This one is one I'm going to recommend reading with your eyeballs and not your ears. Gemma's pov is 1st person with a great narrator and I really connected with her. Celeste is in third pov and unfortunately the narrator fell very flat for me. You could tell me it's ai and I would believe you. Honestly to get through it I started skipping Celeste's chapters after the 60% mark. If I had the time I would have eyeball read those parts but I was walking dogs 😉.

This is
second chance, 8 years later
workplace romance
sapphic
close proximity

They both hurt each other 8 years ago in college. Gemma has recently broken up with her fiance of 7 years and is dealing with that grief when she finds out Celeste will be the photographer on her journalism project she is working on.
The journalism project was my favorite part of this book! Getting to hear from some many different couples and what they think about love! So good.

Thank you Forever Pub and Hachette audio for this ALC/arc

*Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC and to Hachette Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review*

I love how Lyla Lee writes queer love stories. The entire focus on defining love and how it evolves with the 'Modern Love in Focus' magazine feature series was genius. I also enjoyed seeing so many queer couples in love, with her roommates and other interviewees. She really approaches portraying cultural differences and lack of queer role models with care. Natalie Naudus's narration was EVERYTHING. She made Gemma come to life, trepidations and all.

I did feel like Celeste's chapters didn't add much to the book, and Catherine Ho's narration fell a bit flat for me. It also felt like there were several false starts at an ending post break-up, though you can't say Lyla Lee didn't make us wait for their happy ending. But overall, a really cute second chance sapphic romance.

I really liked this book! I thought it was well paced, cute, and not so unrealistic that I couldn’t get it into it.
Tropes: Miscommunication, second chances, forced proximity/working together.
Reasons I really enjoyed the book:
1. I liked that the author addressed lack of representation and described the way the characters were providing it.
2. I liked the side characters a lot.
3. I liked that both characters had and that they owned up to their mistakes without diminishing the impact they had.
4. I liked the way the author discussed the relationship between the main characters and their parents. The expectations that people have to provide care and support for their parents during illness but also how that can impact your life even after you’re no longer providing care.
5. I liked the narrators, I thought the delivery was really good.
Reasons Why this book wasn’t a 5 star read
1. I honestly thought Celeste wasn’t a main character, even when they were her chapters. She felt somewhat stunted.

2. The fact that both of them were in therapy and instead of talking to each other, she applied for a job? That was weird. Kind of showed that she didn’t have growth.

In Love in Focus, Gemma’s world is turned upside down when her boyfriend of seven years suddenly breaks up with her. To make things even more complicated, her ex, the world-renowned photographer Celeste Min, reappears in her life just as Gemma is working on a career-changing project with her.
I have to say, I really connected with Gemma. She felt so real, and I loved following her journey. As for Celeste, though, me I could pass on her. I just couldn’t get behind her. Honestly, I’m not sure if the author was going for a "grumpy x sunshine" dynamic with her, but Celeste came off as cold, distant, and almost completely unaware of how her actions affected Gemma. She was “hot”, cool, and frustrating but her emotional unavailability drove me nuts.
Celeste's issues with Gemma were particularly maddening. I couldn’t wrap my head around why she was upset with Gemma for moving on when, 1) Celeste left Gemma without any warning or explanation, and 2) she just assumed Gemma would wait around for her to come back, without a single message or attempt at communication. It was hard to sympathize with her at all.
That being said, the story was still really cute. It was a quick, heartwarming read with a nice message about second chances in love. Even though I struggled with Celeste, Gemma’s character and the overall charm of the story made it worth the read.
Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Forever for the ALC!
Pub Date May 27 2025

DNFed this audiobook at 31%. At first, I found this story engaging and it had moments that made me laugh. However, I quickly became uninterested in the story and decided to not continue with it. Gemma was, in my opinion, a terrible narrator that came across very juvenile at times despite being in her late 20s. It felt like this was trying really hard to be like a popular sapphic romance and it just missed the mark for me. Also, not ever contemporary romance needs a Taylor Swift reference. It's overdone and quite cringeworthy.

