Spotlight & Giveaway: Unspoken by Melinda Di Lorenzo

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Melinda Di Lorenzo to HJ!

Hi Melinda and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Unspoken!

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

Un/Spoken is a domestic thriller with all the classic elements: a narrator questioning his own judgement, a perfect suburban setting, a mysterious neighbor, and a whole host of secrets. We start with Dale, who has just moved to an idyllic community with his wife. As they work to heal from their own sorrows, a dark story unfolds next door. While Dale is compelled to unravel the knots of the mystery, he is also not quite sure he’ll be happy with what he finds out…
 

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

Not a favorite line, per se, but I think this quote kind of sums up the unease that Dale
feels moving from the city to the suburbs. He has just pointed out to his wife that the
“random” trees in their new community are, in fact, arranged in a pattern.
“Last night, we had a view of a brick building. There was a red, blinking light that came
on every night at ten, and we could see it through the blinds. Today, we have trees. Who
cares if there’s a pattern?”
Dale did. Dale cared.

What inspired this book?

I actually started writing Un/spoken quite a few years ago. As is often the case, it was the ending that inspired me—the twist. So, I won’t reveal what it is, but it was definitely one I loved putting to paper!

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

Dale is nearing 40, questioning his life decisions, wondering if the choices he’s made as he’s gotten older are the right ones. He’s often plagued by the “coolness” of his past. His love of good music, the things he’s given up for a life of domesticity. Is it any wonder his beautiful new neighbor so intrigues him?
 

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

This book is, quite honestly, everything I love about writing. Dark twists. A surprise ending. Rich characters with secrets and questionable motivations.
 

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

I’m currently finishing up my next thriller, Immersion. It contains an mixed media element as a shadowy figure counts down to a woman’s murder on a live feed.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: An ebook copy of UNSPOKEN + one additional Tule ebook of the winner’s choice

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you have a favorite sub-genre of thriller? Mine is definitely this one—domestic suspense!

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from Unspoken:

Her

My husband stands over me, fury emanating from his every pore. I can feel it smacking into me. Dripping down on me as I lie on my back and stare up at him through two blood-crusted black eyes. His fury is battery acid on my skin. It burns. It makes me weep. It stains me, like the sweat that stains his shirt.

It’s useless to try to crawl out of reach. He’s bigger. Stronger. Angrier. Just like always.

Can’t you see? I want to ask. You’ve already done enough!

The words are in my head, beating against my throbbing skull. They’re in my throat, burning in the spot where his hands have left their most recent mark. I try to say them aloud. I can’t. I can’t even sputter. I’m immobile. A dead weight. And yet his anger still comes. Not physically. Even for him, there’s no joy in delivering a beating to a person who can’t move an inch. So, he’s done with fists and feet for now, but his accusations and curses continue in a tirade. The aftershock of him, the earthquake.

Bitch.

Useless cunt.

I should kill you. It’d be better for both of us.

I don’t disagree.

End it, then. Please.

But there must be some innate need-to-survive part of me that refuses to believe in the power of futility. Because when my husband’s familiar work boots, which are presently at level with my head, take a step back and turn in the other direction for some reason, a voice in my head speaks up.

You’re not done, it says. But you will be if you don’t do something. Permanently.

I hear the truth in my subconscious’s words. I’ll die. Plain and simple. Here. Today. One of those boots will find my head and take me out for good.

The instinct to save myself rears up hard.

It spurs me to roll from my back to my stomach.

It prods me to reach out my chipped and broken fingernails and grasp for the frayed carpet that lines the hall.

It drives me to pull with all my might to drag myself farther away.

Please, please.

I know I won’t make it. God, how I know it. But hope is an insidious poison. As I scrape forward, it creeps through my blood and bubbles in my chest and makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I can somehow escape. Someone will come. Someone will see. I’ll make it. In spite of the splintering pain, splintering bones, and my splintering psyche, I will it to happen.

If wishes were nickels, my grandmother used to say.

But even then, the richness would only have lasted a moment. My husband is there to rip away the hope as quickly as it came. Roughly, he grabs my hair and drags me not just back, but up. To my knees. Then to my feet. He spins me so I’m face-to-face with his chest, and he hollers something I can’t understand. An order? A question? A threat?

I open my mouth to reply in some way, but still nothing comes out. My words are dried up. And this time, my silence sets him off. Up flies his arm. Out goes his palm. It hits my chest like a two-by-four, and I fly backward, straight toward the stairs. My hands flail. They screech along the railing, but it’s no use at all. My body folds in half and gives in to the horrible tumble.

I want to scream. But now it isn’t just my words that fail me; it’s my entire voice.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Silence can be golden…or deadly

A new home. A stable job. A wife healing from a miscarriage. Dale Woerkson is ready to embrace his fresh life rooted in suburban bliss while leaving the past behind.

Pretty. Enigmatic. Utterly mute. Talia Yearling is the new neighbor. She’s also the victim of a years-ago domestic violence incident that left her without the ability to speak.

Now, when Talia is the target of another attack, it’s Dale who intervenes. It’s Dale who takes a blow to the head. And it’s Dale who can barely remember what came next.

The foggy events haunt him. They consume him. And the more Dale works to figure it out, the more he tries to keep his life on track, the more it unravels. What really happened that night? How can he get a silent woman to tell him the truth? And what, exactly, is he willing to risk in order to find out?

From the gripping opening to the chilling conclusion, Un/Spoken delivers a pulse-pounding tale that will leave readers on the edges of their seats.

Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Melinda is an Amazon bestselling author, whose additional work includes titles for The Wild Rose Press, Amazon Encore, and Harlequin. She writes in a range of romance genres, from heart pounding heat, to nail biting suspense, to gutsy adventure.

Melinda lives on the beautiful coast of British Columbia, Canada, with her amazing and quirky daughters and her handsome hero of a husband. When she’s not writing, she can be found curled up with (someone else’s) good book, on the running trail, or at the soccer pitch.
Website | Facebook | Twitter |  GoodReads |