Dad Camp is a beautiful, heartwarming story that will just make you laugh and smile and even cry some happy tears. Avery and John are loveable protagonists that I became invested in from the start. This book evoked warm emotions of my relationship with my Dad, and for once I did not feel the grief of missing him, but the warmth of our memories together. I simply devoured this book overnight. Definitely can see this as a Hallmark or Disney Channel movie.

This book is released on June 11, 2024... just in time for Father's Day. Make sure to support your local bookstore and get your copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Dutton and the author Evan Porter for this ARC (and my first widget!!)

Any parent whose identity has wrapped around their kids (and, let's face it, that's nearly impossible to avoid) will relate to this story of a dad trying desperately to be there for his daughter as she grows and her needs change. Bittersweet, just like being a parent.

I'm so sorry, I tried to like this one, I really did. I love opening up my email to be invited to read an ARC of a book. It's always thrilling to be chosen.

I did like the concept and thoughts behind it. But I just couldn't with the dad.

Dad Camp. Dad Tested. Dad Approved.

John and his daughter Avery are the best of friends. That is, until the summer before middle school when she suddenly seems to want nothing to do with him. Sensing that he has one last chance to fix their relationship before he loses her to the daunting world of tweenagerdom forever, he secretly signs them up for a week of intense father daughter bonding at Camp Triumph. In a camp full of seemingly terrible dads, will John find the help he needs to mend his relationship with Avery or become chopped liver?

I would like to start this review by disclosing that I am not a dad. However, as a person with a dad, I have conducted an observational study for multiple decades and have a pretty good idea of how a dad behaves. That being said, some of John's behavior was highly illogical. He is clearly a flawed character, but it made reading from his perspective very trying. It was understandable that he'd want to bond with his daughter at Dad Camp, and that he wouldn't know how to tell her about it, but sometimes he gave his child too much power. If you don't want your child to join an intense traveling soccer team, you tell them why not and that should be that. Lying to them repeatedly until the problem explodes in your face is a terrible approach that will certainly not improve your relationship with your child. Additionally, postponing an interview because your child is sick, or skipping one guys' night to help your spouse with household maintenance is commendable, but to avoid rescheduling your "dream job" interview and completely cutting off your friends in the name of being a good parent, is not only misguided, but causes a deep seeded resentment towards people who are not responsible for your terrible decisions. You can't live vicariously through your child. You must have some greater purpose. John lacks this purpose and would benefit from real therapy far more than a rundown summer camp. While John does come around (to some extent) near the end of the book, his inner monologue could be quite painful at times.

While I will not be taking parenting advice from John, this was such a unique idea for a novel and you can tell it was written by someone who understands the highest highs and the lowest lows of being a parent. I really appreciated that perspective as it's not one I usually see in the books that I read. I absolutely loved the letters home from all the dads. This was partly because it gave me some respite from John's perspective, but also because it was great to see them have additional complexity and motivations rather than just being a parent. I think it would also be interesting to hear from Avery's perspective on her relationship with her dad.

Overall, this was a unique story whose unlikeable main character was detrimental to my reading experience. If you aren't as easily bothered by flawed characters, this book is a valuable lense into the struggles of being a parent, and you may enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

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3/5 adventure boxes

This was a really sweet concept and sounded like it could be a fun book. Unfortunately it just didn’t pan out for me. The book begins with a father lying to his daughter and hauling her off to camp in a way that felt like a rehab intervention. Once we got to camp there were some solid attempts by the author to help connect the reader to the story but it just wasn’t enough for me. It honestly felt a bit all over the place. There were some sweet moments and it was a great concept but not a total hit for me.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

Dad Camp is a realistic and heartwarming portrayal of parenthood, the bond between fathers and daughters, and the impending years of middle-age and teenagers.

I related to this book so much, both as the parent of daughters and as a daughter myself. Growing up, my dad and I did everything together. This mainly continued into my teenage years, but we definitely had our moments where I knew we felt each other just didn’t get it. Today, my dad continues to be my biggest cheerleader and my biggest role model.

As a mother, I can certainly relate to Booker, Lou, Ryan, and John in turn. I loved the dad group as a whole, but especially how each represented a different type of father-daughter relationship. While I didn’t always agree with John or his actions, you could not fault how much he loved Avery. I thought the author did a great job of capturing the personalities of the daughters as well.

Lastly, I enjoyed how the fathers examined their own relationships with their parents and how these influenced the relationships with their children. If you’re looking for a light-hearted, easy read, or struggling through your own parenting relationships, I highly recommend picking up this story!

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5 stars! Thank you so much for sending me the arc! I think thhe message of this book was important but I just wasn’t a fan. The dialogue was super cringey and I couldn’t relate to the characters very much.

I wanted to like this one. I have a 10 year old and while I'm her mom, not dad, and am very involved in her life and she continues to want me involved in hers, I can see the day on the horizon when this will no longer be quite as clearly and readily the case. In that sense, I was hoping for a bit of forward-looking nostalgia (if that makes any sense), set against a cute and fun(ny) backdrop of camping (which I'm not a fan of). Unfortunately, what I found felt like it alternated between being just a little too preciously twee and a little too in-your-face about absent parenting - which is not what I expected or what I felt like I signed up for. I found the characters to be rather more caricatures than realistic personalities. The eponymous dad felt like he was constantly saying "but I'm a good dad!!" while ignoring everything his daughter actually said or did or was interested in. It got monotonous and the humor and light-hearted factors that I expected never developed for me. This wasn't a good fit...

