Daddy Issues Summary: A Witty Single-Dad Romance
TL;DR: The Quick Briefing
Twenty-six-year-old Sam Pulaski sleeps in her mother’s office, tends bar at a tiki-themed lounge, and keeps twenty cardboard boxes of vintage comic books that her estranged father left behind.
Her life in Columbus, Ohio, has stalled in every measurable way.
Then construction noise through the shared wall announces a new neighbor: Nick Martino, a thirty-nine-year-old Chili’s general manager and devoted single father to a nine-year-old daughter named Kira.
Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck is a contemporary romantic comedy about a woman stuck between an unfinished past and an uncertain future, and a man whose priorities were settled the day his child was born.
The novel mixes sharp banter, comic-book panel interludes, and frank conversations about family obligation.
- Who: Sam Pulaski, an unemployed art historian turned bartender, and Nick Martino, a divorced single dad and restaurant manager.
- Where: The Bixby, a Columbus condo complex full of retirees and divorced fathers.
- The setup: Neighbors-to-lovers, with a thirteen-year age gap and a nine-year-old child in the middle.
- The obstacle: Sam’s fear that she will always be an outsider in a family that already works without her.
- Key themes: Parental abandonment, quarter-life directionlessness, situationships versus commitment, stepparenting, and art as a way back to oneself.
- Structure: Forty-two chronological chapters spanning roughly one year, from summer to winter.
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Book Snapshot
- Genre & Subgenre: Contemporary Romance / Romantic Comedy / Single-Dad Romance
- Core Narrative Tropes: Single-dad romance, neighbors-to-lovers, age gap, failure-to-launch crisis, situationship breakout, comic-book homage
- Tone & Atmosphere: Irreverent, self-deprecating, witty, emotionally candid, grounded in suburban domestic realism
- Primary Conflict: Sam’s shame and directionlessness against the practical complications of dating an older father whose child and ex-wife are non-negotiable
- Pacing Style: Fast, dialogue-driven, chronological, interspersed with scripted comic-book panels
- Book Structure: 42 numbered chapters plus acknowledgments and back matter
- Pages: 352
- ISBN-10: 059373081X
- ISBN-13: 978-0593730812
- Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback (Dial Delights series)
Daddy Issues Summary: The Full Story
Spoilers ahead.
Sam Pulaski is twenty-six and living in the second bedroom of her mother Jennifer’s condo in Columbus, Ohio. She returned from graduate school during the pandemic and never left. By day she recovers from late shifts; by night she bartends at LĹŤkahi Lounge, a tiki-themed restaurant.
Her longest-running relationship is with Hal, a coworker and former MFA student who has been her friends-with-benefits partner for three years. He deflects every attempt to define what they are.
The twenty cardboard boxes of vintage comics are the only thread connecting Sam to her father, who moved to Florida when she was sixteen. She has stored them, catalogued them, and treated them as an inheritance of sorts.
Construction noise through the shared wall interrupts her routine and signals a new neighbor. At the complex pool, Sam is drawn into an elaborate imaginary game with a nine-year-old girl named Kira, then accidentally splashes Kira’s father.
That father is Nick Martino, thirty-nine, a former rock tour crew manager now running a Chili’s. He shares fifty-fifty custody of Kira with his ex-wife Nora.
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When Sam and her cousin Romily get locked out of the apartment, Nick invites them in for pizza. Sam connects with Kira over the girl’s original drawing characters, and finds unexpected common ground with Nick over Star Trek and their mutual sense of being stuck.
Jennifer then announces she is marrying her partner Perry and moving to Portugal, which gives Sam a hard deadline to find her own place.
Hal invites Sam to a literary reading at Treehouse featuring the author Leen Zweig. He abandons her there to pursue Leen and reminds Sam they are not exclusive. Drunk and upset, Sam walks to Nick’s Chili’s during a rainstorm.
Nick cooks for her, shows her the kitchen, and admits he is attracted to her. The night ends with the two of them making out in his car in the parking lot.
