Just a wonderfully executed romance novel! So far I haven't had any contemporary romance really hit it out of the park for me this year and this was exactly what I needed. If you love the self actualization element and sweet friendships of One Last Stop I think you'll have a lot of fun with this. I think that second chance romances can be hard for people because you have to justify the couple reuniting. The logic of the breakup is sound in this story and their reunion also feels warranted.

My only gripe with this book is the ratio of Celeste to Gemma chapters. The Celeste chapters were so few in number that I think this could have just been single POV and it would have worked just as well. I definitely enjoyed her chapters, but if I have to nitpick anything it would be that.

Per usual Natalie Naudus does impeccable sapphic audiobook work! Having listened to many audiobooks, there are a shocking number of narrators who don't differentiate between main characters by altering the pitch of their voice. Natalie gives each character a distinct voice and makes following the story a breeze. She's one of my all time favorite narrators and it's always a joy when I see another release with her attached to it. Now time for me to preorder a copy of this book so I can get all the fun art prints the author has!

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free audio-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This story sounded really fun in premise, but it ended up feeling a little flat for me. Gemma is pitched as a relationship columnist who doesn't believe in love anymore, when that really isn't the vibe I got from her at all. She's a serial monogamist (and I mean that not in a bad way just a fact) who has had bad endings to her last 2 relationships. Celeste is the one who is jaded on love and relationships and proceeds to take it out on her and Gemma's unresolved feelings over the course of the story.

I really did not enjoy Celeste as a character and I think that's where a lot of it stems from. All the way through the end of the book she holds onto the argument of "you left me for a man" when she is the one who broke up with Gemma over text message with no explanation and moved out of their apartment?? It just felt like she was very judgemental of Gemma's actions following their break-up and during their current hooking-up where she didn't want to

I did really enjoy getting to read about two Korean characters though and seeing how cultural beliefs affected Gemma and Celeste's self exploration. Thank you Hachette Audio for an ALC of Love in Focus and Lyla for winning a physical ARC in an instagram giveaway.

Seeing sapphic asian love written by a queer asian woman makes me indescribably happy. I flew through the audiobook (which was brilliantly read!) and do not regret staying up until 2AM to do so.

This book is good, not great. The characters felt a little off and lacked depth, in my opinion- though I very much enjoyed their chemistry together (it felt like a realistic sapphic love situation with the immediate intensity of their feelings.

The spice was SPICY. The str** scene had me sweating.

Loved the side characters so much and the work assignment Gemma and Celeste were paired together for was lovely and added a lot to their tension.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio (Forever) for the ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I love a second chance romance! Love in Focus is a cute, bingeable romance that was perfect for my long drive home from the beach.
While mostly through Gemma's 1st person POV, we get a few chapters from Celeste's 3rd person POV and those felt really choppy and lacked personality compared to Gemma's. In the audiobook, the Gemma narrator is amazing but unfortunately, Celeste's narrator just emphasised the choppyness and robot-like tone and it did not flow very well between the two.
The storyline was sweet, if a little repetitive at times with the reminder that Celeste and Gemma dated shortly 8 years ago, where Gemma lived... The timeline felt hard to keep up with, the big work project needing to be done for the Valentines Day issue, but so much happened between New Years and the deadline that it felt like many weeks when maybe it was just one? Maybe that translates better in the physical book rather than audio. The last 10% was the redemption that this book needed. Closure from dumb ex-fiances, work growth, personal growth, and of course, a Happily Ever After!
Thank you, Hachette Audio and Forever Publishing, for this audiobook arc in exchange for a review!

this book was so insanely cute!! it was easily bingeable while on my long drives this weekend and i found it so easy to be captivated by gemma & celeste. i found them to be very relatable and sweet.

i had no clue this was a second chance romance and was very pleasantly surprised to find that out as i loveeee second chances, however i was a bit nervous when we found out that celeste completely ghosted gemma for 8 years, i figured surely thats not going to sit well with me but in all honesty it didnt make much of a difference as there was no general angst surrounding this factor. i would have loved to see a bit more dramatics surrounding the situation as it was a really shitty thing to do and gemma forgave it way too easily.

