Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair: A Novel

by Laura Piper Lee

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

One of those rom-coms that will keep you chuckling all the way through. This is the highly relatable story of a single mom making life work for her. Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair is full of heart and full of humor.

A new mom repairs her broken dreams in this hilarious rom-com about starting over that sparkles with intelligence, wit, and compassion.

Hannah Tate can hardly believe her sleep-deprived eyes when she finds an engagement ring hidden in the closet. Killian, her super responsible, incredibly attractive boyfriend—and the father of her new baby, Bowie—is finally going to propose. But a romantic night out goes horribly wrong when Killian reveals he’s dumping Hannah, not proposing.

Furious and heartbroken, Hannah takes Bowie and moves in with her mama and stepdaddy in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia. Hannah realizes that her parents’ cabin has vacation property gold written all over it—and could save her mama from going broke. Again.

Only problem? The cabin’s décor is . . . mildly terrifying and it’s in desperate need of renovation. Hannah hires the hot carpenter living in the treehouse next door to fix up the place. Not only does River respect Hannah’s business acumen, he looks at her like she’s a woman, not a hot mess. And Hannah can’t deny that River awakens something new inside her.

Can Hannah embrace a future that looks different from the picture-perfect family she once dreamed of . . . and maybe start living life on her own terms?

This heartwarming, spicy romance book is perfect for fans of small-town romance like the Lovelight series by B.K. Borison and Tessa Bailey books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454948841
Publisher:	Union Square & Co.
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Laura Piper Lee has wanted to be an author since she was a kid. Well, she first wanted to be a mermaid, but that didn't work out. She enjoys making people laugh, flirting, and avoiding exercise, so writing romantic comedies is pretty much a perfect career choice. She lives with her partner and their son in Philadelphia. If anyone's rolling by the bagel shop, she'll have an everything toasted with butter. 

Read an Excerpt

There's something about new motherhood that makes everything so desperate. Your infant hasn’t napped in three hours? Call an ambulance. Daddy brought home the wrong diapers? Get a paternity test. You lost your baby’s favorite pacifier?! Hope you enjoy the dulcet tones of your shrieking infant, ad infinitum.

Ask me how I know.

I slam to my knees, then hands, crawling on all fours across the tasteful jute rug in our bedroom. When I decorated for that effortless Boho look, I didn’t realize how often I’d be crawling across nature’s steel wool. One of my heavy, aching breasts pops out of my nursing tank and promptly begins to spritz. Bowie’s cries get louder. He’spissed, and my right boob is taking it personally.

“Mommy’s coming!” I stuff my boob back in my shirt, but it’s like holding back a fire hydrant with a Kleenex. Did you know a newborn infant’s cries are biologically engineered to increase the mother’s Cortisol levels by 20,000,000%? I read that in one of the many parenting books my boyfriend’s mom keeps dropping off, tucked alongside various Keto weight loss cookbooks.

The pacifier, the only one Bowie tolerates, is nowhere to be found. It’s pale blue, has a tiny stuffed hippo attached for some fucking reason, and is the bane of my existence. I’ve bought at least five of them to keep in strategic places around the house, but Bowie has a keen taste for his old spit because no other hippo pacifier will do.

Mommy! he seems to bellow as his face turns nearly purple in his bassinet. I’M DYING!! DY-ING!!!!

Shit'shit'shit'shit'shit. I should be able to handle this! I’m a Disaster Comms specialist, for God’s sake. I literally handle disasters for a living, and yet losing a pacifier feels worse right now than that time one of my clients got caught using the corporation’s charitable children’s fund for his own personal child'support fund.

Bowie’s screams intensify. Did you hear me, woman?

