This book was good. I was definitely given a new appreciation for those in the LGBTQ+ community, and all they may go through in their daily lives.

I didn't grow up with many gay people, that I knew of anyway. The only person was our prom king, and he was proud of who he was. Maybe because of him, I've never really thought there was anything wrong or sinful about people loving someone of the same sex, living with them, marrying them or whatever.

Every single person deserves to love who they love. Period.

If you want to read a story about love, read this book!!!

Celebrate Pride with Goodreads 2025

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Annie's Reviews > The Stand-in Dad
The Stand-in Dad by Alex Summers
The Stand-in Dad
by Alex Summers

11418967
Annie's review
Jun 05, 2025 · edit

really liked it

Fairly predictable plot, where Meg and Hannah have problems in the run up to their wedding . Helped by David, a local florist, Meg arranges the wedding which is non-traditional. On the whole a feel good story where different aspects of LGBTQ lifestyles are explored . Some of the characters could have done with more fleshing out (Hannah for example) and the pacing was slow in the first half of the book. Certainly a good read though.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.
3.5 stars, but will round up to 4


Reading Progress
June 4, 2025 – Started Reading
June 4, 2025 – Shelved
June 5, 2025 – Finished Reading

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Fairly predictable plot, where Meg and Hannah have problems in the run up to their wedding . Helped by David, a local florist, Meg arranges the wedding which is non-traditional. On the whole a feel good story where different aspects of LGBTQ lifestyles are explored . Some of the characters could have done with more fleshing out (Hannah for example) and the pacing was slow in the first half of the book. Certainly a good read though.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.
3.5 stars, but will round up to 4

In Alex Summers' heartwarming novel, The Stand-in Dad, we meet David, a man whose past heartbreak fuels his compassionate nature. Forty years after his own family's rejection for coming out, David has dedicated his life to helping others in need. So, when he encounters a distraught young woman outside his flower shop, he can't turn away.

That young woman is Meg, whose engagement to the love of her life, Hannah, is overshadowed by her conservative parents' painful disapproval. Crushed and ready to call off the wedding, Meg finds an unlikely savior in David. True to his vow, David steps in as Meg's "stand-in dad," fully immersing himself in every aspect of wedding planning, from dress fittings to cake tastings, determined to make her special day perfect.

But the lingering shadow of Meg's parents' absence is palpable, and when disaster inevitably strikes, David's commitment is truly tested. The Stand-in Dad is a beautiful testament to the power of found family, celebrating the courage it takes to embrace love's true colors. This is a joyful and affirming read that will resonate with anyone who believes in the transformative power of acceptance and unconditional support.

Thanks NetGalley for giving me a copy of the book. Whilst I enjoyed the idea of the story, I found it too predictable and was getting impatient to finish the book. Some of the characters were interesting - I would have liked more info on Benji and some of the others in the youth group.

Great read. Emotional but not cloying. Found family style situation with lots of good characters. Would love to read more about the characters introduced in this book (youth club. David and Marks friends etc). This was the perfect read to curl up with on a rainy day.

Meg's parents are struggling to accept her sexuality and her forthcoming marriage. Enter David, a florist, who can't stop himself wanting to help. As they prepare for the wedding David has to come to terms with why he is reluctant to marry his long term partner and how to keep his business going. Well worth a read.

THE STAND-IN DAD - ALEX SUMMERS ***
I chose this novel because of its great premise and its great cover illustration. It is the story of two young lesbians about to get married and two older gay men, one of whom becomes the stand-in dad of the title.
I must admit that when I first started to read this novel I gave up. I had other, more interesting, better written, gay novels to read. Then, a week later, perhaps feeling guilty as it was the author’s debut, I tried again. And I confess that eventually I got into it.
Meg, the principal lesbian, is so, so annoying. Unless she is a teenager, surely she wouldn’t behave in this immature way. I wanted to (metaphorically of course!) slap her. I felt sorry for the girl she was marrying.
Other aspects of the story are fine, and some are well handled. Her parents are very hiss-boo creations designed to make us angry and feel sorry for downtrodden Meg. Poor David, the ‘stand-in-dad’ has more than his fair share of woes, with his business going under. Though none of it seems to have been researched or taken from experience.
Meg especially, and sometimes even much older David, are beyond naive in the things they do and say. “The word family nearly set Meg off crying again.” There is also a lot of telling you things, rather than showing you, which removes you from the action.
The publishers presumably wouldn’t agree, but the writing needs a competent editor. I lost count of where repeated words jarred the flow. In one short paragraph, just four lines, the word ‘thinking’ was repeated three times. Sometimes words are repeated for effect. Not here. Just shoddy editing.
But this, of course, is my opinion. You may well enjoy it and think it worthy of five stars. We’ll have to agree to disagree.

