Spotlight & Giveaway: The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Kelly Rimmer to HJ!

Hi Kelly and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Things We Cannot Say!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

It’s the story of a modern day woman (Alice) who is juggling a complex family situation – with an often absent husband, highly gifted daughter and son with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Alice’s grandmother becomes very ill and asks Alice to take a trip to Poland to try to find answers about their family history. It’s also the story of Alina and Tomasz, a young Polish couple, who are surviving the Nazi occupation during WW2. These two stories are related in ways readers might not expect…
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

The priest presiding over my wedding was half-starved, half-frozen and wearing rags but he was resourceful; he’d blessed a chunk of moldy bread from breakfast to serve as a communion wafer.
“Repeat the vows after me,” he smiled. My vision blurred, but I spoke the traditional vows through lips numb from cold.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The story is inspired by true events that occurred in my family’s history
• I asked the readers on my Facebook page to name two of the characters – they came up with Edison (Eddie) and Pascale (Callie) after Thomas Edison and Blaise Pascale
• In the historical timeline, much of the story takes place at the house of Alina and her family. I based this setting on my own grandmother’s childhood home, which I found during a research trip to Poland.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

I hope readers lucky enough to have parents/grandparents still alive will think about whether or not they have heard the stories of events that shaped the future of their own families.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently working on a women’s fiction novel about two women dealing with post-natal depression, 40 years apart. This will probably be published in 2020. I also have a contemporary romance series coming soon, the first book (titled UNEXPECTED) will be released in May.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Print copy of THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY by Kelly Rimmer

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Excerpt from The Things We Cannot Say:

I go through the motions at home. Wade is working late, mak¬ing up lost time for yesterday—he has some plastics project on that’s been causing him grief so I’m not surprised. As soon as the kids are in bed, I pour myself a glass of wine, put some music on and sink into the sofa.
Alice plane Poland.
It’s an absurd request. Completely unreasonable. Totally im¬practical.
I just have no idea how I can ever decline it. If Babcia asked for the moon right now, I’d have to try to find a way to get it for her. And I think all she’s asking me to do is get on a plane, take some photos and come home. How quickly could I go? How quickly could I come back? I don’t even know where Tr¬zebinia is. All I really know about the geography of Poland is that it’s in Europe, and Warsaw is the capital.
I could look it all up on Wade’s laptop. It’s just within my reach, resting on the coffee table in front of me. I don’t reach for it. Instead, I listen to the music, and I wait until I hear Wade pulling into the garage.
We haven’t spoken a word to each other since the argument last night, but even so, I know he’s going to bring flowers home with him tonight and he’ll be desperate to earn my forgiveness. Right on cue, he walks into the house carrying a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses and wearing a contrite expression. I sit the wineglass next to the laptop as I stand, take the roses and accept the kiss he offers.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
“Me too,” I whisper back.
“How are the kids? How is Babcia? How are you doing?” Wade asks.
“Why don’t you go get your dinner and I’ll fill you in while you eat?”
“…even if I wanted to go, it would be impossible.”
Tonight, Wade has been listening in silence while I talk, and it kind of reminds me of our earlier years, when I was the chatty one and he was the calm scientific one. It used to astound me that someone so brilliant seemed to have endless interest in whatever I had to say—in the early months of our relationship, we talked until the sunrise more than once, and I’d never felt so important before. We’re a long way from that place these days, but for a moment, it actually feels nice to remember that’s the kind of people we used to be together—almost like we’ve taken a brief vacation back to a special place we used to visit. Wade’s gaze is expressionless as he asks, “Do you want to go?”
“It doesn’t matter what I want,” I say stiffly. “How could I possibly leave the kids?”
He’s back in my good graces well and truly after listening to me prattle on and on about this for the last forty-five minutes, but in one fell swoop, he’s right back into my bad books.
“Jesus, Alice,” Wade says. His exasperation is immediately on full display. “Give me at least a little credit. I have a PhD, for God’s sakes. I can handle a few days on my own with two kids.”
Red rage rushes in at me, so vivid and sudden that I can’t ac¬tually see past it. I’m a boiling, seething pile of fury and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with all of this anger, so I just stare at him, my jaw hanging loose.
“Really?” I say when my rage fades enough that I can bring myself to speak again. “It’s as simple as that, is it?”
“Yes, it is that simple,” my husband says flatly. He leans back in the chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not saying I’d do everything your way, but we’d get by.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.

Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.

Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.

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Meet the Author:

Kelly Rimmer is a USA TODAY bestselling women’s fiction author whose books have been published in over 20 languages. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, two children and fur-baby, and when she’s not working on a story, she can often be found eavesdropping on strangers in cafes. Reach her at
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