Daddy Issues has been on my TBR pile ever since it was announced, so getting this eARC was a lovely surprise!
I enjoyed the book, but I could feel myself comparing it unfavorably with other romance novels I’ve read and then forgotten. Compared to Kate Goldbeck’s previous novel, the fabulous You, Again, this one just felt a little bit lacking.
I liked the characters, and certainly commiserate with the FMC, Sam. Feeling like you’re treading water, waiting for the right opportunity is such a universal experience. As a parent myself, I recognized the all-encompassing nature of parenthood that Nick is experiencing. The characters felt real.
My favorite narrative device used in Daddy Issues was when Sam was “writing the scene as a comic”, which I found wholly entertaining and novel. As a fan of comics and graphic novels myself, it really added to my enjoyment.
There were a couple of instances of missed editing issues - in one scene the characters are eating one food and then switch to another - they are eating taquitos and then suddenly pizza. Another is when the daughter is describing her OC characters, there is a sentence where the name Emily is used in place of Lana.
All in all, this book felt like a love letter to the author’s real-life relationship, and that is a beautiful thing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ebook arc!
When I first started this I was LOVING it! Like seriously loving it and thinking it was going to be 5 stars for me. However the FMC started to be so insufferable. Also as a mother myself I didn’t like how she constantly made the child of the MMC seem like such a problem. I also didn’t feel a connection between the love interests at alllll. I will however say I did enjoy the non romance parts and the parts that didn’t have to do with the MMC and his child. When the FMC wasn’t being insufferable I liked reading about her dynamic with her dad and mom. I also enjoyed the comic book aspects of the story. I think this book had the bones to be absolutely incredible but the plot just fell flat for me throughout it. I did however enjoy the writing enough that I think I will give this authors other book a shot.

I ate this up. What a delightful single dad romance with a few dashes of spice. I fell in love with these characters and their story and I just had so much fun with them.

I absolutely loved Nick and unfortunately for me, Sam is a super relatable FMC. Nick’s kid, Kira, was absolutely hilarious. As someone without kids, she felt pretty believable and realistic to me.

Of course, I loved Nick and Sam as a couple. Nick has it together (mostly) and he loves Sam even though she doesn’t have it together. They have some really cute moments and they both just genuinely want the best for each other. And we can’t forget what happened in that Chili’s.

The side characters also shined in my opinion. Sam’s best friend was hysterical and her PowerPoints were so funny. Sam has a bit of a learning curve when it came to navigating her relationship with Nick’s daughter Kira. I thought that this was really well done, but note that I do not have children so what do I know.

In addition to Sam and Nick’s love story, I appreciated the depth to Sam’s character. Exploring her issues with her father and navigating the complicated relationship with her mom was really well done and interesting.

Overall this book was so fun and I think anyone looking for a good single dad romance where he is just a normal, good guy. I highly recommend this one. It was just such a good time I can’t emphasize enough how fun this was.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publishing company, for this arc!

This was a fun time, so let's dive into it!
Positives:
- I found Daddy Issues to be an entertaining romance!
- Sam and Nick had a pretty cute dynamic and understood each other well.
- I actually really liked the ending as it especially gave the FMC time for growth.

Negatives:
- I'm not a huge fan of the "woman who does not have her life together trope." I sometimes find it quite painful to read.
- I wish Kira and Sam had more scenes together.
- I'm so sad that we get deprived of an epilogue or time jump.

That's a blurb of my thoughts! Thank you again for the opportunity to review this book!

I love Kate's writing and I adored these characters - this is less about the romance and more about our FMCs journey of self discovery in a way. I love Nick and Sam so so much, I did feel the romance lacking a bit but I do think that these two are really good for each other - I felt SO frustrated with Romily and Sams Mom at points because although they were making good points, the execution was horrible.


the break up was necessary for Sams character growth. I like how it ended a little ambiguous on what her plans are because it felt so realistic to still not know where your life will lead but I love the place she is in and believe that her and Nick will continue a long relationship together.

