"Overall, I think the story is refreshingly sweet, sexy (verging on smutty), and frustrating in the best way possible. I highly recommend checking it out on Wattpad and giving it a read! Pete and Daisy is just one of Tani's many great stories!" Simonne, Goodreads
Release date: May 14th, 2018
He needs a place to live, she needs a baby daddy.
Pietro Santangelo and Marguerite White are students at prestigious Columbia University in New York City. She is a fun-loving, free spirit who finds herself in a bit of a familial bind, he is an exchange student with a chronic case of poverty. They concoct a plan that they think will work, not realizing how much changes with two simple words
***
Daisy is a fun-loving college student at prestigious Columbia University, in New York City, who finds herself pregnant and alone. Pete is an exchange student from Italy with a chronic case of poverty. She needs a baby-daddy, he needs a place to live, so they decide to help each other out by engaging in the time-honored device used by people in need the world over: a marriage of convenience. She’s beautiful and smart, he’s a gorgeous and talented musician, surely they can live together as husband and wife for one academic year? In a one-bedroom on the Upper West Side? With her old-fashioned granny living on the first floor, Pete and Daisy move into a tiny, rooftop apartment, ready to be roommates, husband and wife in name only, for nine months.
Real life has a way of getting in the way, though, of messing with the best laid plans...
Come along for the journey of Pete Santangelo and Daisy White and their turbulent and very sexy romance, and see how two strangers can become best friends and fall in love. See how a modern American family is born.
GUEST POST
The Cover
A cover is one of the most important things about your book.
The story is what matters, people say. The characters, the message, the writing.
We writers are in love with our own words, and we’d like to believe that good writing will sell our stuff. It’s what we work on, slave over, day after day, shaping, honing, lovingly crafting our prose—
But most readers will tell you that, especially if it’s a new writer, the cover is what makes them buy (or not buy).
When I was looking for someone to design covers for my first series, I got so lucky. The person I chose was dependable, flexible, and understood and interpreted my vision exactly. And I heard from so many bloggers that they specifically requested to review that book, Living in the Shallows, because the cover was so beautiful. I’m including it here as an example, to me, of what a good cover should be:
Of course, I used the same designer for all seven in that series. She carried the theme (the girl’s face, the hummingbird, the boys in the band) through all seven while adding in the accouterments for each individual book (geographical details, plants or flowers, etc.).
For my new book, Pete & Daisy, I wanted an animated cover. As in drawn, not moving. This couple is a lighthearted pair, fun and whimsical, I thought. Even though the book deals with serious subjects, like unplanned pregnancy and violence against women, at heart it is a love story, between two romantic souls, set in New York, my favorite city. And I don’t like having face claims. I thought a drawn cover would work better than having real people. The girl I used on the cover of my first series is a real person, you’ll notice; why did I do that, if I don’t like face claims? Well, that main character was conceived with that cover model in mind. She is my daughter, also, so I owned the rights to the photographs of her that were used. Convenient, right? But not for Pete & Daisy.
For this one, I really wanted something that just couldn’t be captured in a realistic rendering, either of them or the setting. I’d seen the artist, Ula’s, work here and there, and I really loved the way she drew. Her people were happy, vivacious, cute. Their eyes had a soul. I gave her my specs, and she really delivered, incorporating everything I wanted.
I know that “bare chests sell,” especially for romances (the men’s chests, obviously lol, though I’m sure that bare female chests would sell also); however, I felt very strongly that putting bare chests, of either gender, wouldn’t be true to the spirit of the book, the feel of the story. Yes, it’s a romance, yes, it’s very, very explicitly sexy, but a typical romance book cover just didn’t feel right to me. This is the first draft she sent me, and it’s pretty close to the finished product. It covers everything: the city, the flowers, the love, the pregnancy, even the kitty (and there’s almost a bare chest, hey!). So yeah, I know it’s not a typical cover, but it works for me, in all kinds of ways, and I hope it works for readers as well!
About the author:
My name is Tani Hanes, and I am a 51 year old substitute teacher. I'm from central California and am a recent transplant to New York City. The most important things to know about me are that I'm punctual, I love grammar and sushi, and I'm very intolerant of intolerance. The least important things to know about me are that I like to knit and I couldn't spell "acoustic" for 40 years. I've wanted to write since I was ten, and I finally did it. If you want to write, don't wait as long as I did, it's pointless, and very frustrating!
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