If you're looking for an easy, heartwarming read about the relationship between fathers and daughters, you'll enjoy Dad Camp. John has always been close to his daughter Avery (an only child), but now that she's 11, that's starting to change, and it terrifies him. He decides to enroll them both in a dad-daughter camp--one week away together in the woods. Of course, things don't go as planned! Although I didn't always agree with John's choices, it was clear that he loved his daughter and would do anything for her. I thought the characters were well-drawn, and especially enjoyed John's interactions with the other dads at the camp.

A feel-good story that doesn't ask a lot of the reader, which can be a nice break!

I was intrigued by this book simply by the title and it was a definitely a good read! I am glad I got to read it thru NetGalley and thanks to the author and publisher. As others have said this is a heartwarming story of a young father facing the impending teenage years of his only daughter and in a desperate attempt to keep his connection he signs them up for a week at yes, you guessed it a camp for dads and daughters.
I enjoyed this novel and think you will too especially if you have daughters.

Dad Camp was a delight! Porter perfectly captured the tenuous nature of father daughter bonds, particularly in those awkward tween years—it took me right back! It’s the perfect companion for summer travel, too.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC! Looking forward to reading whatever Porter writes next!

It's every parent's worst fear - am I doing enough for my child? Am I doing too much? Am I present for them, setting the example, teaching them what they need to succeed in life? Am I raising a person who will be kind, empathetic, loving?

We all have a million different things pulling us in a million different directions - work, school, games, practices, concerts, recitals - and our families. Our marriages. We take work home, we stare at screens, and in the meantime our children are growing up right under our noses and inching closer and closer to not being "children" anymore.

Evan Porter explores an assembled group of men who are seeking to connect with their daughters. They are blue-collar, white-collar, business professionals and stay-at-home dads. But they all have something in common: they are afraid. They are afraid they are losing their daughters.

Like a lot of men, I ask myself the same questions and live with the same fear. I try my best, to give and take, to push and pull, trying to find the line of enough but not too much. I'm afraid I'm messing them up, that I'm pushing them too far, influencing them in some unintended way. I'm finding that they want less and less time with me than I do with them. They're growing up, branching out, and only one of them still calls me Daddy.

Porter tugs at the heartstrings and found some of my tears with this one. Touching yet playful, emotional and sometimes raw, this book woke me up to some brutal truths. Some things are still within my control - my words, my actions - but the rest is not mine to control. In the end, we do our best and trust that what we've given them is enough to see them through. If we've done it right, they'll want us by their sides when they do.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book. Evan Porter will be a writer to watch, that's for sure.

First of all-Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. When I was offered this book the synopsis intrigued me. I will admit this was a little slow and sluggish in parts. I will say, it was nice seeing a coming of age story featuring a father and daughter. A nice wholesome story it just dragged on parts for me. Honestly not my go to genre, but always nice to shake things up. Despite the slow moving plot this did pull at my heartstrings a bit. You can’t help but think of your relationship with your own parents while reading this. An ok read but probably not one I would recommend.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. There was good character growth in the main narrator but honestly I didn’t feel it was enough or quick enough. Most of the first 60% of the book was spent hating him. He was so hard on other dads and couldn’t see any of his own issues or flaws so he couldn’t get out of his own way. It was frustrating because he wanted to be such a “perfect dad” but couldn’t see how much he was basically working against himself. The premise of the book was cute but overall I think it was trying to throw too many characters and their development at us which lost some depth. The letters home would have been unique if we’d seen some of the backstory on the reasons the individuals wrote them.

Dad Camp is a great twist on the typical mother-daughter coming of age novel, as it centers on the daughter's relationship with her father. The setting of this slightly crunchy and hokey father/daughter camp was absolutely perfect, with a hint of nostalgia and enough happening to keep my interest as the relationship storyline played out.

This book was fine! I went in with low to medium expectations, and I would say those expectations were met. I don't read a lot of books narrated by straight males, and certainly not ones in present tense first person voice, so the overall tone was a bit jarring for me, but might not be for other readers. Even though Avery was so present in the plot, I felt we never really got to know her beyond "she's good at sports and is becoming hormonal." The setting of the camp was confusing, but maybe that's just because I've attended/worked at multiple camps and this one just felt unrealistic and unfamiliar to me. I liked the exposition of the "half" chapters where we went back in time with the characters. The chapters with the letters from the other dads were certainly illuminating, but a strange choice considering it was a first person narrative and John never got to read those letters. Overall, it was a relatively quick, entertaining read that was perfect to enjoy while waiting in the airport.

A lovely story filled with heart and poignancy. There are so few father-daughter stories out there told from a dad’s perspective, and this was beautifully told. Bravo!

I’m so happy NetGalley emailed me this copy! This story is such a heartwarming tale about father and daughter. I normally don’t pick up books like this, but I’m happy I read this one. The characters throughout the story were great and quirky. I really enjoyed how we got to see everything through John’s point of view instead of Avery’s. Thank you Evan Porter, NetGalley and Dutton for sending me this digital copy!

As a daddy's girl myself and having two daughters this book pulled at my heartstrings. Beautiful representation of a father daughter relationship and how it changes, but the love never does.

First and foremost, thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for an honest review!

I think that Dad Camp is a lovely read. It takes on some of the common flaws seen in fatherhood, often as a result of the societal roles assigned to men, and breaks them down for an incredibly touching story about a group of dads that just want to find their way with their daughters. One of the most touching features of this book is the inclusion of the letters that the dads write to important people outside of the camp, as it provides a significant amount of character development while also allowing space to explore what happens when men allow themselves to be open and vulnerable. Of course, as is often the case with a book like this, it does have plenty of cheesy and predictable moments. However, it makes up for some of that predictability with quirky characters, warmth, and a relatively light tone. The characters other than Avery and John do have some limited development, but it feels natural, as this story is from John's point of view and he is largely focused on working on his relationship with Avery. Overall, Dad Camp is a light, warm, and fun read!