Meet Till & Eliza in Aly Martinez’s newest fighter series!
NOW AVAILABLE:
EXCERPT:
“That wasn’t yours to take away,” he exploded into the otherwise silent night. His words echoed off the surrounding buildings, each wave slicing me to the quick all over again. “That was our place. Not yours.” His voice cracked right alongside my heart.
“Yeah, well, there was a lot of stuff that wasn’t yours to take either.” I held his gaze, desperately trying to be strong, but as his eyes grew wide, I whimpered.
His long legs strode forward, stopping only inches away from me. He was crowding me, but he still leaned in closer to my face. “There is nothing in this world that was ever more mine than you,” he stated. Though it was the absolute truth, I wished with all my heart that it were a lie.
“Till,” I cried, swiping the tears from my eyes.
“Why!” he shouted, causing his muscles to tense under the force. “Goddamn it! I needed that place.”
Porch lights flashed on from the surrounding apartments, illuminating not only the dark but also my rage.
I shoved my hands into his chest. “What about what I needed? You left! I waited in that fucking apartment for weeks.”
He didn’t budge, but my bare feet slipped, sending me toward the ground. Impossibly fast, Till’s hand snaked out and caught my arm. I didn’t let his chivalrous gesture douse my fire. I had six months’ worth of words to say to the man I was irrevocably in love with.
“You took what you wanted. Then you left me.”
“Doodle,” he whispered.
I had been perilously close to the edge of insanity, and with one single word, he’d pushed me over.
I lost it completely.
Pounding my fists against his chest, I screamed at the top of my lungs, “It’s Eliza! My name is fucking Eliza! Not Doodle!” I spun to march away, but Till’s arms folded around me, lifting me off my feet to restrain me.
I was miniscule compared to him. There was no use in fighting, but I still kicked my legs, irrationally desperate to get away from him—but only because I knew I couldn’t keep him for forever.
“Stop it!” he growled into my ear. “I know your Goddamn name—probably better than I know my own.”
Synopsis:
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.
My Review:
(ARC provided by the author for an honest review.)
4 – 4.5 Stars!!
I absolutely loved Fighting Silence! Till Page is a memorable character that I won’t soon forget! Struggling against dirt-poor poverty, absentee parents and an inevitable loss of his hearing, this book pulled at my heartstrings and thrilled me from beginning to end.
Till is a fighter, taking care of his younger brothers to keep them out of the social services system. His only bright spot in an otherwise dismal existence is his neighbor Eliza Reynolds, who he spends every minute with after school, but who he completely ignores during the day.
She is just a gorgeous person, inside and out, and Till is frightened of ruining their relationship with sex, so… they spend part of the book battling their attraction to each other.
“Eliza was a crier. She pretended that it was only when she was mad. That was bullshit though. She cried every time the wind blew north. Happy, sad, angry—it didn’t matter. I loved it when she happy cried. I laughed when she angry cried. I was gutted when she sad cried. I’d held her through all of them. But her reaction that night was extraordinary. I guessed my present was pretty extraordinary too though.”
Eliza is sensitive but strong. I loved that about her character! This is not a typical fighter story, it is fresh and new and make no mistake, Till and “Doodle” BURN up the pages when they get together. This story is told in alternating POV’s and flashes forward in time but Aly Martinez does an amazing job with the alternating voices.
This is a story of true devotion, fighting for happiness and fighting for the right to love and be loved. Sounds sappy, but this book is so much more! I loved it!
“Till and I both knew we had a strange relationship. It was more than a friendship, but there wasn’t romance or sex. There was definitely love though. Immeasurable amounts of it. I knew that Till had this grand fantasy about me. But what he didn’t realized was all that he gave me in return. He was the only thing I’d ever had that I honestly thought I couldn’t live without. Till Page was my soulmate on every level.”
About the Author:
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.
Website http://www.alymartinez.com
Facebook: https://twitter.com/AlyMartinezAuth
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7374424.Aly_Martinez