FIGHTING SOLITUDE (On The Ropes 3) by Aly Martinez-Review, Book Tour & Giveaway

FIGHTING SOLITUDE
On The Ropes #3
by Aly Martinez
Release Date: February 2, 2016
Genre: adult, contemporary, romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 2, 2016

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.

••••••••••••

REVIEW: FIGHTING SOLITUDE is the third installment in Aly Martinez’s ON THE ROPES romance series focusing on the Page brothers. This is boxer Quarry Page, and Liv James’s story line- a best friends to lovers trope that covers a life time of regrets and sins. FIGHTING SOLITUDE can be read as a stand alone but for backstory and cohesion I recommend reading the series in order.

Told from alternating first person points of view (Quarry and Liv) FIGHTING SOLITUDE follows the friendship between Quarry and Liv. At the tender ages of nine and ten Quarry and Liv became best friends and for years were inseparable until the day Quarry (in anger and fear) destroyed Liv’s trust. Three years would pass before Liv would be able to face the now eighteen year old man he had become but everything and everyone had changed-Quarry moved on but never forgot about the young girl wrapped tightly around his heart. Secrets are revealed; the past never forgotten; the future a minefield of possibilities. Liv must struggle with the knowledge that she can never compete with a memory-she may always be second best.

FIGHTING SOLITUDE begins with an unexpected death that changes Quarry and Liv’s lives then flashes back to the beginning where our story line couple are first introduced. Fifteen years of memories and events that blend together with the first two installments –FIGHTING SILENCE and FIGHTING SHADOWS-wherein the author reminds the reader about the events of the past. The Page brothers have suffered both physical, emotional and mental trauma, and Quarry must endure the family legacy both inside and outside of the ring. A chance at the world boxing championship finds our leading couple facing more than an opponent in the arena, but a threat against their personal lives, as well.

All of the previous story line couples play secondary and supporting roles, as well as Liv’s father and step-mother. The requisite evil comes from two different directions.

FIGHTING SOLITUDE is an emotional and heartbreaking story line where Quarry must battle the demons from his past; a family pedigree of shame, guilt and loss; and fight for the woman he has loved most of his life. The premise is provocative and imaginative; the characters are passionate and intense; the romance is a slow build to a happily ever after.

Copy supplied by the tour promoter

Reviewed by Sandy

beautiful young woman in an elegant dress studio shot

Excerpt beige

“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.

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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