how things develop

Romance advice columnist Gemma Cho is devastated when her fiancé breaks up with her after seven years. James told her abruptly that he just didn’t love her anymore, so Gemma gave back the ring, packed up some clothes, and moved in with her best friends Val and Kiara until she figured out what to do next. Crashing on her friends’ sofa, a comfortable orange couch named Clementine, helped Gemma to feel better. But James works at the same magazine she does, so when she stumbles on him making out with another woman at the office just weeks after he had broken up with her, she is feeling especially low.

But she has to focus. She has been given a big story to work on, and with the right interviews and photos, it could potentially be a cover story. The project is about love, the interviews on couples who have been together for a while. Gemma will be asking each couple about their backstory, how they met, how they make it work, and what love means to them. Personally, it’s a hard time for Gemma to be around so many happy couples, but she wants to be on this project, so she tries to put her personal feelings aside. And the magazine has hired a photographer to take pictures and videos of the couples.

Gemma is shocked when she meets the photographer. It’s Celeste Min. Celeste is a world-class photographer and her work could put their project over the top for Gemma and for the magazine. But more importantly, Celeste is the woman in college who made Gemma understand she was bisexual, and she was Gemma’s first love. They had talked about spending the rest of their lives together. And then Celeste disappeared suddenly, leaving Gemma alone and confused. Gemma tried to get ahold of her, but Celeste didn’t answer any of her calls or emails. Gemma was devastated and ended up blocking Celeste on social media. She finished school and started working at the magazine, where she had met James.

Now it’s seven years later. Gemma is newly single. And she’s spending time with her ex-girlfriend as people talk about their love stories. Will they be able to keep things professional, or will the benefits in their friendship become more than just what HR has to offer?

Love in Focus is a charming sapphic love story about broken hearts and the work it takes to find healing. With the feel of an old-fashioned rom com, these women figure out what works best for them as they decide whether to put their hearts back on the line or not. Both of these women are Korean, and the culture adds more drama as they try to live up to the expectations of their families and their communities. Set in San Francisco, this love story has layers of sweetness and heartache, acceptance and rejection. But it’s truly a sweet sapphic love story with some genuinely funny moments.

I listened to the audio book of Love in Focus, narrated by Natalie Naudus and Catherine Ho. Most of the chapters are told from Gemma’s point of view, but Celeste has her own chapters as well, so we do get to find out what had happened that caused her to leave school so suddenly and not reach out to Gemma for all that time. I thought both narrators did an excellent job bringing these characters to life, and there was no hesitation in those spicy scenes either. Listening to Love in Focus was a lot of fun, and following the love story of these Korean women made for a special read.

Egalleys for Love in Focus were provided by Forever, and a copy of the audio book was provided by Hachette Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.