Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Kate Goldbeck for the advanced copy!

Rating:: 3.75/5

There was a lot I really liked about this book. Our fmc, Sam, is stuck in a rut she hasn't been able to climb out of since the pandemic. She's living in her mom's office and doesn't know which way to go. When her new neighbor, Nick, and his daughter, Kira, move in next door, it makes her really take a look at her life and what she really wants to do.

Kate writes Sam in a way that makes her seem more human. She's incredibly selfish at times, kind, introspective, and dealing with lots of "daddy issues," and finally taking a look at her relationship with her dad growing up. You want to yell at her, but in times, you understand where she's coming from. The pandemic happened when I was still in my early twenties, and it stunted my life for a bit. Granted I didn't stumble as far as Sam, but it was hard to really figure out the next steps.

Sam's relationship with her mom is written like walking on eggshells, and it adds more to the conflict of Sam figuring out the person she's supposed to be. It felt incredibly relatable as I have struggled with some of this myself with my mom.

My favorite relationship isn't between Sam and Nick, but rather Sam and Kira. While Sam struggles with whether she actually wants children and dealing with underlying issues with her dad, Kira helps Sam heal her inner child by seeing what a healthy relationship should have been the entire time.

Nick, our mmc, I feel like could be better fleshed out. It felt like an insta-love for him almost, which I am really not a fan of. While he is shown as a dad that wants only the best for Kira, I wish he had wanted more for himself? Sam works on figuring out her next steps but I wish he would've grown in that sense. They talk about his life prior to Kira, and the wild things he used to do. Maybe that's just a me issue! While they obviously talk about Nora, Nick's ex-wife and Kira's mom, I wish there had been more from that. It's talked about in the book that they spend holidays all together and maybe it's just me, but I would want to meet "the girlfriend" my kid is spending time around.

Overall, there were times I really laughed out loud at this book to the point I was told to shush. I'm a sucker for an age-gap, and I like even more that Sam is in her mid-twenties rather than her early twenties (Idk I'm getting old leave me alone). I am definitely interested in reading more from Kate!

A grounded romance that encapsulates the challenges many face post-pandemic. I highly recommend it to romance readers who appreciate depth in their stories.

I generally avoid age gap and single dad romances; however, this didn’t read like most of the other books I’ve checked out with these tropes. It shines a light on the challenges and issues facing the main characters’ relationship.

Also, rarely do you see a romance these days with two main characters who aren’t super successful. Everyone's a tech CEO or a best-selling author or an investment bro. Instead, we have a twentysomething woman with failure to launch who has reverted to living with her mother and is underemployed, and an almost forty man who manages a Chili’s. I loved this. In the end, the takeaway from both of them is that you don’t have to love your job; sometimes it’s what you have to do.

The title of the book suggests it’s going to be a spice-filled romance, and while there is some heat, this is a substantive novel that could also be categorized as women’s lit. It’s fully fleshed with a sarcastic, amusing heroine, comic book references, and some interesting insertions of comic book dialogue imagined by the heroine to journal her life.

Tropes:
-Age gap
-Single dad
-Neighbors

Spice: 🌶🌶🌶

I truly wanted to like this book. It started good, a little slow but once it got going it showed a promising story but then it just fell flat. The storyline was all over the place. Parts of the story weren’t even necessary or really pertinent to the story at all. Really a letdown. Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC

Finished this in one sitting! Especially after reading the book, this cover is just sooooo deliciously fantastic, I’m obsessed.

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as You Again but I did have fun! Goldbeck’s writing style is so funny and easy to breeze through. I thought Sam and Nick were super cute together, though Kira really stole the show. There’s not a lot of plot happening in this, which kinda begets the “stuck in a rut” haze that Covid left behind (boy, did the subject matter hit really close to home), but I found the pacing to be quite fast. There’s were times when Sam got on my nerves a bit in regards to her reactions towards Nick (also her relationship with Hal annoyed me to no end), though I won’t say I understand the intricacies of being in a relationship with a single parent. I started to feel a little disappointed towards the end, but the final few chapters were really amazing and bumped my rating up.

