Fighting Solitude is Book Three in the On The Ropes Series by Aly Martinez and is Quarry’s highly anticipated story.
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**Each book in the series can be read as a standalone**
I was born a fighter. Abandoned by my parents, I spent my life forging my own path—one guided by my fists and paved with pain.
Untouchable in the ring, I destroyed everyone who faced me, but that’s where my victories ended. Outside the ropes, I repeatedly failed the few people who loved me. Including my best friend, Liv James—the one person I’d die to protect.
Even though I didn’t deserve her, Liv never stopped believing in me. Never gave up. Never let go. After all, she understood what I’d lost, because she’d lost it too.
Liv was everything to me, but she was never truly mine.
That was going to change.
I lost my first love, but I refused to lose my soulmate.
Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting to be the man she deserves.
Fighting the solitude of our pasts.
Fighting for her.
*****5 Q & Rocky All-Feeling Stars*****
You know, just when I think Aly Martinez can’t make me fall more in love with her seamless writing, her wonderfully distinctive characters, and her unforgettable and all-feeling stories, she gives me Fighting Solitude. She gives me Q and Rocky and their literal amazingness. She takes me on one of the most emotionally intense journeys I’ve gone on with characters. She gives me one last opportunity to be with The Page Brothers, to live with them, to fight with them, to experience it all with them.
And you know what I did? I fell harder and deeper and whole heartedly more in love with everything Fighting Solitude gave me.
This series has done nothing but amaze me. It’s made me feel, and experience, and break a bit (or a lot), and heal at the same time through every magnificent page. Every word, every interaction with these characters, every moment has allowed me to fall in completely love with what I have experienced with Till, Flint, and Quarry. To say I have loved reading these books, to say that I have loved The Page Brothers, their consuming stories, and their journeys on the road to healing and love, is a complete understatement.
Love is not a strong enough feeling for what I feel for those three and their special lady friends. It’s not a strong enough feeling to accurately capture what it’s like to experience these books, what it’s like to live and breathe and feel through every moment, or what it’s like to have Aly Martinez’s outstanding writing bring it all to life in the most authentic and enrapturing way. It’s not a strong enough feeling to show you how out of this world phenomenal these books, these characters, and everything they give you are. Even though I feel the word love doesn’t completely capture how much I feel for what these books have given me, I can’t help but say it and shout it from the proverbial rooftops. I loved them. I. Loved. Them.
Fighting Solitude is a book I have been waiting for. It was a book I knew would break my heart a time or two (or like 15 times if we’re really being accurate here). I knew it would be intense, I knew it would hurt like a mother, but I also knew that every experience I got from it would be beyond worth it. I would feel it, live it, and practically bleed it as I read, and it would all be worth it because it would give me Quarry and Liv and their story.
What Fighting Solitude gave me was a story full of fight and tenacity, sheer determination and will power, heartbreak and anguish that I felt every ounce of, and an attempt at healing that literally took my breath away.
Liv and Quarry’s story in Fighting Solitude is so very them, and I can’t say that enough. It gave me so much of their distinctive personalities that made me fall harder for them both. Whether it was Liv’s fiery fight and sass, or Quarry’s wonderful brand of trouble, they both burst from this book in a way that had me smitten with them both. Those two never failed to have an interaction full of their specific and highly wonderful charm. They shared a banter that was all them, and they never failed to make me smile or smirk or laugh in the most genuine way.
Those two made me happy. So freaking happy because I felt and I saw and I completely got what they were to one another, what they could be for each other, and the depths of what they shared. Liv and Quarry connect on so many levels, and even when that connection hurt my heart for them, I embraced what I was feeling because it gave me them, so viscerally and so authentically in such a raw way. Fighting Solitude gave me all of them. The good, the bad, the flaws, the mistakes and missteps, the triumphs and wins, and through it all I was in awe of what I got from those two because it was real.
The two of them have such dark pasts, full of hurt and anguish and solitude. She’s got major trust issues, and understandably so, and he’s afraid he’s going to fail everyone because he thinks that’s all he does. They’ve been hurt, lived through things no one should, and they still feel the ramifications of those events, but they’re still there fighting and pushing and giving it their all in hopes of healing and finding exactly what will make it better for them. That level of fight and tenacity that emanated from them both in such specific ways to their personalities and pasts was exceptional to experience.
One of my favorite aspects of Fighting Solitude was that it showed Quarry and Liv’s relationship at many different parts of their lives. It showed them as children when their friendship began, and it showed how that friendship deepened and grew. It showed the moments when it all fell apart, when the heartbreak, fears, and the darkness of the past would rear its ugly head into both of their lives. It gave me them when it all starts to click, when they realize they want more, that they need more and feel more. It allowed me to be there when they finally started fighting for each other, when they realize what they could share if they fought hard enough for it, if they gave into what they were feeling, and if they allowed themselves to have what they both so desperately wanted.
Their relationship had such a build to it. Each new page, each new moment they shared, each new feeling they felt or revelation they had added to that build and sparked that flame even more. That build continued to intensify and grow. That flame got hotter and more dazzling and more enrapturing, and it kept sparking and sparking until the inevitable explosion that was so Quarry and Liv, so completely mesmerizing, and so blush worthy and emotional all at once.
Fighting Solitude gave me it all with Quarry and Liv. It gave me everything.
