Katherine Center does it again! I loved the set up of this book and how we learn about both main characters. I loved the very real topics that were discussed, especially about body image.

I usually like Katherine Center’s books. This one just didn’t work for me.
I wanted to love this one. I found it to be a ok rom com.
The plot seemed to get muddled after a while.
This didn’t hit me as a romance read….thats what I thought it was going to be.
I will revisit the book at a later time and see how it goes.

This had all the makings of a breezy beach read - sunny setting, a lovable dog, and themes of self-acceptance but I almost put it down in the first few chapters. The overload of pop culture references pulled me out of the story more than they added to it. Once things settled, I did enjoy the focus on body image and how it tackled insecurity in a real, relatable way. The Great Dane, George Bailey, was a total scene-stealer, and the Coast Guard backdrop added an unexpected layer of interest. That said, I was hoping for more spark in the central romance, it felt a little flat - and the storyline with her ex, Lucas, didn’t really go anywhere. Ultimately, it’s a light and easy read, but I was left wishing for a bit more depth and closure.

This was an enjoyable read. I thought Katie was a solid FMC who was easy to relate to. Her growth throughout was well written. I also really loved the Key West setting and I thought the dog and Aunt Rue made the story so entertaining!

This book screams SUMMER vibes!! I truly enjoy Katherine Center's writing, and this was no exception. The main focus of the book was body image and I feel like a lot of women, including myself, can sometimes be very insecure. Loved the coastal setting, the Coast Guard information, and the humor. ADORED George Bailey, a Great Dane, and how he played a part of the story. I do want to say that I was expecting a lot more of the romance - I feel like there could have been a bit more chemistry between the two main characters. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable, lighthearted read!

The Love Haters was one of those rare reads I started and couldn’t put down. From the very first chapter I was hooked by the writing and the pacing. Katherine Center has a gift for blending heartfelt emotion with witty, engaging storytelling, and she absolutely nailed it with this one. Every time I pick up one of her books, I’m reminded why she’s a must-read author for me. She never misses, and The Love Haters is no exception.

What I especially loved was the dynamic between the two leads. The grumpy/sunshine trope is one of my personal favorites, and Center handles it with charm, depth, and just the right amount of humor. The chemistry was undeniable, and their banter made me smile more times than I can count. But beyond the romance, there was a real sense of growth, vulnerability, and emotional authenticity that added so much to the story.

I came for the rom-com vibes and stayed for the heart. If you're looking for a feel-good, beautifully written love story with layers of meaning, this is it. The Love Haters is a total win, and I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know.

I guess it's safe to say that Katherine Center has become one of my favorite authors of contemporary romances, if not my absolute favorite. I loved this story of two people who are clearly meant for each other despite their personal baggage and the obstacles thrown at them. I loved the setting (Key West), the main characters and (most of) the supporting characters. I loved the wonderful, supportive relationship between Katie and her best friend/cousin Beanie. And on a personal note, I also loved her appreciation of the overall effect of a hot man in a flight suit. ;)
Center writes with such heart and such humor, and in a genre that's overall pretty predictable, she manages to surprise me with not only the detours to the expected happy ending, but the overall themes and lessons learned along the way. That's definitely the case here, and having seen a couple of reviews from readers who didn't complete the assignment because they assumed they knew what was coming - I'll just say it's a shame they stopped reading early, because, well, you know the old saying about assuming, and indeed, they assumed wrong. ;)
Overall I loved it, and I'm glad I haven't (yet) read all her backlist, because there's more for me to enjoy without having to wait for her next release. (Oh and don't skip her notes at the end - I love what she has to say about writing and reading love stories.)
Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for providing copies for an unbiased review.

With her job on the line, Katie takes an out of town job filming a coworker’s brother for a recruitment video. Katie’s ex became a famous singer and cheated on her. During this time she had a lot of issues with her weight. But on this trip she will confront all these issues and possibly fall in love.

This was a cute story and it broke my reading slump. I really enjoyed all these characters. I love when books have a group of feisty characters and this definitely had those. My one concern is that this character, in my opinion, had an eating disorder, and I feel like it needed to be taken more seriously than it was. Other than that, it was delightful read.

Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors, this book is her latest outstanding story! Her books grab me from the very beginning, and her exceptional story telling keeps me reading long into the night.

Katie is a video producer who needs a win, so she goes to Florida to profile a hero rescue swimmer, Tom Hutchinson, for the US Coast Guard. Unfortunately, Katie herself can’t swim, but she’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Tom saved Jennifer Aniston’s dog, which made him famous and makes him perfect for Katie’s video. They have their meet cute, and fall for each other. I really liked the descriptions of their feelings for each other.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted copy of The Love Haters. All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately this one was not for me…I found the characters annoying and hard to deal with. My heart was not in the story or the characters journey. I do think it’s more of a me problem though so I definitely will still tell people to read this it just was not the book for me and that is okay!