another factor i wish we would have had more angst with was james, he was an awful person and would have created a nice amount of conflict in this story but i feel like he was only relevant to the story when the author remembered he existed. there were so many things that would have added to the layers of the story but it seemed like they were just there to be there and felt almost like the author was too scared to bring them to the forefront?

i also like others didnt love the switching between 1st and 3rd person. i didnt love celeste’s POVs and im 99% sure this is the reason for it. celeste’s POVs felt choppy and weird flowing compared to gemma’s.

THOSE THINGS BEING SAID overall i really enjoyed listening to this audio!!! i loved every second of it actually because i really liked them separately and together, i liked their friends, i liked the silly situations the girls kept getting themselves into and i really enjoyed watching them realize that they were still meant for one another even after all that time!! BUT the things i mentioned earlier are what keeps it from being a 5 star read for me as they would have added more dimension to the book.

This second chance romance was so sweet! I loved the diverse representation of love between people of all races, ages, and sexual orientations. It was so easy to root for Gemma and Celeste! Cozy and cute!

A second chance sapphic romance with bi rep that happens about eight years after their first go-round, when the MCs are in their late twenties. This is author Lyla Lee's debut adult romance and she absolutely hit the open door aspects out of the park. Gemma and Celeste have chemistry for days!

This was an easy listen. With most of the book being from Gemma's POV we heard a lot more by narrator Natalie Naudus and she was excellent! Celeste's narrator, Catherine Ho's style was very distinct from Naudus' and I appreciated that it was very clear which POV we were hearing. 

I loved how they reconnected via a job that involved interviewing couples in love. It was very rom-com-esque, and gave readers some good rep. What I didn't love was how they split the first time and Celeste's emotions around that. I won't spoil anything, but dang, Celeste had no right to any expectations from Gemma following that split. And I was left feeling that Celeste never really took responsibility for her actions, even if her feelings around Gemma needing some time on her own were completely valid.

Overall this was a great audiobook, and was such an easy listen I would recommend it to fans of contemporary, especially if you're looking for queer Asian rep! I look forward to more adult romance by author Lyla Lee!

This book is so funny and sexy. It’s the perfect romcom. I tought I was watching a movie from the 90s. Love it so much!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I did not want to like this book nearly as much as I did, its rumoured (let’s face it, confirmed) to be the June Afterlight book and I am *trying* to be conscious of my spendings. But this book is now a must and a favourite.
 
The story follows Gemma and Celeste as they navigate working together eight years after they broke up. The relationships were all very complex and the character growth was believable yet sweet.
 
I hate it when complex relationship development is crammed into a few short weeks and their individual issues are magically fixed just by being together. Lyla Lee took her time and spent it well weaving together a book that, in 300 pages, makes you grow attached to the characters and invests you in their stories.
 
It was easy to read and left me feeling warm and happy. For her first adult romance, I thought this book was perfect. As for the narration, Natalie and Catherine were the perfect choice and engaged me right from the beginning.
 
🩷College Exes
🩵Workplace Romance
🩷Photographer X Journalist
🩵LGBTQ+
 
Thank you to Hachette Audio for the opportunity to rea this book early. I received a ALC from NetGalley in return for my open and honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for providing free audiobook ARC of Love in Focus in advance.

Love in Focus is a second chance romance with forced proximity. Both main characters are Korean (or Korean-American) and it shows on the page in a postive way. The novel is well written and I enjoyed the audiobook experience. Natalie Naudus does not ever fail. It was relatively light read/listen with some minor angst. The pace is medium with unexpected last 10-15% which was a nice surprise, something out of the box. There's quite a lot of spice in the book as the characters start friends with benefits casual relationship. There's also some great tension and a bit of pining, too.

