My favourite romcom of the year by far! I had so much fun reading this book. It had very few of the annoying tropes I dislike in a romance book and most of the ones I love!

It's about a filmmaker who goes to shoot a promo about the Coast Guard (btw I still find it so weird that the coast guard is military in the US). But anyways there was lots of cute found family vibes, self love, a cute dog, and lots of nice descriptions of the Florida Keys. What's not to love? The romance was cute and believable and the conflict was annoying but acceptable. The climax of the story was also unexpectedly exciting!

I'll definitely be recommending this one! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for giving me an Advance reader copy of this book.

This book was the perfect Rom-com mixed with a love story of self love. Katie is going through a lot in her personal life that changes the way she perceives herself. A recently broken engagement, her job on line and her self worth at an all time low. Her ex fiancée is a celebrity and she w2as forced into the harsh public eye, which lead to online bullying. After that she was seeing herself in all the wrong light, but it took a trip to paradise for a work video to really jump start a healing relationship with a hot Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hutch, but more importantly herself.
The story was also healing for Katie but the other characters as well. Hutch and Cole brothers who lost their parents in a car accident when they were younger learn to heal their strained relationship. Rue the owner of the cottages in Key West played a huge role in Hutch’s life and also helped Katie find her way through her kind gestures and support.

We all have that best friend like Beanie! The outspoken, tell it like it is, loves you so fiercely that she isn’t afraid of giving you tough laugh and ask those hard questions.

We often are very self critical on ourselves instead of giving a little grace or seeing us the same way people we love see us. We aren’t made to be “perfect” we all have our flaws but at the end of the day with the right amount of love and support you can go on a live a happy life.

This book made me laugh and but also got me thinking about how I’m often self critical and how I need to look at myself in a better light.
The Love Haters was my first book By Katherine Center and I will be looking into her other books moving forward.
I personally think this book is the perfect Beach read going into the summer and it should be added to your TBR asap.

Thank you, NetGalley and Katherine Center, for letting me read this book in exchange for a review.

I am a fan of Katherine Center's work, like The Bodyguard, Hello Stranger and The Rom-Commers, which I often reread. I was very excited for this new book, The Love Haters, but I had trouble getting through this book. There's a lot of repetitive sentences and conversations, the body issues are the female main characters' only personality trait and it was difficult to sympathize with her. It felt a lot like 'pick-me-girl' vibes.

Moreover, this story is written in a very objective way. Like, when the love interests kiss, it's just written that they kiss but you don't feel it. You are not brought along on this experience. Same with the love development, you just have to trust conversations happened because you do not read about it. It's difficult to relate to the main character and feel her emotions and difficulties. Mostly because of this objective way of writing. That made this book not good in my opinion.

There were also many scenes where miscommunication happened and I'm just like 'JUST TALK!'... one of my least favorite things in books is where if they just literally stood up for themselves or said something, things would be resolved. It just seemed a bit childish and some scenes, like the lies Cole spun and involved Katie in, was just ridiculous. How does everybody in the book just seem to kind of go along with it? I know that 'ridiculous' / 'funny' things are Katherine's style with her books and it has been funny in the last few books but this one felt a bit too much and extra unbelievable and not relatable. Like who calls 911 and says that Hutch is a sexy name? You're literally on a sinking boat, what do you mean?

I hope Katherine Center will write other books, more in the way she did The Bodyguard and Hello Stranger. I'm hoping for this at least.

This was okay. This is my second book that I’ve read from this author and I just don’t think she’s for me. The characters were hard to like and seemed very immature. I didn’t care how the story was going to play out at all.

Ok, I really loved this one!! I felt like it was just what I needed right now. Some aspects were a tad far-fetched, but I was ok with them - it added to the magic of the story for me. I felt this one was a true romcom done in true Katherine Center fashion!

All the love for The Love Haters! I absolutely adored the newest Katherine Center rom com!

Katie gets pulled into a project she may not be qualified for in hopes to save her job. She sets off for Key West to meet the rescue swimmer she will be profiling for a Coast Guard promo video to find that Hutch is quite the catch, along with his eccentric Aunt Rue and his lovable great dane. Toss in Rue's lively community of friends, lots of brotherly drama, and a tropical storm; and you end up with a delightful story you won't want to put down!
 
Thank you to #NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC of #TheLoveHaters in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a cute read. I liked the characters overall although I felt like the story was a little longer than it needed to be.

