I'm not a huge second chance fan, because to me, what they did that lead to a break-up is either way too bad to forgive with little groveling, or too stupid to have broken-up for in the first place. In this instance it was perfect, circumstances they could not control, being young and dumb, and most importantly bringing it up a soon as they can when they reconnect and talk about it like adults! It's been 8 years, they both apologize and said what they could've done better, and agree to move on. This is how it's done people! I can now comfortably watch these two fall back into love.

I mean sure they're still a little hurt and understandably reticent but it's so much better. I have a minor gripe with how while they're both still understandably holding onto baggage later in the boom, Celeste is insistent that Gem hurt her more, by moving on 4 months after being ghosted over night, and Gem totally agrees with that. As if she was supposed to stay forever waiting for someone who had disappeared and may not have even been alive. But while I don't agree, I am glad they still talk about things they're feeling, and go to therapy.

I loved both stories being told in this book. The relationship developing was sweet, but what really hit home for me was the article Gem and Celeste worked on together. Love throughout the ages and the answers, from the yes fictional couples, held a lot of weight to me. And I don't think the book would've meant as much without that aspect. I don't mean if you removed them worked on an article the plot wouldn't work, I meant I enjoyed seeing what love meant to different couples, how they kept their relationships, and "seeing" older queer folk. I would love to read that article if it were real.

The pacing was slow overall, which was fine, there weren't any moments of high drama or people gunning for either of them (her ex was a dick, but not a villain) so it felt more like meandering through Gem's year, especially in the latter half, but not in a way where I was skimming ahead to get the story moving. I do wish that more of that time had been taken to show who Gem and Celeste really were. I think without my appreciation of the Modern Love In Focus element, this would've been rated a star lower. They early had feeling for each other and were attracted to each other, but we didn't get to see them fall in love back then or now, or why for them it had to be each other.

It was also fun to ready more k¡nky sapphic smut, than most stories usually have. Both FMCs are just so adorably excited and into each other, I was expecting them to be strapped or into dirty talk.

I think this is a sweet story that was well written, and a good time for anyone wanting to enjoy a cosy queer romance.

This book fell a tad short for me. Second chance romance after one just leaves 8 years prior, The second chance romance, where they have to work together but Gemma is also dealing with working with her ex who dumped her out of nowhere. It was a cute read and I feel like some moments were great they both went to therapy to improve, but I feel like the end almost felt rushed and a lot of the storyline felt like it came out of nowhere rather than flowing easily.

This book is so cute and I adore it.

Gemma and Celeste are college exes, and they’re pulled together for a joint project for work. This is a swoony, heartwarming second-chance romance story, and I think it is PERFECT. I love every single part of this book, and I think it deserves so much hype.

The interview scenes are also just. amazing, especially the last one.

This was nice and cute at times, but slightly clunky in general, the dialogue as well as the overall setting.

I really enjoyed reading about the Korean culture, the slight focus on the difficulties of being queer in a society that isn't very open towards this.

The alternating POV wasn't the best, I'm generally not a fan when one perspective is 1st person and the other is 3rd. This tends to confuse me and take me out of the story, and that's exactly what happened here.

The first 20% was Gemma being a downer, which is understandable considering her 7 year relationship has just ended without explanation. Then her college sweetheart Celeste enters back into her life, and just when I think the story is starting to get interesting, the opposite happens. The reason behind their previous "break up" is revealed very early, and it's just a very simple misunderstanding. Tbh, I found myself disinterested pretty early on, because of this reveal.

There was a lot of unnecessary detail too, like mentioning that someone paused music on their PS5, or that Gemma Venmo'd some money to her friends. I find information like this completely irrelevant, and it instantly makes me dislike the book.

I also feel like everything was just so incredibly brief and surface level, at no point did it delve deeper into the emotional connection between Gemma and Celeste, there was no exploration into their initial relationship back in college, very little pining or meaningful communication. I need all of this in a second chance romance, otherwise what's the point?

There was some smut, but it mostly came out of nowhere, with very little build up, and lacked true intimacy.

My favourite thing about this entire book was the work Gemma and Celeste did, the interviews and photoshoots - this is the only time I found myself wanting to read more and it wasn't even about the main characters, but about the people they were interviewing. Exploring love, especially queer love, was really beautiful.

this quick and sweet second change romance does have some great sapphic K-drama vibes but at the same time is a very sweet and real Asian romance book.

second chance romances always make me so anxious (because of how often in real life it is an absolute disaster) but the author was very honest about that in this and the characters are as cautious and sensible as any real couple would be which was refreshing. it also leans into romance tropes in a fun tongue-in-cheek but direct way.

there is also some little tastes of excellent spice in this, including a fantastic strap scene which i always love to see.

the ending is heartwarming and sensible. i mean, how many romances end in them taking it steady and going to therapy? we love to see it.

however i did struggle with the switching between first person and third person seemingly randomly as we switch POVs. i feel like keeping it consistent would have improved my experience with this book.

3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️✨✖️

This sweet, sapphic love story is immensely enjoyable. Easy to read, well structured and swoon worthy!

