Fighting Solitude by Aly Martinez Series: On The Ropes #3
Also in this series: Fighting Shadows
Published by Indie on February 2, 2016
Pages: 340
Genres: Romance, Sports
Review Copy Provided By: Aly Martinez
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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.
Fighting Solitude
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.
I didn’t think it possible to love two characters from this series more than I loved Till and Eliza from ‘Fighting Silence’. Nor did I ever think it possible for Aly Martinez to top that book. I was wrong! ‘Fighting Solitude’ was so much better than I could have anticipated. I floved this. What is beyond good? That is what ‘Fighting Solitude’ is!
I feel lost as to how to describe how and why I loved this story so much. It was beautifully written, the characters were thoroughly developed and dynamic, and the plot was solid, suspenseful, and emotional. I loved this friends-lovers story… I loved the slow-burn development of the relationship between Liv and Quarry. Martinez again stayed with her style of strong-willed and sassy females. I loved Liv’s strength and calmness and her unwavering support for Quarry. She was his backbone, his ally, his rock. I loved Quarry’s devotion to the one’s he loved. His protective nature was not only awe-inspiring, it was incredibly sexy. This makes for some incredibly funny and sexy banter. OMG and those texts, I LOVED them!
When I finished ‘Fighting Shadows’, I was a freaking mess. I was bawling like a baby who lost her pacifier. I was so frightened to read this book. (As I believe the majority of readers were/are.) As it turned out, I was right to be afraid. My fear was warranted. I cried so many times while reading Quarry and Liv’s story that I am lucky my family was not home for most of it. I fear they might have wanted to medicate me. I cried sad tears – like devastating tears, but I also cried happy ones. I laughed – a lot — for those parts, my family was home and my son said I as “weird”. Eh, what can I say, I get so sucked into Martinez’s writing that I experience a variety of emotions right along with her characters.
At the end of ‘Fighting Shadows’, we see Quarry’s life being torn apart. It was gut-wrenching. The good news, or bad – whichever way your heart looks at it, Fighting Solitude picks up right where ‘Fighting Shadows’ left off. And my gosh, did that hurt. The devastation that both Quarry and Liv felt was palpable.
Despite their guilt, heartache, they must learn how to go on with life, manage the daily activities that we take for granted. What they have going for them, is a life-long friendship based on mutual trust (mostly) and a kind of love that only life-long friends share. They know each other better than anyone. Quarry knows Liv’s deepest, darkest fears and works to protect her at all costs. Liv can sense when Quarry is about to lose his mind when life just gets to be too much, and only she can bring him a sense of calm.
❝You love me.❞
❝Every. Single. Day.❞
Fabulously written, I cannot think of any other way this could have been written, nor any additions or subtractions to Quarry’s story. It was perfect! This is why Martinez is a go-to author for me, and one of my author crushes!!!!
Fighting Silence (Book One) On the Ropes
ONLY $0.99
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1UKZbWJ
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Lhhn62
B&N: http://bit.ly/FightingSilenceBN
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1A2cSnr
iBooks: http://bit.ly/1zbJT0u
Fighting Shadows (Book Two) On The Ropes
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1HE3kt8
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1faAHHy
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1LKEurE
iBooks: http://apple.co/1TcpHIa
About Aly Martinez
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her four young children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys cheap wine, mystery leggings, and baked feta. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a super-sized tumbler of wine by her side.
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