Showing results by author "Aly Martinez" in All Categories

Death had been chasing me my entire life. I survived the horrors of war, but it was the aftermath that truly destroyed me. People called me a recluse, but the only time I didn’t feel like I was suffocating was inside that house. For my daughter, I kept some semblance of normalcy by implementing a rigid routine. Once a week, I forced myself to walk to the diner at the end of the block—a ritual I despised but relied on as my last anchor to the real world.

I met Sarah Kate Erickson when I was 21 years old. I was lucky enough to keep her for seven years before a tragic accident stole her from me. She didn't die, but sometimes I think it would have been easier if she had. I lived in a haze for those four years after the accident. Catering to her every need, even though she hated the very sight of my face. I tried to hold on to her and the future that we were supposed to build together. But you can't hold on to someone that doesn't exist anymore.

Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal. At 12, he asked me to be his girlfriend. At 13, he gave me my first kiss. By 16, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon. Love never fails, right? But for Ramsey, it did. I failed him. The entire world failed him. At 17, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me. "Move on", he wrote in his first and only letter from prison. There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine - then, now, and forever.

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. Whoever coined that phrase is a bald-faced liar. Words are often the sharpest weapon of all, triggering some of the most powerful emotions a human can experience. "You're pregnant." "It's a boy." "Your son needs a heart transplant." Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. Lies. Syllables and letters may not be tangible, but they can still destroy your entire life faster than a bullet from a gun.

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?

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. Lies. Words destroyed me. "I'm sorry. She didn't make it." "Daddy, he can't breathe!" "There's nothing more we can do for your son." Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. More lies. Those syllables and letters became my executioner. I told myself that, if I didn't acknowledge the pain and the fear, they would have no power over me. But, as the years passed, the hate and the anger left behind began to control me. Two words - that was all it took to plunge my life into darkness.

When I was eight years old, Caven Hunt saved me from the worst kind of evil to walk the Earth. It didn’t matter that I was a kid. I fell in love with him all the same. But that was where my fairy tale ended. Years later, a one-night stand during the darkest time imaginable gave us a little girl. It was nothing compared to the pitch black that consumed me when I was forced to leave her with Caven for good. At the end of every fairy tale, the happily ever after is the one thing that remains consistent. It wasn’t going to be mine.

From over a thousand miles away, I watched on the screen of my phone as two men murdered my wife. And I was helpless to save her. Consumed by hate and rage, I spent four years running from my memories - until a shattered woman gave me a reason to stop. Cora lived in a nightmare, but through sheer force of will, she’d turned it into something beautiful. She had a smile that could pierce the darkest soul. And with one glance, she shredded mine.

I was afraid to fly. He made me soar. After years of climbing the ladder of success in the music industry, I finally had everything I could want. Yet I still found myself wandering through life alone. Captain Evan Roth was the one man I never saw coming. Tall, dark, mysterious...Straight. We were both damaged beyond repair and searching for something so elusive we weren't sure it even existed. But, when two broken souls collide in midair, falling is a given. I just never expected to crave the spiral down.

Bree and Eason survive the fire that takes their partners - but neither of them are truly living after that fateful night. As a single dad with nowhere to turn, Eason moves in with Bree despite the old tensions and the new grief they share. Eason may have carried Bree out of the fire, but she just might be the one to save him. Yet as they both start to heal, and romance flickers to life, secrets from the past threaten to ignite. Their love was born from the embers, and together they could go up in flames.

The complete series. Three full-length novels. Fighting Silence, Fighting Shadows, and Fighting Solitude. For the Page brothers, fighting was a way of life. Both inside and outside of the ring. Follow them through hardship, disability, and overwhelming adversity as they fight for the women they love.

When I was 15, a single bullet changed my life. I spent the next decade trying to outrun the devastation of my past, building an empire that would shield me from whatever life could throw at me. But all the money in the world couldn’t help me when I found a screaming newborn abandoned on my doorstep. I’d never wanted to be a father. Passing the sludge that ran through my veins down to an innocent child seemed like a tragedy. But there she was - pink cheeks, red hair, and mine.

That was all it took for me to know Elisabeth was my soul mate. Five years, countless infertility treatments, and the loss of our only son. That was what it took for me to lose her. One phone call, a mix-up at the lab, and a little girl neither of us knew existed. That was the hell it took to bring her back to me.

I fell in love with Manda Baker eight years ago, and I loved her to the core of her soul. We were supposed to have that elusive happily ever after and spend a lifetime together. But that was all before she was stolen from me. Her best friend, Sarah Erickson, killed her. It wasn't intentional. It was far worse. Everyone claims it was just an accident, but I can see through the lies. Even if it's with my dying breath, I will make her pay for what she did. Fate hates me.

My name was Dr. Erica Hill. I was a victim, then a witness, and then I ceased to exist altogether. I may still be breathing, but stripped of my identity, I have long since stopped living. I am invisible, and my life depends on my ability to stay in the shadows. But he sees me. Slate Andrews is the embodiment of everything I have been taught to avoid. He’s rich and famous, and one image of him with a woman would earn millions for any paparazzi lucky enough to snap it.

Choices. Everyone makes them. From mundane to unimaginable, one choice can change the trajectory of your entire life. My mother’s choice was to abandon us with our abusive father. My brother’s choice was to go to prison for killing the boy who assaulted his soulmate. Camden Cole’s choice was to fall in love with a shattered girl who had absolutely nothing to offer him but heartbreak.

Truth: Penn Walker entered my life like a summer storm - dark, ominous, and filled with thunder. After witnessing my husband's murder, I didn't have much of a heart left to offer a man. But Penn took it all. Every jagged shard. Every broken bit. Even the dirty and twisted pieces that I wish never existed.

One story. Two couples. I fell in love with a man who didn't exist. What started out as romance ended in hell. His words turned to razor blades. His kisses converted to fists. His embrace became my cage. His body transformed into a weapon, stealing parts of me until ultimately...I broke. I hated him. My sole job in life became to protect our daughter. I wasn't sure I'd ever escape the prison he'd skillfully crafted from my fears. Until the day our savior arrived. This is the story of how I escaped the man who thought he owned me.

Seven years ago, my life changed forever. One accident and the person I saw in the mirror no longer resembled the woman I used to be. I was lost and confused inside my own body. I felt alone and disconnected from the world, carrying the incredible weight of guilt and loss that wasn't even mine to harbor. Then fate led me to Leo James. He taught me that crazy could be perfectly normal and it shouldn't hurt to breathe.

Hudson Bradley is the cockiest, most stubborn, hard-headed man I’ve ever known. And for 15 years, he’s been my brother's best friend. But lately, what I’m feeling for him isn’t friendship at all. Why is my heart racing every time his blue eyes lock on mine? Why does every word he rumbles in my ear make my body come alive? And worst of all, why did I bet him that I could find a woman he and his son would both love? If I hadn’t given up on love altogether, Hudson would have been perfect for me. After all, he was there the day my world fell apart.