A fun read! I was a huge fan of the setting, and enjoyed that it leaned into the local side of key west vs the tourist side. I found the male lead to be interesting, but could have enjoyed him having a little more that made him not perfect (all his conflict was about his brother not him). I like that the main character wasn’t “fixed” by falling in love, and I really liked the aunt.

THE LOVE HATERS was my first Katherine Center novel and I’m happy to report that I did enjoy it.

That said, I will be honest, this one started out a little rough for me. Katie (the FMC) gets very heavy into body image insecurities. I do believe the amount of time and text dedicated to that aspect of the story could and should have been adjusted. The saving grace, was that Katherine did a really great job wrapping up that story arc and giving it the right touches and care at the end of the book. Another pain point for me was the abhorrent amount of lying and deceit in the second part of the story was quite off-putting, and I’m not sure it added much to the plot other than to wave the miscommunication flag.

My favorite part was Hutch. He was just how I like my main men. His backstory with his family and Rue (who was also fabulous) was touching, and the discussions it spurred were some of my favorite parts of the book.

The book is exactly like all those classic 2000’s era rom-coms we love. It has humor. Characters you can’t help but root for. Sweet romance. And all-around feel good vibes.

I always enjoy Center’s books, and this one is a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching Katie find herself again. Though I agree with the reviewers that say we don’t need men to feel beautiful. But it is nice to hear it now and again. Katie also has her cousin helping her to love herself, and that holds weight, not just to Katie, but in the storyline as well.

And of course, I especially loved George Bailey, who can’t stop knocking Katie over. He is a great addition to the story. Overall, this was a fun read.

Advanced Book Review! Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for sending me this book for review. Opinions are my own.
I always run to grab Katherine Center’s books early from NetGalley – as many of us do. But (and this might be an unpopular opinion) this one won’t make it into my list of favourites from her.
It took a while to get into – I didn't really feel engaged until nearly a quarter of the way through. Up to that point, it felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of a story without much lead-in… and yet, not much was actually happening either.
Once things picked up, I was more into it – especially the dynamic between Katie and Hutch, and learning about his work as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. The middle section worked better for me. But the last third started to lose me again. The story veered off in a direction that felt chaotic, with a bar scene that really turned me off (no spoilers, but yikes). The lying, miscommunication, and character shifts, especially with Katie’s boss and Hutch’s brother Cole, just didn’t land for me.
There were bright spots. I really liked Rue who came across as such a kind and grounded character. And the mystery around Hutch and Cole’s falling out kept me curious. And the body image representation stood out. Katie’s fear of wearing bathing suit felt relatable, and I thought it was powerful that we never actually get a detailed description of her appearance (unless I missed it!). It’s a subtle but important reminder that body image struggles don’t have a specific “look” and that anyone can deal with them.
This one wasn’t a hit for me, but I’ll definitely read whatever Katherine Center writes next.

This book was cute but parts of it were so unrealistic. I also have a hard time with a miscommunication trope. But I loved George Bailey and Rue!! The love story was cute and fun but I didn't like the lying from Cole.

I LOVED this book and devoured it in 2 days. The chemistry between the 2 main characters was amazing. I love Katherine Center because her romance books always have a more depth to them. Rue and the great dane dog were my 2 favorite characters and made me laugh out loud. Makes me want to immediately book a trip to Key West.

Katherine Center is one of my favorite romance authors, unfortunately this one was just not my favorite. I loved George Bailey and Hutch. I liked the inclusion of the body image stuff but was perhaps a little heavy handed. I did not love the part of the book when Cole comes to Key West.

From the start, I was all in on Hutch—the dreamy rescue swimmer love interest. But as the story went on, he started to feel almost too perfect. I kept waiting to see how his character would grow, or what his arc might be. As the love interest, I wanted more complexity or depth to hold onto.

I appreciated the female main character, Katie, and her struggle with body image—it was super relatable and handled sensitively. But the Katie who wrestled with self-love didn’t feel like the same Katie who interacted with Hutch. I felt jolted between those two versions of her, and it pulled me out of the story.

I’m always here for a strong best-friend dynamic, but I found myself annoyed whenever Beanie showed up on the phone. It felt like pages of the same one-sided conversation, and for someone so important to Katie, she felt really one-dimensional.

There were some great funny moments between Katie and Hutch, and the addition of the dog was adorable. But I kept waiting for a reason the dog was so obsessed with Katie—some kind of explanation—and it never came.