80-85% of the book is written from Gemma's point of view (1st person). The rest is from Celeste's POV and for some reason in 3rd person. Especially as an audiobook the balance between two narrators felt off. I generally like dual POV romances but in this case Celeste's POV felt unnecessary because there was so little of it. I was left wondering why the change of person for her chapters?

I've would have liked to see Gemma's family's reaction to the news of her being bisexual and in relationship with Celeste. The conservative Catholic Korean family was a topic that was mentioned several times throughout the book. What happened in the end?

All in all the romance was a bit generic. I still rate the book with 4 stars because it was a really nice read and well written. It would be a really good recommendation for a romance reader as their first sapphic romance. It's not intimidating or too graphic but it is really good romance with great tropes with well written sapphic spice. The characters are multidimensional and there's a great cast of diverse supporting characters. I've read hundreds of sapphic romances. Love in Focus is, in my opinion, on par with books like Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler, and Ashely Herring Blake and Melissa Brayden books.

Love In Focus was a a lighthearted romance that was a quick and easy read. Gemma and Celeste were roommates turned girlfriends. When their work forces them to rekindle a relationship, they explore what they ended many years prior. This book had a fast moving pace. The plot was quite predictable, but the characters were likable. The side characters were a wonderful addition to Gemma and Celeste’s relationship. I did feel that the dynamic between Gemma and Celeste could have been developed more. The ending also felt a little rushed. I would have loved to see a more developed resolution of Gemma and Celeste’s relationship and the future they would get to share. Despite a plot with a lack of development in some places, the book was enjoyable and had an adorable happily ever after. As far as the audiobook goes, the narrator was easily understood and enhanced the portrayal of this book.

Wow. I’ve been following Lyla Lee for years now, and was really looking forward to this after Flip The Script didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but I’ve been truly blown away. This truly surpassed all my expectations. 💞

I distinctly felt like Flip the Script played it safe to the point that it compromised the romantic chemistry between the characters, and if anything it catered better to the younger end of a YA audience. Despite this, I was touched by shimmering moments within it in conversations around culture, identity and family. When Love in Focus was announced, I felt in my bones that it would be a smash hit—and it did!

I wasn’t expecting to feel a whirlwind of emotions reading Love in Focus, but it took those conversations and made them more serious, and extended out the effects into a person’s entire outlook on love and life. This was -1000 damage for me fresh out of having watched The Wedding Banquet (2024). The scene with the queer elders (especially in contrast to the cis, straight, white couple who appeared to have had things pretty much handed to them on a silver platter) made me physically need to take a break from reading—but of course, in a “where has this been all my life?” way. I truly wanted more of the cultural elements and Celeste’s backstory, but the book does a good job in maintaining a delicate balance with more light-hearted elements to retain its position in the romance genre. (Literary fiction/romance intersection next, Mx. Lyla Lee, pretty please??)

Celeste and Gemma’s chemistry on page is *sizzling*. It’s hard to get that with femme/femme, because the characters aren’t often written to be quite flirtatious enough! If you love Thai Girls’ Love drama (which is pretty much KDrama vibes for the sapphics) with its gorgeous tall dommes and their babygirl switches that feel believable and relatable, then this is right up your alley. Their past is tragic yes, though perhaps not horribly so (I wish we could follow Celeste’s life in Korea more!), and they’ve matured a lot as late-twenties adults, and yet … the complexities and obstacles they face are so convincing, the difficult moments so tender. It’s impossible to not root for them. There were multiple times throughout this book that I got some dust in my eyes. The age of the characters was chosen so well for the narrative—This book will be a beacon for any lost zillennial in their mid-twenties right now, because it’s just so comforting to read about (especially queer woc) millennials on their own timeline despite wishing for many of the more conventional goals in life.

I also really enjoyed the very relevant references to pop culture—starting from music that the girls and gays love, to lesbian and sapphic culture (superstition/astrology, U-Hauling, joking about dating/not dating men), to bisexual and lesbian experiences. Given the release of The Wedding Banquet as well, this book feels very well-timed. I love love loved the side characters—when do you ever see a pocket butch of colour with her boho girlfriend mentioned explicitly on page?

