Aug 19, 2025
Free From Falling by @xiaq 🌈🏳️⚧️📚
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Free From Falling by @xiaq 🌈🏳️⚧️📚
All of these and more available in my store 🩵
I've re-read Free From Falling by EL Massey a concerning number of times. I even re-bought all four Breakaway books but in paperback so that I could loan them out to friends and they could read them all too.
I love all four Breakaway books, but I think that Free From Falling is where @xiaq really hit her straps when it came to writing fiction.
Anyway, this is a long winded way of stating; from the get go, I envisioned Towa Bird when I thought of Sydney Warren.
I need everyone to know that right now my Roman Empire is the Breakaway series by E. L. Massey. I AM SO FREAL FOR LIKE REAL PEOPLE DO AND FREE FROM FALLING, IT’S NOT OK, I AM NOT OK. ITS SO WONDERFUL I CAN'T COPE. Like Eli and Alex??? Matts and Sydney??? Rome and Damien??? THIER STORIES ARE EVERYTHING. Special shout out to Kuzy and Jeff. It's so funny, and there is so much character development and representation. I was just saying to my friend that these books should be prescribed as anti-depressants, they are so fucking good and I just reread them over and over, they are everything, GO READ THEM
Queer Book Character Tournament Round 1
Victoria Montgomery- Mrs. Victoria Buys a Brothel
Dex- A Psalm For The Wild-Built
Morgan Kwon- The Girl from the Sea
Sydney Warren- Free From Falling
Character, book, and author names under the cut
Free from Falling by E.L. Massey
Justin “Matts” Matthews is good at a lot of things: Rubik’s Cubes, playing guitar, herding cattle, and most importantly for his career in the NHL, hockey. He’s not good at human interactions or social cues, especially when it comes to women. This deficiency is an annoyance rather than a problem, right up until he meets Sydney Warren. If it’s not love at first sight, it’s sure something close.
Sydney Warren, frontwoman for up-and-coming rock band Red Right Hand, is fierce, driven, and she doesn't do relationships. Being an out trans woman in the music industry is more than enough pressure—a romantic entanglement would be added stress she doesn’t need. A romantic entanglement with a professional hockey player who, to all accounts, is only just learning to be an ally is definitely not what she needs. And yet.
After a chance encounter, Matts and Sydney become unlikely friends. However, in the stolen moments of their busy schedules––late-night phone calls between NHL games and concert tour dates—they start to question if maybe “friendship” isn't so apt a description for whatever this is between them.
But can they overcome the outside pressures from family and media that would rather their relationship end before it has a chance to start?
i adore the dynamic that matts and sydney had in Free From Falling because matts is literally the epitome of "he a little confused but he got the spirit" and sydney is, to quote the book directly, "all skulls and crossbones on the outside, but on the inside, she wants that Jane Austen shit"
and the best part is matts literally pulls a grand gesture that includes one of Austen's most iconic lines. like that boy's thing is math not english but if syd wants Jane Austen then by god he'll deliver Jane Austen
I think I might have found a new contender for my favorite book of the year?? Free From Falling was just so sweet and swoony and filled with trans joy! It had me literally giggling and kicking my feet from how much awkwardly sweet flirting was going on and with how much Matts and Sydney were pining for each other. I loved that they started off as friends and built a very solid foundation based on trust, that blossomed into so much more. I also really loved that Sydney being a trans woman wasn’t a huge deal to Matts, he just loved her for who she was. The care and trust that these two built over the course of the book was incredible. And the slow burn of the romance? Absolute perfection! It was just so sweet seeing them together and just being able to be themselves. Everything about this book was perfect and it’s getting five stars!
2025 Reading Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge: alliteration in the title
Read More Queer: queer in an M/F relationship