Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck (Nov 18, 2025) Thank you, @prhaudio and @thedialpress for the free audiobook! #prhaudioinfluencer
Sam Pulaski had big plans. By now, at 26, she should be finishing that art history PhD and teaching at an esteemed institution of higher learning. She should not be sleeping on the daybed in her mom’s office in an apartment complex in Columbus, Ohio for the last five years. But, COVID. Canceled research trips, limited options, and here we are. Then the new neighbor next door has the audacity to do home improvements through paper-thin walls at 9am – at least let her wallow in peace. That neighbor is single dad Nick. He’s pushing 40 with a young daughter and seems to actually be adulting responsibly. She’s got no interest in any of that…except…the way he forces her to think about herself and her relationships with her father and the guy she’s been “no labels” hooking up with forever, make her want something more. But she can’t go from mom’s office daybed to stepmom. Can she figure out how to create her own happiness and success? Will there be a space for Nick in it?
What I love about Kate’s writing is how raw, real, relatable and vulnerable her characters are. She also did this so well in her book You, Again (2023). I loved how relationships between parents, step-parents, and children was the central theme of this book in a number of ways, how people navigate those relationships in really different ways, and how our learned behaviors from our parents can subconsciously impact our romantic relationships. Sam and Nick are also both nerds of the highest order – Sam and her complex relationship with comic books, Nick and his unabashed geeky love of all things Star Trek. Also, having lived in Columbus, Ohio for over a dozen years, it was fun to hear local places like The Drexel, Rusty Bucket, and Graeter’s Ice Cream name checked! I also smuggly appreciated the disbelief of some characters that anyone would CHOOSE Columbus, Ohio – which definitely means you’ve never lived there.
🎧 Audiobook Thoughts: (9h 51m) Harley Quinn Smith’s narration was good here but I would have loved a little more differentiation between the voices in order to create more dimension in the performance.
Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
🎧 Audio performance: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
🔥 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Book Smart Kate 