Love in Focus

by Lyla Lee

A relationship advice columnist gets a second chance at love with her ex in this sapphic rom-com, perfect for fans of Ashley Herring Blake and Alexandria Bellefleur.

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?

Genres: Romance, Lesbian, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, Audiobook, Adult

Audible Audio

First published May 27, 2025

About the author

Lyla Lee is the bestselling author of books for all ages. Inspired by her Korean heritage and love of pop culture, she writes cute and sometimes swoony stories that have been translated into multiple languages around the world. Originally from South Korea, she’s lived in various cities throughout the United States, worked in Hollywood, and studied Psychology and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. She now lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit Lyla at lylaleebooks.com or on social media (Kid lit: @literarylyla and adult romance: @authorlylalee).

Reviews

[Alya ( 20 comments restriction ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE
✨️ ARC REVIEW ✨️
Love in Focus by Lyla Lee
Publication date: May 27th 2025

Thoughts
I enjoy picking up sapphic romances from time to time, while this had its cute moments I did get bored. I enjoyed following Gemma's "self discovery" journey at times I found myself rooting for her. This was supposedly a second chance romance which initially was the reason I requested it alongside the cover of course but I needed more in terms of the second chance, I wanted to feel things on an emotional level however it lacked intensity..

Plot Summary
After a painful breakup ends her seven-year relationship, romance columnist Gemma is ready to give up on love entirely. Her dating history—across the gender spectrum—has been nothing but disappointment. So when she's assigned a career-reviving project about modern love, the last thing she expects is to be partnered with Celeste—the dazzling, successful photographer who also happens to be her college ex and the one that shattered her heart. Now working side by side, Gemma and Celeste try to stay professional, but old chemistry and unresolved feelings resurface fast. As they explore love through the lens of their work, Gemma is faced with a choice: protect her heart—or take a second chance on the one that got away.

Tropes
▪︎ Second chance romance
▪︎ Sapphic romance
▪︎ Forced proximity
▪︎ Workplace romance

Thanks to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the ALC

[ashlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

They had history. They had tension. They had… potential. I wanted to be wrecked, ruined, fully spiraling but instead it felt like watching a romcom on mute. Still cute, still cozy, just not the heart squeezing magic I was hoping for

Thank you Netgalley for the arc💗

[lexie · Rating 3 out of 5]

she was cute but she wasn’t life changing 😛 i loved the queer asian rep and how it was woven into the story particularly, but the two fmc’s themselves were sometimes hard to root for 😭 it felt like everything was pretty solid about this story except them!

for james being the absolute villain he was, tell me why he’s completely irrelevant the entire book. that could’ve added EXCELLENT angst and was underutilized *side eye* i feel like celeste was more of a background character than the main love interest even in her pov. they’re in their late 20s but a lot of this read like younger gen z in the approach to love, romance, and dating in this day and age (derogatory). i wanted for affirmation from them than they’re flaky, will-they-won’t-they because i didn’t believe that they could pull it together!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

…but they did! this isn’t a negative review my bad ya’ll i had a good time i PROMISE. this is also short as hell i flew through this bad boy!!! oh oh also the spice was 😏 there’s a certain scene that rhymes with trap…hint hint wink wink that had me blushing and giggling up a storm 🙂‍↕️

thank you to netgalley & forever for the arc!!

[Mai H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pride Month 2025 #1

🍦 🍓 The Ripped Bodice's 9th Annual Summer Romance Bingo 🕶️ 🏄🏼

/ Kissing In The Rain

The beauty of being bi, I learned, is that you can get rejected by both women and men.

Is it really a K-drama (K-book, whatever?) if there's no umbrella sharing moment? I love this.

Anyway, these two aren't perfect. No one is. But I love them. Gemma is a bit dependent. Celeste is as hot as Jane from ONE LAST STOP. The most unbelievable thing so far is that you would leave a hot, tattooed Korean woman for a mid white man, but I'm here for the plot.

And I guess it's not second chance romance I hate. I was going to say it's second chance romance with men. But that's a lie. I loved SECOND CHANCES IN NEW PORT STEPHEN. So it's just straight second chance romance. Because straight women deserve better than straight men!