This was an amazing found family. The way the realities of so many LGBTQIA couples was handled and presented added the relatability I wanted from this story. This was a very heartwarming read that tackles real struggles and the way love can conquer it all.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy. 💜

Meg and Hannah are due to get married but Meg’s parents are being difficult because they would like Meg to have met a nice young man and settled in a conventional relationship. Meg then meets David who owns a flower shop and is the partner of Mark. They are not married partly because David had a very difficult relationship with his parents about being gay. Because of this he understands what Met is going through and ends up being a shoulder to cry on and becomes ‘the stand in dad’ in the title. This book was quite an easy read but I found it slightly dull with not much of a story to it and it dragged on a bit. The characters were ok on the whole. I thought David was a very good person but I thought it was so fixed on it being about LQBQT that it became slightly unbelievable. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of this book.

I really wanted to like this as the concept seemed very sweet and full of potential. However I felt that the character of Meg was flat and David was really annoying and made everything about himself. Despite being surrounded by people who seemed to be bending over backwards to help them they both kept being a bit rubbish.

A heartwarming, uplifting read about the power of family, chosen and by birth and of community. A great cast of characters and a length of twists and drama before the brilliant wedding finale.

I just finished The Stand-in Dad by Alex Summers, and my heart feels like it’s been wrapped in a cozy sweater. This story has all the things I love—found family, unexpected fatherhood, second chances, and characters who feel achingly real. Watching a reluctant stand-in step into something as messy and beautiful as parenthood? Absolute gold. Summers balances humor and heartbreak so well, never shying away from the struggles but always reminding us of the love that makes it worth it. It’s tender, it’s charming, and it sneaks up on you with emotional gut-punches when you least expect it.

If you’re in the mood for something that will make you laugh, cry, and maybe hug your people a little tighter—this one’s for you.

I picked this up because of the title. The idea of a ‘stand-in’ dad – for any reason – just sounded so very appealing. The book looked like it would be just wonderfully warm and fuzzy – which is just what I was looking for and also exactly what it turned out to be.

Meg and Hannah are engaged to be married when the story opens. They are already on the road to their happy ever after, but that road is not running smoothly. Not because they have a problem, but because Meg’s parents are being asshats. (I just imagined Meg’s mother wearing her ass as a hat because she’s exactly the type to wear hats and OMG its hilarious and awful at the same time)

So Meg is hunched outside the door of the florist shop that her mother was supposed to meet her at, crying because her mother is doing passive aggressive asshattery by ghosting her own daughter, and fate steps in. Or rather, the florist, David Fenton, steps out of HIS florist shop and into the role of Meg’s stand-in dad.

Not that it doesn’t take a while, but it’s something that they both need. Meg needs help, a shoulder to cry on, a confidante, and someone maybe a bit older if not wiser just to be there for her. David needs a do-over, he needs to be the parent he didn’t have when he came out as teenager and walked away from his own parents’ rejection with a hole in his heart. His parents are long dead, and that hole can’t be healed by fixing that relationship.

But maybe it can be healed by paying forward the relationship he wanted but didn’t have. AND he’ll get to help plan a wedding for someone he comes to love and wants to support as if she was his own daughter.

What makes this story beautiful is the way that Meg and David manage to heal each other even as they draw an entire community around the wedding of Meg’s – and her fiancée Hannah’s – dreams. And if that dream wedding is more than a bit untraditional every step of the way – even before Mother Nature intervenes in a really big way to make it even more so – it’s all icing on a very eclectic raft of wedding cupcakes. And it’s glorious.

Escape Rating A: This was the book that was calling my name this weekend, and I’m really happy that I answered that call because it was absolutely the right book at the right time for this reader. Even if it may seem like its a bit early for a review, which it both is and isn’t. If you can’t resist the call either, the ebook is available NOW. The US paperback will be available at the end of May.

Don’t let the ‘romance’ label on this book set up any expectations. It’s not a romance – and that’s a marvelous thing in this instance. It is, however and very much, a story about relationships. And it’s an absolutely lovely and terrific feel-good story that will have you turning the last page with a big smile on your face.

It certainly did for me.

What made me love this one so hard – which I absolutely did – is not just the father-daughter relationship that grows between David and Meg, but the way that they gathered their friends and loved-ones and the whole entire community into the process of both celebration and healing.

There’s a lovely symmetry in the way that helping to plan Meg’s wedding opens David up to re-examining his reasons for not wanting to marry his own life partner in spite of how much Mark would really like to marry him now that it’s possible.

At the same time, David has thrown himself into Meg’s wedding planning to push off dealing with the fact that his shop is failing and his dream is dying and he doesn’t know what he’ll do next. Until it all comes together in a way that is utterly delightful – even if it does feel a bit too good to be true in all the best ways.

