3/5 stars

Thank to Netgalley for providing this book!

The book was fine but i unfortunately wasn't too attached to the characters

I’m Not sure that this book could be anymore perfect than what it was. I was HOOKED from page one. The characters, the writing style, the highly addictive plot—all of it: PERFECTION! I will be buying every single book from this author from here on out! Loved this book so much!!! Just be warned—you’ll not want to put this book down

Bone chilling and completely addictive. Yes, Daddy was an utterly gut-wrenching and devastatingly sickening debut. I felt magnetized the second I started reading. With words that held such power, this was an intense read, and a page turner that I wasn’t able to put down.

I read much of Yes, Daddy with my heart fluttering in my chest, eager to know what happened next for Jonah, the main protagonist. It was both exciting, yet completely nerve wracking, as should be the case for a suspenseful thriller.

When I first started this one, I wanted to get to the end before the beginning. I wanted to know Jonah before I even met him. I became completely absorbed by him and his story. Yes, Daddy is spellbinding, its prose captivating and hypnotic. Jonathan kept me right where he wanted me from cover to cover.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a disturbing thriller, a plot-twister, and anyone with an afternoon with absolutely nothing to do, because you won’t be able to put this one down, not even for a second.

Full review coming to: www.avocadodiaries.com

This book, aside from playing on too many tired gay tropes, was also just not well written. The main character was rude and motivationless. Not to mention the unrealistic descriptions of his own body, coupled with how he viewed the older men around him. Overall, this was just tired.

I'll start by saying this book is full of trigger warnings with rape, drugs, and suicide. With that out of the way I found myself captivating from the start. Yes, Daddy shows another side to the #metoo movement by focusing on gay men an boys who were raped by powerful men instead of women who were raped. As we follow Jonah through the telling of his story we join him on an emotional rollercoaster. It does get a bit heavy at times and a few parts seemed a little unbelievable, but I enjoyed the story overall.

YES, DADDY is as much of a suspense novel as it is a a contemporary character study about societal issues. Not only does the book explore the #metoo movement, it delves into gay relationships and it does not shy away from graphic situations. Over the past couple of years, I've read a lot of books that delve into sexual harassment and #metoo, but this is the first time I've read a book that approaches the story from a gay man's perspective.

Jonah is a struggling writer in New York. He's working as a waiter to make ends meet, but he can barely make rent. He's also estranged from his father, an evangelistic Christian who Jonah wrongfully accused of abuse many years earlier. When Jonah has an opportunity to connect with Richard Shriver, a famous playwright, he jumps on the chance. They quickly become embroiled in a lusty affair. But the relationship takes a dark turn when Richard puts Jonah in a series of abusive situations. Before long, Jonah is practically a prisoner in Richard's compound. He experiences verbal, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse at Richard's hands--and he's not the only one. Richard and his friends have used their money and power to enslave a series of weaker men.

Some people may be a bit shocked by the graphic content of the book, but I hope that doesn't deter anyone from reading it. I enjoyed the story, even if it did become a bit sensationalistic and melodramatic at times. I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

Overall, I felt kinda meh about this book. Not necessarily bad, but not particularly memorable either. Giving it 2.5/5 Stars.

I expected Yes, Daddy to be more of a gay thriller but it turned into more of a very, dark coming-of-age story. It was complex and beautiful. The reader has no choice but to feel for Jonah and every horrific thing that happens to him. Jonah and the reader fall down a rabbit hole of despair. Every time you think that Jonah will find his way out of danger, something new and terrifying pops up. The reader lives the ups and downs with Jonah.

DNF around 50%. Yes, Daddy was a little too intense for me and I found it hard to stick with, ultimately abandoning the book around 50%. I think this book has a very specific audience, and unfortunately I am just not in that group. You will probably like this if: You love gothic literature, You like reading about the #metoo era, You like reading books that contain drug use, sexual assault, and violence.

3/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, this book was very underwhelming to me. The first half had some really great potential, but somewhere along the middle and the end the book derailed from what I was hoping it would be.

