I will admit that before starting Fighting Solitude by Aly Martinez, I was both excited and extremely nervous. Each book in this series is a standalone but since they each center around a different Page brother, we have seen a lot of these characters over the course of the series. So while I have absolutely loved Quarry, I was really nervous about the Mia/Liv situation. I honestly didn't know what I was going to think while reading this, but I thought that Aly Martinez did a great job with this story. There were still a few things that I had a tough time with here, but that was all on me and how I felt rather than the book itself.
Quarry Page was born a fighter. He knew from a young age that he was going to lose his hearing just as his brother did, but he had his best friend Liv James by his side and with her he could get through anything. That is until he purposely pushed her away and didn't see her again for three years. Then Quarry met Mia and she brought something new to his life. Soon after, Liv came back into his life and things were great again, until they lost Mia. Years went by and things got better, yet Liv and Quarry still weren't back to really living. Though they have always had a connection, they were never anything more than friends. But Quarry wants Liv to be his everything, and he will do whatever it takes to show her that they belong together and he won't lose her too.
I absolutely love Quarry. He is sweet and sexy, and I loved his relationship with Liv. He always had such an easy relationship with her and I really loved that they always had each other's backs. They had so much history, and there were times that my heart absolutely broke for all that they went through. Liv hadn't had the easiest life, and I felt like her and Quarry were really able to understand one another because of that. I had always believed that they were meant to be together, and I really liked who they were together. They just fit, and that is why I had a problem with the whole Mia situation. While I had liked Mia in the previous books and seen how she was with Quarry, I always felt like Quarry and Liv were supposed to be together. I am a huge fan of friends to lovers, and I just never really was behind Mia and Quarry. Not that I disliked her, but it was actually because I liked her that I didn't want her with Quarry. She was coming in between him and Liv and I wanted to hate her for that. It was even worse when she was gone, because then I felt like it was impossible to hate her, and I knew it was going to cause even more problems for Quarry and Liv.
My biggest issue here was Mia. I didn't want her to be a part of this story at all, and some of Liv's insecurities and fears were the same as my own. If nothing had happened to Mia, would Quarry have wound up with Liv or would he have stayed with Mia forever. I have a real problem with the dead former lover stories, because I always feel like the heroine of the story ends up being a consolation prize. As much as I enjoy the hero and heroine moving forward together, it just sort of taints the story for me. So even when I enjoyed the book, it was a little bittersweet for me. I seriously love this series though, and the Page brothers are impossible not to fall for. Aly Martinez is a great writer, and I honestly can't wait to read whatever she comes up with next.
**ARC Provided by TRSOR Promotions**