Fighting Shadows by Aly Martinez
Oh my lord these Page boys will melt you on the spot!!!
We were served up the fabulous Till in Fighting Silence, a man that I swooned over – yes positively swooned … it is unheard of! But just when I thought I could safely dip my toe back into the pond that is Aly Martinez magnificence and not end up a complete basket case, she has me shaking in my shoes – honestly Flint Page has broken my soul.
That is not to say that I still don’t love Till, I do I just damn well adore Flint.
This guy has an inner strength that defies anything I could ever comprehend.
He has fought tooth and nail his entire life for every single thing that he has ever needed, wanted or desired and his battles have him shrouded in both anger and mystery. But they also have him steeped in a whole bucket load of honest!
Life isn’t a bed of roses, never has been it is true, gritty and harsh but it is what it is and it has made Flint who he is, an honest man with a fight to be him every single day that he lifts his head from the pillow. A battle to be the guy that he has always wanted to be and a fight to have the world see the man that lies within not the man they see at first glance.
Flint is not an easy character to empathise with initially, I could sympathise completely but I found the way he handled himself just so self-destructive. My heart broke for what he was going through but his isolation was self-inflicted in many ways, he only had to open his eyes to see that there were people who would support him in a heartbeat but he saw nothing but the cruel hand he had been dealt… until Ash Mabie
She was the complete antithesis of Flint, she lived life through her own sparkle filter that made her shine, she was so was so positive, so light and almost carefree but she had her demons, ones that she refused to let stifle the halo of happiness that she had bathed herself in. A true advocate of positive mental attitude and I have to say I was positive that Flint was going to drive her mental but she refused to be defeated by his attitude and gloom – if he want going to brighten up her day then she was damn well going to bring some Ash Mabie sized sunlight into his!!
She was so funny that I was chuckling to myself much of the time, her wit is just glorious and her timing is perfect.
Flint may have been his own little island in life but he was about to be invaded, because whether he liked it or not she was completely infiltrating his life and he had better learn to damn well smile about it!
I smiled, gasped, laughed and cried not only with them but for them but most of all I loved them both.
Ash Mabie is the sort of woman that I would want to have in my life, she makes the world a better place just by being in it and she certainly rocked Flint’s world and speaking of the man himself, I loved that he was a sexy assed man with a potty mouth.
A beautifully crafted, intensely original story that was not only a fabulous read but a life lesson.