You, Again was one of my standout reads of 2023, so when I saw the cover for Daddy Issues and noticed it pop up on NetGalley, I didn’t hesitate to request it!

There were definitely things I enjoyed about this book, but overall, I felt like it didn’t quite deliver on the romance front. I went in expecting something with a similar emotional and romantic vibe to You, Again, so in that sense, it fell a bit short for me.

One thing I’ve noticed in a lot of rom-coms is that the female leads are written to be messy in a cute, quirky, almost fairytale-like way — it’s messy, but it’s palatable. Kate Goldbeck doesn’t do that. Her characters are really messy — in a way that feels raw, real, and sometimes frustrating. And honestly, I love that about her writing. Sam, the main character, will absolutely test your patience, but she’s also deeply relatable because of how complicated she is.

At the start of the book, Sam is in a tough place — she’s in her twenties, living at home, and stuck in a serious rut. There’s a lot of aimlessness, some bitterness, and a sense of being completely lost, which I think a lot of readers will resonate with. But she also has moments of genuine brilliance where her personality really shines through.

She ends up growing closer to Nick — her mom’s neighbor, a divorced dad who manages a Chili’s. Their connection makes sense — I understood why they were drawn to each other. But here’s the thing: I just wasn’t drawn to him. He seemed like a genuinely decent guy, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, I found him… a little bland. Beyond the basics — his job, his daughter, his location — there wasn’t much that stuck with me about his character. I didn’t feel the chemistry or the spark, which was disappointing.

That said, one of the coolest things about Daddy Issues was its comic book influence. The cover reflects it perfectly, and the storytelling incorporates it in such a fun, creative way. Since Sam’s an artist, her perspective is sometimes shown through comic-style panels in the text, and I thought that was so fresh and original. It gave the book a really unique flair.

So even though the romance didn’t totally land for me, there’s still a lot to admire here — especially in terms of voice and style. I’m giving it 3 stars, and I’ll absolutely be picking up whatever Kate Goldbeck writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was… something. Daddy Issues is definitely an appropriate title. I feel like this took a favorite trope of mine (age gap) & turned it into something I… hated?

I felt… rage while reading this. Every character (minus Perry) had flaws that I couldn’t get passed. The FMC is somehow the most immature yet grounded person who is embarrassingly stuck in a post-COVID rut. The fact that she’s almost 27 & doesn’t have a permit or real job or really a sense of self was such a turn off. She jumps from Hal to Nick & ping pongs around like a maniac. Nick???? Confessing he’s in love with someone so much younger than him after essentially no time at all AND hooking up with her when she’s drunk multiple times, but rarely sober? Ick. Then Nick comparing how she acts to his daughter…. Bigger ick.

All the talk of furries & homosexuality with a 9 year old made me downright uncomfortable. I have a 7.5 year old son & just…. Couldn’t imagine these conversations?

Overall, a huge miss for me.

My favorite thing about Kate’s writing is her characters. She writes them with such texture and detail I can believe they’re living, breathing people. This is beyond three-dimensional, I feel like I can reach into the page and hold their hand - a 4DX movie theater experience if you will. Her women are complicated and messy and so damn relatable it’s hard not to cringe only because you know you’ve been exactly there too. I loved Sam and Nick and their complex relationship that was at the same time warm and supportive - like a really good hoodie.

If you loved You Again, you’ll devour this, just like I did. (ARC provided by NetGalley)

4.75 stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i genuinely cannot tell you how GOOD this book is !!! i loved the comic book spin & i LOVE LOVE LOVE sam, nick & kira !! they each have such a unique personality and i'm obsesseddddd

nick??? he is one of the most devoted fathers but also one of the most supportive MEN !!! the way he cares for both kira & sam had me squealing and 😭 like wow what a mannnn !!!! the way NICK & sam come together? obsessed. i literally cannot stop thinking about these two and how much they love each other. also I LOVE KIRA WITH MY WHOLE HEART !!! the cutest little kid with the BIGGEST personality !!!!

this is such a FUN romantic and hot book but it's also such an accurate description of how it feels to be stuck . . . lost & so unsure of your place in the world. kate perfectly captured that feeling of staying in one place while everyone around you seems to move foward and be successful: the 'lost year' of your twenties. the way sam faces that struggle & slowly but surely gains confidence and goes after the life she wants??? love

thank you dial press for the arc! this is my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for a digital ARC of Daddy Issues.