As a woman in her 20s who moved back in with her parents due to the pandemic I knew this would hit different. The way Kate has written Sam’s story and pulled me into her world felt so relatable to when I was at that time in my life (living in an office, working a job i didn’t love, unsure about school or where i was going next). This was a deeply romantic story to me that didn’t shy away from conflicts. Kate wrote the conflicts openly and without fear. It felt very real and because of that the book was that much better.

In this book we follow Sam, an art student, and Nick, a single dad who lives next door with his daughter, Kira.

The main tropes are the guy next door, he's a single dad, and she is an artist.

For the characters, I liked Sam's love for comics, I also liked being a part of her imagining drawing one, the dialogues, and the descriptions. Nevertheless, I didn't like her childish behavior at times, I can get the interrogations and questions she could get about raising a kid, but some of them were too passive-aggressive in my opinion. At some time, it felt like she only wanted Nike and not Kira.

Now, for Nick's character, I liked the fact that he knew what he wanted with Sam while still prioritizing his daughter, he set clear boundaries, which I liked. However, I didn't appreciate him having to hide a side of his personality just for his daughter's sake, but he was still a great father.

For their relationship, I think that some cute and chill moments were missing. A lot of the relationship was based off of physical attraction, with a lot of scenes involving it, which made me roll my eyes a bit.

There were some typos in this book, the mention of ChatGPT was not the greatest thing to add to the story.

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

I think this is a great book for people who feel lost to read! It’s a good reminder of just figuring yourself out. There’s great banter and chemistry! I love the plot.

I loved this author's debut, You Again, which I was also fortune enough to get an advanced copy of...so I was over the moon when offered this arc. Sadly, this one fell a little flat for me. The pacing felt very off, very slow yet somehow alos an insta romance, and then the third act breakup felt rushed and the resolution....wasn't really a resolution? I just didn't buy any of it. While I appreciated wanting to bring some complexity to the story, the power point discussion sections and the comic dialogue sections just really distracted me from the story.

I loved this story so much! Not to get too personal, but I resonated with Sam (FMC) very much. Sam feels like she is stuck and behind in life because she is 26, lives with her mom still, and doesn't know what to do with her life. I enjoyed reading about a person who didn't "have it all together." As I get older I realize how different everyones path is, it's not just achieve something at each age and keep going until the end. While this story is a romance, a big focus is Sam finding a way to be happy with HER life not what society expects a person to do with their life. The book felt real and messy, which made me love it more. "Daddy Issues" has a double meaning as a title because we also see the effects of the type of relationship Sam had with her dad, which also trickles to her relationship with her mom as well. The author did a great job developing and evolving that storyline.

Now to the romance.... I WILL BE YOUR FATHER FIGURE, PUT YOUR TINY AND IN MINE! It was such a good romance! They meet when Nick (MMC) and his daughter move into the condo right next to Sam and they share a wall. You would think that a relationship between a 26 year old who has no idea what she is doing with her life might not fit with the pushing 40 father who has to be stable and super responsible, but it works so well! The spice is also very good hehe.

Just a note though, there were some spelling and grammar errors in the ARC.

Overall, my opinion of this book was positive. I loved You, Again and was delighted to get an ARC of Daddy Issues. Like Goldbeck’s first book, this story had great pacing, snappy banter, and really thoughtful and believable character arcs. I find her voice to be so much fun to read and breezed through this book in one evening pretty much nonstop.

Sam and Nick’s chemistry was great and I felt like the heady, overwhelming feeling of connecting with someone you really like was well captured on the page. I also thought that the relationships that were depicted with Nick’s daughter were very endearing.

All that said, there was one glaring thing that took me completely out of the story and made me know from the first few chapters that this was never going to be a 5 star read for me. Why, dear god why, is Nick a manager at Chili’s? I mean, I know *why* in terms of his character’s backstory and circumstances—but I mean why was this an authorial choice that was made and kept. Even a fictional southwest grill would’ve been less distracting, if he really needed to be managing a restaurant. I don’t need my MMCs to be billionaires and I’m sure I’m coming off as a snob, but a romance book is a fantasy and Chili’s manager (no matter how great his reason for being there or how charming he is) is simply not a fantasy man.

