Book: The Focus Shift by Greenleigh Adams
Reviewed by Michelle March
Rating: 5/5
I was very emotional. I didn’t expect the book to take me on a journey of family and how DNA doesn’t make a family. Not only that, but I just expected a typical romance book. There was so much depth to the layers of all the characters involved in the story.
I felt invested from the first few pages of the first chapter. The author did an amazing job of drawing you into the story and making you as the reader really like the characters right away.
It deeply resonated with my own experience in life and with parental relationships. I loved how the author shows that “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and everyone’s “normal” might look different for other people depending on their situation. And the depth of relationship that can occur as a mother or a father without it being DNA that bonded them.
I loved seeing Heath’s journey of dealing with his past and how emotionally raw he became with Rocky, the female main character of the story.
In the beginning, they just thought each other were cute. They met through a mutual friend. They both thought they were bad at relationships and bad for other people, so they had both treated sex very casually in the past. Not only that, but they chose to take a step back and build a friendship first before exploring those feelings. To go from that to being each other’s person was beautiful to watch.
They allowed space for each other to cope and heal in a way that worked for their idiosyncrasies and quirks. I absolutely loved how she also met Heath where he was, even when it was hard or inconvenient for her.
True love doesn’t force you to become or deal with something like trauma a certain way. It allows you to be who you are and to express those hopes and fears and hurt in a way that is healthy for you. Both the main characters really showed that uniquely to each other.
The sexual components of the book were very emotionally raw and beautiful. It wasn’t just sex. You could feel the emotional tie the characters were establishing with each other.
The only thing I found confusing sometimes was trying to keep track of all the names and relationships of the surrounding characters, but that is mostly due to the fact that this is a series that I jumped into the middle of.
The book is more than just a romance story. It’s a story about family, healing, and belonging.