TW: rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, violence, suicide, self-harm, substance use, religious trauma, conversion therapy

Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I received an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Yes, Daddy centers on Jonah Keller, a young man struggling to "make it" in New York City. He has big dreams of becoming a playwright, but that seems far off until he sets up a meeting between himself and Richard Shriver. Richard is a well-known playwright with lots of money to burn...

Richard whisks Jonah away to his summer home in the Hamptons and things seem to be going swimmingly, until Jonah starts noticing things are amiss. The waitstaff, all young, attractive gay men like himself, are oddly quiet.

I did not fully know what I was expecting with this book, even after reading the description. I think it was better to go in without knowing much because there were a lot of things that happened that I did not expect. Parks-Ramage wrote in a way that really made me feel Jonah's emotions. He so vividly depicted Jonah's desire for love, his longing to be a part of a group, hatred for those who hurt him, remorse when he felt like he could have done more, anger at people in the media, etc. It was all there, and it was so good.

I devoured this excellent book in a day. Jonah's character was so well-developed and really carried a lot of this story. I had to know what happened next.

Pulpy and of its time, Yes, Daddy makes for a fantastic beach this summer. It checks so many boxes for a fun read: attractive characters, thrilling plot developments, and a central conflict that walks a thin line between juicy and devastating. Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s debut novel is a relevant “Me Too” novel that explores how men can easily become victims of sexual assault and grooming, but ultimately fumbles in its last act in a shift of tone from astute thriller to something a bit more emotionally manipulative and unfulfilling.

Yes, Daddy follows its first-person narrator, Jonah Keller, a twentysomething recent graduate, in New York City, where he pursues his dream of becoming a playwright. He pursues Richard Shriver, a Pulitzer Prize winning stage writer who has grown his empire to include television shows and Academy Award winning adaptations of his pays, as a way to break into the business and get his stalled career on track. These early chapters paint an unflattering picture of Jonah – he’s conniving, myopically ambitious, and narcissistic. A character with so few moral trappings leads to a fun plot as Jonah and Richard fall in love, wherein Jonah is predator and Richard is prey. Things quickly escalate and change when Jonah quits his server job in Manhattan to live full time with Richard for the summer in his modern abode in the Hamptons.

Parks-Ramage creates a foreboding and ominous atmosphere for most of his book, and this is particularly true when he moves our characters from an expansive New York City to a claustrophobic and isolated Hamptons. These are exciting chapters that deal with some heavy material of sexual assault and partner violence. I was impressed with Parks-Ramage’s dealing with these topics that in a lesser author’s hands could have landed emptily and less compassionately. It is a tightrope walk between decadent fun and weighty solemnity.

The book suffers from an unsatisfying ending, as so many thrillers do. Yet, I found myself most critical not of the plot, which is more typical of traditional thrillers, and more taken aback by the shift in tone and genre. That fun and intriguing exuberance is abandoned for a strange forbearance that is incongruent with the first three-fourths of the book.

Still, I would recommend this to readers who are looking for something fun to read that has a timely message. Yes, Daddy is propitiously positioned to capture audiences who are looking for a well-balanced literary diet this summer.

Okay then. What a wild ride that was. This review is hard to right, because I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about this book. Personally, the first half of the book was a lot more interesting for me. I really enjoyed the dark, twisted tale, even if the pacing was not what I would have expected or entirely wanted. A lot of my issues with the first half, the pacing, the prologue, made much more sense once I finished this book. I hope this book is able to hold some catharsis for someone, because I think the second half holds a lot of power. This book deals with some extremely dark topics, like sexual assault, conversion therapy, and issues of faith. But making it through all of the dark content of this book, making it to the end, you almost get that same sense of hope that the main character has. This book will defy and subvert your expectations, in a way that is both cathartic and frustrating.

First I would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the author Jonathan Parks-Ramage for sending me a copy of his book! I would also like to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as well for approving me after I had received my copy.

CW/TW: This book features scenes of sexual assault, conversion therapy, abuse, drug use, and suicide. I would advise against reading if any of those topics are triggering.

Snapshot: Jonah Keller is a young aspiring writer living in New York struggling to make ends meet. When he has the great idea to “set up” a meeting with Richard Shriver, the devilishly handsome, successful playwright Jonah wishes to be with. A very tumultuous relationship ensues and things go south very quickly for Jonah.