There was m a big emotional setup in the end, and I read on past my bedtime to see what would happen! But Hutch’s calm reaction felt strange or at least unexplained and the final pages felt anticlimactic. I was so invested in Hutch! I would have loved to know more about what he was thinking and feeling. I also struggled with the logistics of Hutch and Katie’s final scene together… what about noise??

I love Katherine Center and that her books always take on serious topics and mix with a light hearted, swooning romance. This one though felt a bit rushed and choppy to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If Katherine Center was a colour, she'd be yellow: warmth, happiness, feel-good vibes, it's what you can expect reading her books!

Read if you like:
Workplace romance
Sworn off love
Only one bed
Body positivity
Key West setting
Meddling family
Great Dane who acts like he's the size of a chihuahua
Forced proximity
Found family

Katherine Center is definitely my feel-good author. Her books are just so easy to read and enjoy, and they bring me so much comfort. I don’t know what it is about them, but they just have so much happiness and love in them, it is impossible for me to read and be sad. I couldn’t put this one down, and it put me out of my reading slump so fast.

I did enjoy all the funny situations there were in this one, I definitely laughed out-loud a lot. The thing with Katherine Center though is that even though you get all those funny moments with cute and lovely characters, there is much more to it. You always get a more emotional side and so much character growth. It is immensely enjoyable, and it is always a perfect blend to not feel heavy and still get you this overall happiness shot.

Katie was a very easy to love and relate to character. I think that most of us are our biggest critic/bully. It is an everyday battle, finding our imperfections is so easy, but finding what’s perfect on us? Mission impossible, or so it seems. That’s why I think it was so enjoyable to see Katie get better at it. Find love through this story, but not only love for another, but love for herself. Beautiful.

The love story kept me intrigued because we only got Katie's POV, and it was interesting to get to know why Hutch was acting certain ways and get explanations that made everything make sense later on. Our main characters had some very beautiful exchanges and there was some deepness to that relationship, I truly loved it. And then, you get big beautiful George Bailey. How can you resist that dog? He was such a great character (yes, because he is a BIG part of all the things happening in this story!).

I also really enjoyed the Key West setting, I just wanted to be there (preferably not during a hurricane though). The community, the friendships, it was all so nice. And Rue, what a wonderful character. Cole was very annoying though, and I would have at least hoped he got some sort of redemption or that he paid for what he did but meh, you cannot get it all I guess, haha!

Anyway, I just know I’m loving a book when I have to write to my sister after a few chapters to let her know she HAS to read it, and I definitely did with this one. A must-read in my opinion, like any other Katherine Center books I have read.

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This wasn't my favorite Katherine Center book, but it was still a fun, fast read. Katie is a videographer who is sent to Key West to make a recruitment film for the Coast Guard. She is hoping this will help save her job. While there, she meets Hutch, a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard. Katie is tasked with following him around to make the film. Unfortunately, Katie isn't really qualified for this job - she can't swim. The most fun character in this book was Rue, Hutch's aunt. Some of the other characters weren't as enjoyable. While the story was still a fun read that kept my interest, it just wasn't my favorite.

Absolutely obsessed with this one! The cover and storyline is adorable. I have been recommending this one to all my friends now that it is out. Katherine Center does it again.

ARC review: 4.5 stars rounded up ⭐️

I really loved this story! As someone who has struggled for years with body image issues, I appreciated the approach that Katherine Center took with Emily’s own struggles. The concept of loving our bodies and different pieces of it is so so hard for so many people. I felt seen and I know many other readers are going to as well.

I also loved the dynamic between Rue, Hutch, and Cole. It was a really beautiful story! A found family trope is one of my favorites, but can sometimes feel very cookie cutter, but the way this one was approached was pure perfection!

I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of The Love Haters via @netgalley.

Katie's company is downsizing, and she has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but pretends that she can.

As Katie profiles Hutch and spends time with his aunt Rue, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two. Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.

I knew pretty quickly this book wasn't going to be a good fit for me. Based on the description, I was completely unprepared for a plot point related to eating disorders that would have been nice to be aware of in advance. Had I not been reading an ARC that I'd agreed to provide feedback for, I probably would not have continued reading. Aside from that, this book was a mixed bag. There were some very funny moments that were this book's saving grace, but all of the characters made some questionable decisions for reasons that didn't really make sense and were never addressed or redeemed. In the end, this one just wasn't for me, but I do think others may enjoy it.