🩷BOOK REVIEW🩷

I think this is hands down my FAVORITE Katherine Center book yet!!!!!! “The Love Haters” had everything I could ever want in a romcom and MORE!!!

Where to begin??

First, I loved all the coast guard elements in the story. This book, in a way, was a love letter to the brave individuals who risk their lives protecting the United States shores. I learned SO much about what the life of a coast guard member entails, and how heart-wrenching their job can be.

Secondly, the ROOOOMANCE😍 The pining. The banter. The wit. THE HUMORRR!! It was all balanced SO perfectly with the deeper, rawer elements of the plot line. Katherine is a MASTER at interweaving sweet, wholesome moments of romance into her stories!

Third, the DEPTH OF CHARACTERS was unmatched!! Katie’s journey to self-acceptance and confidence in her own skin was inspiring and a much-needed message to combat modern society’s obsession with social media and photoshop. And HUTCH😍😍😍 What an MMC!!! He is the epitome of a cinnamon roll hero🥹 His softness toward Katie melted me!🩷

And I can’t finish this review without mentioning GEORGE BAILEY!! I love when stories have pets in them, but I think George Bailey has to be my FAVORITE fictional pup🥰 His meddlesome ways were SO perfect for this story!

Overall, this is my perfect 5🌟 read!! I will forever be a Katherine Center fan🥳

⚠️TW: body self-consciousness, instances of cyber bullying, mentions of losing loved ones (past), overcoming fear of swimming
🚨CW: infrequent mild/strong language, closed door

Thank you Netgalley, publisher, and author for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was not my favorite book from Katherine Center. I wasn't really a fan of this book. The FMC annoyed me and just seemed desperate. This story was about body image and mental health issues. I total respect the feeling about body shaming, but this was all surface level and not going into any depth. She didn't like her own body from comments online, but she was just talking about Hutches perfect body the whole time. The whole bathing suit aspect of bringing it up all the time just bugged me. Then she is okay with her body because a man finally told her she is pretty.

I did like the second half of the book when she saved the dog from a hurricane and overcame her fear from swimming. Hutch and Katie didn't really have chemistry or a true romance story in my opinion. I do love other books of Katherine centers, but this was just a miss for me.

Once again, Katherine Center creates characters that are a joy and seem so true to life. The Love Haters was so easy to get into and a delight to read. Katherine Center weaves in difficult life situations with laugh out loud funny moments. Main character Katie faces body image and weight insecurity during this story. I can see how that could be a trigger for some readers but her struggles felt real and relatable to me. Hutch is a wonderful male main character and maybe one of my favorites Katherine Center has written. His aunt Rue and his dog added to the charm of The Love Haters. The Body Guard is still my favorite KC book and I’m not sure I could even rank the others, I just know I love them all!

The Love Haters is out now. Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for my advanced e-arc!!

Thank you to Katherine Center, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Overall this book was a cute summer read but not a light and "rom-com" like as I was hoping. It covers many heavy topics like death of a parent as well as body image issues being a major theme. Unfortunately for me, this particular story line (body image) was a little over done and killed the vibe for me very quickly. I use reading as an escape from everyday life so reading about an issue that is already a topic women are heavily bombarded with was a bit of a downer.

The romance of this book was also very lacking. I didn't feel much of a connection between the FMC and MMC. It felt very FORCED forced proximity/workplace romance and if anything felt like two people who could become good friends but not lovers/romantically inclined.

I feel like this book would have done really well if the romance was removed and it became more of a women's fiction story to tell.

2.5-3 stars over all.

🧡𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦🧡
𝓇ℴ𝓂 𝒸ℴ𝓂
🗓️𝙿𝚞𝚋 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎: 𝙼𝚊𝚢 𝟸𝟶, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟻
📖𝖧𝗒𝖻𝗋𝗂𝖽 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽🎧📘..𝖣𝖾𝖿 𝖽𝗈 𝖺𝗎𝖽𝗂𝗈 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗈𝗇𝖾!
🤩𝕄𝕪 𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: 𝟛.𝟝 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤 ★★★✮

🤏𝚃𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚢 𝚝𝚒𝚍𝚋𝚒𝚝...follows two people, Katie & Hutch who claim to hate love…& possibly themselves

🌻𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢....First off, I LOVE Katherine Center & I will never not read anything she puts out into this world🌎, BUT this one didn’t fully entertain me like her others do. 🤨I will say the audio🎧 helped immensely so DEF go that route as it gives the story more depth with the amazing inflection the narrator does! 👏 I am usually smiling the whole time I read a KC book😀 & yes, I did that some, but it was a bit of a let down too because my expectations were high. Her covers📙 are still 5 stars for me though. 🙌The bright neon colors have me smitten. 🤗🌺

I loved this one. Katherine Center is an auto-buy for me, and despite getting this as an ARC, I've already bought my own copy for my bookshelves! Thank you NetGalley!