This book was actually quite a surprise for me. The pov felt difficult, and relevant, and messy. I think it's really easy for most people to relate to that feeling that your life took some sort of turn somewhere along the way and took you somewhere you weren't expecting. In Sam's case, it lead to a complete stop, but I think people stuck in careers feeling unfulfilled will relate to this story as well. I both loved and felt wildly uncomfortable reading that type of relatable incapacitating fear of failure.
I really loved how real these characters felt. I mean, yes, the guy was packing like a romance hero... but both MCs were described as very realistic body types and imperfect impulses. The most super human quality of the guy was his extreme understanding and patience. There were moments I wanted more from him, but coming out of this book I just didn't feel like the romance turned out to be the point. In some ways I wish it dic la, as a romance lover, but sam was
really the point and I'm okay with that.
Thank you so much to Kate Goldbeck and Random House Publishing for this eARC. It was such a complicated and surprising journey.

I greatly enjoyed this book. I laughed out loud a great deal, but also felt really connected with the character. The little girl Kira was great, as was Romily. Dug all the Star Trek references!

I can tell this is a book some will love and some will hate, but I enjoyed it. I loved how Sam and Nick are normal looking people, with normal jobs. I found Sam’s issues messy and ugly, but so relatable. Kate Goldbeck writes characters that are flawed and this was no different than the main characters in You, Again. As much as I loved this, I think people are also spot on with a lot of their criticisms. My biggest issue was Nick withholding the fact he was still legally married and having that glossed over. As someone who’s not a big fan of single dad romances (maybe because of low expectations from other reviews?), I loved this more than I was expecting.

ARC REVIEW (thanks NETGALLEY!)

Full disclosure, I came this 🤏🏻 close to Dnf. The first 15-20% is a complete ramble info dump and Sam clearly needs therapy. Her college life and career trajectory completely went to shit during Covid. She’s been rotting in her mom’s office/guest room the last 5 years working nights as a bartender.
Nick and his daughter Kira move next door and they just
✨ click ✨
Nick’s a single dad who manages a chilis lol. Idk the whole book was just normal (but not?) and so sweet.
The only thing I’ll say I didn’t like was all the pages with Romily (idk wtf name that is and why she changed it from Emily) She was just too smart for me and my vision blurred whenever she went on her relationship graph tangents. I love how book ended without everything wrapped in a neat little bow. Sam is kinda still where she started but she’s making progress

Kate Goldbeck is back at it with her chronically online (affectionately) writing and chaotic characters who all need to touch some grass.

Since the announcement of Daddy Issues I’ve been so down bad for this book and I loved it!! Sam is a very much a burnt out, child of divorce, perfectionist and entirely relatable. Her decisions are not always the most well thought out and her relationships are so realistic and add so much dimension to her character.

Nick is what appears to be our perfect hot daddy here to fix our issues, but he also has complexity and character to him that makes me wish he was real. I think my only disappointment is that *i* didnt get enough of him as a dad.

This book was super cute and felt like a realistic arc.

I don’t know where to start with this one?! Could I have read another 400 pages of Nick and Sam oh 100%. This felt so relatable to me but also not at all. I have never been in the field or dated a single parent but Sam spoke to me in the way that who really does have their life together, and am I total failure for not living up to my parents expectations (was not expecting this book to punch me in the gut the way it did)

Was this story perfect? No. But it was perfection for me. It had its moments where I felt a bit of a drag with her cousin Romiley but it still was endearing to see these two interact. I am such a fun of this story and it will be on my physical copy wishlist!!!

Also send all your sensitive hot dads my way please!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review! I have heard Kate Goldbeck mentioned alongside other fanfic-turned-trad pub-authors, and I've been meaning to read her debut, You Again. No surprise that another author who started on AO3 has not let me down (Ali Hazelwood, Julie Soto, and Brigitte Knightley, we see you) !!

Daddy Issues strikes the balance between quirkily funny while also tugging on your heartstrings. Sam, a failure-to-launch twenty-six year old, has been living in a spare bedroom in her mom's apartment for the past five years. She has a passion for drawing and collecting comics--something she shared with her absentee dad from a young age --but is essentially stuck in life. But when a single dad, Nick, and his nine-year old daughter, Kira, move into the apartment next door, Sam begins to examine her choices and learn more about what she wants out of life.

First of all, we love an age-gap romance, and this one delivers. There are also so many nuanced family dynamics explored in this story. Goldbeck carefully draws parallels (and contrasts) between Nick's relationship with Kira and Sam's relationship with her dad (who, by the way, remains an off-page character for the entire book). The struggles and realities of dating a single parent are examined from so many angles. For such delicate subject matter, Goldbeck navigates it well. It is also creative how comic writing and drawing are weaved into the actual plot.