Thoughts: Whoa, this book was very raw and DARK. It was way heavier and filled with more emotions than the fun book cover portrays. I flew through this book and read it in 8 hours. That is not something I usually do with a book, but I could not set this one down. I was rooting for Jonah the whole way through his sad story.

It’s a somber reality, but this book really dove headfirst into the world of powerful men getting what they want from unsuspecting victims. It was at times, uncomfortable and explicit but important in the age of the #metoo movement, especially in the LGBTQ+ community. In his debut novel, Jonathan Parks-Ramage brings to the table what a lot of other authors fail to bring. This book will stay with me for a long time for its no-nonsense topic and writing. The story is an attention grabber and it definitely captivated me from the moment I started reading it. Bravo Jonathan, you’ve got me hooked and I can’t wait to see what you come out with next!

“Tonight you get a free dinner.” I beamed in relief, too young and dumb to know that there was no such thing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this e-ARC. This was certainly… a book.

I don’t know what to feel about now that I’ve finished this. I can tell you now that this book has been mis-marketed, to say the least. I was expecting a thriller, yes, but the kind of thriller you’d pick up in the airport bookstore and enjoy the weird vibes of. Even when chaotic, horrible things happen in those kinds of thrillers, you can still walk away from it pretty easily.

This book has GRAPHIC depictions of rape. Over and over and over. It didn’t feel thrilling, it felt gratuitous. Not only that, but there’s a huge amount of religious homophobia that comes into this book that is not mentioned once in the marketing. This book is triggering on a very deep level and incredibly uncomfortable to read.

I hated the way the plot went, because it really did feel like there was too much going on. Nothing was surprising, but it was always awful! There were at least four points near the end where I thought the book was going to end but then it would keep going.

The characters felt flat, stereotypical. Even if characters weren’t stereotypical, they were flat. There were no motives, just a lot of trauma. A quote from the book itself that I think explains my feelings on the characters:

“I just think your character needs more dimension and defining qualities beyond his ambition.”

Yeah. The author has a beautiful way with words, but not so much with creating complex characters.

Should we be worried that the author had experiences like this? He mentions in his book that his main character, Jonah, would rewrite his own experiences and change only the name but keep it with the same first letter (his pseudo-self being Jacob). I feel the need to go and check in on Jonathan Parks-Ramage. At the very least, buy this book to help him pay for therapy.

I can’t say this was a bad book- it was a debut and it has a lot of potential. But it’s not a book I’d recommend. I think maybe they should put something in the front of this book warning about the graphic nature of the rape scenes.

That’s all from me.

I had high hopes about this book based on cover and description alone and I was not disappointed. This book brings you to so many emotions and leaves you satisfied. I personally was skeptical regarding the religious overtones but was so content with the resolution. Honestly the best book I've read this year and quite possibly the best book I've read in years. I am so honored to have read this and can't wait to own a copy of my own.

This book is not exactly what I was expecting from the premise, but it was a story that isn't afraid to dive into issues that need examination and for that I really appreciated that. At times, unfortunately I felt as if it surface dove into things, rather than really tackling some of the trauma that is obviously something the character carries. This made it a difficult book to figure out how to rate, because while there are interesting conversations within it, in most cases I don't feel as if they are really brought to any conclusion, and so at the end of the book I felt a little uneasy -- maybe that's partially the point.

CW for sexual abuse, manipulation, homophobia, religious abuse, consent issues, and probably other things I'm not thinking of.

Jonah is a struggling young man trying to make it in New York City when he meets a wealthy successful playwright, Richard, they begin a relationship, and Jonah is invited to spend the summer with Richard in the Hamptons. Over the course of several weeks, Richard disconnects Jonah from anyone in the outside world, and Jonah finds himself caught with multiple other young gay men who are there to 'serve' Richard and his friends.

Without spoiling the story, the book covers the aftermath of this summer, including trials, and Internet publicity, and Jonah must begin to deal with the trauma that he holds from the toxic situation that he found himself within. This is done in a lot of ways, although not always thoroughly. In the end, there's a lot of interesting threads in this book, although at times I feel as if it's just beginning to touch the surface of the story. It feels, at best, as if Jonah has begun to recognize and understand his trauma at the end of the story, but not dealt with it. This story considers #MeToo power structures and dynamics within the LGBTQ framework which is an interesting and necessary story, but it is an incredibly dark story with a lot damaged and toxic relationships and situations, and readers should know this going into it.

