4.0 stars!

Now let me just start by saying that I really enjoyed this book! I am not the biggest fan of a second chance romance, unless it is done well, and this was done in, I think, one of the best ways!

Gemma is working for a magazine and she does the almost "how to" section. She is then told that there is going to be an article about a range of different types of couples and how they have all managed to stay together and what they as couples think is the meaning of love. For this project there is a visual aspect that also needs to be captured and Gemma's boss has informed her they they have hired someone well known that will be perfect for this job. Gemma then learns that it is in fact her first girlfriend Celeste, who left suddenly during college. Leaving Gemma wondering what had happened and heart broken. This their story of getting a second chance at their love.

It also is so diverse in it's cast of characters, and with it's narrators as well. There is so much queer pride in this book, from characters introducing themselves with their pronouns as well as to the different cultures and backgrounds that were represented. It also talks a bit about how being out and proud is still not easy to do when you come from a certain culture.

The narrators for this production were well chosen and they did a brilliant job making these characters come to life. The way that Natalie Naudus makes it seem effortless, by creating a whole cast of voices just herself. Catherine Ho also did a great job playing Celeste, I do love that even though Celeste didn't have very many chapters they still decided to do a Dual Narration which is always a great choice. I like it because it does help me keep the perspectives straight in my head during the book.

All in all I really enjoyed this book, and was so grateful to be able to listen to this in advance. I will definitely be reading from this author again. I will also keep my eyes on books narrated by these two lovely people. They did a great job!

I have rather mixed feelings about this book. While it was fun, and the premise was interesting, and I love a good second chance romance, I wish there had been more of the premise and less of other things.

I found the concept of the article super interesting, and I wanted more on that, honestly, though what I got was quite good.

I was a little disappointed in the romance. Having read other books by Lyla Lee in the YA sphere, I know I enjoy her romance writing normally. However, this one felt lacking in actual building of the romance, it seemed to substitute relationship building for sex. And that was a little disappointing on my end.

I thought the narrators made it quite a good experience, and I enjoyed that we had different narrators for different characters.

This was so cute!
I love Lyla’s books a lot and her adult debut did not disappoint.

I do have to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of the POV’s switching patern, I personally prefer every other chapter or so, and I just felt like we spend a LOT of time with Gemma and not that much with Celeste, this however is a personal preference.

I really liked how “real” this book felt (besides the meta part near the end) and I can’t wait to see what Lyla will write in the future

A wonderful sapphic book!

The heartbreak! The Longing!
It was so nice to experience a sapphic book like this.

The narrators of the audiobook were also wonderful, I could listen to them so much more!

Thank you NetGalley, HachetteAudio, and Lyla Lee for the ALC of Love in Focus!

Sapphic? Second chance? Love in Focus is both. Gemma has just been dumped and her ex, Celeste, who has been gone for 7yrs just popped back into her life.

The narrators for Gemma and Celeste both helped to create a true image in my head. When they switched POVs, there is a switch of first to third person. This isn’t a deal breaker to me but something listeners should be aware of.

I personally enjoyed the story and how it unfolded. However, I couldn’t fully get behind the reasoning for certain decisions the two main characters make but still enjoyed the growth that occurred in the end.

(2.5 stars)
Love in Focus is a second chance sapphic romance featuring two Korean-American young women, Gemma and Celeste. They were roommates in college and became much more than friends. Celeste suddenly left to go back to Korea to help her mother who was very ill and she wound up ghosting Gemma. Fast-forward eight years and Gemma is a writer for a local magazine - her pieces focus on love advice. Celeste, back in the US, is hired to do the photography for a Valentine’s Day piece which will feature a number of loving couples. Gemma doesn’t know how to handle working with her ex. Complicating things is the presence of Gemma’s more recent ex, James (Gemma is bi.) who also works at the same magazine.

All of this takes place in current day San Francisco. The story is told with two points of view. It was a bit jarring because Gemma’s chapters are told in first person present, while Celeste’s chapters are told in third person past.

This book didn’t wow me. I had a hard time relating to the two FMCs. Why would Celeste complain about Gemma moving on, when she ghosted Gemma, and it’s eight years later?! And then she does it again!

I enjoyed the “focus” on Korean traditions and foods, which is why I’m rounding my rating up.

I listened to the audiobook version, which was well narrated by two narrators: Natalie Naudus and Catherine Ho.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

This one’s though. 3.5 rounded to 4✨
Hear me out, is it fun to listen to? Absolutely. Should you while going for a walk, at the gym, doing chores? 100% which is why I ended up rounding to 4 stars. It’s a fun audiobook and I really enjoyed my time with it.
My hesitancy came more from some of the things in the story itself. I wasn’t a huge fan of Gemma and some of the things that happened throughout sort of made me roll my eyes a bit but it also felt 100% like modern romance? Like, these are just people and there’s miscommunications etc. it felt super romcom in a way? Like modern romcom. Hence why I give it that rating.

