There is something about KC books that have me smiling while I read. Perhaps they’re considered beach reads so they’re easy to sink into. Or maybe it’s the love component that makes you happy. But perhaps it is the gentleness of a book like this… one meant to be a book cleanser of a kind. Or just a happy book to binge.
It was all of those things.

It felt like Bridget jones meets hunky water rescue guy. But then toss in some unresolved family issues that give it the grit for readers who want a little bit more.

There were family complications, found family, a group of older women who I want to be friends with, a mother figure whose character just made me want to be a part of her world, a loveable dog named after my fav Christmas movie and even with all this going on… I felt like it was a book of self love.

It was Hutch and the Pennies for his mom
Katie and her self loathing of our bodies placed by childhoods of perfection.
And the love story that feels more like Bridget jones found her match.

Bottom line:
I smiled throughout the whole thing
4.5 star

Katherine Center doesn't disappoint. This was a great read with loveable primary and secondary characters. The hurricane at the end veered a little into unbelievability. However, it ended so strong with such a positive message that it can be overlooked. Library patrons should enjoy this read. One of Katherine Center's best yet!

This was very cute! I love Katherine Center's writing so much! The storyline was interesting and I constantly wanted to pick up reading whenever I had a chance. The only critiques I have would be that the body self-talk was not portrayed all that well and I think for such a big topic, it should have been handled better than the joking was it was brought up throughout. I also could not feel the connections with the characters and when they shared their first kiss I genuinely went "wait what" out loud. It was very strange to read him confessing so many feelings to her when It didn't feel like there was much of a connection there. Otherwise the speed of the story was good and the writing was very easy to follow!

I loved "The Rom-Commers" and had really high expectations for 'The Love Haters.' I think it was okay, but I just didn't feel like relationship between Hutch and Katie was very well developed. Maybe I went into it thinking there would be more romantic relationship developed...but instead the relationship that was developed the most was Katie's relationship with herself. I think learning to love yourself and who you truly are was a strong message in this book and it worked. I just wanted more connection between the two main characters.

4 ⭐️

What to expect in this book:

-Clean romance (only kissing!)
-Forced proximity
-Key West Setting
-Coast Guard representation
-Self-discovery/personal growth
-Quirky side characters

Thoughts 💭

Thank you to #NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of this book. It publishes May 20th. This is my seventh Katherine Center book and I can always count on her to deliver a heartfelt romance but with underlying themes and fun, quirky characters. Katie has been burned by love in her past. Fighting for her career as a video producer, she must choose to either get laid off or take a major gig profiling “Hutch,” a coast guard swimmer that lives in Key West. The problem is, Katie not only cannot swim, but Hutch has some issues with his brother, who happens to be Katie’s work superior. As Katie becomes wrapped up in filming and working with Hutch, and his Great Dane, George Bailey, she finds herself getting trapped in a sea of lies as well.

This rom com was absolutely bingeable. I loved all the characters and honestly felt like I related to Katie in quite a few ways. Readers get a very vulnerable look into the main character’s insecurities, namely her body image. Her struggles, in addition to the grief explored from other characters, made this equally a story of self-exploration and self-discovery. I enjoyed the Key West setting and while this is set at the beach and part of it on a houseboat, this did not scream beach read or pool read at all! I saved it for a beach trip, but could have easily read this at any time of year.

As always, I love KC for a clean romance with no scenes of anything other than kissing. I loved that the side characters felt just as important as the romance including, Rue, the dog (George Bailey—the name is amazing!), and Katie’s bff, Beanie. Overall, this is not my favorite of this author’s but I am deeply devoted to her. Do not miss the author’s note at the end 💘

This was such a fun read! I really enjoyed all the characters and how they all came together. Katherine Center will always be an author I grab new books from! Thank you for this ARC.

The best part about "The Love Haters" was the characters. I tremendously enjoyed the dynamic character of Hutch. I felt like I knew him. The transformation that Katie made throughout the novel was admirable. It was relatable reading about someone struggling with their self-worth through how they view themselves.