My one complaint is that there are a lot of fandom references throughout that I just didn't get. This makes sense for the story since Sam loves comics and Nick loves Star Trek. But it made me want to skim over these parts. However, a lot of other little details worked for me (Chili's supremacy! comptetence kink! hot hands agenda! nonbinary representation!).

i’ve been waiting for kate goldbeck’s newest for literal years, so i cannot express enough how excited i was to get my hands on a copy of daddy issues. and i have fabulous news – she does not disappoint! it’s an incredibly different journey than the one in you, again, but her writing still shines in a way that i absolutely love. don’t even get me started on nick, either – i LOOOOVED him. so much. he was so unbelievably sweet and i will defend him with my life.

speaking of which, one of my favorite things about kate goldbeck’s books are the characters. her cast is always very realistic but full of heart – the characters have flaws, very believable ones at that, and they feel like actual real people instead of a flat person on the page. she makes their love stories deeply romantic while still feeling like they’re true to reality. in this case in particular, i love that it’s not quite the usual take on the “single dad romance” trope. so often, i feel like the kids in those stories tend to be convenient plot devices or perfect little angels that never act out or have a “kid moment”, but this one actually showed how having a kid in the equation really does change things! kira is just as much a part of the story, and her presence shapes the way they interact. it was nice to see. i really do recommend this book & you, again for anyone out there who hasn’t read it yet! they hold a special place in my heart.

#DaddyIssues #NetGalley

Cringe worthy title, aside, this book had surprising depth.

Summary fully discloses there's an age-gap and single dad trope .

Author, however, moves beyond a superficial cutesy look at these two tropes. She takes an honest look of what conflicts arise as a potential partner to a single dad. Then there's also an examination of the life experiences a younger FMC may be relinquishing when in a relationship with an older man who has 'been there, done that'. There's no tandem first time experiences together.

As to the bite in Sam's voice as the narrator, it works. She takes a hard look at her life, where she's at, and learns to pivot. There's growth to her character.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

that was a 2.75 at best if ive ever read one but consider the extra .25 for the cover

this was my first time reading kate goldbeck so i will say i was a huge fan of the writing even though the pop culture references got a little much at times (specifically the star trek thing was so ….but then conversely i enjoyed the comics part a lot soooo net neutral)

that being said sam was not my favorite (though i felt she was a girlfailure in a way i could tolerate, it didnt really make for a fun read) and at some point i realized i liked every single person in the story (including kira who was supposed to be 10 and written as if she was like 5-8 at most ??) except sam (and hal to be fair)

speaking of hal, i usually dont enjoy ow/om drama and in this case i certainly understood the conceptual vibe of what if the situationship from hell was your covid hookup and I liked the parallels even though they felt a little heavy handed at times, but my biggest issue was that i kinda just did not care about hal and certainly now think all that time wouldve been better spent developing sam & nick’s relationship just a tad

that being said nick was probably my favorite part but even he was so painfully “perfect” in a way that really made him not that memorable in the end, he did keep me reading, along with perry who was a favorite side character of mine (along with sam’s mom)

also mini tangent about kira…why was she written like every age but 10? lol seriously it got a little hilarious so i considered it an ongoing bit

i will certainly read another kate goldbeck book (bc you again is on my tbr) and i did think the romance between sam and nick was nice, just never fully clicked for me & felt very overcrowded by the crux of the story being sam’s daddy issues and failure to launch (which albeit was written pretty well)

thank you so much to netgalley and dial press trade paperback for this arc to review!

Kate. KATE. Oh my god.

*Alexa, play “Relationships” by Haim on loop*

How the heck you make me cry at 96%??

The perfect amount of characters, each one with their own voice and a clear role to play in the grand scheme of the plot. Realistic conflict. Nobody was insane or perfect or cartoonishly evil. The most genuine cast I’ve ever read; Kate has this magical ability to able to make you empathize with these flawed, works-in-progress people.