Nick begins giving Sam driving lessons, helping her work through long-standing anxiety behind the wheel until she passes her learner’s permit test. They start dating officially.
Sam’s insecurities about stepparenting surface quickly. During a Fourth of July fireworks outing, Kira briefly vanishes in the crowd. Nick’s panic makes clear to Sam that his daughter will always come first, and she is unsure where that leaves her.
While babysitting, Kira accidentally bleeds marker ink onto Sam’s near-mint copy of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. Sam shouts at Kira until the girl cries, then confesses to Nick in a hallway trash closet that she is terrified of becoming an unwanted interloper.
At Jennifer and Perry’s wedding, Jennifer tries to set Nick up with Shawna, the daughter of a book club friend. A champagne spill triggers a confrontation in which Jennifer accuses Sam of manipulating the situation and compares her to her father.
Jennifer then reveals the truth about the comics. Sam’s father never preserved her childhood drawings; he left them on the floor when he packed his truck, and Jennifer was the one who tucked them into the boxes.
Nick ends the relationship, telling Sam that staying in Ohio for him would keep her from pursuing her own ambitions.
Sam takes a four-month administrative assistant job at a college in upstate New York. She enrolls in an adult comics art class taught by Peggy, who pushes students to draw like five-year-olds. The class restores Sam’s love of drawing and breaks her perfectionist paralysis.
She reconciles with Jennifer by phone and decides to sell her father’s comic collection herself. In New York City, she meets Hal one last time and realizes she no longer wants his approval.
Sam returns to Columbus to move in as Romily’s roommate. She receives a Discord message from Kira, who has started her first period in a bathroom stall at the Whetstone Community Center.
Sam arrives with pads and leggings and comforts Kira through the stall door. In the parking lot afterward, she tells Nick about her “hot pink feelings” and explains that his devotion as a father is a strength rather than a barrier.
Nick reveals he is finalizing his divorce and tells Sam he loves her. The novel closes with Sam driving to Chili’s to pick Nick up after his late shift.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Sam (Samantha) Pulaski | Twenty-six-year-old art historian and LĹŤkahi Lounge bartender living in her mother’s condo. |
| Nick Martino | Thirty-nine-year-old Chili’s general manager, former rock tour crew manager, and single father to Kira. |
| Kira Ro Jensen-Martino | Nick’s nine-year-old daughter, named after a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character. |
| Jennifer Schuster | Sam’s fifty-two-year-old mother, a real estate agent who came out as gay later in life. |
| Perry | Jennifer’s non-binary spouse and a financial advisor. |
| Hal | Sam’s three-year friends-with-benefits partner and LĹŤkahi coworker. |
| Romily | Sam’s cousin and confidante, a Starbucks keyholder. |
| Sam’s Father | Estranged flea-market reseller who moved to Florida when Sam was sixteen. |
| Nora | Nick’s ex-wife and Kira’s mother, a bank executive. |
| Shawna | Daughter of Jennifer’s book club friend, whom Jennifer tries to set up with Nick. |
| Leen Zweig | Author whose reading at Treehouse prompts Sam’s break with Hal. |
| Peggy (Dr. Silva) | Sam’s adult comics art teacher in upstate New York. |
Quotes from Daddy Issues
“I do not begin my life; I merely continue existing.”
“Understanding the behaviors and strategies that correlate to your desired romantic outcome will improve the likelihood of happily ever after. Conversely, this presentation may help you come to terms with the more statistically probable scenario—failure.”
“You have this expectation that if you put in the effort and follow a sequence of steps, it will lead to this specific future state. But love isn’t like that. It’s completely irrational. The whole point of a love affair is that you don’t know the ending.”
“When you have a kid, you give up control. You make that exchange and promise to do anything—give up anything—to make your child’s life a little bit better.”
“I always was the smartest person in the room. I just let you believe you were.”
“When you find the man who’s right for you, he’ll see your well-loved side and know that it just adds to your character. Sometimes wear and tear can make something more beautiful.”
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