3.5 stars rounded up

I have some mixed feelings about this one

I loved a lot in this book. I loved Gemma as a character and I enjoyed her journey of finding herself and learning to be happy with herself throughout the course of this book. I also loved her chemistry with Celeste. Their romance was wonderful and the spice was some of my favorite I've ever read.

Now this is a second chance romance which is one of my favorite tropes, but in this instance I didn't love it. I felt confused about why Gemma and Celeste didn't work out the first time around and why they broke up. It was basically a big miscommunication which I didn't love. I feel like Celeste was really bad at communication and by the end of the book she was frustrating me. I also don't mind a third act conflict, but again in true Celeste fashion it was basically just a big miscommunication.

The biggest negative was the way the dual POV was done. Gemma's chapters were written in first person POV and Celeste's chapters were written in third person POV. It made me very frustrated and I honestly don't understand why the author would make that choice. It was jarring to read and pulled me out of the story at each POV change. This one thing had me knock an entire star off this rating because it was not enjoyable for me at all.

I did like this book overall and I would recommend it, but just be prepared for miscommunication and the weird 1st/3rd person POV shifts

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy and the advanced listener copy! I love tandem reading and this was a great audiobook done in dual narration that I enjoyed.

Being a 29 year old woman from Orange County that moved the Bay Area, the beginning freaked me out because why are you copying me? All jokes aside, I really enjoyed this book.

Getting to follow Gemma through phases of grief after her relationship falls apart was hard, but inspiring. Did she start to jump into something before she was ready to? Absolutely, but I think running into Celeste (her ex gf) really opened her eyes. Gemma spent seven years trying to make herself fit into a box for a man that ultimately left her. That is so much to unpack, but she did it and she came out stronger in the end.

Celeste didn’t have as many chapters, but her inner monologue was a lot of reminiscing about Gemma and how she moved to LA to get away from the shame her family placed on her for sexual orientation.

The fact that Gemma and Celeste did not immediately stay in a forever kind of thing was so healthy. I was proud of Gemma for taking that year to just be single and focus on being her true self for a while. I think that will ultimately help create a stronger base for their relationship in the long run.

I really enjoyed all of the representation in this book. When Celeste got to see people that looked like her getting to live long happy lives, I very much cried at the hope that gave her. I also liked that there were so many queer characters in the book because it allowed for Gemma to really grow into herself and get that support everyone deserves.

I did listen to the audiobook, and I want to say that the narrator for Gemma is one of my favorites. Celeste’s chapters were a little slower, but there weren’t very many chapters for me to get used to the changes in talking speed.

All in all I had a really great time with this book.

Loved this. It was a cute queer romcom, exploring forgiveness and how family dynamics shape us. Focusing on queer dynamics and portraying Bi sexuality while holding both straight presenting and same sex relationships is the perfect representation for a book like this. I loved the way Gemma moved through the world making her feel like a real person.

I was attracted to this book because I heard rumors of it being an upcoming Illumicrate Afterlight pick. It's hard to explain it, but this is exactly the kind of book I could see in that subscription. It was cute, queer, and attempted to poke at the feels. It has a cast of chosen family/friendships and touched on the hardships of growing up queer in a Korean family.

The book was cute but I wanted more depth in the story. Overall, I would rate this a 3.5 rounded down.

This was my first book from this author and my first sapphic romance. I thought it was mostly a well written story and book, but there were issues throughout.

I felt the reason for the characters initial breakup and subsequent animosity was a bit off, one character completely abandoned the other and ghosted her and then when she came back and realised that she has moved on to another relationship quickly she felt very betrayed. This seemed a bit odd to me. Then meeting up in the future via work was predictable but was well written and it was clear they had good chemistry. I liked the side characters as well and thought the pacing of the book was good.

I did not like the different tenses used throughout. This was a really weird choice. When you were in Celeste’s POV it was written in third person which made you feel quite detached from her and most of your sympathy was with Gemma. Also the flow of the book and the pace was disturbed by the tense change.

Overall, this was an easy enjoyable read and I will read other books by this author. The audio book was very good and the narrator for Gemma did a great job.

I received an ARC via Netgalley from Hachette audio for an honest review of this book.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc! This was a cute sapphic romance book with an Asian lesbian couple. A sweet read with a good amount of banter, given the length of the book. I listened to the audiobook at 1.75x speed and that felt appropriate. The book isn’t particularly memorable or life-changing but I enjoyed reading it.

Oh this was a perfect pallet cleanser between horror books!
So sweet and heartfelt and a perfect ode to the one that got away. I think sapphics can all relate to that special place your first girlfriend holds in your heart not to mention the pressure of comp het from younger years.

