I recently had the pleasure of reading this, and I have to say, it exceeded my expectations in so many ways. From the very first page, I was hooked by the engaging style and the intriguing characters. The author does an excellent job of building a world that feels both immersive and believable, making it easy to get lost in the story. The plot was full of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the story would surprise me with something unexpected. I highly recommend this and all their work.

Katherine Center's The Love Haters is a delightful exploration of love, self-discovery, and personal growth. The story follows Katie Vaughn, a video producer facing career uncertainty, who embarks on a project profiling Tom "Hutch" Hutcheson, a charismatic Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. Their journey is filled with humor, heartfelt moments, and insightful commentary on body image and self-worth.

Center masterfully crafts relatable characters, particularly Katie, whose struggles with self-image resonate deeply. The novel balances lighthearted romance with meaningful themes, offering readers both entertainment and reflection. While some plot developments may seem predictable, the engaging narrative and charming dynamics between characters make it a worthwhile read.

Overall, The Love Haters is a heartwarming tale that combines romance and personal empowerment, showcasing Center's ability to blend depth with lightness. It's a recommended read for those seeking a story that entertains while addressing real-life issues.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an ARC

“The Love Haters” is a delightful addition to the Katherine Center’s literary universe. As an avid reader of hers since “Things You Save in a Fire,” I’ve always been captivated by her storytelling.

While my personal favorites remain the previous novel and “Hello Stranger,” “The Love Haters” struck a perfect balance as a middle-of-the-road romance. It’s a heartwarming and indulgent tale of love with a touch of unnecessary conflict and a lovable dog. What more could you possibly want in a romance novel?

While this book may not have left a profound impact on me, it certainly brought me a sense of joy and entertainment.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy. 💖

I both read and listened to The Love Haters, and loved nearly every second of it. Center does a nice job with the story of Katie, a video producer, who is sent by her boss to get the story of Hutch, a rescue swimmer, to save her job and maybe her company. Along the way, we meet Hutch's Aunt Rue, the proprietress of the place that Katie will be staying and aunt to Hutch, as well as the local characters of Key West. On top of the evolving relationship between our two MCs, I enjoyed the arc of Katie learning to love herself, too, even though all of her negative talk of body image at the beginning bothered me a little bit. While I enjoyed the printed version, the narrator of the audio, Patti Murrin, does an amazing job of bringing Center's story to life and drawing us into the lives of Katie and Hutch (and Aunt Rue!). This was the perfect book to get me hyped for summer reading recommendations and I look forward to recommending it for months! Thank you to St. Martins Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the early listen in exchange for my honest opinion. 4.5 stars

Now the story, this was beyond cute and adorable, omg 😱. I loved this story. I adore that is this two people finding their way back to being themselves and their journey. The romance was cute and relatable. I love all the ild ladies meddling and trying to work their magic on this two . Overall it was a fun , funny and heartfelt book and totally love it .

thank you, to netgalley and the publisher, for providing me to opportunity to read/review this arc! I was so excited to receive a KC book! This one started off really slow and I thought about DNFing. eating disorders/body dysmorphia was handled in such an unserious way. the plot? weird. did these two even have any chemistry? i'm open to reading more of her books but this one was not it for me.

When this book had me laughing in the first few pages, I knew it was going to be a good one🌴

I’m a huge Katherine Center fan, so I was stoked to get an early copy of this book! As to be expected, I loved this story. It’s full of Center’s signature humor and wit with a quirky, relatable main character and women’s fiction vibes. I loved Hutch - he was such a good, solid guy who was just always kind and thoughtful and a low key flirt. As a Florida native, I loved that the setting felt so Florida. Basically, this story felt like home. Also, there was an unexpected danger/suspense element that I really enjoyed. All that to say, I loved The Love Haters and will continue to read Katherine Center always.🩵