3.5⭐️

The Poetic , yearning-packed finish I’ve come to expect (and prefer) on the prose of second chance romances was absent , but I didn’t mind nor expect it from Lyla Lee’s Love in focus.

The media house ,advice columnist Gemma works for pitches “Modern Love In Focus” , a project which aims to explore the love stories of Gen Z , Millennial and GenXers of different ethnicities, sexualities and gender identities. Because romance book , Celeste —Gemma’s ex from college— is the contracted photographer for this spread , forcing them to work together

I would 1000% buy this magazine issue ! It was both heartwarming and a clever way to mirror the interviewed couples to Gemma and Celeste’s relationship, Which neatly tied in the books theme about platonic , familial and romantic love.

Relationship wise , It was refreshing that Celeste and Gemma immediately discussed their breakup —which was far from melodramatic to require a big reveal later on.

And while I generally liked them , I wasn’t invested or sold on their individual and combined journeys , until the 60% mark. Especially because Lee opted to periodically inject a “oh remember when we did this in college “ line to remind the reader that these two women have history when it wasn’t palpable otherwise.

More than halfway in , is where the good stuff lies. That’s where we finally got some genuine romantic moments and emotional depth from the characters especially Celeste —who was grappling with the isolation from her family and country by being a Korean lesbian. And how that trauma manifests in her relationships. It was a realistic inner conflict ,which contributed to their breakup in the third act . It was heartbreaking and functional to the story ! I hate stupid conflicts.

The resolution was so cute ! I loved Gemma’s friends.

One last thing : I like pop culture references in books and think they can enhance the writing, to fully contextualise the time ,place and age of characters, but lee’s use of them was ham-fisted at times .

I liked the audiobook , although Natalie naudus is a stronger narrator than Catherine Ho.
Thank you Hachette Audio for the ALC!

After seven years together, Gemma Cho's fiancé breaks up with her without explaining why, and it leaves her wondering whether true love really exists. But when she's paired up to work with photographer Celeste Min, her first love, the woman who helped her realize she was bisexual, and also the woman who ghosted her for eight years, Gemma finds her heart still capable of old feelings.

This was a super cute second chance romance, and I loved that even though the MCs hadn't spoken to each other in eight years, they were able to act and speak maturely with each other during and after clearing the air. Both MCs are Korean, and I thought the open discussion about their culture and the fact that neither of them saw sapphic representation growing up was very interesting.

The only thing I didn't love was the fact that the different POV chapters were also told in different tenses, which felt weird and unnecessary. Gemma's POV chapters were told in present tense first-person while Celeste's POV chapters were told in past tense third-person. Luckily, the majority of the story was told from Gemma's POV.

I listened to this one on audio, narrated by Natalie Naudus for Gemma's POV chapters and Catherine Ho for Celeste's chapters. While I loved Natalie, I really struggled listening to Catherine's portions. She spoke extremely slowly and her speech didn't seem to flow very naturally or convey the emotion appropriate to the story.

Read if you like:
Sapphic romance
Second chance
Korean rep
Forced proximity
Late 20s MCs
Friends with benefits

Love in in focus by Lyla Lee
ARC from Hachette Audio
Release date: May 27th 2025
-omggg I instantly felt connected to Gemma and she sets the scene so well and quick, I feel the crispy air of San Francisco with a red street car passing by
-if you’re in your 20s and going through it I feel like you’d relate with Gemma cause I sure do
-love Gemma’s voice in this audiobook its soothing and feels like I’m on the phone as she rants about life I’m invested immediately
-eeekkk love the drama, forced proximity and second chance vibesss
-can we take a moment for this cover too cause 😍
-I was not a fan of the 3rd person / Celeste’s character voice and a little too robotic and disconnected in my opinion , I would’ve rathered just Celeste’s POV in first person
-the way Gemma describes Celeste 🥹
-the tension between them ouffff 🔥
-beautiful life lessons and advice in here too
-Ouu and some fake dating in here love all the tropes
-this was such a cute read, Gemma and Celeste are adorable 🥰
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Hachette Audio and NetGalley for this ALC, in exchange this is my honest review.