3⭐

When her seven-year long relationship suddenly falls apart, 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 when she gets paired up with Celeste Min, a world-renowned photographer, on a highly visual, potentially career-saving piece on modern love.

It was a quick and cute read for me. I was definitely here for all the spice too. The book has dual points of view, which I love. Unfortunately, Celeste’s chapters are significantly shorter than Gemma’s.

Themes of identity, sexuality, love, independence, friendship and healing was explored throughout the book. Even when everything was complicated, making connections seemed worth it with exploration of growth and healing.

Reading this book overall felt like a rollercoaster of emotions and healing at the same time. I would recommend this to fans of contemporary romance with forced proximity.

3.5⭐

When her seven-year long relationship suddenly falls apart, 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 when she gets paired up with Celeste Min, a world-renowned photographer, on a highly visual, potentially career-saving piece on modern love

This was a cutesy, bingeable book. It definitely grabbed my attention from the get go and had me smiling and kicking my feet throughout many parts. I enjoyed watching Celeste and Gemma’s character growth throughout the book.

As cute as the story was, I did struggle with the writing style. It felt choppy at times and a little disorganized. There were moments where the tone and voice seemed to shift, which threw me off.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot, the side characters, and the cultural elements, but I’m not sure this will be one of my favorites

It's been a hot second since I've read a sapphic romance and I adored reading this. This was a hot and cute novel, but it was also emotional at times. Both Gemma and Celeste didn't really have time to process their breakup. It was painful for both of them and I really felt it for the both of them. They really were soulmates and I was rooting for the both of them individually and together as partners.

Love in Focus was an enjoyable read. I liked how this book was a second chance romance, however I do wish we got more of what Gemma and Celeste were like 8 years ago. I felt a lot of the book relied on their backstory, and yet we didn't get much of it, just slow pieces slowly dripped in throughout the book. So, a lot of the yearning and tension that should have been felt just wasn’t there — we never saw any of this with them, these are characters new to us. Therefore, while Gemma and Celeste did have some chemistry, the sparks never really seemed to fly off of the page for me.

I really liked how this book put a focus on the queer community, particularly looking in to queer elders. There was some really great exploration here, and why that can be so important to many youths in the community.

I loved Gemma’s friends, Kiara and Val!

The plot had decent pacing and I liked seeing the characters grow, in particular Gemma. I felt there was a weird dissonance between Gemma and Celeste, with the former being told in first and the latter being told in third. I don’t think it quite worked and I feel it may have been more beneficial to have both characters written in the same perspective.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK | Piatkus for this e-arc

I think the first 20%+ of this book being almost solely Gemma complaining about how much her life sucked because of her two exes was just a bit much. Don't get me wrong, I really felt bad for her but it became really repetitive and made me completely check out of the story. As for the rest of the story, I loved the queer asian representation, but the Gemma and Celeste were really hard to root for. I felt like James was way more of a main character than Celeste was at the beginning, and then just completely faded into the background. Celeste didn't feel like a prominent character, despite having her own POV, and I really think the whole approach to dating in this book was way younger than the actual age of the characters. Maybe that's because Gemma had never really experienced modern dating, but the flaky will-they-won't-they genuinely just had me frustrated and desperate for them to get their shit together.

2.5 stars for me. While it was a cute read, it did feel chaotic and a bit all over the place. Celeste also really annoyed me with constantly being upset about Gemma having moved on even AFTER Gemma explained it all. Like bro. 4 months is not THAT short.

2.5 stars

Love in Focus has a great premise as a second chance work place sapphic romance, but unfortunately it wasn't for me. Although there are some aspects of the book I loved such as Gemma's friends and the assignment Gemma and Celeste work on was such a good idea.
I wish Celeste's POV was in first person as it did take me out of the story a bit after reading Gemma's Chapter in first person to it suddenly being in the third person. Also I found Celeste's behaviour towards Gemma uncomfortable as instead of taking responsibility for her actions she made Gemma feel responsible for everything.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

First of all, thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book.
Starting with the positives, the representation in this was really good. We meet so many different couples of different ethnicities, genders and sexualities.
The relationships I really liked were between side characters Val and Kiara, the friendship between Val, Kiara and Gemma and the relationship with her parents.
However, I did not find the relationship between Gemma and Celeste enjoyable sadly. Celeste did not have a good enough reason for ghosting and Gemma was too quick to forgive and apologise.

3/3.5 stars.

This was a cute, sapphic, 2nd chance romance and I did have a good time reading this and was overall a fun, bingeable book. There was a few moments were Celeste and Gemma did annoy me and at times felt quite childish considering the characters are late 20s I was quite surprised at this.

I really wish we got to hear more from Celeste and see more of her thoughts and feelings as her chapters were often very short and therefore I couldn't really connect with her. I would've loved to be in her POV more especially to explore more regarding her best friend as it referenced how important he is to her, but I feel like we didn't really get to see that for ourselves.

Overall it was a fun read and I did have a good time reading it but I do wish there was a bit more development of the characters. I will never see another orange couch without calling it Clementine!

Thank you Forever Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.