Book Club Edition: Daddy Issues
Plus a personal update (and an open call for contributors!)
Hello all (and especially to those of you who are new!). A quick personal update before we get into today’s book club discussion in the comments.
Those of you who’ve been here awhile will remember that this Substack began as a personal project after I suffered a stillbirth last year. I’m very happy to share that I’m pregnant again and cautiously optimistic that a mini Smart Romance–r will be joining the fray in May. I’m rounding the corner into the third trimester and, while I’m deeply grateful to have made it this far, it’s been a grueling six months. I haven’t been able to show up here quite the way I’d hoped — and that will probably continue through early summer as I navigate the final stretch of pregnancy and the newborn blur. I’m excited to be back full steam after that, though (I have so many essays half-outlined, scattered like flotsam in my iPhone’s notes app).
In the meantime, I’ll be accepting contributions to Smart Romance to run during April, May & June in order to ensure there’s a steady flow of content for all of you (h/t to Caroline Chambers for piloting this model!). If you’re interested in pitching an essay, please email a few paragraphs about your idea and your credentials to rena.rani.writes@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from authors, industry folks, thoughtful readers — anyone with something interesting or provocative to say about romance, especially where it intersects with culture and society.
Thank you for your patience as my presence here has ebbed and flowed these past few months. I’m so grateful for how much this community has grown and can’t wait to get back to growing it in earnest once I’m done growing this baby!
Onwards!
Today’s Book Club features one of my favorite reads of 2025, Kate Goldbeck’s Daddy Issues. It’s a testament to Kate’s talent that I find her novels so profoundly enjoyable when her heroines — often women defined by professional inertia — run exactly counter to my own personal taste. Kate’s sharp, vivid voice pulls me in every time, leaving me fully invested as her flawed characters flounder toward love and purpose in deeply human ways.
As always, I’ll kick off the discussion in the comments with a few questions, but please jump in with your own. I can see from the affiliate data that several of you picked up a copy of this one, and I’m so eager to hear what you thought.
Class awareness: Something Kate does well (as does Ava Wilder!) is avoid shying away from the realities of class. In this book, we see Sam struggling, which isn't novel - the struggling female heroine has almost become a hallmark of the genre, but what felt sharply unique to me was that Nick was also not idealized. He's no billionaire male lead, nor a creative genius - he's just unapologetically middle class. Were you also struck by this choice and how subversive it feels?
Unlikeable characters: Kate Goldbeck often traffics in self proclaimed "unlikeable" characters (see the dedication for this book!), which is just another way of saying that her heroines, especially, are painfully human as opposed to just per formatively flawed. How did you feel about Sam? Were you frustrated by her at times or empathetic? How did her lack of perfection affect how you felt about her desire to be loved? Did you ever find Nick equally lacking?