review 1: 4.5 starsMost of the times, when I read a book, I have an idea of what the rating will be from early on, because I can say where a story is going and if I'm gonna like it or not. This wasn't the case for this book. I went to bed last night thinking I would give it at best 3 stars, but I realized at the end that I liked it way more than that. I needed some time to process it even after I finished it, a few hours ago.It's not the typical romance, in my opinion, and it certainly isn't the kind of love story I usually like. But in truth, I don't consider it as much a love story as a coming of age story. Not only for the main character, but the other characters in the book too. Infact, while there are a main character and a main couple, I think this book is about the entire cas... moret of characters. Through the story we meet Sayen and Campbell and Blake, but also Campbell's sister and his mother, and all of them go through some big changes through the story.What really had an impact on me is that at first, none of these characters was really likable to me, especially the three main characters: Sayen has a sugar daddy, Blake, and has no big trouble in jumping from him to another guy, Campbell, only because he can help him finantially; Blake is cheating on his wife and betraying his entire family with years of lies; Campbell knows Sayen doesn't love him but he's is willing to get him through his money. This is probably why it took me a while to get into the book and like it, because it's always difficult for me to connect with characters I don't like and respect. But all three of them gained that respect in some way or another in the end, because they all confronted their fears and their mistakes, owned up to them and worked to make up for them.The character I liked the most and connect to the most is Blake. I felt weird about it at first, because I went into reading the book thinking he would be the villain. But he wasn't. There was no villain in this book. Sayen, Campbell and Blake's worst enemies are themselves and it's only by admitting to their issues and mistakes that they get free of them and find peace in the end.I don't exactly know why it was Blake that really got to me. He accepted to be a sugar daddy, used his money to keep Sayen by his side, hurt his family, thought about hurting his son as no father ever should. But ultimately, he's only human: by lying for years about who he really is, he's hurt first and foremost himself. I found his journey to be the most difficult and painful and therefor the most interesting and impactful.The book didn't get 5 stars for me for just one reason: I feel the author should have spent a little more pages to establish Cambpell and Sayen as a couple. They get together early on but it's stated clearly in the book that Sayen doesn't love Campbell, not yet, and he's only accepting to be with him because Campbell can provide for him financially and can give him something that Blake cannot: a story out of the shadows, not made of lies to everyone but out in the open. After that, there's a time jump to the meeting with Campbell's parents that precipitate the situation and we learn that Sayen is in love with Campbell. While there were some meaningful and sweet moments between them, I just couldn't feel the love, because the author skipped the development of those feelings. On the other hand, I could feel the connection between Sayen and Blake already during their first scene in the book and throughout the entire book, so much so that I can't help but think that the love between Blake and Sayen was The love, the one you only meet once if you're lucky and whose depth sometimes you realize only once it's too late. I feel this in regards to both Blake and Sayen, but especially for Blake.In conclusion, this is a book that really stayed with me. I've been thinking about it all night, before finishing it, and I'm still thinkikng about it now, hours after it was over. That's because the characters are multy-layered and complex, very flawed and therefor so incredibly human and real. review 2: A father and son discovering they love the same man sounded like a book I would love. If a book has complicated or inappropriate relationships I’ll be drawn to it. Daddy’s Money sounded like it had that going on so of course I wanted to read it. Even though I rated it only 1.5 stars, I actually did like certain parts of the book. The storyline was great. I loved that it wasn’t just a romance. The romance was important, but the bigger part was how the secret relationship between Sayen and Blake affected each member of Campbell’s family. I also liked how all the characters developed over time and the journey of self-discovery they each had.The problem I had while reading this book was that I didn’t find any of the characters likable or believable. I was OK with them when they were alone and I got to experience them through their own thoughts. The big issue for me was that every time two or more of them got together they got weird. The interactions among the characters in this book really bothered me. For example, I would expect most people to be a little reserved when first meeting their son’s/brother’s new boyfriend or vice versa. Not these people, they were making soul revealing declarations within the first five minutes of meeting each other. That threw me off. Sayen also had a lot of interactions with young kids and that was a key part of his development. The kids never seemed genuine. I’m around young kids constantly and I’ve never met any who act like the ones in this book. These were some weird kids and they threw me off every single time.Another big problem was that I couldn’t stand Sayen. I thought he was self-serving, self-centered and obnoxious. I have absolutely no idea why Blake or Campbell would love him and there was no way I was ever going to believe Sayen loved them in return. I still doubt Sayen would even be capable of loving another person. I could understand him keeping them around as long as they provided him some benefit and maybe he would even have some affection for them, but I was never convinced he could love them.Although I liked how the characters developed and the basics of the story, the writing simply didn’t work for me and I was never able to connect with this book. I’ve tried to come up with a good explanation of how I felt when reading it and the only thing I can say is that I felt like I was trying to understand a piece of obscure art. No matter how much I tried to figure it out, I just never got it. Reading this book wasn’t a good experience for me at all. less
