Henry Alexander’s story in The Spiral Down by Aly Martinez is NOW LIVE!
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I was afraid to fly.
He made me soar.
After years of climbing the ladder of success in the music industry, I finally had everything I could want.
Yet I still found myself wandering through life alone.
Captain Evan Roth was the one man I never saw coming.
Tall, dark, mysterious… Straight.
We were both damaged beyond repair and searching for something so elusive we weren’t sure it even existed.
But, when two broken souls collide in midair, falling is a given.
I just never expected to crave the spiral down.
*****5 Utterly Phenomenal Stars*****
Just when I think there is no way Aly Martinez can make me fall even more in love with her exceptional words or her dynamic characters or her unforgettable stories, she goes and does just that. She makes me love harder. She makes me experience more unforgettable moments. She gives me two characters that have now permanently seared themselves to my heart, and she does all that through the beautiful and meaningful words she crafts. She makes me fall, she makes me feel, and she gives me every glorious and breathtakingly emotional moment along the way as I experience the thoughtfully crafted words of her stories.
The Spiral Down was no different, except it took that emotion, that unbridled heat and connection, and that level of vulnerability and raw feeling to the next level. Aly Martinez gave me two characters in the most authentic and raw way in this book. She gave me Henry and Evan on every level possible, and I felt them, their struggles, their wants and desires, and everything about them in my heart, my mind, and in my very soul while reading. You might think that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but rest assured it’s not.
The level of immense connection and understanding I had with those two was everything, and I know it something I won’t ever forget.
The Spiral Down gives you the much anticipated story of Henry Alexander, a character I met and fell so hopelessly for in The Fall Up. Henry is a huge music star, with one seriously wonderful personality, and a past that has him searching, in more ways than one. You see Henry has a past that has made him crave a certain something, that something that’s always been missing, and that something that gives him the feelings he needs. That something also tends to give him the spiral down. It’s something that Henry equally loathes and craves, and that spiral down takes on a whole new meaning when he meets air captain Evan Roth. Evan is stoic, strong, and as he says, he is not gay. He’s got a dark past of his own, and he isn’t willing to go down the path that Henry wants him to, but no matter how much he fights it, he just can’t seem to stop thinking and feeling and needing Henry.
From the moment Henry and Evan meet, there is an instant connection between them that can’t be stopped. Henry wants Evan, and Evan doesn’t want to want Henry, and the more these two barrel down towards one another, the more things get real, and heated, and intense, and emotional to say the least. The Spiral Down follows their story of fight, raw vulnerability, and one tenacious connection and set of feelings as these two try to overcome their damaged pasts, and see what they just might be able to have together, if they can only find the light in all that darkness.
Their story is real. This story is emotionally raw and gripping. It’s messy and it’s flawed in a way that will have your heart breaking for these two a million times over, yet at the same time it breaks you, it tries to heal you too, right along with them.
It isn’t easy, and it isn’t always pretty, but it is so gloriously real and emotional to experience. Through it all, you will know in the deepest depths of your heart that what Henry and Evan could share together is worth every ounce of fight and hurt and darkness these two must go through, and in the end that will permanently place them both in your heart.
Aly created this story in such a way that let me get Henry and Evan, she let me feel them, and she let me fall so hopelessly for them. Every turn of the page in The Spiral Down strengthened my love for these characters deepening, had me wholly invested in what they could share, and had my heart with theirs as they struggled to overcome the fears and doubts of the past, in order to see what they could share together in the future.
I have loved each and every one of Aly Martinez’s stories, and they are some of my all-time favorite reads, but this one stands out, and I don’t mean because it’s a male-male romance. This one just felt so emotional, so raw and visceral at times, and there were many moments when I was just so wholly consumed by what these characters were experiencing. Being that in this book with them touched my heart, made me cry with hurt and sadness and joy at times, and had my heart throbbing with an immense need and vulnerability with Henry and Evan, as they went through their emotional journey. I felt so completely connected to all that they were experiencing because of how exceptionally Aly wrote and crafted this book.
I felt every ounce of this book. I lived it. I breathed it. I carried its characters with me through every page of the story, and I was completely blown away by what I got to experience within its extraordinary pages.