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Forever

[megan ◡̈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

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,

[Freefall (ia, find me on discord) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

when i first opened the book, first impressions were that the cover was gorgeous, the spine durable enough to not crease, and oh how good it smelled.

but for a little while, i thought that was going to be the only good thing about this book.

it starts off extremely boring and flat, with a lot of reminiscing about college but no actual memories. it continuously brought up "kayla" even though the only thing we actually hear about her is the fact that shes the reason gemma and celeste have to room together, and that shes married. there is no actual reason for kayla to come up again and again and with the amount of "back in college" lyla could've definitely wrote in some memories.

speaking of the writing, why does celeste suddenly become third person? granted it could be to confuse the audience less but i'm going to be honest the pov shift from third to first to third is also confusing, if not more. and i don't know if it's just me but it gives celeste's chapters less soul.

honestly, i don't think lyla wrote a lot of the characters at her best, because flip the script and i'll be the one have much better supporting characters, but val and kiara just seem to be written purely off of lesbian/butch stereotypes. i remember at least three times where a paragraph starts as "according to the stereotype..." like excuse me what

in fact, my favorite characters had to be the gay couple in their 40s (i forgot their names, sorry!) or the sapphic elders (keiko and nat).

what irked me so much was how celeste said she was good with kids but at the same time treated two 7-year-olds like they were 4. i get they're young but the best way to talk to kids is to act like they're slightly older than they are, right?

so by 60% i really thought i was so done and i was going to leave it a lenient 3 stars.

but it gets better! and the diversity starts to actually feel like diversity (keiko and nat) instead of "im cramming in as many lgbtq+ people as possible!" there is a lot of character development (and actually very well-done sex scenes)! critique is why couldn't the pacing be better so it's dry dry dry then--boom--fun yay

for lyla lee's debut adult romance, the sex was very, very well done. no over-the-top usage of certain words, nothing unrealistic, and to go with the pride and diversity, theres some kink exploration (use of sex toys, at the end), as well as gemma learning how to eat someone out

--
reviews of lyla lee's books:

love in focus
the cuffing game
i'll be the one
flip the script

--
pre read:

lyla's writing is so cute don't disappoint

[monica ✨ romantasyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live for second chances romances. And make it your first (and only for Celeste!) love I was locked in.

The forced proximity and forced to work together after not seeing each other for nearly a decade was so delicious. These two were soul maaaates and knew they couldn’t help but falling back into it from their first semidrunken kiss. The ease Celeste and Gemma fall back in love was so sweet and tender.

I also loved the project the two of them worked on together. Celeste was photographing couples and Gemma was interviewing them based on their definition of love and it was so sweet.

🎧 the audiobook was so cute! Catherine Ho and Natalie Naudus read for Gemma and Celeste and they both brought distinctive personalities to their characters. I loved Celeste’s portrayal specifically when she was being shut down and closed off. Their performances made the book for me!

what to expect
⟢ second chance romance
⟢ sapphic yearning
⟢ first love
⟢ forced proximity

[DianaRose · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love in Focus is a short and sweet sapphic romcom. It's a second chance romance, which I don't always love, but I had quite a good time with it. The main character, Gemma, is a relationship columnist paired up on assignment with her college ex. This premise felt so cozy and reminiscent of early 2000 romcoms. I really liked both of the main characters, as well as the book's writing style. My only problem with the book is it sometimes felt like Celeste was less invested in the relationship than Gemma, which was a bit of a downer. As a whole though, I had a really fun time with this book. It's a quick read and easily worth the time!
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Star · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content warnings: alcohol, breakups, past references to parent with cancer, past references to parent leaving, cheating on MC mentioned, biphobic comments.

Rep: Gemma (MC) is cis, Korean-American, and bisexual. Celeste (MC) is cis, Korean-American, and lesbian. Side lesbian characters, side queer characters, side BIPOC characters.


This was pretty great all around. I received an advanced audio copy from net galley, and flew through it in two days (for me, currently, this is a huge feat).

I adore Natalie Naudus' narrations, and this was just wonderful.

I loved Gemma's story, and watching her work through her issues, and fall back in love with Celeste.

The comment from Celeste's first POV chapter about how it's a 'lesbian's worst nightmare' that a bi woman ends up with a guy was completely unnecessary IMO. Obviously I don't speak for all lesbians, but that is not our 'worst nightmare' ffs. And it's biphobic as fuck to keep pushing that rhetoric. It's also extremely lesbophobic, too. Especially when there was literally nothing else in Celeste's narrative to indicate she thought like this. It seems like the author was putting her own personal bias into the book, and it does nothing except continuing to push a horrific rhetoric.

One of the only gripes I have is idk why Celeste even had a POV because her chapter were so few and so short. The entire thing could've been told from Gemma's POV only, but oh well.

[Stillbelieveinnightmares (kinda back) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Sapphic, poc second chance romance? I'm here for it.

Gemma is unexpectedly and suddenly being broken up with by her fiancé. She then meets her love from college, Celeste, who disappeared on her out of nothing 8 years ago, through a shared project at work.

I feel like the characters behaved and reacted in a very relatable way. They had depth, showing their fears and hardships in life. I felt that they both valued each other's happiness and were willing to talk and compromise on that. I especially enjoyed the insight on what life can feel like as an Asian queer woman, especially in a very traditional environment such as South Korea and christian parents - both in the US and in Seoul.

[suonnahbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

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: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[⭒emmi⋆m ⭒ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 📷 | 🅣🅗🅞🅤🅖🅗🅣🅢: An enjoyable read. Smooth and easy. Sparks fly. Growth intertwined. Swoony. This was a sweet and soft love story full of cute moments.✨

🌉| Sapphic Romcom
🌉| Second Chance
🌉| Forced Proximity

#earlyreadcopy

[Amanda at Bookish Brews]

late 20s second chance romance!? being forced to work with an ex who inexplicably abandoned her after college??

with forever pub and lyla lee? im so excited!!!

[Ben Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

(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.

[Ellen - most.lyromance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love in Focus features Gemma, journalist and Celeste, photographer. Gemma and Celeste dated in university, while being roommates. Celeste ghosted Gemma and now, eight years later, they meet again for a job and all their old feelings immediately start again.

I had the hardest time with this book. I think that there are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed in a romance and if they happen in a romance, I have the hardest time believing the happily ever after. This is exactly the case with this book. Celeste ghosting Gemma was such a terrible thing to do, and then she doubled down by being mad that Gemma moved on. Eight years later, she’s still mad that Gemma moved on. Like, lady! You LEFT! You GHOSTED her.

The romance in the present was fine, but I didn’t get their connection. They each felt completely betrayed and then were totally fine jumping into bed together. And then the third act breakup lasted a YEAR. No. Nope. You’re telling me these two people has this much time apart and I’m supposed to believe in their happily ever after? The reasons for being apart were also the worst and then it was a book end ghost. You completely love this person and tell them you can’t be together cause they’ve never been single and ghost them? AGAIN?

Anyway, I may or may not have had big feelings about the romance in this one. The writing was good, the audiobook was fine. There were two narrators but Gemma’s POV was 3/4 of the book, so it almost didn’t feel like it was necessary to have two narrators.

Overall, fine but also much anger.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much to love about this book honestly. I LOVED the late 20’s, second chance romance elements to Gemma & Celeste’s relationship, it was written so well in my opinion! I also absolutely adored the conversations and representation of being a Queer Asian woman, and all that encompasses that.

The only thing I didn’t *love*, was the alternating first & third person POV’s with their chapters, but it didn’t bother me so much that it took away from the story. It just took a bit to get used too!


*huge thanks to the publisher for the arc in exchange for my honest review*

[Madison Warner Fairbanks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love in Focus by Lyla Lee
Contemporary sapphic romance. Diverse, own voice. Second chance troupe.
Gemma Cho and Celeste Min are set up to collaborate on an article. The only problem is that they have a past unresolved relationship they’ll need to talk about to be able to effectively work together. There are still sparks between them but is that good or bad?

🎧 I listened to an audiobook of this story narrated by Natalie Naudus and Catherine Ho. Both did a good job with the performance but the second didn’t convert well to a higher speed. Her voice became robotic and unemotional at 1.5. If playing it slower, the emotional came through. Since I read much faster than I can listen, this made the audiobook a second choice over reading a print copy.

I enjoyed the romance but found it hard to believe that the two would fall back into a relationship so quickly. It made sense since they had history that was never really resolved. Celeste’s not wanting a longterm relationship came as a bit of a surprise after they had been together for a time. I liked the San Francisco setting and that they felt the freedom to go out safely anywhere. And it was great they included the older couples in the article and discussed the hidden aspect in some countries and the legal ability to marry in the States.
Gemma and Celeste are late 20’s. The story reads more as new adult.

Angst and spice with a happy ending.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley and Hachette Audio.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

It was cute, and while second-chance romance is often a miss for me, this worked.

Even if it was the second sapphic book where "oh she doesn't do serious relationships" was part of the entire miscommunication bit. Hate it. Although at least in this one Gemma and Celeste sat down and talked about it.

Not my favorite (mainly because I really didn't like Celeste's narrator) but overall fun. Loved the theme of learning to love yourself first, of figuring out who you are and getting grounded before going back into a relationship.

[audrey ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my most anticipated reads and I was SO excited to get approved for the an advanced copy of the audiobook. The narrators were both great and really embodied Gemma and Celeste.
Love in Focus is a sapphic second-chance romance that will have you swooning. I really loved and connected to both characters. I felt Gemma and Celeste’s need to be near each other no matter in what form and I was rooting for them throughout the entire book. As someone who took a break before starting forever with their partner, time apart really can help two people grow both individually and within their relationship. I find that to be really important in this story and I found it to be very realistic. The spice in this book was also perfect and it tied in well with the story.

I’m a Lyla Lee lover through and through!!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and Hachette Audio for the ALC!

[rochi ⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love in Focus is a sapphic second-chance romance about two Korean women in their late 20s who reconnect while working on a project. Celeste and Gemma were college exes whose paths cross again when they end up working together.