This review contains SPOILERS & TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Yes, Daddy is the story of twenty something Jonah living in New York who dreams of being a playwright. He meets & begins a relationship with Richard, a famous playwright much older than Jonah.

Jonah, whose father was a megachurch minister, grew up in a religious home in Midwestern America. At an early age he realizes that he is gay. He alludes to an unhappy childhood and poor relationship with his mum and no contact with his father. We learn later that his family’s religious beliefs about homosexuality have everything to do with this, leading to how Jonah leaves his hometown & ends up in New York.

When we first meet Jonah he’s struggling to pay for a sublet in New York while working as a server. In his desire to become famous he becomes obsessed with the idea of meeting & developing a relationship with famous playwright, Richard. He spends money he doesn’t have to appear wealthier than he is hoping for a chance meeting at an event, avoids all responsibilities to pay his rent (while having the audacity to complain about the guy he sublets from), shirks responsibility at work, & creates elaborate tales to impress Richard.

Not long after Jonah & Richard start seeing each other, Richard demonstrates some abusive behaviours. At the time Jonah is smitten with Richard, his lavish lifestyle & the bragging rights that come with being a part of his world, so he looks past that & continues to date Richard. Soon after, Richard invites Jonah to his Hamptons home for the summer which is essentially a compound made up of a couple houses that Richard & his snobby white friends own. Here, around the 30% mark is where the story turns. Though sexual violence is implied in the synopsis, these disturbingly vivid scenes of rape are as fast approaching & shocking as a punch to the face.

At this point we meet sixteen year old child actor Mace Miller: boyfriend/play thing to one of the older men in Richard’s circle of friends who also endures frequent sexual abuse and rape. Mace has been groomed by these men/men like them & conditioned to accept this as normal. When Jonah meets Mace he’s starstruck and envious for his successes & the attention he commands from Richard & his friends.

At the time Jonah is trapped, helpless, and manipulated into taking part in & enduring these terrible acts of violence. He is a victim and is surely traumatized by what’s happening. Mace, who has the freedom to leave the compound as he pleases helps Jonah escape. Jonah knows that Mace will then return to the compound & makes no effort to stop him. At the time he doesn’t acknowledge his responsibility as the adult in the situation to help Mace, get help for him, etc. Unlike young adult fiction, I think adult novels can be morally ambiguous. However, I think the author then does a great disservice to the story by never demonstrating Jonah had any awareness in the situation.

In my opinion, Jonah is a wholly unlikeable character. Beyond the materialistic and shallow observations he makes, he degrades & belittles others to feel superior, fuelled by an overwhelming lack of self worth. While vacationing with Richard & his rich pals you quickly see that Jonah goes to great lengths to people please & this behaviour continues throughout the novel, which makes it hard as the reader to empathize with Jonah.

With no feeling of progression (or direction!) in the story, I feel like it’s imperative the characters must develop to move the story along. However, in Yes, Daddy Jonah remains the same vapid one-dimensional personality we meet at the start of the novel. He makes selfish decisions, obsesses over his victimization whilst not acknowledging the part he did play in allowing the abuse of others to continue & never redeems himself. This is most evident in two instances: when Jonah chooses to lie to protect Richard in a civil suit Mace takes on against his abusers, & then later when he tried to burn down Richard’s home with him in it, has second thoughts, saves Richard & uses that situation as an excuse to not go to the police—though he claims to be battling that decision—all because he’s scared that he will get in trouble for starting the fire.

Later on in the novel Jonah hears the news that Mace has committed suicide after years of drug addiction, no doubt used to cope with the continual sexual abuse. The author writes, “The news hit at six a.m. I first saw the story on Twitter: Your mother found you in the bath of her Albuquerque condo. Wrists slit.
[...] By eight a.m. I began to feel hopeless. I didn’t know what to.[...] It was then I did what many anguished Americans faced with crippling anxiety do: I went to Gwyneth Paltrow for advice.” The delivery of this line (& others) is astoundingly insincere, accidentally humorous but in actuality just feels like poor writing because it conveys no emotional connection.

The author drags on what’s only a 280-ish page novel by introducing side characters that hold no great meaning & events which go nowhere, including a second completely unlikely and unrelated rape. These bits & pieces of the story—including the reoccurring subject of religion—fall flat & fail to further the story to its ending, of which was equal parts emotionally devoid & anti climatic.