Katherine Center is always a favorite!

This one has some heavy topics including body image issues, grief, and Internet bullying. BUT also has found family, self love, and a handsome rescue swimmer!

This is a clean romance with kissing only and has the Katherine Center touch! Sweet moments and quotes throughout!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this as an ARC.

Katherine Center, you've done it again! You sucked me in, and I fell in love...with the plot, with THREE of the characters, and with the depth of the message. I absolutely loved Katie, Hutch, and Katie's best friend Beanie. Beanie is the epitome of best friend. She challenges Katie to see herself in a different light. They discuss body image throughout the book, and for me, it all comes together in chapter 25 (no, I won't spoil it!).

I also ADORED Rue, "the gals," and the beloved great dane George Bailey. Katherine wrote a super cringy side character that I loved to hate (Cole), and all of this came together to create a beautiful message about self-love and found family. The language was relatively mild (a few curse words); there were references to sex, but the scenes were closed door. This was primarily a swoony, lovely romance with so much depth as Katherine does so masterfully.

I had the absolute honor of receiving both the print and audio ARCs of "The Love Haters." If you choose the audio, the narrator is phenomenal and so accomplished at navigating multiple characters. It was easy to determine POV, and she brought the characters to life! Don't skip the author's note at the end, read by none other than Katherine Center herself!!!

Release date: May 20, 2025

I am so grateful to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with both the print and audio ARCs in exchange for my honest opinion.

4⭐️ - I have yet to read a book by this author that I didn’t like/love! This was no exception. I absolutely adore the way she weaves humor, romance, and deep topics together in this beautiful stories.

I loved the lessons the FMC, Katie, learns in this story about loving yourself. What she went through with her ex and his fame, I would have probably ended up the same way she did. That would be so awful to deal with!

The MMC, Hutch, was a classic swoony character who sees his girl for who she is on the inside and loves everything about her on the outside. He was so sweet to her.

Overall, this was a cute, swoony, funny romcom perfect for the summer or the beach!

Katherine Center’s bright and sparkly authorial voice captured me right away, as it always seems to. Her heroines, who narrate their stories, are instantly relatable and likable. I also am a sucker for “direct address”, where the narrator speaks right to me, the reader, as if she expects me to answer. The humor was present and accounted for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Katie, who narrates her story, started to get on my nerves and I got very impatient with her.

The agenda in this book (and I don’t mean that in a bad or critical way) is to encourage body positivity. When Katie’s former fiancé became a big music star, she was exposed to the cruelty of social media commenting on how fat and ugly she was, when of course she was just a normal nice looking girl. If I remember correctly she starved herself and got really thin. Then, her fiancé cheated on her and dumped her, and she started putting on the pounds until she became a little plump. Katherine Center is pretty vague about the weight loss and weight gain, and I understand why.

Katie makes corporate videos and posts mini-biographies of “Heroes” on her own YouTube channel. She agrees to go to Key West to interview and film her boss’s brother who is a hero in the Coast Guard, having famously rescued Jennifer Anniston’s dog who fell off a cliff. To do her job though, she has to get in a bathing suit and learn to swim. She is used to wearing black inconspicuous clothes that do nothing for her, so this prospect of what she has to do to do her job and get material for her personal YouTube channel fills her with horror. For me, her inner struggles with bathing suits and learning to swim got very tedious very quickly. And since her luggage got lost on the plane, she is “forced” to borrow from her boss’s and his brother’s beloved Aunt’s store which are all brightly covered and very loud. Again, this is torture for her, as she is afraid of being seen and judged. Her fixation on her body came across as silly and shallow. Oh, the humanity!
I didn't get what the heroic, beautiful, kind, and smart hero (literally) saw in her. She was kind of a cute nonentity. She was naive and she didn't seem to be too bright either. On almost the first page she states to the reader that she couldn’t locate Key West on a map or know what the Coast Guard or a rescue swimmer was. Was she trying to be funny? I don’t think so. Because later in the book she speaks of forming an “allegiance” with someone when she meant “alliance”.