Yes, I know we’re experiencing Sam’s messy quarter life crisis and it makes sense for Nick to have something a little less than perfect about him too but if hot guy working at my local neighborhood chain restaurant was the dream I would simply reminisce on my own messy mid-20s. Maybe in my mid-30s I’ve just aged out of overlooking a job with a horrible schedule and a ton of stress as things that are chill in a potential partner but wow did that ruin the whole thing for me.

If my fellow readers are more flexible on their qualifications for a leading man they will probably love this book! I would have if it weren’t for that.

This is my first book by this author and I have mixed opinions. I loved the FMC's humor, it felt like I highlighted everything she said or thought. Nick was such a likeable MMC. That said, their relationship felt very insta-love. The pacing in the second half of the book was much different than the first half and it felt like the conclusion was rushed through. I really wish she'd had some resolution with the crappy dad. And I wish we'd had an epilogue to see how they all meshed as a new family since we didn't see any of that on page. It felt a little inconclusive.

This was my first time reading this author — and definitely not the last. This was an amazing, deeply relatable book with wonderful humor.

The characters and life situations felt incredibly realistic — I couldn’t help but see myself in the main character, someone going through a phase where it feels like everything around them is moving forward except them.

Nick, our single father, understands Sam without a word — he sees the real her beneath the layers of depression she’s drowning in. I really appreciated how the author chose to tone down the romanticization of the single dad trope — or rather, to show a different side of it, one that often goes unexplored in books.

Maybe the timeline of events — from their first meeting to the moment they confessed their feelings — wasn’t entirely clear to me, but that didn’t stop me from adding this book to my favorites shelf.

Thank you to Dial Press Trade Paperback and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was fun, and weird, and super nerdy, and I loved that about it. Sam felt so real, and her struggles as a 26 year old moving back home after the pandemic seemed so accurate. This wasn’t your typical romance and I think that’s why I liked it so much. There was a lot of depth and complexity with the characters (specifically Sam) and I enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the book.

I would definitely recommend this. It made me laugh regularly and was very enjoyable.

Thanks NetGalley for the eARC.

I couldn’t get through this one unfortunately. The minute I realized he was old and a manager at chilis is when I had to duck out of this one

You Again is one of my favorite books, so I have been eagerly awaiting a follow up by Kate Goldbeck since the final page. And I am so happy to report that it is just as amazing! If you enjoyed You Again or Writers & Lovers by Lily King, or if you’ve ever felt yourself struggling with your own expectations for yourself in your 20s, you need to try this. It’s parts romance, parts coming of age, and parts poignant experience of living all wrapped up in an addicting and unique sophomore novel.

This book was so well written. An age gap that didn’t come off as toxic is hard to write. I loved them so much and her showing up for Kira in the end was everything.

Wow wow wow!!
This was my first book by Kate and i ENJOYED it immensely!
Sam is 26 and down bad, because life for her has been sucking.
Enter Nick, the hot single dad living next door!

(His daughter is 9 ans cute)

I am not a fan of age gap romances OR failure to launch stories, OR single dad romances, so the fact that this was rated so high is a testament to the writing. I didn’t love the FMC but found myself rooting for her anyway. The circumstances of her failure to launch felt so realistic. The MMC is written like a regular guy, not some perfect romance novel hero. I liked him a lot anyway. The author’s interest in comics came through clearly, which added a level of depth to the story. The real life family struggles felt true and made me like the FMC more.
It wasn’t an easy breezy read, but a thoughtful and often funny story. The romance was sweet.
I still don’t like age gap romances, single dad romances, or failure to launch stories though.

Kate Goldbeck does it again. She creates flawed characters that are every day people; they are also endearing and don't mess with poor communication. At no point was I screaming at the characters to "just say how you feel!" but I was actively cheering them on. Goldbeck showed her vulnerabilities is this book and I think it made it all the more delicious. Yay for Daddy Issues!