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending me an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions above are my own.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a bit slow for me to get into hence why it took me so long to read, but once I got into the story, I did not want to put it down (I had no choice because I needed to study). I loved the main characters and all the side characters. I loved the way the FMC learned to love herself and the people she was surrounded by. I loved the dramatics that occurred throughout the book. Lastly, I absolutely loved the MMC. What a respectable and lovable guy for real. This book gave me an ache in my chest that I haven't felt since the Part of Your World series by Abby Jimenez. The longing and the tension of the main characters. Ah. Okay, this is a jumbled mess.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review ♡

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy the story, I’m giving it three stars for these reasons: Katherine Center's writing style is intimate and thoughtful 🖊️ , Katie discovers self-love by the end ♥️ , the plot twist towards the end was unexpected 🚤, and for my favorite character, George Bailey 🐕

The plot primarily focused on Katie's struggles with body insecurities and her journey to overcome them. While I do appreciate this representation in books, it just felt overpowering to the rest of the story. After a while I got bored with the recurring dialogues Katie would have with herself or her cousin about her body or her fears. In essence, it felt more like a story of self-love and personal growth than one centered on romantic love. Which is totally fine, it’s just not what I expected going into the book - so here’s your heads up now. On that note, I didn’t actually find that Hutch and Katie had any chemistry and at times I felt the second hand awkwardness of their interactions to be unbearable.

TW: body insecurities/shaming, eating disorders

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

For the most part, I actually found myself enjoying this book. The shenanigans and somewhat romcom vibe of it was entertaining. Plus I loved George Bailey and the silliness he ensured. 🐶

However, the FMC Katie deals with a lot of body image issues which can be relatable at certain points but then it became the entire plot. While I did like how she found self love in the end, it really got so repetitive to the point where that’s what she was still thinking about focusing when she was stranded in the middle of the ocean.

And don’t even get me started with her decisions during the hurricane. Like I admire her for wanting to save George Bailey but what kind of storyline is that? 😩

Hutch wasn’t that memorable of a MMC and I felt he was very surface level. I think Rue had more of an impact on me than the man that ends up saving Katie lol. And Cole was REALLY annoying. Especially what he does when he shows up unexpectedly. 😮‍💨

Overall, a good vacation read but not one I’d rush to read. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange of an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Katherine Center writes the cutest romcoms. This was full of giggles, heart-felt moments, and plenty of swoon-worthy scenes. I enjoyed the relationship between Hutch and Katie. Katie was fun and full of quips. Katie’s character was full of insecurities and flaws. She was very relatable in her relationship with her self-image. Hutch was so sweet and definitely swoony. I did go a little crazy about 75% in when the conflict arrived. I felt like Katie was a little naive and not very self-assured. She drove me a bit crazy around that point, but she pulled it together. I loved the theme of friendship especially with George Bailey. This book is perfect for the coming summer months. It was cute, enjoyable, silly, and sweet.

-self love
-grief/found family
-coast guard
-summer romance

As per usual, Center writes an emotional, relatable love story. I couldn’t help but fall a little in love myself with our MMC and FMC. I wanted to shake all the negative body image out of our FMC for basically the entirety of the book, but I’m glad our MMC was there to do it for me. The family drama is tiny bit far fetched, but within the context of the story you can understand and excuse it. The premise is fun. And the execution is genuine and enjoyable. I devoured this in one sitting. Would highly recommend as a fun summer read.

A Katherine Center book set in my favorite place in the world? I truly couldn’t resist if I wanted to! This is a love story about a filmmaker and a rescue swimmer, but also a love story about a woman learning to love herself. Katie has been sent to Key West to make a promotional video for the Coast Guard and her subject, Hutch, is the definition of a hero and happens to be a scientifically perfect specimen of a man. She can’t help getting close to him during the interview process, despite complicating factors like not knowing how to swim and her boss’ ulterior motives.

Watching Katie learn to love her body when society and important people in her life have made her hate it was incredibly powerful and I’ll be revisiting those bookmarks a lot in the future! Reading about her falling in love with the keys and with Hutch was honestly just icing on the cake.

Overall I liked this book. Loved the setting and the summery vibes. The characters were likeable and the ending tied up all the loose ends. 3.5 stars!