This was my first Kate Goldbeck read and I will definitely be checking out her previous work.

I absolutely LOVED Nick (MMC) and his relationship with his daughter Kira! He truly was the best father and every action showed that he would do anything for her. My heart melted at every interaction.

Sam was extremely relatable in her pursuit of what she thought was happiness. I think everyone feels like her these days - feeling lost when your goals aren't as easily reachable as you had planned and you let time slip by before you're willing to pivot and find an alternate course.

The part that really lost a star for me was the comic book aspect - not the fact that Sam loved them but when the writing would switch from normal writing to comic book panels using different characters. It lost me a lot of the time and I found myself skimming past some because it was hard for me to stay engaged at those parts.

Would recommend if you love reading about single dad and age gap!

I love Katie Goldbeck! I loved her blast book and this one is even better. Everything I want from a romance novel packed into one.

I had to DNF this one around the 20% mark. It didn’t grab my attention and didn’t enjoy the characters or writing. Maybe it’s a case of wrong timing for this book.

This book kinda of tortured me. The main character is stalled. It’s a little too realistic. The witty dialogue hooks me though. Gets me every time.

3.5*
Thank you netgalley and Kate Goldbeck for the arc! I love a good single dad/age-gap romance and this one was very cute. Kira and Nick had such a sweet relationship and it was fun seeing Sam added into the mix. I appreciate that it wasn’t as fluffy as most single dad romances are, it showed all the real emotions. I will say that I wish we saw a bit more romance, it felt pretty insta-lovey and more focused on Sam’s personally journey about finding out who she is and what she wants to do with her life. But overall it was a fun read and I’m very glad I got to read it early!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a super fun and fast read! The pacing was perfect and the characters felt like real people.

One issue I had with this book (and the reason it isn’t a 4-5 ⭐️) was the romance. I didn’t completely feel the main characters’ connection. I liked them separately but didn’t love them together. I wish we got a little bit more out of their relationship especially the ending.

Overall it was a quick read that had relatable characters and good humor.

A romance where the main characters communicate? YES! I didn't know what to expect when I started reading this. I had a hard time relating to Sam and thought she was immature, at first. However, she eventually grew on me and I enjoyed her character. Nick had the patience of a saint but he also had a lot of baggage. I enjoyed how the relationship made sense, but was incredibly messy in a realistic way. The romance took time to build, but once they got together, you can't help but cheer. Yes, there's an age gap. Yes, both have baggage, Yes, both are in different stages of life. And yet, you can't help but root for them. It was refreshing to read two people who were just simply normal. My issues was the lack of resolve with Sam's dad, hence the literal daddy issues. I had wanted a confrontation, or even some kind of acknowledgement from him or Sam that she had moved on. Overall, I liked this book and would recommend it to others!

Being inside Sam's head was... fun, overwhelming, sad, rewarding, pleasing, enjoyable, uncomfortable and a lot more of things that I can’t even start to describe. It's been a long time since I connected, that I identified myself this much with a book character. That’s why this book felt like a lot. Sometimes a lot meaning good, and sometimes a lot meaning bad. “Daddy Issues” hit hard, and in a lot of different places and ways. A rewarding, a little painful at times, and very, very funny read that I will treasure forever. I don't know you, Kate Goldbeck, but thank you.