Lefty joins in now, late to the nipple sprinkler party. I’ve left a trail of milk splotches across the floors of our bedroom like some kind of weird lactation crime scene. I’ve tried everything to get Bowie to stop crying this afternoon—diaper change, nap, walk outside, walk inside, a bath—all punctuated with offering every other boob every other second, but it’s no use. They’re like filet mignon that the chef can’t get right, and Bowie keeps sending ‘em back to the kitchen. He only wants Hippo Sucky, which disappeared between night feeding #3 and #4 when Bowie flung it across the room and apparently into another dimension.

The closet door is cracked open a foot, and I army crawl over to it like my life is on the line. Something blue and slimy shimmers within the dark opening of one of Killian’s old hiking boots, and I shriek with both disgust and joy, a common emotional combo in motherhood. I dump Killian’s boot upside down, gagging from the ripe footy smell. Here’s hoping Bowie doesn’t inherit Daddy’s case of stank-foot.

Bowie’s cries turn positively maudlin. He’s definitely gonna be a theater kid one day.

Hippo Sucky falls out of the boot in a damp clump. I gaze upon it with dawning horror—the rubber nipple is covered in sock fuzzies and his father’s fungal spores.

I ought to burn it. I ought to sacrifice it to the landfill and apologize to Mother Earth for ever supporting such a crime against nature. But my child’s utter despair makes my shoulders cave.

I can’t throw Hippo Sucky out. I’m simply not that strong.

Ooh, the Listerine!

Killian bought a mega bottle for the bathroom, and hey, it kills 99.9% of germs, right? Here’s hoping that includes fungus, too. I’m about to charge for the door before Bowie does permanent damage to his psyche when I realize something else fell out of the boot, too.

A small, velvet something. A box something. Now it’s my turn to fling Hippo Sucky across the room as I grab for the box. My heart’s beating so hard, I nearly rip the top off the hinges.

There, nestled in a bed of creamy satin, is an engagement ring. A beautiful pinkish diamond set in a rose gold band. It’s lovely and bespoke—exactly my style. I pluck it out, fingers shaking as I try it on.

It’s my size! Well, it was my size before my fingers swelled up like those pale mini-hot dogs from a can. But when my fingers lose this baby weight, it will definitely be my size.

I stare down in disbelief.

Killian’s going to propose.

Oh-em-effing-gee, he’s finally going to propose!

Bowie's still crying, and it yanks me back into the moment. I shove the ring back in the box and back into the smelly boot, and run for Hippo Sucky and the Listerine.

He’s going to propose. He’s going to propose. My flustered, sleep-starved brain is stuck on repeat, and he’s going to propose!

After a brief blue dip, Hippo Sucky is offered and accepted,and Bowie finally, finally stops crying. I collapse onto the vintage velvet rocker with him in one arm and an emergency bowl of queso in the other. No chips? No problem. I’ve got a spoon, a frightening intolerance to lactose, and a shaky sense of self preservation at best. It’s gonna be fine.

Editorial Reviews

Over the course of the autumn, Hannah redefines family, purpose, and love. Her foray into new motherhood is handled with candor and care, and the secondary characters are vibrant and fully developed as part of her village of support. This is the perfect balm for millennial new mothers learning to navigate love and life after having a baby. Recommended for fans of small-town romance and relationship fiction.” 
—Library Journal

"Hannah, though a self-proclaimed mess, is a strong mother intent on creating stability for her son and finding success in her personal life, and readers will easily root for her victories in love, life, and motherhood."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Hannah is an endearingly messy character with a heart of gold. Readers will find it easy to cheer her on from heartache to happiness."
—Publisher's Weekly

“Casually subversive simply for casting a barely-keeping-it-together new mother in the role of alluring romance protagonist, Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair is a snappy but emotionally resonant read about a fixer-upper Airbnb and the couple it was never supposed to bring together. Laura Piper Lee writes with a keen eye for the inherent humor of infancy—both literally, in terms of screaming babies, and figuratively, in the context of a weird-but-wonderful new love affair.”
—Elle

“Inspired by her own upbringing and experiences in Blue Ridge, GA, this romantic and spicy novel follows main character Hannah as she tries to make sense of her life.”
—Brit + Co.