Shortly before midway in the book she has a revelation which mitigated some of my impatience with her. But no sooner than one irritation goes away, another one pops up.
It’s all a tempest in a teapot until a real tempest descends on Key West and Katie is blown out to sea in Hutch’s houseboat trying to rescue his beloved dog, George Bailey.

This was well-written (of course) and perfectly enjoyable. It seemed lighter and fluffier than the four other books I’ve read by her. There really isn’t anything really serious at stake, as with her other books. But sometimes that is just what one is in the mood for. Since I’ve been reading Katherine Center I’ve enjoyed each book more or at least equal to the previous one. This one is a slight step back. But still 3 ½ stars.

I am fairly new to Katherine Centre, only having read 2 books so far - both of which I loved, which is why I requested to read and review this one and I loved it just as much.
This one started out nice - I found it enjoyable, entertaining, sweet, funny and then things happened & information was revealed that pushed this book to absolutely love for me.

The book:
Katie has been burned by love (and in a pretty public way) and is now having to save her job, so, when her co-worker (Cole) asks her to travel to Key West (a beautiful, fun setting) to do a video on a Coast Guard rescue swimmer (who happens to be Cole's brother, Hutch) she agrees - even though she doesn't know how to swim... But that's a problem for another day.

Like Katie, Hutch is a love hater, but this being a rom-com, sparks fly and both Katie and Hutch have obstacles to overcome - both personally & in their budding romance.

My thoughts:
As stated above, I loved it.
I loved the setting in Key West, Hutch's Great Dane (George Bailey, who has a special interest in Katie) & the scenes with the rescue swimmers & learning more about this world.
I loved Katie's cousin/best-friend, Beanie, and how Beanie really helps Katie overcome her personal traumas and Katie's personal growth.
I loved the story about Cole, Hutch, and Rue. I adore stories with wise, feisty, older characters and Rue captured my heart. If the world had more Rue's, what a wonderful world it would be.

I love Katherine Centers writing! Her style is sweet and wholesome and I absolutely adore reading her romance stories. Hutch simply was misunderstood and just needed the right woman to bring him out of his shell. It was a little slow in the beginning but once we get to that half point and we get to the scene where she runs away after reading that article, he is there for her and helps her regain her confidence and to love herself once more!

This was really charming.

The romance part of this was truly the least important part. Katie's personal growth was lovely, I don't care what anyone says. Cole sucked, but Hutch and Cole reconnecting and getting to the root of their problems was special. Rue was such a fun character, love her and her little Key West real estate empire. Katie's friendship with Beanie was also so comfortable, that's my favorite kind of friendship (<3 u kim)

Were the plot points dramatic and unlikely? yes, absolutely. I don't care. I ate it up.

Anyone complaining about Hutch being an "alpha man with a savior complex" needs to step back. He's a rescue swimmer for the US Coast Guard during hurricane season..... that's literally his job to be like that. He never tried to fix her or use his savior complex on Katie, so let him be grumpy and imposing at work.

George Bailey is a king

4 stars for THE LOVE HATERS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I first want to say thank you to Net Galley for the e-ARC of Katherine Center’s May 2025 release of THE LOVE HATERS. I feel so honored to be able to read and review her newest book before it’s being released to the general public.

With that being said, I have to be super honest and say I didn’t enjoy this as much as some other KC books (like THINGS YOU SAVE IN A FIRE, HOW TO WALK AWAY, WHAT YOU WISH FOR, THE ROM-COMMERS), but it was still a fun (and funny) read!

I am a KC girlie and love that she can put some good life lessons in a book that also makes you laugh, and even sometimes puts you on the edge of your seat — THE LOVE HATERS did all of that.

This did feel a little different than some of her other books and I’m not 100% sure why.