4.25 stars! I haven't read Kate Goldbeck's first book, but I really really liked Daddy Issues and plan to check out You, Again! This was witty, heartfelt and a quick read. I really loved the banter and chemistry between Nick and Sam and actually enjoyed how realistic and mundane some aspects of their romance was. I also appreciated that this book took place in a mid size Midwestern city with characters that had "regular" jobs after coming across so many other super tropey romance novels that take place in small towns or feature professional athletes, cowboys, billionaires, etc. I love reading those, but this was a nice change of pace. And, there were was definitely the neighbor, single dad trope, but the romance didn't rely on those tropes for entertainment value. I thought the issues that came up due to their age gap and different life stages were handled maturely. I'm a married mother of children around Kira's age and am a little older than Nick, but I could honestly relate to Sam, Nick, Sam's mom, and Perry in one way or another. I think some reviewers thought Nick was blah, but I liked how steady, caring, and open he was and how he is exactly what Sam deserved after having been let down by so many men in her life. I also found Sam to be an interesting FMC dealing with being an "emerging adult" and I actually enjoyed learning a little bit about comics from a female perspective. I would definitely recommend for anyone looking for a change of pace from their usual romance reads!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

Plot: Sam, 26 has a new neighbor a single dad named Nick. Sam is depressed because life is not turning out how she had pictured in her head. She hates her job, where she lives, and huge student loans. All that on top of being stuck living at home with her mom, she’s about to snap. Her hope is to get accepted into a PhD program and finally move out. She can’t help but admire her new neighbor who seems to have his life together and is almost forty. Being neighbors though it’s almost impossible to avoid each other, over time they develop a friendship. Slowly their relationship becomes steamy and Sam finds herself falling for him.

Positives: The concept is great and so incredibly relatable. So many people can relate to struggling to find love, happiness, the ideal job. More and more people aren’t able to afford living on their own and do find themselves stuck at home with their parents. Student loan debt, hello it’s crazy depressing and relatable to so many. I love the single dad and also age gap trope. I also loved the cover so much!

Feedback: I had a hard time feeling the relationship between the main characters had much chemistry and passion. It felt a little stiff and forced.

Another absolute hit by Kate Goldbeck. I didn't think I could fall even more in love with her writing after 'You, Again', but I was proven wrong by the masterpiece that is 'Daddy Issues'. Sam is an extremely relatable character, especially for those of us persuing academia and love late inn their 20s, and Nick is the perfect mixture of swoon and put-together.

This book got me straight in the feels, as a person who was in the middle of grad school (in art and art history!) during the early years of COVID, same as Sam. Every character in this book was incredibly relatable, and I would like to petition for Perry to be my step-parent!

I really enjoyed this book! It’s my first from Goldbeck and I will definitely be reading anything else she writes.
I feel like this book did everything right. It balanced complicated relationships from so many different aspects. From her non-existent relationship with her dad, to her complicated relationship with her mom, to her relationship with her step-parent, relationship with her FWB, her love interest, and herself. It is impressive how we see her work through her issues in all of these relationships in one book, and they all got the time and attention they needed.
I did feel like Sam became “unstuck” and that was so important, that she didn’t go from being stuck with her mom to being stuck with her partner. She put in the work, even if it was only for about 4 months.
The main couple in this book could have been problematic, with the age-gap, and different positions in life, but she balanced the potential for a power dynamic really well and had the characters acknowledge the possibility for issues to arise.
I enjoyed the chemistry between the love interests in this book too, it was kind of just fizzing in the background every time they interacted.
I think this book did everything it set out to do.
My only issue with the book is when she tells him “you’re not my dad,” I understand the book is called daddy issues, but it kind of came out of nowhere. I just felt like it didn’t need to be said

Kate Goldbeck's Daddy Issues is the kind of book you pick up and immediately think, "Oh, this is gonna be good." And let me tell you, it delivers on that promise and then some. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Kate Goldbeck for letting me get my hands on an advanced copy to review, because this romcom is SPECIAL. It's got bite, it's got heat, and it's got characters that'll make you fan yourself.

Sam Pulaski is basically all of us, if "all of us" means a twenty-something disaster with student debt up to her eyeballs, a job that's going nowhere, and a "situationship" that probably needs to be taken out behind the shed. She's got that spark, though, that raw, real energy that just screams "she's about to fall hard." And thank goodness for that, because across the hall moves Nick, a single dad who is just… everything. Responsible? Yes. Hot? Check. He’s got that quiet confidence, that steady hand, and you just know he knows what he's doing. The kind of man who looks at you like you're the only woman in the room, even if his kid just spilled juice on his shirt.