“An utterly charming romance that feels both refreshing and cozy, starring a single mom and eccentric family unlike any I’ve read before. Laura Piper Lee has such an electric, laugh-out-loud voice, deftly balancing humor and tenderness with some excellent steam. How can I get Hannah Tate to redesign my house?”
—Rachel Lynn Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of The Ex Talk
 
“Every time I had to put this book down, I found myself counting the hours until I could pick it back up again. This book is hilarious, sexy, and full of characters who will leap off the page and steal your heart.”
—Camille Kellogg, author of Just As You Are 
 
“A sparkling story about the beauty that can grow from the messiness of life. Hannah Tate is an absolute delight.” 
—Annette Christie, author of The Rehearsals and For Twice in My Life

"Lee’s debut romance is the perfect blend of hilarious, heart-warming, and sexy. The chemistry between Hannah and River is hot as wildfire, while also being achingly tender and real. In Hannah, Lee crafts a main character that immediately tugs on all your heart strings and whose journey is such an important reminder that no matter where we come from, we can build our own future and design it however we like."
—Jenny L. Howe, author of The Make-Up Test

"Rejoice! Mom-coms have arrived and Laura Piper Lee is bearing the torch! Fans of Falon Ballard, Gillian Libby, and Alexa Martin will thoroughly enjoy Hannah's narrative voice."
—Suzanne Park, author of So We Meet Again and The Do-Over

"Laura Piper Lee hits the page with a dynamite voice, sparkling wit, and profound characterization that will keep you reading way past bedtime! Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair is a love letter to anyone who feels stuck or up against insurmountable odds—love and joy is always within reach. I've never rooted for a character like I rooted for Hannah Tate. Laura Piper Lee writes such tender, heartwarming, and courageous romance. Readers, meet your new auto-buy author!"
—Courtney Kae, author of In the Event of Love

"Add another name to the Romcom Writers’ Hall of Fame. Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair is laugh-out-loud funny, dead sexy, charming, as Southern as chess pie and twice as sweet. Get ready to fall in love!"

—Jeff Zentner, award-winning author of Colton Gentry's Third Act

 

From the Publisher

2023-11-17
Nursing a broken heart, a newly single Atlanta mother moves to the Georgia mountains, where she befriends her sexy yogi neighbor.

Ten weeks into motherhood, Hannah Tate can’t help but feel like one milk-filled, showerless hot mess. It doesn’t help that Killian Abbott, her musician boyfriend, is out playing gigs while she’s busy deciphering which type of newborn baby fluid is congealed in her hair. When she finds an engagement ring hidden in Killian’s boot, she thinks he’s finally willing to settle down…but then, instead of proposing, he dumps her. No amount of “conscious co-parenting” can convince Hannah to stick around, and since she’s also just been fired from her heinous disaster communications job while on maternity leave, she decides to leave the big city behind in search of a better, less messy existence. Hannah 2.0 takes shape in the middle of the Georgia mountains, with a promise to renovate her mom and stepdad’s dilapidated Airbnb. Soon enough, her new normal is taxidermized animals, snake sightings, and gun-toting, baby-holding neighbors. Not all her neighbors are Wild West material, though: There’s also the “emotional vagabond” River Aronson, who lives in an epic treehouse and does yoga shirtless. When River agrees to help reno the Airbnb in exchange for Sunday night dinners at the Tate cabin, Hannah can’t help but imagine her chiseled neighbor as part of the family, but first she has to decide if she’s ready to let another man into her and baby Bowie’s lives. Lee’s romance is witty and heartwarming, a refreshing take on family dynamics and loving yourself first. Hannah, though a self-proclaimed mess, is a strong mother intent on creating stability for her son and finding success in her personal life, and readers will easily root for her victories in love, life, and motherhood.

Babies, bears, and B&Bs reign in Lee’s cozy rom-com.

Kirkus Reviews