I do feel like the body image trope dragged on a bit at the beginning, but the character growth that Katie underwent during her time in Key West was 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼

Speaking of Katie — if that girl didn’t have bad luck, she wouldn’t have any luck at all. I know it was a fictional rom-com but sometimes I felt like she just couldn’t catch a break.

The banter between Katie and Hutch had me chuckling — so much so that my husband asked multiple times what was so funny.

I also love the whole rescue aspects that KC brings into her books. This one actually made me a little anxious, I won’t lie. (I, like Katie, am not a strong swimmer and do not feel confident in/around water.) I mean I knew the ending because — DUH — it’s Katherine Center + a rom com, but I still felt a little nervous about how it would all play out. And in true KC fashion, it was sweet and silly and wrapped up in a cute bow.

I loved getting to know Hutch and seeing Katie break through his tough outer shell. I loved Rue and her ability to read right through the BS and also bring Katie out of her own thoughts and insecurities. George Bailey made me laugh, but also needed a trainer. IYKYK 😂

Definitely worth checking out when it’s released in May. I think this is one of Katherine’s more fun reads and will definitely be good for summer.

4 stars for THE LOVE HATERS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a great story. I heard Katherine Center talk about this book when I went to her book signing for The Rom-Commers and I have been looking foward to it ever since. I was so very excited to receive an ARC copy from NetGalley and I was not disappointed. This is a beautiful story about romantic love, love for family members, love for friends and loving yourself. Hutch and Katie are each wonderful characters on his or her own, but together they are off the charts. Katherine's books always make me believe in the romance and the couple. Not all books do. Some seem to have the main characters fall madly in love almost immediately. I can buy that attraction can be immediate, but not love. In Katherine's books we get the immediate attraction and then we get to watch the characters fall in love and that is the main reason I read romance in the first place.

From the very beginning of this book, I laughed out loud and then I swooned. There is one particular quote that had me laughing harder than I have ever laughed at a book before. I really hope it is still in the final book. I also really enjoyed Katie's inner monologue which along with her conversations with the wonderful support characters Beanie and Rue really made me think. Not only did the story make me think about what it meant to love yourself, it also taught me a great deal about Coast Guard rescue swimmers. Who knew rescue swimmers could be so sexy? Katherine, that's who.

My only disappointment with this book is that I finished it in a 24 hour period and now I have to wait months for her next one. I'll be at the book signing for this one, too. I already have my ticket. Katherine is one of my favorite authors and I will read anything that she writes.

Katherine Center is easily in my top favorite authors. I typically eat up her stories and can’t put the books down. The Love Haters didn’t grab me the same way. The story was nice and kept me until the end, but it wasn’t her typical work where I am excited to pick it back up to find out what happens. Overall a cute story and well written.

The Love Haters was a perfect Spring Break read! It was a book about overcoming the past, learning to love yourself, and accepting the hope that good things are all around you if you will let yourself see them. The characters jumped off the pages and I was sad for the book to end.

I absolutely loved this book! It was an easy read that felt lighthearted and constantly kept me engaged! I’ve loved all of Katherine Center’s books and this one didn’t disappoint!

3.5 stars (rounding up)

Summary:
Katie is trying not to get fired. When there is lay offs coming to her production company, she takes a job she isn’t qualified for filming a promo video for the Coast Guard.... because she can’t swim.

She is picked so her superior Cole can avoid seeing his brother Hutch (who got him the gig) after a fight between the brothers.

Katie has been really hard on herself and her body since her ex-fiance hit it big and the trolls came out when he started his rise to fame.

But when Hutch’s attentions turn to her, she just might have to accept that she is far more desiriable than she is giving herself credit for.

Thoughts:
This is a potato chip book.
It is an easy read and quick.

The FMC Katie, has a very skewed self-concept and previous eating disordered behaviour that takes on a central theme to the story. It came across at times off-putting? or forced?

The conflict with the ex-fiance felt like it was leading to something and then it just didn’t.

Some of the reasons for the conflict with Hutch and Katie fell really flat to me and the ending was fine.

Did I also finish it in one sitting? YES
Potato chip book