This book allowed me to feel love, and the true joys and light the right kind of love can bring to your life. It allowed me to feel the most intense kind of heat and connection and feelings that are the true definition of meltworthy. It made me feel vulnerable and open and so viscerally raw at times as these characters faced their respective pasts and hurt, and that opened my heart, along with Henry and Evan’s hearts, to things I never knew possible.
I fell with them, I loved with them, I hurt with them, and I hoped with all I had with them that they would be able to figure it all out and find their way to one another.
I could literally go on for thousands and thousands of more words about how much I felt this book, how much I experienced with Henry and Evan, and how much I lived their story with them, and I still wouldn’t crack the surface on how extraordinary The Spiral Down and Aly Martinez’s writing is.
The Spiral Down not only gave me a story I know I’ll never forget, it gave me two distinctive characters to love so fully and truly. And let me tell you, Henry and Evan are the best. Like the literal best.
Henry Alexander is a lot of things. He’s hysterical, he has a charming personality that will have your cheeks hurting from smiling so much, and he will steal your heart in a nanosecond. He is also mine. Okay? Okay. After meeting and experiencing him in The Fall Up, I knew I needed his story, and I knew that he would give me a story I wouldn’t soon forget. What Henry gave me was a vulnerability, a level of honesty and openness, and a full on glimpse into what made him him. Equal parts charming and sweet, outlandish and vibrant, while being so completely real and heartfelt, Henry Alexander is a man that is my new life partner. The Spiral Down gave me every bit of Henry Alexander, and the more I got of him, the more fiercely I loved him, the more I understood him and his choices on every level possible, and the more I needed him to be okay.
Understanding Henry, seeing where his fears, worries, and choices stemmed from, and understanding the past that so affected his present was everything, and I cannot tell you enough how much I love his character. My love for him is unending and so very real, and that was all possible because of what Aly Martinez gave me with him in this book.
Evan Roth is a man who equally stole my heart. He is a man who hates labels, who is very stoic, and who has this wall around him to prevent people from getting to close. He has a past that warrants all of that, and he is in no way prepared for Henry Alexander to tear through those carefully crafted walls with a bulldozer that equally terrifies and excites him. What I loved about Evan’s character was really getting to experience, understand, and feel that struggle he went through. Evan was definitely mysterious, but he was so damn alluring too. I needed to know and get more of him, and Aly gave me just that. Over the course of The Spiral Down, she gave me Evan 100%, and she let me understand through some very shocking revelations and moments what had made Evan so wary about relationships with men in the first place, and what held him back with Henry.
As Evan starts to see what he and Henry could really share, I fell so immensely in love with his character. I loved how he opened up, how he opened up Henry, and how he exemplified what it truly means to overcome the darkness and pains of your past in order to embrace the feeling and the joy the light of the future can bring you.
The Spiral Down was just another exceptional story to read, experience, and feel by Aly Martinez. Every word with Henry and Evan in this book was heartfelt, real, and intensely emotional and passionate and heated.
Written and created with such beautifully emotional and all-consuming writing, this book tells the story of what happens when you meet that one person that literally changes everything. It shows the truly good and life changing things that can happen when that right person makes you look at everything differently, and what can happen as you find yourself on a path you craved and wanted and needed, yet never thought you’d actually get the chance to be on. And sure that path might be scary and bumpy and it might not be the easiest of paths to take, but it is so real and so good and so damn worth it.
This book gives you that path with Henry and Evan, and you feel in your heart, and in your bones, and in your very being, every breathtaking and all-feeling step of the way.
The Spiral Down is a mesmerizing story of how the pain and darkness and fears from the past, can open you and your heart up to an extraordinary level of feeling and vulnerability and love, and how it can literally give you it all, if you just take that leap of faith, and embrace that spiral down.
I loved every single word of this book. I loved its characters, both main and supporting, its feels, and every moment I got within its wondrous pages. I loved how it made me laugh, and smile, and cry, and hope, and just feel, and in the end it gave me a love story I know will stay with me forever.
This book, the meaning and feeling behind every word, and the moments you get within it are everything, and you need to experience it as soon as humanly possible. It would be so wrong to miss a book so exceptional as this one, and I can’t recommend it to you enough.
