Blog Tour: Fighting Silence By: AlyMartinez

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.

Every once in a while there will be a book that not just makes you feel what the author is trying to portray but something deep inside will be awakened, and for me this happened with Fighting Silence.  It may have to do with the fact that one of my best friends is deaf and has been that way since I have known her, or maybe it was the fact that this book was so much more than just another fighter novel.  Whatever it was exactly I may never be able to put into words but what I can say is that it was one of the best reads of this year so far for me.

When we first meet Eliza and Till they were thirteen years old and you can tell from the beginning that they will be something special, not just to each other but individually as well.  Together they took care of each other and already started to become a family even if at the time neither knew it.  Both have loved each other for years, even if they never acknowledged it.

Till is losing his hearing, and one day he will go deaf, but while that doesn’t hold him back in most everything it does when it comes to Eliza.  It melted my heart the way he never wanted to lose the fantasy in his mind, and the way he was with her was so sweet.  He just really was a good guy and he deserved to be happy.  Eliza has loved Till since before he knew she existed, she wants him to be with her but she knows she needs to put her foot down and I was proud of her for that even though it hurt her to do so.

There is so much more to this book than Till’s disorder or his fighting.  There is friendship, sacrifice, family, protection, and last but not least there is the beauty of the love that is shared.  I have never read a book by this author before but I can guarantee that is going to change after reading this.  I want the next book so bad because I have a feeling it will be just as beautiful as Fighting Silence was.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1CF0YEq

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Lhhn62

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."

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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