Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Mending Hearts
SERIES: Chords and Courts #3
AUTHOR: Becca Seymour
PUBLISHER: Rainbow Tree Publishing
LENGTH: 382 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2026
BLURB:
Ollie Marshall has spent years mastering control—on the court, in the media, in the careful spaces between truth and survival. But control shattered the night everything went public.
Now the League is watching closer than ever, sponsors are calculating risk, and the narrative about his life is no longer his to shape.
Rafe Ortiz has never known how to love quietly. Music is loud. Wanting is louder. And losing Ollie—even for a second—showed him exactly what silence costs. His band is bigger than ever, the world tour looming, and the spotlight hotter than it’s ever been. But success feels hollow when the one person who grounds him is slipping through his fingers.
They’ve already survived ambition, distance, and secrets.
What they don’t know how to survive is the damage left behind.
When reputations are on the line, contracts hang in the balance, and old wounds reopen under public scrutiny, Ollie and Rafe have to decide whether love is something they protect—or something they finally stop hiding.
Because mending isn’t soft.
It’s messy. It’s public. It’s brave.
And sometimes, the only way forward is to risk everything for the person who’s always been your home.
MENDING HEARTS is the emotional finale to the Chords & Courts trilogy—featuring
public reckoning, “I choose you” energy, ride-or-die found family, healing after fracture, and
a deeply satisfying HEA.
REVIEW:
THANK GOODNESS!!!
I couldn’t read this fast enough! Author Becca Seymour left me gutted at the end of book 2. I understood where Ollie was coming from and why he chose to leave. He was deeply hurting the man he loved with all his heart and soul. Because Rafe is his heart and soul. But leaving Rafe also broke both their hearts. And 8 years is a very long time to nurse a shattered heart. But Ollie finally has a plan of action to try to win back his husband. He’s going to retire and hope that he can manage to talk to Rafe. That all implodes spectacularly when Ollie is on the one week All-Star break. Divorce papers being served changed everything. But has he waited too late to enact his plans?
You have to realize that 15 years ago, when Rafe and Ollie first started dating in secret, out rookie pro-athletes and rising music stars just weren’t that visual. Yes, the league and public perception had drastically changed during that time, but Ollie hadn’t. He was still trapped in his mind set, drilled into him by his homophobic parents, that he had to be “the Ollie” he was suppose to be in public view. The same parents that had washed their hands of him when they discovered he was married secretly to Rafe and refused to break his vows to the man he loved. But Ollie’s parents did such a number on him that he struggled to break their mold they had cast him in. However it only took one elite movie star appearing to make a move on his husband to shatter that cage he has been trapped in forever. One earth shattering moment and Ollie didn’t think for once. He just acted on what his heart had always wanted. One moment in time where he showed the world that Rafe was his! And then that beautiful moment was shattered by violence. A delusional woman going after Ollie with a knife after that kiss, that extremely public display of affection, changed the whole scenario. And both men realizing what they almost lost.
I was glad that they didn’t rush as fast back into the lives that they had wanted for so long. 15 years of pain can’t be undone that quickly. They needed to take control of the public optics that came with such a dramatic outing. And then Ollie’s parents sticking their two cents in where it definitely wasn’t wanted added to the media turmoil. However, I believe that both of those events, the knife attack and Ollie’s parents outing their marriage, helped to unite them.
I did live that Rafe’s parents accepted Ollie and didn’t judge him. He needed to experience that type of unconditional love that his parents never gave. What he had always needed. And his agent and Rafe’s were so supportive like I expected but Ollie never let in to know what was really real out of fear of rejection. Because his parents taught him that lesson long ago.
I was thankful that his team and the league stood behind Ollie. He literally gave everything to them and he deserved their respect and support. And I loved that Ollie followed what he heard Rafe mention years ago and set up the foundation to help youth of immigrant parents to pursue their dreams. It was the perfect place for him to be when he retired and it helped so many kids.
This book was just what I needed after I was gutted with book 2. I needed Rafe and Ollie to get their extremely hard fought for HEA! And they needed it too because yes, these two men became real to me. They became as real as the actors and athletes and musicians that we watch on television. That we don’t know but give are hope and support to.
I can’t recommend this amazing series enough and hope that you enjoy the ups, downs and struggles these amazing and loving men endured to get their hard fought HEA as much as I have! Huge thumbs up!!! 👍
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