but her voice wasn’t what I would be expecting for that character so it was a little off putting but that was okay Celeste’s POV chapters were very few compared to the chapters from Gemma’s POV.

✨onto the review✨
This is a sapphic second chance work place romance! I love the second chance romance tropes I think it’s very sweet. These two FMC’s dated briefly in college and spent a few years apart after a misunderstanding and then when paired together for a work project they spend the next year making up for lost time and trying to figure out if it’s possible for them to be together again.
I loved seeing the FMC’s finding familiarity and comfort in each other and watching both of them grow into the people they want to be. It was nice to see them resolve their issues and clear up any misunderstandings and figure out if they can learn to trust each other again.
I think anyone who loves second chance romance will definitely enjoy this book! Thank you @readforeverpub and @hachetteaudio for sending me this book! Love in Focus is coming out May 27th! #romancebooks #sapphicbookrecs #secondchanceromance #audiobook #bookreviewer #bookrecs #foreverpublishing #hachettebooks #bookish

3.25⭐️ Audiobook review

A cute sapphic rom-com that explores learning to love yourself post breakup.

Disclaimer: I read this book as part of the Hachette Audio influencer program. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The audiobook was well done for me. I liked both narrators and found the dictation to be clear and at a good pace. I never had to adjust my speed. The various characters have their own voice and agency and I didn't find any of them to be grating.

Representation:
💗Korean FMC's
💗Bisexual/Lesbian Pairing
💗Queer Latinx/Black side characters
💗Normalizing therapy

Themes:
✨: Finding yourself post breakup
✨: Learning to be single
✨: Queerness in Korea

Tropes :
💄: Second chance romance
💄: Corporate girlies

Summary of my thoughts:
This book had a ton of potential. Some it capitalized on and some it didn't. I liked the FMC Gemma. I found her to be super relatable, and I found the bisexual representation within her character to also be very well done. The way she handled herself post breakup was very relatable for a character of her age group. Celeste was a little bit harder of a character for me. I felt that a few of the things that she said and a few of the ways that she thought borderlined on biphobic. She made a few man hating comments, as well as a generalized comment within the first 20% that definitely made me raise my eyebrows. It was internal monologue, so there was no opportunity for it to be addressed or corrected and I don't really feel like there was any growth for Celeste in relation to her dislike of men or people who date men in general by the end of the book. I really enjoyed all the representations surrounding the Korean FMC's as well as their ties to Seoul and family. It was super relatable for me to hear how hard it was to come out as queer to their families. I liked the overall story and I liked the way that these sub plot line between Gemma and James ended up fleshing out.

**This book contains Twilight references

⏰/📖: 7 hours and 40 minutes
🎤: Natalie Naudus/Catherine Ho
Publisher: Forever/Hachette Audio
Genre: contemporary romance
Triggers: homophobia (culturally based and addressed)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Release Date: May 27, 2025

Thank you to Hachette Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review!

I was really excited about this and it started off promising, but then it was just fine?

Things I liked - the setting, the deep look into Korean culture (the good and the bad), the interviews, some of the side characters.

Other than that, I never really felt anything fort he story or for either of the main characters and I think feeling things! Ha. Both characters ended up annoying me a bit and I didn't love the biphobia in the beginning. 🙃 By the end, I was just excited to be done and I'm not quite sure I'll think about this book much now that it's done.

In terms of narration - I LOVED NATALIE NAUDUS. Please keep hiring her for all the jobs. She was fantastic and I could listen to her for hours. On the other side, I'm sad to say I wasn't a fan of Catherine Ho. She felt so robotic and didn't fit the confident vibes Celeste gave off. Going between Natalie and Catherine kind of gave me whiplash, which was a bummer.

Firstly, I would like to say that the performance done by the narrators was amazing. My personal preferences aside, they both smooth and easy to understand performances making the experience all that more enjoyable.

Next, I loved this story. The relationship between Gemma and Celeste felt very real and raw. I love the project they worked on through out the book. I’m a big fan of queer love stories and especially from old people. I was crying in my car listening to this outside my house.

Now, the only reason this is not a five star read for me is a comment Celeste makes about finding out Gemma was dating a man after she went back to Korea and it “being a lesbian’s worst nightmare” despite knowing that Gemma is bisexual. This comment came off as biphobic and put a bad taste in my mouth and will deter people from picking up or continuing this story.