The juxtaposition of Sam’s relationship with the men in her life (her absentee dad, her fuck buddy, her single dad neighbor) and the lore of Magneto was brilliantly pulled off, imo. And the bit about ‘reading’ between the panels in comics—🤯

The romance in this book was actually very sweet. Sam’s history of noncommittal trysts with her work buddy, despite her heavily wanting to take their relationship a step further, positions her as someone who might have romantic (not sexual!) relationship issues. Based on other books of this genre. I thought she was going to deny herself the company of a good man and spend a few chapters running around in circles, but I was pleasantly surprised that she was mature enough to recognize that she <i>does</i> deserve a responsible man who validates her existence and her feelings.

I was vibing so hard with this book. If work and jury duty and this pesky thing called ‘sleep’ didn’t slow me down, I would have devoured this in one sitting.

The title is provocative but the contents are pretty sweet. After living in her mom’s office for the last five years, she is convinced she will eventually leave and finally pursue the PhD she has been putting on hold. In the meantime, she’s working at a bar and agonizing over whether to demand exclusivity with the co-worker she’s been hooking up with for a while. That all changes when Nick, a single day, moves in next door. Sam knows their relationship won’t end well—how can it when they are at such different stages in their lives—but even so, she can’t help but give into their spark.

I loved the author’s debut and was excited to read this. This is an enjoyable read about two people kind of going through the motions and it was nice to see Sam and Nick bring out new sides in one another. Sam and Nick have chemistry, fun banter, and I liked how their respective passions for comic books and Star Trek were incorporated throughout the story.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

5! Kate Goldbeck writes some of the realist characters I have ever read. Sometimes when I read fiction, I feel like it’s easy to fall into the trap of viewing certain characters as perfect because we are not fully shown their flaws. Goldbeck writes characters who are going through real-life issues, and does not sugarcoat their feelings or situations. Reading can be a form of escapism, but sometimes it's comforting to read characters who might have similar issues. Reading through their journey can bring some clarity.

I saw a lot of myself in Sam, which I could appreciate. At the age of 26, she’s working a job she does not enjoy and lives with her mother. To her, it's just a bump in the road and something she is going to leave behind once she gets accepted to a PhD program. However, that is until she meets Nick, the new neighbor next door. This newfound connection not only has her questioning other relationships in her life, but also the way her life has been progressing.

I know seeing a single dad neighbor automatically makes a reader think of the single dad trope, and while it is that, Goldbeck takes a different approach to the trope. In other books, the FMC usually automatically takes on a stepmom role, and the child is usually excited for this. However, when it came to Sam and Nick’s daughters, this was not necessarily the case. We get to see conversations between Sam and Nick regarding this that are very real and necessary questions to ask. Sam expresses her nerves on whether it is something she wants and how she should approach it, which is only human. Nick was also very understanding of Sam and never patronized her. I appreciated that both characters were very realistic and honest with one another, which contributed to why their relationship progressed so quickly.

Overall, I took so much away from this book, but most importantly, I took away that not following a so-called perfect plan is okay. It is a difficult thing to process, and it is something that we see Sam’s character come to understand. I highly recommend this book, and everyone should check it out on release day!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Dial Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

you, again was one of my favorite romance reads in 2023 so i was so excited to be approved for this one. unlike goldbeck's debut, daddy issues just doesn't have enough tension for me. don't get me wrong, i loved reading about sam and her journey with being a creative, especially in how she frames her interactions through comic books which are easier to understand (on the surface) (this is coming from a life long comic lover). however, it just felt like sam is settling for nick, the single dad who doesn't have much going for him besides being dependable and understanding (as well as really into star trek). the discussion of being a single parent and being in an age gap relationship did the heavy lifting. however, i am so excited to read whatever goldbeck writes next. romance doesn't always need angst and the unconditional support was refreshing.

i don't think i've ever related more to an FMC more in my life than i did while reading this book! i loved this one! i loved sam! i loved nick! i loved kira! HOWEVER. all throughout the book i couldn't help but feel like something was missing or that i was reading two completely different books. it felt as if i was reading a litfic book about a young woman who's trying to sort out her life for a few chapters then it would switch to a romcom for a few more chapters, it was a bit too back and forth. in the end, this was an enjoyable read and i can appreciate seeing some "woman in her late 20s who's still living at home and has no clue wtf she's doing with her life so she just watches youtube videos all day" representation in a book where everything works out in the end!

Loved this one! I appreciate a FMC that is real and o loved her wit and sarcasm. The Ohio shoutouts were great! Love reading about my state