Love in Focus by Lyla Lee and narrated by Natalie Naudus and Cathrine Ho was a beautiful, heartwarming, sapphic, second chance romance. Love in Focus follows Gemma right after her fiancé suddenly breaks up with her after seven years and her college ex, Celeste, suddenly appearing in her life to work as the photographer with her for her recent assignment about love for her magazine.

Naudus eloquently breaths life into Gemma as she goes through the highs and lows of learning what love means to her. Gemma is fun, and all I could do was root for her, cry with her, and learn with her. Ho brings Celeste’s brightness to life as well for the small interjections her side is presented, helping to weave their love story together. Both Gemma and Celeste have sworn off love only for a chance moment bringing them together at the perfect time to learn together, laugh together, reminisce together, cry together, and love together.

Lee’s storytelling pulls the listener in and I couldn’t help but fall in love with everyone from Gemma and Celeste to the cat Burrito. Gemma gets the opportunity to learn about love from other’s love stories and how love surrounds us all in more than one way. Gemma’s and Celeste’s romance is both steamy and hot, and wholesome and sweet. Overall a 5/5 stars listen. Buy or pre-order Love in Focus to be published by May 26, 2025.

after being very let down by my last romance book, i jumped into this hoping it would be way better, and the beginning was better, but as the book went on, it just felt like i was reading the other book but just different names attached. now that i see it's the same publisher, i'm kinda concerned. does this publisher just give you an outline and you ghost write it? or are they strict about sticking to a formula around the romance genre? some lines i know i heard almost word for word in both books, are they maybe using an AI program of some kind? very weird and off-putting.

the characters were together for like 7yrs but it felt like they just had a bad first date and never tried more, way too surface level. didn't seem like they really even knew each other.

the time jump near the end was... weird ish. i didn't like it, you slowed burned us, then they did a 3rd act breakup (when they were supposed to be casual anyways) then jump 2yrs?!? like what happened??

it jumps from 1st to 3rd POV depending on which character it was. didn't bother me but for some it might.

just felt like same old same old and very formulaic.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy!

This second chance at love is a cute and easy read. One of those books you stay up into the wee hours just to finish it. The spice is 🥵 Being given the chance to listen to it early I'm really glad I preordered it!

This was so cute!! Love in Focus is a sapphic second chance romance where college exes end up working together in their late 20's and rekindle something. It's got great bisexual rep and has Korean characters, talking about a lack of queer Asian elders because of sexuality often being kept quiet. It's also fairly spicy! I really loved this authors first YA book, so I was excited to see her writing an adult romance. It did not disappoint!

Gemma is a relationship columnist whose fiancee just broke up with her. In the wake of the breakup, she's assigned to work on an article about couples in love and the photographer turns out to be the college girlfriend who moved away and ghosted her. But Celeste remembers things differently, and after heartbreak, she only ever does casual...

This was great. I will say, Gemma is definitely the most fleshed out character of the two. We get a few chapters from Celeste's POV as well, but it felt a bit unbalanced and I kind of wish we had more. That said, I do think we still get a good sense of who the characters are and I enjoyed seeing their relationship come together! I really liked the narrator for Gemma's perspective, though the other one didn't quite have the vibe I was expecting from Celeste as the cool gay girl with tattoos. I received the audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own,

Loved the narration. The narrators were fantastic in emulating the fmc’s. Lovely romance with likeable fmc’s. I enjoyed the Korean culture references added since one fmc is from s Korea. The chem between the two is natural and exciting. Second romance chance trope. Very fast breezy read.