And how did I not know beforehand that Natalie Naudus, the queen herself, was the main audiobook narrator?! This totally made my weekend. Love her, love contemporary sapphic romance novels, love Asian MCs, starting this novel I just knew I was in the best hands. 🥺♥️ I enjoyed Catherine Ho’s contributions, too—but I did feel that the two narrators’ tones are so different that the shift was a bit hard to adjust to. I wouldn’t have minded if the same narrator was used as the omniscent voice, in the way that the Bright Falls trilogy was done.

I would have loved *so much* to see more Korean spoken (that one moment was so soft rahhh), or to have a Korean-speaking/specifically Korean American narrator for the whole novel, or even to have a Celeste with a slight Korean accent. In light of the rep in the Wedding Banquet, I say this as one myself—I think that would have made her so much more visible overall as an originally international student who borderline fled out of their conservative home country, which is extremely underrepresented.

Easy 5⭐️ fave.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for providing an ARC!

A fun and fast read that pulls you into the story. I appreciated the nuance of the story, but that was limited due to the unrealistic nature of one of the main through lines of the story. Gemma a character who was born and raised in California, attended school in LA, and now has been living in SF has an unrelenting feeling that she is behind the eight ball as she does not have a child yet at the old age of 29. This could have been plausible if she had a different background. This pulled me away from the story as her motivation did not align with her character development. Despite, all of this I still enjoyed the book and was so happy to see so many types of love represented on the page.

Wow, I adored this book! It follows Gemma Cho, a relationship advice columnist whose world gets turned upside down when her long-term boyfriend dumps her, leaving her completely disillusioned with love. Just when she's ready to swear off romance forever, she's assigned a significant project – collaborating with none other than her stunning and talented ex-girlfriend, Celeste Min, the photographer who broke her heart years ago.
Watching Gemma navigate the minefield of working closely with Celeste, trying to keep things professional while undeniable sparks fly between them, was utterly captivating. The tension, the unresolved history, and Gemma's internal struggle between protecting her career and risking her heart again made for such a compelling read. I was rooting for Gemma to succeed professionally and find the courage to trust Celeste and give their connection another chance. Exploring second chances, past heartbreaks, and rediscovering love felt so genuine.
Plus, Natalie Naudus and Catherine Ho's narration was simply fantastic; they truly brought Gemma and Celeste's story and emotions to life, making the listening experience even richer. This book delivered a perfect blend of angst, humour, and heartwarming romance that satisfied me completely. I highly recommend it!

I liked the forced proximity trope with Celeste and Gemma, their meets up at the coffee place were so cute! I liked seeing their journey's together as well as apart, especially Gemma's! I loved that she got closure with her fiancée and how it gave her confidence in herself. I loved their happy ending! So far really liking this author, will continue to read more of her books! Overall, great book!

Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Lyla Lee for this ALC!

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the advanced audiobook.

When Gemma Cho's fiance breaks up with her, after seven years together, she thinks things can't get any worse: she's homeless and still has to see him everyday because they work at the same magazine. For a moment, she thinks her life has turned a corner when she's offered the opportunity to do a big story about love (which will up her profile at the company)...and then the kicker comes. Her ex-girlfriend from college, Celeste, is the freelance photographer that the company has hired. Celeste who broke Gemma's heart by returning to Seoul just before their senior year and cutting off all contact. Now the two exes must work together to gather the stories of several couples in love and figure out whether they're still in love as well.

LOVE IN FOCUS was a sweet sapphic former lovers to enemies to lovers romance that felt like a smooth milkshake going down. Even when there was friction between Gemma and Celeste, you could see all the love between them and were willing to just go for the ride, to see how they would find their way back to one another. Both of the narrators did a great job of embodying each character's personality in their voices. The only downside to this book was that it is dual POV but the overwhelming percentage of the chapters are in Gemma's POV, which made the storytelling feel a bit lopsided.