Read this book. Let it wow you and take ahold of your heart and feels in every single way possible. Give yourself over to it and Henry and Evan, and just experience the emotionally mesmerizing and unforgettable ride that is The Spiral Down.
Henry
“How about you and one of your girls come out to my show in L.A. next week? My treat. Dinner, drinks, the whole deal. Evan and I would love to take you two beautiful ladies out for an evening.”
“Excuse me?” he exclaimed, cocking his head to catch my gaze.
I leaned back into my seat and lifted a hand to massage his shoulder. I was barely able to suppress a moan when the angle of his firm trap muscle met my palm.
Fuck, this guy was built like a brick wall. And I was going to love every second of watching him crumble for me.
“Oh, come on, Evan. It’s the least we can do. Double date.” I winked at Jessica. “You can fly them out! My plane should be ready by then.”
Jessica’s eyes jumped to Evan’s. “You’re a pilot?” Her smile spread irritatingly wide.
Back off, Ginger Spice.
Snapping my fingers in her direction, I corrected, “He’s my pilot.”
Subtlety was not a virtue I possessed. Was subtlety a virtue at all?
“Your temporary pilot,” he amended before shaking his head and then tipping his beer to his lips for a long pull.
“Anyway. Do we have a date?” And, by date, I meant feeding her dinner while I attempted to work my way into Evan’s pants.
She pressed one finger to her lips and then nervously flashed her eyes around the cabin.
“Oops. Sorry.” I shrugged sheepishly. Lifting my drink to my mouth, I discreetly passed her my cocktail napkin and then not-so-discreetly brushed my forearm against Evan’s chest as I pulled away.
He offered her a tight smile just before she disappeared.
I grinned proudly.
“What the fucking hell was that?” he whisper-yelled at me.
“That was me getting a woman’s number.”
He arched an eyebrow. “A woman. Really?”
“What? Is that not allowed?” I feigned innocence.
He clenched his fist in his lap, and it made me suddenly aware that my own hands had stopped trembling—and in record time, I should note. Evan seemed to be quite useful in the art of distraction.
He leaned closer. “Don’t bullshit me. I looked you up. You’re…” He stopped, unwilling to say the big, bad “G” word.
“I’m what?” I taunted.
He rolled his eyes and chugged the rest of his beer.
We went back to silence until Jessica came back by with another drink, complete with her phone number written on the napkin.
“I’m not going on a double date,” Evan said as I tucked the napkin into my pocket. “You want me to fly them out? Not a problem. Schedule it with Jackson. But that’s the extent of my professional responsibilities. And, since I’m off the clock right now, I’d also like to mention that I think whatever play you’re planning to run on that woman is fucked up.”
My head snapped to his. “I’m sorry. Play?” I asked with more attitude than I had originally planned.
“Yes. Play,” he sneered.
I stirred my drink. “Let me get this straight. I’m offering to fly her out in a private jet, feed her dinner at one of the best restaurants in the city, and put her front row at a concert that has been sold out for over a year. That doesn’t seem like a play to me. It sounds like I’m trying to do something nice for a woman I was rude to earlier.” I casually leaned back in my seat. “My conscience doesn’t ‘play’ when it comes to apologies.”
“Right. Well, maybe you should have a chat with your conscience, because she looks like she just won the date of a lifetime. Meanwhile, you don’t even like women.” He stalled, no doubt looking for just the right word to express his disgust without sounding like a bigot. Judging by his gentleness when we’d taken off, he wasn’t the type of guy to go for the fag bomb.
I watched him intently, excited to see how he was going to handle this.
“You’re gay.”
I frowned at his lack of creativity. “Not that it’s any of your damn business. But I’ll have you know I love women.”
It wasn’t a lie. I adored women. Especially Levee and Robin.
I just didn’t like pussy. Meh. Semantics.
He gaped. “You’re bi?”
“And I’ll repeat: None of your damn business. But yeah. Do you have a problem with that?”
Again, it wasn’t necessarily a lie.
Was I bisexual? Fuck no. My cock was in no way an equal opportunity employer.
I was somewhat bilingual though. I knew how to ask for a blow job in English and Spanish. I pretended that was what he meant.
Chupame la verga.
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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