This was a cute and enjoyable read. Celeste and Gemma were relatable and sweet, and I loved seeing their connection slowly rekindle. One of my favorite parts was the project they worked on—interviewing different couples about their relationships and definitions of love. Those interviews added an emotional layer to the story, and gave insight into how Celeste and Gemma were processing their own feelings. I also appreciated how the book highlighted the lack of representation for older queer characters in media.

Overall, this was a heartwarming romance that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a second-chance queer love story.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This one was okay! I love a second chance romance and the forced proximity of this one was fun since these two have to work together. I actually liked the project they were working on together and thought its as so cute! But there was just something missing from the romance? The writing style was an odd choice to have one POV be 3rd person and one be 1st. Listening audio, it was a bit jarring and felt like the 3rd person POV was just being told to us instead of really feeling connected with that character. I would have liked the "I'm almost 30, so what am I doing with my life" plot to be a bit more original. This one wasn't bad, it just isn't a new favorite.

[S.L. Hemmings-Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t lie, I was disappointed by this book.
It started off well and by 100 pages in I was interested in the MC, her love interest, her friends, and her life, but then I just felt like there was more of the same and it didn’t keep me interested. Not much really happened, I felt the romantic chemistry was lacking between the MC and her love interest, who is her ex gf, and I felt that the characters were quite immature for 29 year olds. They felt 21 at the most to me.
Unfortunately I didn’t much enjoy this book and didn’t get much from it personally, but if you like romance books with a simple story then you may enjoy it.

[Juniper L.H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit: after posting my review I remembered a few things. Specifically, the crappy biphobic bits at the start that really gave me the ick. It’s so frustrating to see these kinds of things slipped into a novel, and so unnecessary. I was on the fence with my rating but I think I’ll round down now instead of up and give this thing 3-stars.


Original Review:
This is one of those books that left me conflicted on how to rate and review it. In summary, this novel had a lot of very good elements; the writing was well done, the characters were well developed and had motivations that were easy to follow, there was a nice cast of side characters to make you happy and angry (respectively) as they added to the story, etc.. On the flipside I found that there were a few weaknesses in this novel that significantly decreased my enjoyment: little things but with a significant impact.

I felt like this novel lacked conflict. It is a second-chance romance and sometimes those don’t land for me (other times it’s a favorite trope). Their issues in the past were underwhelming to say the least (in my humble opinion), and as a result the rest of the novel felt the same way. I spent most of the novel just waiting for things to happen without anything in the way of tension or a deeper investment in the story. This was one of those novels where you are just waiting for the characters to decide to “do the thing”, and then eventually they do. This isn’t uncommon in romance novels, but I know that it can be done so much better.

I don’t think there much that is “wrong” with this novel, it was just underwhelming in a few (unfortunately key) aspects.

That said, I want to circle back and repeat that there was a lot of good in this novel. The writing was well done, and as I listened to the audiobook I can say that the narration was also excellent. I think that if my small list of complaints were addressed, then this could be a top-notch novel. Reading a well written scene with the protagonist having an emotional response just doesn’t work for me if I disagree with their motivations….. but I can also still identify that it’s a well written scene.

I think a lot of people would enjoy this novel. Its relatively low-stakes like a Hallmark movie and was a perfectly enjoyable. Set your expectations that it wont be life-changing, but sometimes that isn’t what your looking for in a novel anyways.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free ARC. This honest review was left voluntarily.

[Sarabeth Hall · Rating 1 out of 5]

finished with days to spare before book club, wildddd

Sadly, a book better I enjoyed complaining about rather than loving. Perhaps it was the biphobia from Celeste or the point of view change from Gemma's to Celeste's chapters or the fact that it had two points of view at all or the cringey dialogue or the weird pacing or overuse of the word sexy (every time Gemma saw Celeste, that was her number one favorite descriptor. I get it girl, you're down bad but you're also a writer. Spice up that vocabulary!!). It felt more like a first draft than something polished and complete. The way these characters acted, they felt more like teenagers than 30 year old women (also side note. I hate when people act like being 30 is practically geriatric. Like. Why are we perpetuating this? Society does enough to shame women for looking old, let's not play into the notion as well! Own up to being 30, flirty, and thriving!) and the emotional expectations were childish too (Like ghosting someone for 4 months and expecting them to be waiting with open arms for a return that was not foretold). Anyways. The San Fran setting made me want to visit and Gemma's friends seem like they've got fun stories going on.

[kaitlyns_library · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Abbrosy · Rating 2 out of 5]

very cute story premise, but I couldn’t finish it. DNF at 39%. It was kind of hard to follow and the characters and drama didn’t really land. The POV - first person present vs third person past reeeally took me out of the story. Also, tired of transphobic jokes

[CarlysGrowingTBR · Rating 3 out of 5]

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), biphobia (by a FMC and not addressed)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Release Date: May 27, 2025