Love In Focus is out May 27, 2025.

(Disclaimer: I received the audiobook from the publisher, but this has in no way influenced my review. My thoughts are entirely unbiased and honest.)

No one is more surprised than me to rate this book 4 stars!

I have to admit, my expectations were pretty low because contemporary romances with sapphic leads tend to be unnecessarily messy with no yearning?

Oh, and not to mention, most mainstream wlw published books are really white, or blonde, or brunette, or red (basically the only variety is in the heroine’s hair color?)

I’m so happy that wasn’t the case with Love in Focus!

Thank you Lyla Lee and the editor (if there was one) for combining all the promised tropes and giving readers this steamy and hopeful story with appearances from queer people of color and elders!

Rarely can second chance romances be done right, but thankfully, this book is an exception.

The narrative shows how Gemma and Celeste changed and matured after breaking up, but the attraction and love are still there, so the pining is great. Mwah mwah.

To be honest, it’s such a nice feeling to finally have sapphic leads who aren’t so annoying sldksldk (unlike with Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and The Bold Type hahaha).

Both heroines act their age and communicate with each other, so that made the love story exciting to follow through.

The actual storyline is simple with no need for questionable plot points, so you can finish this novel in a day to be honest.

Kudos to the author again because their smut was chef kiss as well.

Unfortunately, this book has a third act break-up.

BUT fortunately, it was essential for both characters’ arcs and not blown out of proportion.

(My only reason for not giving a perfect rating is I hoped the references were toned down a bit. I’m one of those readers who get distracted by any mentions of dated topics. Obviously, this is just a personal preference, so I hope you give this book a chance!)

More sapphic romances like this please!

(P.S. I actually think Chappell Roan’s The Subway is a better end credit song for this book. Hayy <3)

When her boyfriend of seven years suddenly breaks up with her, relationship advice columnist Gemma Cho is convinced that real love doesn’t exist. As a bisexual woman who’s had zero luck with both men and women, she’s ready to give up on her own romantic prospects. That is, until she's paired up with world-renowned photographer Celeste Min on a potentially career-saving piece on modern love.

Celeste is extremely talented and sexy, and would be the perfect collaborator and rebound for Gemma—if it weren’t for the fact that she’s Gemma’s ex, the one that broke her heart in college and moved to a whole other country before Gemma could even make sense of what went wrong between them. Heightened by the unmistakable sparks that still fly between them, Gemma and Celeste struggle to keep their relationship strictly professional. For the sake of her career, Gemma needs this piece to do well. And for the sake of what’s left of her beaten up hopeless romantic heart, she wants to fall head over heels for Celeste again.

But can she trust Celeste to feel the same this time around?



Thank you NetGalley for an early copy!
this was an okay book for me.
But I’ll still read more from this author
The audiobook was amazing!

5 stars rounded up. This was a really fun and quick listen. It had the feel of early 2000s romcoms like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the writing style of Cleat Cute, and the plot of Casual by Chappell Roan. Natalie Naudus is always an expressive narrator for wlw books and I liked Catherine Ho's voicing of Celeste too. I liked the main characters and the Korean representation. Some of the background characters really shined too. The whole thing seemed well-paced and easy to keep listening to.

Thank you to Net Galley and Forever Publishing for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book it was a really quick read that was easy to get through. Gemma is going through a breakup and has to team up with her college ex to tackle a project for the company where they are both employed. I loved that this book was a second chance sapphic romance, one of my absolute favorite tropes. This book has fantastic representation, and all of the characters have good relationships with one another. The friendship between these characters is also really good; it explores romantic and platonic love. This was a really fun and steamy read. Although some parts were a bit choppy, it didn’t take away from the story. I just wish that there was a bit more yearning! Excited to read more by Lyla Lee!!!

In addition I was also able to receive a copy of the audiobook version and I loved the narrators, it adds a lot to the story and made it very enjoyable. I really am excited to get my physical copy this book is amazing!