Did you know that a woman’s self-talk about body-image and self-worth can deeply influence their daughters’ self-perception as early as the preschool years? Little girls are listening to the way their mothers talk about themselves, their appearance, dieting etc. It makes a lot of sense that Katie would struggle with her self-image given the way her stepmother had talked to her about her body as a kid/teen (which of course was later exacerbated by comments from others). I have dealt with similar struggles based on my own upbringing and life experiences. Without going into too much self-disclosure, like Katie, I have also had a long journey to find self-love and body-positivity. I still struggle with it at times, if I’m being honest. The lines where Beanie was talking to Katie about how Katie seems to have a template of how she thinks she is supposed to look and evaluates herself as if there is a rubric really hit home for me. All that said, Katie’s struggles really resonated with me and it was a bit healing to read as Katie began to accept and love herself.

Anyway, I just wanted to note that I appreciated this book and its messages of self-love. I also really appreciated that the author really seemed to do her research (and cited good sources in her acknowledgments). As a therapist, I was so excited about the Brene Brown and Gottman references and was happy with the way she applied the information from her research in the story!

I absolutely loved the author’s writing voice. I found it engaging, relatable, humorous, and warm. I liked that the vibes of the book were humorous and lighthearted while also having plenty of depth and emotion. I also loved that Katie would break the fourth wall and thought that was really fun and engaging. This was my first book by this author and I now really want to go read more of her works!

I went back and forth between the ebook and audiobook for this one and thought the narrator, Patti Murin, gave a fantastic performance. She really brought the characters (especially Katie) to life with lots of personality in her narration!

The only reasons why this was a 4 star read instead of a 5 star read was that I didn’t love the section when Cole came into town and roped Katie into his lies and messed with Hutch’s head. I thought this was a bit distracting from the romance between Katie and Hutch, I couldn’t fully understand why Katie just went along with it all and kind of disregarded her own agency in the situation (especially in the bar, knowing Hutch doesn’t drink), and frankly I found Cole to be a bit insufferable and couldn’t understand why everyone (especially Hutch) catered to him as much as they did. Because that section took away a bit from the romance right as it was picking up more steam, I feel like I was left wanting a bit more from the romance and was a little unconvinced by the transition of them liking eachother to them being “in love”.

All that said, I did really enjoy this book. I totally would have a crush on Hutch if he were a real person lol. After reading This book and Rebecca Yarros’ Variation, Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers officially have the hottest career IMO haha.🔥 So thank you to the author for giving me a new fictional boyfriend to swoon over and for giving me a book where the FMC’s personal self-love journey really resonated with my own. I suspect that some people may find it challenging to read about Katie’s struggles with her body-image because it may hit a little too close to home for them; however, I also think that many other women who are working on loving themselves more, like me, may find it kind of healing.💗

Thank you to Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you are a fan of Katherine Center, her newest release, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨, needs to be on your radar! This may be my favorite of hers and let’s just say you may find yourself a new book boyfriend by the end of this book! The characters in this book are fantastic, starting with Aunt Rue, she’s hysterical! Katie, the FMC, goes to the Florida Keys for a work trip to interview and video Navy Seal, Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, who happens to be the brother of one of the higher ups at her job. Between the humor, this book dives deep in heavy topics and overcoming personal struggles. This book is a story of self love and acceptance and allowing yourself to find the love you deserve.

I love Katherine Center!! I loved the plot of this. It was so fun. Didn't pull at my heart strings as much as she typically does, but overall really enjoyed and would recommend.

4.25/5

this just totally missed the mark for me which pains bc i look forward to her romcoms every summer 😭 it actually didn’t even feel like her writing?!

simply put, i didn’t feel any connection to any of the characters. i think i actually hated Katie. i can understand her body image issues with what she went through but to have it be over 50% of the book felt extreme. it also felt forced and like it lacked context?

i also never felt the chemistry and connection of her and Hutch. he was nice but boring 😂 and the plot w Cole and the boss? the drinking in the bar scene? the car crash drama? the hurricane out of nowhere? i was left scratching my head lol! it was all over the place.

the dog was my fave character low key!

i’m a big KC fan but sadly this might be my least fave of hers 💔

thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copy. per usual, this is another gorgeous copy and cover to have on your shelves. 7 just wished the romcom was as pretty