Now let me tell you, you will not just read this book, you will feel it in your bones, in your heart, and in your soul because that is what Aly Martinez allows you to experience with her exquisite writing. There were so many moments that would shatter me, where each new page would break off a little piece of my heart because of the level of emotion and anguish and turmoil that both Liv and Quarry were going through. But then as those pieces broke, other pieces were coming together because of what Quarry and Liv were doing to make it all better, and because of how they were fighting for themselves and each other. Experiencing all sides of that breathtaking emotion when it was heartbreaking and healing from one moment to the next, simultaneously broke me and put me back together again in the most superb, emotionally intense, and all-feeling ways.
That feeling, that level of emotion, and what I got from Quarry and Liv took my breath away more times than I could count. It made me hurt and cry and feel all that the past and present was throwing their way, but it also made me happy and whole and full of light as it tried to heal me like it did Quarry and Liv. There were often times when reading where I would just need to stop and take a breather because that’s how much I was feeling and experiencing with them, but feeling that gamut of emotions with them was everything. And that everything is something that I will never forget.
As much as this book is a love story, it’s also just as much about The Page Brothers. It’s about how they’re there for one another, how their lives change drastically from where they were when we first met them, and how their personalities and the wonderful things that make them them stay exactly the same. Till, Flint, and Quarry are a brotherhood, and the love they share for one another just gets stronger and deeper. Aly Martinez did them all justice in this final book. She showed that through their tenacity, their fight, and through their sheer dedication and determination to make their lives more, to be there for one another, and to go after who and what they wanted, they ended up in places they never thought they’d be, but so completely deserved to be.
Fighting Solitude was an amazing wrap up to the entire series that fulfilled me on every level possible.
This book and this series showed me what it means to fight, to live, and to love with all you’ve got. What it means to fight through the silence, and embrace the beautiful reality that surrounds you. What it means to come out of the shadows and embrace the good that life has to offer. What it means to break out of that solitude and realize you’re not alone, and that the people who surround you make your world amazing. And in the end, it showed me what it truly means to come out on top, to succeed, and to win, not only in the ring, but in life and in love and ways you never thought possible.
If I could, I would wrap my arms around this book and hold it tight, every single day and never let go. Quarry and Liv awed me with everything that they had, and I can’t say enough how much I loved and adored every unforgettable moment with them. It wasn’t always easy with those two, but boy was it memorable, and emotional, and so highly worth it.
So please trust me when I say that you need this all-consuming book, Rocky & Q’s literal amazingness, and this enrapturing series in your life. Stat.
Prologue
“Mia!” I shouted.
It was worthless. She’d been deaf since the day I met her.
She’d never once heard my voice.
She’d never heard the deep rumble of my laugh when she was excited, signing so fast I could barely keep up.
She’d never heard my content sigh when she barged into the locker room after a fight—just her presence soothed the lingering madness brewing within me.
She’d never heard me whispering my deepest fears into her ear as she fell asleep on top of me.
She’d never heard the reverence in which I cried her name each and every time I took her body.
And she’d never once heard the ease in which the words I love you tumbled from my lips as I stared into her deep, jade green eyes.
But as I screamed her name while watching her petite body seizing in the passenger seat beside me, I’d never needed her to hear me more.
“Mia. Oh God. I’ve got you, baby.”
She was still thrashing violently as I made my way around to her door, yanking it open while pleading with whatever god was willing to help.
When she stilled, a whole new level of silence filled the air around us. It wasn’t the absence of sound.
It was the absence of life.
“Mia, breathe!” I roared as her chest remained agonizingly still. “Help me!” I screamed at the closed emergency room doors, but no medical savior rushed out with the miracle I so desperately needed.
My hands shook wildly as I released her lifeless body from the seatbelt.
“I’ve got you, just hang on. Please just hang on, Mia,” I whispered lifting her into my arms and sprinting through the sliding doors. “I need a doctor! She’s not breathing!”
Nurses rushed towards me in slow motion as the seconds without air in her lungs passed at a terrifying speed.
Breathe.
A doctor appeared with a gurney and quickly took her from my arms.
The immediate loss was staggering.
Hope became my only solace.
She needed help that I wasn’t capable of giving her, but that didn’t stop me from following close behind as they rolled her away. I was on the verge of self-destructing; letting her out of my sight wasn’t an option.
I stood motionless in the doorway while doctors and nurses swarmed around her. Their mouths moved frantically, but without my hearing aids I was worthless to make out the words their faint voices carried.
I never wore my hearing aids when I was with Mia. There was no point. She rarely spoke with her voice.
We’d spent four years building a relationship with our hands.
Those hands had told me animated stories that made me laugh until my face hurt from smiling.
They’d fought with me relentlessly, but always ended the night raking down my back in silent ecstasy.
Her fingers had fluidly signed I love you more times than I could ever count—or forget.
But as I felt the nurse attempting to physically remove me from the room, my eyes became fixated on her limp hand dangling off the side of the bed. It was the only sight more frightening than watching her flail mid-seizure.
It ripped the heart straight from my chest.
That hand was supposed to be full of life.
It was the very essence of Mia.
Pale.
White.
Still.
Oh God.
Sucking in a deep breath, I held it until the room began to spin.
It provided me no relief even as it forced me to my knees.
There would be no distraction from this.
I was going to lose her.
Yet another woman I couldn’t save.
Fighting Silence (Book One) On the Ropes
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Read My Review of Fighting Silence
Fighting Shadows (Book Two) On The Ropes
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Read My Review of Fighting Solitude
Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of twins. Currently living in South Carolina, she passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine at her side.
After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. Five books later, she shows no signs of slowing. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.
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