Ultra Meital Reviews: Fighting Solitude (On the Ropes #3) [Quarry Page & Liv James] by Aly Martinez

It's my third day of being sick and 3 is the charm, I was home all day but unlike the previous days I felt well enough to swallow this whole book. Quarry and Liv's story was beautiful, sensitive and the best rap for this awesome trilogy. I couldn't have asked for more. Quarry and Liv deserved each other but I guess a few years needed to pass by in order for them to find each other and be in the right place where they could at last act upon the love they shared for 13 years. If you haven't read any book in the series I think you should stop right here.. go back to the beginning, read my review of Till in "Fighting Silence" because I will be referring to spoilers to the previous books.

Quarry is the youngest sibling in the Page family. We've watched him grow from the spirited young kid into a spirited young man :) We saw him at his high points as we've seen him at his low, when he realized he'd be getting deaf like his older brother Till and certainly after in his mind he failed Eliza when she was taken by their father's bookie (which resulted in Flint being shot in the back and almost losing his ability to walk). But the lowest of the low came in the ending of the previous book when he lost his girlfriend Mia to cancer. Mia lost her hearing when she was younger after dealing with brain cancer. When years later the cancer has returned leaving her no chance of recovery she decided to keep the truth to herself and live her life to the fullest until her last day so when she had a seizure in Quarry's arms. Not knowing a thing about her condition he totally broke down. The only thing holding him together was their mutual best friend - Liv.

We've met Liv briefly before. She is Leo's daughter (Slate's head of security). We could even see Quarry's interest in her when he was younger but while they became fast friends when they were ten, at the age of 13 when Flint gets shot, in his misery he destroys their friendship in the worst way possible. Liv has been in love with Quarry for a while by then and though Quarry loved her in his own way they were just kids. While Quarry tried to make things better it was obvious it wasn't enough for the betrayed Liv. Though she still kept tabs on him through they 3 years they were apart. She only comes back when she hears he has gone totally deaf. But now everything is different, Quarry has a girlfriend he loves and she herself finds a best friend in Mia and start to entwine herself not only into Quarry's life but into Mia's as well.

You would think with the sheltered life Liv has being Leo's daughter that her childhood have been roses and unicorns but far from it.. Leo came for her when he biological mother died which means the first 5 years of her life have been close to what the Page brothers had to deal with - an addict mother. Yet Liv was all by her own these few years and so she still fights issues that have marked her those crucial years. Leo loves her and will do anything for her, but not him and not his wife can erase the pain she suffered. It seems the only one who can see her for who she is, who can understand her and whom she feels she could trust is Quarry. Well, up until he breaks that same trust.

Both feeling betrayed by Mia's deceit they cling to one another, doing the only thing they know how to do - be best friends. As the years go by they stick together, Liv becoming Quarry's assistant as he becomes more famous and truthfully she is the only one who can stand his difficult temper and though they lived together practically from Mia's death they never took their friendship into the next step, one that seemed logical when you think of their mutual history. Yet when the moment comes when Quarry realizes he wants more from Liv, a romantic relationship, he isn't sure how to go about it, and through awkwardness the truth is revealed but even if they both want and love each other they need to put the past behind, to make peace with Mia's death, that's not easy, certainly not for Liv who have loved Quarry for the past 13 years even if she NEVER would have made any attempt while Mia was alive and frankly she never made a move after, it was Quarry who asked from her the very thing she craved and yet was sure how to give. They had so much between them but her trust was as fragile as ever.

Like the previous ones, the last few chapters are the ones to hold your breath with the action and the danger, there was a surprise visit I wasn't expecting and a sort of bittersweet closure though it, there was a maniac who needed to be pounded to the ground and there were two people who needed each other more than words and they totally got that in the end. I so enjoyed seeing Liv and Quarry find their way to one another. Enjoyed even more getting more of the two couples we've met in the previous ones. The book has a beautiful closure for the series in the last chapter and a feel of the HEA in the epilogue. ~sigh~ I'm going to miss the Page brothers for sure!

I bought this book in a book-set containing all three novels.

Here's my summary of the series (with links to individual reviews)