Overall I’m quite disappointed with Yes, Daddy. I had high hopes that this debut would be an examination of DDLB (daddy dom little boy) relationships, sexual grooming, the effects of those relationships, & how power disparity influences justice and the societal impact on survivors of sexual abuse, specifically in the gay community.

I needed some time to collect myself before actually reviewing Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage & I’m glad I did because I was able to go back, reread some sections & really digest how it made me feel!

⚠️ CW/TW: This book features extreme instances of sexual assault, violence & abuse, drug use & suicide.

Synopsis: Jonah Keller, a young, handsome & struggling playwright, executes a perfectly orchestrated meeting with Richard Shriver, the wealthy, award-winning playwright Jonah aspires to be.

Richard quickly sweeps Jonah into his dazzling & intoxicating life...introducing him to a circle of wildly successful & equally enticing friends. As the two spiral into a toxic & rather one-sided affair & Jonah accepts an offer to summer with Richard & his friends, he quickly learns that everything, even his body, comes with a price.

As the summer unfolds & Richard rips the lavish rug from beneath him, Jonah begins to sense the sinister & violent path he is heading down...if he doesn’t act soon, it may be too late.

Review: This has been a hard one for me to write, you guys. I have to be honest, I hated how this book made me feel while reading it & long after...but I think that’s the point & a testament to Jonathan’s style as a writer. It invoked rage, fury, depression & disgust...emotions I’m not used to feeling.

Yes, Daddy immerses you in a world that isn’t highlighted as often as it’s experienced by gay men...the power & the intrigue of the older “daddy.” Honestly, I think THIS is the perfect addition to any book club to start a discussion on consent, power dynamics in relationships & manipulation.

Yes, Daddy will be released on ...so make sure you keep this on your #tbr list!

This ended up being a very different book from what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be closer to a thriller about a young gay man getting into a dangerous relationship with a much older man. And while that is part of the story, I definitely wouldn’t call this a thriller. It’s a dark exploration of abusive relationships, rape, religious trauma, conversion therapy, and so much more.

This is a difficult book to read at times. The descriptions of how utterly powerless and alone the characters feel were extremely visceral. I think the book does a great job at showing how difficult it can be for people to leave an unsafe situation if they don’t have a safety net to fall back on. Or how hard it can be to speak up against the people who have harmed you.

The book is written in an interesting way where the main character Jonah is referencing a mysterious “you” who the reader doesn’t know the identity of. That did add some intrigue because I was interested to figure out who this person was and how they fit into the story. However, sometimes the style of the writing kept me feeling a little bit detached from the main character. There were points that felt glossed over and like he was just giving recaps rather than fully being in the action. Mainly in the last quarter of the book, I felt like some events were just flying by way too quickly.

But overall I ended up really enjoying the book even though it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

I absolutely loved this MM romance.

Such a great book with a solid storyline and great characters.

I eagerly look forward to reading more from this author.

A definite recommend!

Thrilling premise about the curious power dynamics at play in a sugar daddy relationship soon give way to a fascinating meditation on consent, trauma and atonement. While the final third of the book can't quite sustain the novel's early promise, this is the kind of narrative that will no doubt generate plenty of spirited debate.

I enjoyed this book. This is my first book by this author and I can't wait to see what is next. This is a well written story that has characters that brought the story to life. They made it fun and entertaining to read. I had no problems connecting with them and made the story engaging. For me this story read as a darker story about power, different classes and being a victim. I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Richard is a strong character but made me mad a few times because of the way he treated Jonah. I am happy I picked up this book and it is worth the pick up. I highly recommend this book.

Wow. This book. I didn’t really know what to expect. The cover is what first grabbed my attention and then the blurb drew me in. I can’t believe this is the authors first book. It’s not perfect. There are some inconsistencies with the characters, I mainly noticed it with Jonah but don’t let that deter you from reading this book. This book kept me enthralled and wondering what was going to happen next. I particularly loved the ending. I’m really looking forward to more from Jonathan Parks-Ramage!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for and Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Not at all what I expected! I assumed this would be a semi-salacious, psychosexual erotic thriller. It was much darker and more serious than that, and I absolutely could not finish it fast enough. There are, perhaps, one too many examples of human evil in Jonah's story, but the book is ultimately a story of redemption.

A twisted, black as night, gripping read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying me with an advanced review copy of this book. All thoughts/opinions are my own.