I truly loved the infusion of Korean culture through out and the added layer it gave what someone us would feel as a familiar story.

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of the Audio book and the two narrators did such a great job at bringing the characters to life.

If you want a cute heartfelt sapphic love story this is one to pick up

I adored the narrators for this book! I think they perfectly played each character, even when it was the role reversals! Now for the content!
I will begin with the lighthearted. Ad someone who grew up in the Bay and misses it dearly, hearing “hella” in Gemma’s slang was so kitsch and a cute little nugget for me! Along with sharing slang with Gemma, I also grew up in a partly Asian household where I was worried and felt like I had to hide my bisexuality. Seeing her grow and finally feel comfortable enough in her sexuality to eventually own up to it (off-screen) with her family was amazing and even a bit cathartic for me. When Celeste and Gemma discussed never seeing any queer inspiration from our communities while growing up, I felt it from my soul and absolutely agree. As a “model minority”, it’s like we still have so much to hide when we’re not cut from the same mold people expect from us. The author really encompassed a lot of the lgbtqia+ struggles/triumphs and made it normal yet fully individual at the same time, all within the pages of their sweet romance while never making it feel preachy or laggy. The side characters were also amazing, found family has always been a trope close to my heart, even when the characters have a decent relationship with their blood relatives. While I hated the separation between the two, I also could see why it was necessary and helpful at times for their own growth. This was a great ( and steamy 🥵) read/listen and fully recommend it, with a 4.75 out of 5!

thank you hachette audio for this audiobook arc! while i liked the idea of this book and it’s various representations, the writing itself did not connect with me. this was adult romance but i could still feel the ya undertones. big fan of second chances but this felt too on the nose. it was okay, but wouldn’t recommend. i have enjoyed lyla’s work before so i’m excited for what’s next with one under her belt!

production/narration was fine. i found gemma’s voice to be more fitting than celeste’s - might be due to the more whisper in her voice. side characters were fine.

this might be more of a physical read than audio but as an avid audiobook reader i stand with my review.

When interviewing couples in love is it possible to not obsess over your own feelings? Of course not. This second chance sapphic romance is roommates-to-lovers, then estranged-exes-to-colleagues, colleagues-to-FWB, FWB to-what’s-next?

The chemistry between Gemma and Celeste is heard in the narration and the story itself. Communication was a problem at the end of their college days, 8 years later they know how to communicate, but they have to figure out how to trust.

As an avid audiobook listener I was surprised by the long pauses between chapters, but enjoyed all other aspects of the narration and production. As a sucker for sapphic romances and found families, I wish we had seen more of Celeste’s chosen family.

I enjoyed the hopeless romantic aspects of this book. This was my first sapphic novel and I wasn’t disappointed. All the characters are well written and the storyline pulls you in and gives you all the feels of watching a romance movie on a Saturday afternoon. While the FMC was fun, I very much enjoyed the side relationship of Kiara and Val, they are a great set of friends to Gemma and the character of Kiara has such cinnamon roll vibes and I was drawn to her, always smiling when I came upon her parts in this Rom-com.
The overall topic of LOVE that echos throughout the book is quite heartwarming, you get a look into various relationships from various walks of life and all so sweet and so relatable. There are many lessons to take with you “Accept each other unconditionally”, and “…sticking together through thick and thin” and “”love is Sara, no one and nothing else”. All such great bits from the random relationships.
Celeste and Gemma have a genuinely realistic relationship with ups, downs, separation and uncertainty, but don’t all romance novels have those?
“One romance novel moment at a time”
Don’t force it, take your time and you can also have your Celeste/Gemma moment.

Yes to subverting the lesbian uhaul trope!

I love that the author allowed these characters to take time and heal before jumping back into a relationship, and I appreciate their dedication to their careers.

This was a really refreshing read, and I'm looking forward to what Lyla Lee does next!

Big thanks the NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the advanced audiobook copy!

This was such a cute romance novel! I absolutely enjoyed this, I devoured it from start to finish. I really liked seeing Celeste and Gemma explore their feelings and get their second chance.

We meet Gemma right after she has been broken up with by her fiance with no real reason given. She spent the last seven years with him and isn't sure what to do next. At least she still has work and a great project to work on, she stoked for it! However, when she comes face to face with her ex Celeste, the talented videographer/photographer attached to the project, she has to figure out how she feels about her now.

The audiobook brings Gemma and Celeste's voices to life and adds depth to their characters. I was so engaged and didn't want to stop listening. Watching these two try again and find themselves was so beautiful.

If you love great bi and sapphic representation I would highly recommend this book. If you love romance and second changes absolutely pick this up. Thank you to the publisher for providing an ALC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.