After the Chorus

After the Chorus
Saoirse Ní Bhraonáin used to have a future that looked a voice that stopped rooms, a love that felt written in stone, and a life that seemed destined to be lived in front of people.
Then it all went wrong—publicly, brutally, and in a way she never fully recovered from.
Now she’s a single mother in Ireland, living small on purpose. Quiet job. Quiet house. Quiet routines. Her son is her whole world, and the rules are keep him safe, keep their life private, and never give the world another chance to turn her into a story.
But when a televised singing competition launches a new twist—blind auditions where contestants perform unseen—Saoirse can’t ignore the pull. One song. One shot. A chance to sing again without being watched, without being judged by anything except sound.
Except the show isn’t truly blind.
One of the judges is Fionn Byrne.
He’s older now. Sharper. Famous in the way Saoirse once could have been. And he’s the last person she should ever let back into her orbit—because he’s the boy she loved, the man who broke her heart, and the one person who could ruin everything with a single
He doesn’t know about the child.
As the competition tightens its grip, Saoirse is forced into a tightrope walk between anonymity and exposure, between survival and desire, between the life she built and the life she buried. The producers want drama. The tabloids want blood. And the closer she gets to the finale, the more the past presses in—through backstage corridors, old songs, unfinished apologies, and the kind of chemistry that doesn’t care what it costs.
Fionn isn’t just a memory anymore. He’s a presence. A threat. A temptation.
And Saoirse can handle almost anything—until the world starts circling her son.
Set against the ruthless machinery of reality TV and the intimate ache of second chances, After the Chorus is a story about voice and visibility, motherhood and protection, and the difference between being watched and being truly seen.
If you love emotionally grounded romance with sharp tension, Irish atmosphere, and a heroine who fights for her child and her own life with equal ferocity—this is your next late-night, “just one more chapter” read.