Spotlight & Giveaway: Unspoken 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, Unspoken!

 
Hi there! Thanks so much for having me stop by.
 

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

UNSPOKEN is about Paul and Isabel, who have been married for several years but are now just days away from divorce. Their vacation home on Long Island was a hotly contested asset during their settlement negotiations, so things are very tense indeed when they both arrive there, expecting to have the place to themselves for one last long weekend before the divorce is finalized…
 

Please share your favorite lines or quote(s) from this book:

My absolute favorite line from this book is simply this:

You did have the power to hurt me. You still do. You always will.

Paul says these words to Isabel during an argument. He makes a simple choice to be vulnerable, not yet realizing that his decision to let down his guard has the power to transform their entire relationship.

What inspired this book?

I’ve tried to write a pattern between Paul and Isabel that I’ve seen in the real world time and time again—one partner is very literal and sees the world in a pattern of black-and-white, the other is more comfortable with shades of gray, and far more indirect. These aren’t insurmountable odds and plenty of people make that same dynamic work, but without self-awareness from both parties, it can lead to disaster!

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

I had Paul and Isabel clearly in mind before I started writing, but their sheer stubbornness emerged as the story came to life. Sometimes, neither would give an inch and I was tearing my hair out trying to get them to work together! But the further into the story I got, the more sense that stubbornness made. Just as in real life, it’s much easier for them each to see themselves as the wounded party in the breakdown of the relationship than to stop, reflect and take responsibility.

What was your favorite scene to write?

It’s always fun and challenging to write conflict, but that was especially the case between these two, who face serious communication challenges. The first scene in the book is where they discover they’ve had the same idea to use the vacation home for the weekend, and furious sparks are flying everywhere!

I’VE BEEN DEVELOPING a single software application since I was seventeen years old. In recent years, I’ve worked with some of the best developers on earth, but it’s still my software. The sum of my life’s work is seventy-four million lines of code which, in layman’s terms, enables people to use the internet in a safe and efficient manner. I don’t know all of that code by heart of course, but if you were to give me any portion of it, I could tell you what it does and why and how.
Code is knowable. Understandable. Infallibly rational. Opening my compiler is like wrapping myself in a warm blanket on a cold day. Code is safe and familiar, and I am completely at home and completely in control in that sphere, which is pretty much the polar opposite to my feelings about other humans. People are unfortunately illogical creatures, and today, people are ruining my day.
Well, one person specifically.
“Hello, Isabel,” I say to my almost-ex-wife. Her sudden appearance is as unfortunate as it is unexpected. Whenever we find ourselves in the same room these days, the tension is untenable, but it’s certain to be even worse today, because this room happens to be in the very vacation home we spent most of the last year squabbling over as we negotiated the separation of our assets.
“You said that I could keep this house—” Isabel starts to say, but I really don’t like to be reminded that if the divorce was a cruel game, there’s a clear winner, and it’s not me.
That’s why I cut her off with a curt “my name is still on the title for four more days.”
Her nostrils flare. She makes a furious sound in the back of her throat, then closes her eyes and exhales shakily. Isabel is trying to keep her temper in check.
I lived with Isabel Rose Winton for four years, one month and eleven days. She likes almond milk in her coffee because she thinks it’s healthier, but she masks the taste with so much sugar, she may as well drink a soda. She sleeps curled up in a little ball, as if she’s afraid to take up space in her own bed. She resents her mother and adores her father and brothers. She loves New York with a passion, and she has an astounding ability to pluck threads from a city of 8.5 million people to weave them into a close-knit village around herself. Isabel makes friends everywhere she goes. She never forgets a name and people always remember her, too, even after meeting her just once. Everyone adores her.
Well, almost everyone. I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the woman these days.

What was the most difficult scene to write?

There’s a scene in the book where Paul and Isabel realize they need to work through something of a post-mortem on their marriage, and it was incredibly difficult to get this moment in their story right. Despite the tension, there’s so much love between these two, but marriage is hard work, and forcing them to sit together and thrash it out was incredibly tricky.

“This morning, I honestly thought the best way to go about this was to just move toward a friendship without us looking back at where we’ve come from,” he says, straight to the point as always. “I thought we could just let bygones be bygones, you know?”
I take the wineglass from him, but I don’t raise it to my lips. Instead, I cradle the glass between my palms, and I stare down into the pale liquid, as if it holds some kind of desperate interest for me.
“But maybe, before we take that last step and become friends again, we need to hash this out. To actually talk it all through, so ghosts stop jumping out at us every time we speak,” Paul continues. He turns to me, and I can feel his gaze on my face. “I know you said today you had explained yourself enough but, Isabel, please believe me when I say that I didn’t always hear what you wanted me to hear.”
Yesterday, maybe I’d have leaped at the suggestion of a postmortem for our marriage, motivated by the righteous indignation that’s fueled most of my decisions this year. I’d have sat him down and forced him to hear things from my perspective again—a tirade steeped in bitterness that would have launched at him like a sermon, or a long, rambling diatribe, like the one he inflicted upon me at the therapist’s office.
But tonight, I feel almost bruised. There are butterflies in my stomach and my palms feel hot against the cold of the wineglass.
“I know I’ve been asking just one more thing from you all weekend,” he murmurs, “but please, could we talk about where we went wrong? And then, and I promise you this, I won’t ever ask you about it again.”
“Why would we do this?” I whisper, still staring down at my wine. “Why would we put ourselves through this?”
“The same reason we both came here. The same reason we both stayed. The same reason…last night happened. The same reason you’re still here tonight. We both need closure, Isabel.”