The way Sam's chaotic life slams into Nick's solid, put-together world? Pure, unadulterated tension. It’s a burn that got me squirming and wondering when they're finally going to just DO IT. And yeah, Sam's got her actual "derelict father" causing drama, which adds a layer of messy, real-life complication that makes her connection with Nick feel even more earned and delicious. Goldbeck writes with a voice that's witty and fresh, and she nails that delicious push-and-pull between two people who are clearly meant to be.

Seriously, if you crave a romance that's smart, makes you laugh out loud, and delivers on that deep, undeniable chemistry, then you need to pick up Daddy Issues. It'll make you believe in happy endings, even if they're a little bit messy and a whole lot steamy.

You, again was one of my fav books of 2023 so when I saw the Daddy Issues cover drop and realized that Ali Hazelwood was ALSO writing an age gap romance, it felt like Jupiter’s moons had aligned.

There was a lot I liked about Daddy Issues, but the most important thing about a romance, cough the romance, I found lacking. I will explain more but know that no one is more disappointed than myself!

Sometimes I feel like rom coms make their female main characters Disney princess messy. They’re messy in a way that’s cute, in a way that’s relatable but ultimately harmless. Kate Goldbeck’s characters are messy in a way that’s ugly. In a way that’s complicated and blatant and true. I love it every time. You’re going to want to shake Sam. You’re going to die of embarrassment sometimes at her shenanigans. You’re going to be very frustrated. But you’ll understand her and you’ll also know from page one (Kate’s dedication note) than even unlikable people are lovable.

To be clear Sam is not always insufferable. She’s lost and she’s stuck in a way that a lot of people will relate to. And it’s not pretty to look at. But she has moments where her character truly shines (namely when she’s talking about art) that you can see what a fascinating person she is and you understand why recently divorced dad Nick would ever be interested in her. I do think they romantically made sense together. I get why Sam and him are drawn to each other. The issue is that I personally, was not drawn to Nick. Which unfortunately in a romance, I do want to be drawn to the love interest. He just kind of… gave me nothing? And it’s NOT because he’s a manager at Chilis. We need more normal people representation in the genre lol. There was just nothing much he did I found attractive (honorable mention to him being a Trekkie). He’s honest and upfront and dependable and boring. The butterflies were just not in the room with us. :(

I’ve probably lost you in this review already but if I could share one more thing that I loved. The book cover is very accurate to the creative choices Goldbeck made in the story. Daddy Issues is drippinggg with comic book aesthetic. And it was so awesomely done. Sam often sees the world through her art medium and in her narration you’ll get moments that are framed (textually) in the sequential panel style of comic. SO UNIQUE SO FRESH.

Back to my complaining. I think You, Again really benefitted from having the cinematic scaffolding / plot beats of When Harry Met Sally. I found the flow of the story compelling for that reason. Daddy Issues felt a bit meandering in comparison. Am I reading a personal growth story or a romance? Where are we going with this? What am I doing here? These were the questions I was asking myself. I ended up just having to trust the process, but I could see how someone might not have the most fun with this if they’re looking for a silly goofy romcom time.

So for the good and for the bad, it’s gonna be a 3 star. But I will still read Goldbeck’s next book no question about it this one just didn’t land for me in the way I was hoping it would.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this earc…i definitely begged for it in an embarrassing way.

This was a fantastic story. It was messy, mature, emotionally real, and mundane. I especially enjoyed the maturity of it. The communication was beautiful, the tenderness of which the relationship between Sam, Nick, and Kira was curated was honestly so refreshing to read. The simplicity of Sam and Nick’s lives made this feel extremely relatable. The age gap was done is such a wonderful way. Typically ther is one person who is less mature, but this had none of that, and was such a delightful surprise. The author did a fantastic job of describing real life problems, and executed the feeling surrounding that perfectly. I really loved and connected to the characters in this. Sam is funny, and yet in total disarray. Nick is steady, reliable, and honest. It’s an age-gap romance, sure, but what makes it shine is the emotional honesty. Sam and Nick are from two completely different worlds, and yet their chemistry is undeniable. Watching them navigate their baggage, their boundaries, and their growing feelings? So satisfying. They meshed so well due to their completely differential characteristics.