Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Breaking Strings
SERIES: Chords & Courts #1
AUTHOR: Becca Seymour
PUBLISHER: Rainbow Tree Publishing
LENGTH: 339 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2026
BLURB:
Rafe Ortiz should be focused on the music—on the gigs, the grind, and the industry eyes finally turning his way. Instead, every lyric he writes leads back to one person: Oliver Marshall, the golden-boy basketball captain with a body built for highlight reels and a secret smile meant only for him.
Behind the court and the stage lights, they burn.
In the shadows, they fall.
And no one can know.
Ollie has a reputation to protect and parents who expect perfection. Rafe has a band depending on him and a career poised to explode. Rules say they should walk away. Desire says they won’t survive it if they do.
When March Madness collides with a life-changing showcase opportunity, their stolen nights and breathless encounters become a crossroads—love or legacy, truth or secrecy, each choice carrying consequences that could break them.
Or bind them tighter than ever.
BREAKING STRINGS is an addictive, emotional, steamy MM romance about two men fighting for dreams, for each other, and for the life they’re terrified to admit they want.
REVIEW:
Exciting new series with the match up of a musician and his band just getting the break they need to try and hit it big while having a secret love affair with the supposedly straight and focused captain of the very successful college basketball team shooting for March Madness!
The moment that Rafe meets eyes with one of the most popular and successful players of their college’s basketball team’s captain Ollie, he has his muse. When the two discover they actually have more in common than anyone would believe a friendship forms and, for the first time Ollie can ever remember, he has unconditional support from the musician that makes him take chances. But is it worth the risk to try and discover if there is more???
I will warn you. Angst is high in this one. Does he feel the same way as me is questioned a lot and for a long time!!! We are literally 30% into the book before a kiss even is tried. Stollen moments continue as they keep this all very hush hush. But I get it. Ollie is literally brand new to this. I’m also pretty sure that he’s always been a virgin. He has always kept his head down, studied hard and worked hard to make his way to the top of his game. And taking a chance on Rafe is huge. Ollie’s parents are über conservative Christians and best friends with the Governor of his home state. He has been “groomed” all his life on what to look like, how to act and what’s expected of him in the future. They indulge this phase/hobby of playing basketball but he is expected to graduate, quit playing games, step into his father’s company and marry a nice girl. Nowhere in their carefully made plans are for him to meet a bisexual male Mexican musician who’s hopes and goals it to make it big in the music world with his bandmates. And definitely not for him to lose his heart to this man. But parents don’t always have to know what’s happening in their grown son’s life and they don’t always get what they want. Because:
- Ollie is a very gifted and talented athlete that’s going to go far in the NBA.
- His heart is owned by Rafe, the man that has his back and always behind what ever Ollie wants to chase.
I will say that the last 30% of the book picks up the pace so fast that you need to remember to breath at times and that last part just blew my mind! I never, ever saw that coming and had to reread to make sure I was really reading that it was real! 🤯Now I can’t wait for the next book to release. Thankfully it’s pretty fast because now I am completely hooked and need much more than the Happy For Now this left off at.
This is the first book in what appears to be a three part series and it is told exclusively from Rafe’s point of view. The next book, if the first chapter teaser this ends with is true, pick up where this ended and is from Ollie’s point of view and I can’t wait to be inside his head. I’m hoping we will experience so flash backs of what was going through his mind as this epic love story unfolded. Well worth all the angst to get to this point…and now I can’t wait fore more!!!
RATING: 
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