My first Katherine Center & it will not be my last! I’m hooked! Her writing is so beautiful and the story had me hooked immediately. I loved how this was a romance about two people falling in love but also so much more. It told a story of a woman learning to love herself and I think as a woman we all need to hear that story.

I really enjoyed this one. 4.5 stars!
I rate a book on how it makes me feel so this was a complete winner!

Katie isn’t the first woman to have body image issues but hers are complicated by growing up with a negative and critical stepmother, and then enduring vicious online attacks on her looks when a picture of her and her rock-star ex surfaced.

Don’t we all engage in negative self-talk? Aren’t we our own worst critic? I think many of us can identify with Katie on some level.

Currently, Katie’s job is on the line, so when she is offered a job to produce a documentary on Hutch, a coast Guard rescue swimmer, she takes it. Never mind that she can’t swim, she will learn when she arrives. Desperate times require desperate measures. What ensues is often laugh out loud funny.

When Katie arrives in Key West, she meets the delightful Aunt Rue, her gal friends, as well as Hutch and his rescue Great Dane, George Bailey. Rue makes it her mission to make Katie feel at home and sets her up in one of her colorful cottages, while arranging swim lessons.

No surprise that her swim instructor, much to Katie’s surprise, is none other than Hutch.

What follows is a mixture of hilarity and seriousness. I loved Rue and her friends, and George Bailey, the Great Dane, completely won my heart. I loved the sense of community this group built in Key West. Rue in particular is colorful, warm, and inviting.

In this genre, the focus is on the journey and I enjoyed Katie’s journey as she faced her fears and learned self-acceptance and self-love. The focus on friendships & community was an added bonus.

If I have any complaints I don’t think Cole’s character added much to the story and I’m not a fan of the web of lies as a plot device.

But despite those flaws, I found this a delightful read that addresses some important issues, all while making me wish I was the one living in the Key West cottage and sitting around the pool in colorful clothing having cocktails with Rue & her friends.

An added bonus is learning more about the Coast Guard and the rescuers. The author did her research and it shows.

Enjoy life, silence your inner critic, face your fears, and enjoy to the fullest this one spectacular life we’ve been given.

Don’t miss the author’s note at the end! I love, love, love her thoughts and perspective.

there’s a high probability that this is my favorite katherine center book yet! i really love her writing style for rom-coms compared to other romance authors. romance is NOT even my favorite genre, but best believe i am going to read every single one of her romance novels!

i really loved katie and hutch, the gals, and of course george bailey. i immersed myself within this world she created and was sad to come out of it. katie’s coworkers and boss were annoying to be blunt, i feel that however was needed for the development of those characters near the end of the book. i felt like the story was paced pretty well and easy to follow along as well. i would recommend this :)

AHHHHHHHH so good. Nothing like a friendly broody hero MMC. I’d love to meet a Hutch of my own. This is filled with twist and turns and omg! Cole and Sully?!

Katie Vaughn is just trying not to get fired. She takes a job assignment for her coworker Cole about a Coast Guard rescue swimmer name Tom “Hutch” Hutcherson. How bad can it be, Katie doesn’t know how to swim, hates swim suits and has no idea the tangled mess she is walking in to.

I loved this book so much. At first I was worried with how hard Katie was on herself, but she really did learn a lot about herself and I think most of that is thanks to Rue. I loved the concept of the community she built in the condos. She and the ladies had me laughing out loud. Poor Katie couldn’t catch a break sometimes, but Hutch really was just such a great guy. George Bailey was also just the goodest boy!!

This book was everything I wanted from a romantic comedy while also making me take a step back and look inward. I will be thinking about this book for a long time and recommending to everyone!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc and alc.

The Love Haters may be my favorite novel by Katherine Center yet (or at least right up there with The Bodyguard!). I loved this story and the characters so much!! Let me tell you...be prepared to swoon!!! Patti Murin is back with another fabulous job as the books narrator, and I hope she continues to narrate many more books by Katherine Center to come. Did I mention how fabulous she is?? Overall, I could write an essay about how much I loved this book and I think everyone should add it to their must read list for the summer of 2025! I can't wait for Katherine's next book!