There are a lot of things in their situations that turn out to be sort of sideways parallels that mean that both Meg and David grow and change and expand their circles of friends and found family in ways that reach beyond just the wedding. Which, of course, turned out to be wonderful even if it was nothing like was originally planned. It was better.

What makes the story work – and gives it its sweetness – is that the reader feels like a part of that found family. I cared so much about both of them and their struggles, and was so mad at Meg’s parents – considerably angrier than she was because I cared about her a lot and didn’t care about them at all beyond wanting to hit them in the head with a gigantic clue-by-four.

If you’re looking for a feel-good story with a happy ending that doesn’t rely on romance to get there, The Stand-in Dad is a marvelously uplifting read and a terrific debut novel.

The Stand-In Dad is a heartwarming and uplifting story about the power of acceptance and the importance of chosen family. David, who was rejected by his own family when he came out years ago, has since dedicated his life to helping others in need. When he meets Meg, a young woman struggling with her conservative parents' disapproval of her engagement, David steps in as her 'stand-in dad.' From dress fittings to cake tastings, David makes sure that Meg’s wedding is everything she deserves, despite her parents' absence. As the wedding day approaches, David's unconditional support and love help Meg find the courage to navigate the obstacles in her path—and maybe, just maybe, save the day when disaster strikes. This is a beautiful tale of love, resilience, and the families we create for ourselves.

We open the book with Meg crying in the rain, wanting comfort, a hug from her girlfriend, a cuppa and a biscuit, but we don't find out why she's in this position immediately - the scene crops up again in its place in the plot, a nicely done point. Meg and Hannah have been together for ten years and are getting married. They've just moved back to Meg's home town for sensible reasons, but Meg's parents aren't being very welcoming. In another teary scene, Meg's sat on a bench outside David's flower shop (Savage Lilies!) weeping because they haven't turned up for the appointment there. He takes Meg under his wing, and ends up offering to attend her wedding planning meetings with her, suggesting some as he also creates a network of queer and ally businesses in the area.

Everyone's lovely, but David's partner Mark starts to think that David's giving too much of himself, while battling with the shop not doing so well, and Meg's still upset her parents aren't involved. Some sweet teens from the youth club hang around the periphery, giving some lovely scenes, and also helping the plot along. When things threaten to go horribly wrong, David and Meg's new friendship is stretched and everything looks like it can't be saved ... but it's a positive book about community in the end. Side characters are nicely drawn, from Meg's old "boyfriend" Gus to various cake and other makers, and solutions to difficult situations are considered and modelled. A really lovely, positive read, very well done.

Blog review published 30 April https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2025/04/30/book-review-alex-summers-the-stand-in-dad/

This was a delightfully charming, fun read. The characters are wonderful and I loved the story of the wedding. This book made me very happy to read and gave me the warm fuzzies. I highly recommend if you're looking for a light-hearted romance.

I was hooked from the beginning!!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

this was a pretty standard feel-good novel, i enjoyed it a lot! i could however tell that this is the author’s first book, i found that meg lacked the depth and interiority that david had in spades and the writing was a little clunky at times. overall, i really liked this book!

The Stand-In Dad is a very lovely book about Meg who is planning her wedding to Hannah. Hannah is doing a lot of traveling, and the bulk of the planning is falling to Meg. Meg and Hannah recently returned to the town where Meg’s parents live and where Meg grew up. As the story opens, Meg is expecting to meet her parents and for them to help her with some of the floral decisions. They send her a text and tell her they can’t make it.

Meg is crushed and in tears. Coincidentally the florist is David and his family rejected him and his partner 40 years ago. David offers to help, and eventually Meg takes him up on that offer.

This is a heartwarming story. (I really don’t feel like this is a romance.) I prefer that romances are of the “closed door” variety; and I wasn’t sure whether this book would be “closed door” or not … but honestly … it was perfect! Just right (for me anyway).

Some of the plot seemed a bit too contrived. Looks like the authors first novel, so kudos to Alex Summers on his first novel. I did like that David was creating a list of businesses that supported the LGBTQ community and I loved how the floral shop supported teens in the area.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the opportunity to read the advance read copy of The Stand-In Dad in exchange for an honest review. 384 pages, Publication date is Apr 24, 2025.

Thank you Avon for inviting me to review this, I was delighted and charmed, warm fuzzied, by this read. I loved the premise, the idea that someone can rise from their own hurt to show up for others, and to have the ability to make a positive impact when others are knocked down... such a perfect read when I want to remember that people can have kindness and compassion even for others. Alex Summers' The Stand In Dad does all of that, brings in a host of delightful secondary characters, which for me makes a book a lot stronger, I will be recommending this to my followers as a great choice for a Spring read, a nice choice for a mother's day gift, and a great read to tuck in for a travel bag/pool side change of pace read.