At the beginning, the author had a great direction that he was headed in. It was building up a prologue that had me very interested and curious in the book. But when it was all said and done, the main characters just really.... frustrated me.

I thought for a debut novel the writing was superb but kind of all other the place. The back and forth POV changes didn't help the story line one bit in my opinion.

Yes, Daddy sounded intriguing by its description, but turned out to be rather distasteful and sad. The premise of great wealth and a secret compound rife with the abuse of younger, more vulnerable people is horrifying. The cruelty and perversion of the main players is awful and the willingness to rationalize the abuse by the victims is as well. I just didn't enjoy reading this book.

A brilliant debut, Parks-Ramage's writing hooks you into the narrative from the very beginning. Yes, Daddy is the story of a young gay man Jonah who puts himself in the way of Richard, a rich and established author. In this quest of his, he finds himself embroiled in a passionate relationship with this older man. Richard Invites Jonah to his Hamptons house and Jonah is on the seventh cloud but all hell breaks loose when he realises that nothing is what it seems and what was a dream life before is now no less than a nightmare.

Once i started reading it, I couldn't stop.

Yes, Daddy addresses the side of the #metoo moment which otherwise gets lost in the din. The queer side. This novel is the testament to the fact that the marginalized stay marginalized even when the oppressors are being overthrown.

I give this wonderful book 5 stars.

Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a traumatic, chilling, nerve-wracking journey of terror and acceptance and forgiveness. Jonah has been cast out of his evangelical family for being gay. Forced into conversion therapy by his pastor father, Jonah experiences his first trauma that will define his life. Escaping to New York and hoping to become a playwright, a chance encounter with the revered playwright Richard Shriver, opens up a life he never imagined was possible- or that he deserved. As the love affair burns, Jonah is invited to stay with Richard at his compound in the Hamptons. Hoping to continue the passionate relationship, and possibly advance his own writing career, Jonah quits work and is swept away. However, it isn’t long before Jonah notices red flags, and soon the terror starts. Broke, trapped, traumatized- Jonah has no where to run and no one to run to. The aftermath of the horrible, violent experiences at that compound are far-reaching. And Jonah must wrestle with his feelings of revenge, guilt, and self-worth. Experiencing further trauma after escaping, Jonah must eventually reconcile his experiences and face them. Eventually, this leads to forgiveness and the start of healing. Yes, Daddy feels like several books in one to me- it is chopped into different sections- and, while, I understand the reasoning, it just felt like Parks-Ramage was trying to cram too much into the story. The hope and healing at the end of the story seem very incongruous with the rest of the novel; it comes too quick and too easily for all the trauma suffered by Jonah. The story starts off in a courtroom, but we never really get to explore the case (which is important) and the aftermath of Jonah’s testimony. The writing was fast-paced and my heart was racing at several points...I couldn’t turn the page fast enough to find out what happened next AND to get away from the violence. And the book is violent. At times, it was overkill. However, I do admit that as I am not part of the LGBTQ+ community, the experience of pain and loss due to the absence of acceptance aren’t my own, so there is a level where I cannot relate. Yes, Daddy was a traumatic exploration of identity, acceptance, privilege, and healing. While I enjoyed the writing, and at times it was such a gripping story, the lack of follow-up with several characters and the quick resolution really bothered me and left the story unresolved for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this eARC. #NetGalley

This book was at the top of my wish list for the summer and I'm glad I got to dive into it much like the cover suggests. I thought the plot and the story were unique and original'; Off the top of my head I can't think of any books that have explored this sugar daddy but at what cost? scenario, there were also some really raw moments with the rape scenes and in retrospect I can see how the narrator kept denying what had happened in the hopes that it would just go away.
I think there were some issues on fluidity; the happy moments with the angry responses felt a little sharp and turned too quickly and left me wondering how they went from happy and giggly to suddenly angry and closed off?
We could've also spent some time in backstory with the other characters in the compound and get their side getting to know them little better; i found myself not invested too much in any of them. The antics of the "elite" were a bit overdramatized for my taste as well'' but i think that could just be a personal preference
Overall I found myself reading through this book fairly quickly based on premise alone and I wanted to find out what happened to Jonah.

