Sometimes a title just catches your eye and in this instance that was Daddy Issues! I’ve been wanting to read You, Again by this author, but Daddy Issues just had to be read first. Today I want to tell you about this book and what I thought.
A big thank you to Netgalley and Dial Press for providing me with an eARC to read and review. This doesn’t affect my opinion in any way.
Sometimes love shows up where you least expect it—right next door.
A jaded twenty-something is stuck living at home, her life on pause, when a single dad becomes her new neighbor, and unexpectedly sets her life—and her heart—into motion in this modern love story from the bestselling author of You, Again.
At 26, Sam Pulaski expected to be thriving in her academic career, living on her own in some exciting city. Expectations, meet reality. She has massive student loans from studying art history, a dead-end service industry job, a situationship that’s equal parts intoxicating and toxic. And she’s been crashing in her mom’s condo—at least it’s not a basement?—for the last five years. If she can finally get accepted into a PhD program and get out of Ohio, the adult life that’s been on hold for half her twenties will finally begin.
Her mom’s new neighbor, Nick, is the ultimate grownup. His adult life began the moment his nine-year-old daughter, Kira, was born. Her happiness is Nick’s only priority, especially in the wake of divorce. There’s nothing he won’t do for Kira–including giving up his globetrotting career for something more stable…like managing a chain restaurant.
Sam has zero interest in an ultra-dependable guy pushing forty; frankly, she’s a little afraid of kids. But with just one thin wall separating the two condos, Nick proves difficult to avoid. His quiet confidence forces Sam to grapple with the other men in her her emotionally derelict friend-with-benefits and her actually-derelict father. As her unexpected connection with Nick heats up (and steams up his minivan windows), Sam finds herself falling fast for a man whose life is steady and settled–while hers is anything but.
Review
Daddy Issues was the kind of romance I didn’t know I was looking for. Our main character Sam had it all figured out, but then the pandemic made her change her plans. Living in her mother’s condo working something that isn’t her dream job, Sam feels stuck. Even her mother is in love and getting remarried. The only thing she really has from her father is a collection of comic books she’s convinced he’ll come back to get.
Then we meet Nick. A single father who moves in the same building with his daughter. There’s definitely an age gap, so Sam doesn’t necessarily look more into the situation than their casual meet at the pool and interactions with his daughter. The romance between these two isn’t sudden or insta love, it’s slow and sweet. Our characters actually get to know each other and talk. Nick may not have it all together, but he shows up when he says he will and knows that Sam’s future might take her elsewhere.
At times, Sam annoyed me if I’m being honest, but I could understand her in so many ways as well. Her time with Nick wasn’t just a romance, but it helped her really start to take a look at her life as well. I mean, a lot of people had an opinion when they found out she was dating an older man and her relationship with her father. Daddy Issues is messy at times and our characters are far from perfect, but that felt really right for this story. I’ll think about this book often.
I really enjoyed Daddy Issues! Reading this book has me bumping up You, Again on my TBR. Have you read any new to you authors recently? Any you’d recommend? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