I really liked the idea of this book but I didn’t love the way everything played out and the main characters were a little confusing. I thought I was gonna love this one and although I did enjoy a lot of it I don’t think it was great. 🫠 and I didn’t like the ending I feel like these characters wasted so much time apart and they could have just had a conversation and moved forward. 📸

This is a second chance/miscommunication style book I can get behind. This is because the miscommunication occurred when the FMC’s were young adults and when they see each other 8 years later, it’s quickly communicated and they apologise (like grown adults). I loved every second of this book, everything was so mature, but spicy and also relatable. I also adored the queer representation with the FMCs and various side characters that we meet throughout.

If you want a loveable romance book, definitely check this one out.

Second chance romance at its best!!! I really loved Gemma and Celeste’s story because it felt real but also with the perfect tropes for a romance novel. The bi sexual rep is really well done also. I personally loved that sort of second journey for Gemma and her sexuality.

I love Gemma’s friends, Val and Kiera, sooo so much. Their relationship is so damn perfect. Their dynamic between each other, as friends, as lovers, and as people. I just LOVEEDDD!!!! Val opening up about how relationships can look perfect but require actual work had me crying. Also I found myself crying a lot at their scenes together but happy tears!!!

I think this audio book is done really well!!! Both readers are very clear and I would listen to another book read by them 100%. I could speed this up to 2x and understand everything perfectly.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this free arc!!!!

The cover of this one totally drew me in (it’s gorgeous) and the story made me stay. I loved Gemma and Celeste so much! I listened to the audiobook and it was phenomenal! The narrators were amazing and their voices suited the characters so much. This book had my emotions all over the place in the best way. There’s something about second chance romances that get me all choked up. Add on supportive friendships on top and I’m sold. I highly recommend this one!

📖 Bookish Thoughts:
This was a solid sapphic second-chance romance with lots of emotional tension. I had a harder time connecting with Celeste, though. She felt very wishy-washy, and I found myself mad on Gemma’s behalf more than once—between her awful ex-fiancé and the way Celeste treated her (especially disappearing when Gemma needed her most).
While I understood that Gemma had family trauma she needed to work through, it didn’t excuse the way she left things with Celeste.
That said, I really loved the ending. Seeing Gemma put herself first? Chef’s kiss. And I appreciated the diverse representation and the messy, complicated emotions woven into the story. 💕
Even with my struggles connecting to Celeste, I still enjoyed this second-chance sapphic romance overall. The emotional messiness felt real, and I appreciated how both characters had to work through their baggage (even if it made me want to shake them sometimes 😭). The diverse rep was awesome to see, and I was rooting for Gemma’s growth the whole way through.

📖 Read if you love:
🌈 Sapphic second-chance romances
💔 Messy, complicated emotions
🎞️ Forced proximity
🏳️‍🌈 Stories centering bisexual rep

📖 Final Score: 3.75⭐
🎧 Audio Score: 4⭐
🎙️ Narration Style: Dual narration

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed Celeste and Gem's story. I wasn't a huge fan of all of the back and forth but I do understand why it went the way it did. I was rooting for them the whole way through and it was devastating to the reader each time the relationship didn't work out for whatever reason. I did appreciate that each character took the time they needed to go to therapy and work on themselves separately to be better versions of themselves for the other. I also liked that Gem got closure with her ex as well instead of it just being left unfinished.
I truly do appreciate this sapphic read because I don't feel like there is enough representation out there.

2.5 stars
I loved the idea behind the plot, just not the direction it was taken. The cover is so cute and what drew me in. I appreciate the open communication and talking about the past early on in the story between characters. But I think this might have been better if Celeste was the main character and we had mostly her pov.

I understand that if you're in a relationship with someone for 7 years you'll have a lot of memories with them, and that person was obviously a big part of your life, and serious enough to be engaged, but the second chance romance isn't with that ex, so why are we hearing about him so much and in the manner of how we're hearing about him.

Most of the book is in first-person narrative for Gemma's chapters, so the third-person narrative chapters for Celeste's POV took me out of the story a bit, it just didn't transition well and it disconnected me from Celeste. I just don't understand the reasoning for it.

In the audiobook Gemma's narration was done well, but Celeste's chapters are narrated without much emotion, but I think that may be mostly due to the writing and not necessarily the narrators fault.