Trigger Warnings: Rape, Prostitution, Sexual Violence, Verbal Abuse, Homophobia, Physical Abuse, Drug Abuse, Suicide...

“The things we worship eat us alive.”

Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage was an incredible read and much more than I initially anticipated. Barely legal Jonah Keller is looking for love and likely in all the wrong places. He is waitressing at a bar and barely making ends meet when he sets his sights on much older successful playwright, Richard Shriver. Jonah does his research and orchestrates a meeting between the two and from there is lured into a dark world he’d previously only heard rumors. His new life with Richard is filled with expensive dinners, nights on the town, shopping sprees and wild parties with other entertainers.

Jonah does everything to be a model boyfriend to Richard, to receive his love, to be saved by him. And when he’s then invited to spend the summer with Richard in the Hamptons, he can hardly contain his excitement. He lives behind his roommate, the job he’s grown to hate, and his dependence on an estranged mother that he only calls when he needs money. What Jonah doesn’t know is that the ideal life he has planned with Richard will be everything but and he is in for a whirlwind of darkness that makes him question further his sexual identity and his upbringing. The days spent in the Hamptons will forever change him.

The author does a really good job of delivering such a realistic, dark and traumatic story. He reveals parts of the main character in such a way that kept my attention all the way through. It was just very well-written.

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sharing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was harrowing, but brilliant. By the end of it, I felt like I needed a shower, a nap, and a few painkillers to beat back the frown-headache I developed in my last reading sprint.

It's safe to say that while I expected to enjoy Yes, Daddy, it basically blew my away in the end. Despite some debut-author hiccups, JPR managed to turn out a story that gripped me tightly in its fist and absolutely never let up. I thought I had an idea what I was getting into, and I got it, but I got it on a whole other level, and with layers of complexity to spare.

At the core of this book lies many themes and "lessons", but chief among them, in my view, are the exploration of the profoundly devastating effects of abuse, and the portrayal of the many forms that abuse can assume.

Jonah's story is raw, honest, and self-reflecting in a way that elicits intense levels of empathy from the reader. You feel compelled to yell at him to just stop and get away and go do things that won't hurt him anymore, but you also understand how he's ultimately powerless against the dark, dark web being weaved around him (often, by himself as much as by others). After such a gutting journey, the reader is birthed into a state of numbed catharsis by the final page, and the feeling of awe at JPR's talent kicks in.

It sure wasn't a fun ride, but Jonah's story will linger with me for some time to come.

i really enjoyed watching this relationship progress, form beginning to twisted and problematic end. it's an intriguing and fast read, i was very interested in knowing what was going to happen the more i read. it was dark, disturbing and fascinating.

Yes, Daddy is a dark exploration into the long term effects of abuse. Much of this book was difficult to read, but I’m sure that was the point. Parks-Ramage is a brilliant storyteller with a true knack for drawing readers into his world and making them care about his characters, flaws and all. Jonah’s journey is anything but predictable. He is a scarred character who makes flawed choices in circumstances we can only hope we’ll never experience. It’s Jonah’s choices and emotions that make him feel authentic. This book was a powerful read. It was deep and dark; every chapter dripping with intensity. It’s a book that I see myself thinking about for a while and will probably recommend to many of my friends.

I'm speechless. I mean this book literally had me non-stop reading. The subject matter is gut retching and raw and real and human. I was either near tears or was feeling ready to throat punch someone the whole time I was reading it.

It was SO refreshing having a #metoo type of book from the male point of view. The story was very suspenseful and had me enthralled the entire time. There are some triggers here so proceed with caution, but if you are broad of mind and hard of stomach I think you'll enjoy reading this literary masterpiece. All. The. Stars.

I want to thank my GR buddy, Kelly for her review of this book. I knew from reading it that I too would devour this one in one sitting. Thanks Girlfriend, and you were right, I am a tough cookie. 😉

Difficult subject written brilliantly. I found myself needing to take breaks from the dark and emotionally-charged episodes. But much of the book deals with the aftermath, not the events, and the journey that Jonah takes trying to find his way back from hell.