Title: Fighting Solitude
Author: Aly Martinez
Series: On the Ropes #3
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: February 2, 2016
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance
More Info: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon US
Purchase: Barnes & Noble
Purchase: Amazon UK
Purchase: iTunes
Purchase: Kobo

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 is Book Three in the On The Ropes Series by Aly Martinez and is Quarry’s highly anticipated story.

Model: Alex InkFit
Cover Designer: Book Covers by Ashbee Designs
Photographer: FuriousFotog
Sexy-men Savant: Model Madness, LLC

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.

My Review

It’s official; I’m in a serious Page brothers funk/haze. First of all, have you read the other two books in the series, Fighting Silence and Fighting Shadows? If not, stop what you’re doing and start with them. While each book is about a different brother, you need to read the events sequentially in order to fully grasp the entire picture. Trust me when I say it will be no hardship; these men and their broken big hearted fighting selves are some of my all time favorite characters. To begin, this series is a spin-off of Aly’s Wrecked and Ruined series. It isn’t imperative to read this one first, but you will see some of the characters pop up, and eventually, their children. I think that was one of my favorite things about Aly’s books in general; she starts with a few key characters and builds a massive family, and by the end you are invested in each and every one of them. I’m officially proclaiming myself an honorary Page.

Whereas in most of her other books Aly eases you into the pain, in Fighting Solitude she tosses you right into the deep end a few pages in. Heartbreak folks. Right from the get go. I felt such delicious, all consuming pain this entire book. Not just emotionally, but I physically felt this book. I bled, cried, and fell in love right alongside Quarry and Liv. I love how Aly creates these little nuances that are specific for each couple. Till and Eliza had their window, Flint and Ash had their nicknames and blunt honesty, and Quarry and Liv have the backwards hug. Picture a 6’4 tall man being hugged from behind by a 5’4 tiny woman. My heart just melts thinking about it. It was a comfort for Liv as much if not more as it was for Quarry. It was their thing. I looked forward to each instance when it would happen because it was then I felt like I could relax; like I had come home and was wrapped up in the embrace with them. There’s something so comforting about being wrapped up in the one you love with all your heart. You feel as if nothing can harm you, and you are protecting your lover as much as they are protecting you. It’s a quiet stillness in an otherwise busy world.

Much of this book was our characters chasing a ghost. It was different for each of them, but heartbreaking nonetheless. The tragedy they experienced at such a young age left them clinging to each other, unwilling to truly move on. I love when characters have a lifetime of memories and friendship to build on, and Liv and Quarry had it in spades. Just because you meet your soul mate when you were young doesn’t necessarily mean you will automatically be with them. You have to put in the work, communicate, and be honest. There was so much growth in this book and I felt privileged to have beared witness to it. I found myself wishing there was some unknown sibling out there just so we could get another book and more story. But sadly, this was the end. I truly look forward to the day when I can start from the beginning and discover these characters all over again!

Giveaway

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Fighting Silence

(On the Ropes, #1)

Amazon US

Sound is an abstract concept for most people. We spend our lives blocking out the static in order to focus on what we believe is important. But what if, when the clarity fades into silence, it’s the obscure background noise that you would give anything to hold on to?

I’ve always been a fighter. With parents who barely managed to stay out of jail and two little brothers who narrowly avoided foster care, I became skilled at dodging the punches life threw at me. Growing up, I didn’t have anything I could call my own, but from the moment I met Eliza Reynolds, she was always mine. I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn’t a single night that I didn’t hear her voice.

You see, meeting the love of my life at age thirteen was never part of my plan. However, neither was gradually going deaf at the age of twenty-one.

They both happened anyway.

Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.
Fighting for my career.
Fighting the impending silence.
Fighting for her.

Every night, just before falling asleep, she sighs as a final conscious breath leaves her.

I think that’s the sound I’ll miss the most.

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Fighting Shadows

(On the Ropes, #2)

Amazon US

I come from a family of fighters. I always thought I’d follow in their shadows, becoming unstoppable in the ring. That changed the day I saved the life of a woman I loved, but could never have.

My brother hailed me as a hero, and my reward was a wheelchair.

Paralyzed, my life became an inescapable nightmare.
Until I met her.

Ash Mabie had a heart-stopping smile and a laugh that numbed the rage and resentment brewing inside of me. She showed me that even the darkest night still had stars, and it didn’t matter one bit that you had to lie in the weeds to see them.

I was a jaded asshole who fell for a girl with a knack for running away. I couldn’t even walk but I would have spent a lifetime chasing her.

Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest battles of my life.

Fighting the shadows of our past.

Fighting to reclaim my future.

Fighting for her.

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