Okay, so... I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book. It could've gone a lot of different ways based on the blurb, so I was partially nervous and partially champing at the bit. However, while I wound up enjoying it, it didn't quite live up to what I was expecting. Thankfully, it didn't horrify and offend me, but it didn't rivet me to my seat, either.

Nothing about this story was new or especially unique. Although, it did have me clutching at my imaginary pearls more than once and screaming at my Kindle for the characters to "Run, GD-it!"

In some ways, I found the story unrealistic, but in others, it was terrifyingly possible. The writing took me a while to get into because sometimes it's in second POV and sometimes it's in first and I got a little confused at times. The ending also felt like it came out of absolutely nowhere. Like maybe the author got tired of writing and just breezed through the last bits so they had a finished work but didn't really make a go at giving it the same level of attention the rest of the book got.

Either way, I did enjoy the read. I'd definitely try something else by this author, and am duly impressed by this as a debut novel. It just didn't wind up being fully my cuppa, but that's okay. Clearly, it's been well loved by others.

Wow!! What a rollercoaster of a debut! This book was sad, moving, heartbreaking, thrilling, and harrowing all at once!!! This book really sheds light on the #metoo movement especially in the LGBTQIA community, though it is absolutely prevalent throughout the world. I really identified with Jonah and despite some messed up things that he did, was rooting for him the whole way. Highly recommend reading this when it releases on May 18th!

Thank you to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.



TW: rape, pedophilia, drug use, and a few others that I won’t mention due to spoilers

Yes, Daddy is not an easy book to read.; nothing in the description truly prepares you for the depravity in this story.

Parks-Ramage is a brilliant writer. As a reader I felt every twisted moment of Jonah's life. The bits of happiness Jonah finds are a counterpoint to all the violence and pain he experiences. Jonah's story feels so real it is hard at times to remember that this is a work of fiction.

Trigger warning: rape & sexual abuse, drug & alcohol use, suicide, gaslighting, homophobia, religious persecution

This book is so hard to rate. The beginning had me so gripped and I was so tense and worried with what was going to happen to Jonah, but then that shift by the 75% mark happened, and it lost me. I was not expecting that religious approach (and another aspect that I'll not go into here, because spoilers - but I was so frustrated).

We follow Jonah as he hatches a plan to seduce a successful playwright, Richard, and they begin apparently to fall in love. That is until one day Jonah is invited to spend the summer with Richard and things begin to unravel. And it gets really really really dark. And I was revolted and seething, while rooting for Jonah and everyone else in the same situation.

The problem for me is I didn't get the catharsis I was sure it was coming. And I needed that, but I know it's not fair to put this on the author when that was not the story he wanted to tell. Specially when he was so successful when building his characters that they felt like real people and when he tackled a lot of difficult topics with such skill. I do recommend it even though I didn't completely love it.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

With it's beautiful cover and enticing title, I thought Yes, Daddy would be a fun summer read. A mystery/thriller in the Hamptons, I couldn't resist. In the end it was something so much more. Dark, twisted, deep, and important.
I don't want to go too much into the plot beyond the blurb for fear of giving twists away. I think it's important to see it though Jonah's eyes and be shocked along with him. You're also going to be mad and annoyed by his decisions - or lack there of. The book lulls you in with the typical poor twenty-something in NYC plot, you might even think it's going to be some millennial novel. Once the story gets going though you are going through a nightmare of sexuality, religion, assault, the #metoo movement, and that hellish place we call Twitter and its cancel culture. It seemed hinted at, but the culture behind internships and free labor, especially in the art world, and the traps and desperation that creates was interesting. It almost makes a pool for these abusive people to pick from. The idea of the 'perfect victim' was also there and how that can be manipulated by the abuser. It's amazing how we all feed into this, especially with so many online 'hot takes'.

Parks-Ramage writes beautifully, which sounds funny since this book was so uncomfortable and rage inducing. The writing is stylish and addictive- I couldn't put the book down and stayed up until 3AM to finish. Then I needed a day just to think about everything I read.

The book lost me a bit in the last quarter. I'm not sure how or why we ended up there (I guess the title is a hint) and the pacing seems off- I kept checking to see how many more pages I had left. Some characters' actions come out of the blue and make no sense to me. I did like the hopeful ending, but I honestly don't trust it.

I'll definitely be reading whatever Parks-Ramages writes next.