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

This is the second book in my Start Up in the City series, which is a real departure for me – all of my earlier books have been historical or contemporary women’s fiction.

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

We all love romance for the happily-ever-after – but when two people decide to share a life together, that moment is actually the very beginning of a journey. Even when there’s deep love between two people, long-lasting relationships require dedication and hard work.

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

I’ve just finished editing UNDONE, which is the third book in this series. It’s the story of Jess (readers will have met her in UNSPOKEN and UNEXPECTED) and Paul’s brother Jake. I just love this book so much! Jess is an absolute firecracker and Jake is a sweetheart. The journey they walk together had me in floods of tears at times. I also have a historical fiction release in April next year, TRUTHS I NEVER TOLD YOU.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 1 Print copy of UNSPOKEN by Kelly Rimmer (open to North American Entrants only)

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Excerpt from Unspoken:

I find that I actually like sitting with her; even in silence, even with the emotional distance between us. There’s something both familiar and alien about this moment, but it’s strangely comforting and I don’t want it to end.
However, it’s getting late, and while we really should go back to the house to get out of the increasingly cool breeze that’s now coming off the water, my mind starts flicking forward to ways to stay. That means I’m well and truly ready with a response when Isabel says suddenly, “It’s colder down here than I realized.”
I automatically sit up to slip out of my jacket.
“Oh, don’t do that—Paul—I wasn’t hinting for that—”
“I’m still drunk enough that I can’t feel a thing,” I lie as I pass her the jacket.
Isabel pulls it around herself and a flush steals over her cheeks. She glances at me, almost shyly, and murmurs her thanks.
“It swims on you.”
“But I’m sure it still looks fabulous. Black is definitely my color, right?” she says wryly. There’s Funny Isabel—I miss Funny Isabel. She’s so much more endearing than Bitter Isabel.
“You look good in any color,” I say impulsively, but I do mean it.
Isabel blinks, apparently shocked by the compliment, and then she tries to deflect it. “It’s the hair,” she says, with unconvincing and clearly artificial confidence. She flicks her hair off her shoulders and flashes a duckface in my direction like a fourteen-year-old Instagram star. “I could look good in a burlap sack.”
“You could,” I whisper, and then I have no idea what comes over me, but with what’s left of the bottle of wine caught between my legs, I push myself out of my semi-recline against the streetlight and I cup both sides of her face in my hands.
She’s staring up at me, and she’s really here—Isabel, my beautiful, magnificent wife. She was the best thing in my life, and then she was gone. Somehow, she’s right back here and it feels too good to be real. Maybe that’s why it’s easy for me to speak freely—to tell her exactly what I’m thinking, just like I should have done every time my heart was full during all of those wonderful wasted moments over all of those wonderful years.
“You’re beautiful, Isabel. You’re perfect, actually. Whatever happens after tonight, just promise me you won’t ever forget it.”
She’s startled—her hand is still in midair near her shoulder—but she’s holding her breath and her eyes are huge.
I’m not going to kiss her. Holding her hand was stupid—an old habit, nothing more—but kissing her, well, that would be a disaster.
But our faces are getting closer. I don’t exactly know how that’s happening since I’m telling my body not to move and I’m pretty sure that Isabel shouldn’t be moving either, but…our lips are now almost touching.
Don’t you dare kiss her, Winton.
She wets her lips, and her breath catches. The anticipation is delicious for her, too. The instant I realize this, I’m lost.
I kiss her gently, but as I do, I’m waiting for her to push me away furiously—which she should, and I know I deserve it because this is insane. And at first, she doesn’t kiss me back—she is completely still—but she’s also relaxed and her lips are soft against mine as they even fall open just a little. I lean into the kiss like I’m sinking into a glorious daydream, reliving the best moments of my life as I pull her closer to me. But this is really happening; I can taste wine and salt on her lips. I can taste my Isabel, and oh God, I’ve missed her in ways I haven’t even let myself acknowledge over all of these months since she left.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Sometimes it’s what you don’t say that can change everything…

Isabel Winton had planned to spend the last few days of her marriage at her vacation home, intending to reflect, regroup…or maybe just do some solitary sulking. Instead, she collides with her almost ex, Paul, who has the same idea. Too stubborn to leave, Isabel figures this is a chance for them to get some closure. But she’s astonished to see that months apart have transformed her emotionally aloof husband into “Paul 2.0,” more open than ever before.

Paul was blindsided when Isabel left him. He had no idea she felt he was more committed to his career than to their marriage. With his new, hard-won self-awareness, he blames himself for letting her walk away. But winning her back will take more than simple words. It’ll mean finding the courage to grow, to trust, and grab a second chance at life by each other’s sides.

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Meet the Author:

Kelly Rimmer is the USA Today bestselling author of seven historical and contemporary women’s fiction novels including The Things We Cannot Say and Before I Let You Go. Unspoken is the second book in her Start Up in the City series, which is her first foray into contemporary romance. Kelly lives in rural Australia with her family and two fantastically naughty dogs.
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