What I loved: THE DOG - George Bailey is amazing and the best thing about this!

What didn't work: Mostly everything else. The main character was sweet but her focus on her body image got tiring after a bit, the love interest had an awesome job but felt a tad one note to me, and then, other than some adorable older ladies, the side characters were forgettable for me as well. I just couldn't get into this one and it just seemed like the romance didn't seem believable and the overall story was just meh. But I love Katherine Center and The Bodyguard is still one of my all time fav romcoms!

Recommended: yep!
If you like her other books, for a fish-out-of-water theme, for a soft and closed-door romance, for adults who are generally emotionally mature, for lots of silly scenes, for little doses of therapy between the characters

Thoughts:
Ahhh, Katherine Center. I've generally enjoyed all the books I've read by her, but I think this one is my favorite. It has one of my favorite themes, with it focusing on a person in an unfamiliar environment. MC is dealing with tons of color when she's a monochrome-only kind of person, and she's got no idea how to swim as she's about to be far over the ocean in a helicopter that may go down and trap her upside down underwater, and just so many other things she's suddenly dealing with. Also let me note that although I can swim, there's no way in hell I'm signing up for something that may have me trapped upside down underwater strapped into a heavy sinking metal contraption IN THE FUCKING OCEAN. So Katherine Center has solidified that new fear into my life, well written, well done, thanks for the warning! 😅

The romance and relationship between Katie and Hutch (his real first name is TOM, actually) is funny and relaxed and felt very natural even though it occurs over a relatively short amount of time. It's closed-door too, so no sexual things happen on page and there's a lot of yearning and wistful thinking. Katie is genuinely considerate of Hutch (and others) even with pressure on her about her job and her dreams putting her in a tough spot. Manipulation is low in this story which I appreciated because it's nice to just read a nice kind story sometimes. People in this book are, for the most part, the way I hope most people actually are. Just not Cole, fuck Cole.

The beef between Cole and Hutch is incredibly stupid. From the start I just kept thinking a) HUTCH is not a cool nickname, it literally means cupboard and makes me think of an old lady who stores china dishes and porcelain doll figures. It's not cool. Also b) it's a nickname on their LAST NAME so it's not like Cole couldn't just also use it?? Maybe I can sum this up by just saying wow was Cole annoying. He's at least given some depth by the end but HARD PASS on that guy, ugh. Anyway, yes, their reason for being distant with each other felt very shallow and had me rolling my eyes in disgust at their idiocy.

The ending is goddamn -- y'all, it just ramps up from a smooth 30 to 100 in like, a page. Fucking insane, and also terrifying in so many ways. Genuinely scary situations, at least to me, that far surpass just "will he call me back" or "does he like me too" kinds of questions you usually see as the climax in a romance.

Best character: George Bailey. What an icon.

For me, Katherine Center is the Queen of Romance. She writes wonderful stories that have all the prerequisites of a romance starting with boy meets girl, trouble ensues, boy and girl end up together. What makes her the best is that her books have so much more than the usual. In this one, Katie struggles with self image among other things. She is a real to life character that you can’t help rooting for. Other favorite characters are Hutch, Rue and Bernie. Cole is initially hard to like, but ends up being somewhat redeemed. And the setting of Key West is perfectly colorful and dreamy. Each time I read a Katherine Center book it becomes my new favorite. This one definitely fits the bill!

This was everything we know and love from Katherine Center: cute, witty, and all tied in a bow in the end. I loved the characters, the banter, and the surprisingly action packed ending. There were parts that came together a little TOO perfectly, but hey, that’s why we love fiction, right? I really enjoyed this one!

This was a sweet story. Unfortunately not my favorite. I felt like I wasn’t able to connect with the characters. I was a fan of the plot.

I have read every Katherine Center book and this one did not disappoint! I really enjoy the Florida Keys and having that be the location for this book was PERFECT! While I enjoyed Katie, the protagonist, I see how she could trigger a lot of readers. She is healing from a severe eating disorder and has a lot of inner dialogue about her body image issues. I found her to be very real but I will give that trigger warning. I loved Hutch, the mmc, and found him to be swoon worthy. 4 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is Katherine Center’s best book yet!

"This was it. This was the phobia. Being exposed, in plain daylight, with nowhere to hide - and then being... rejected. By anyone. Even a stranger."

That's how this book made me feel... exposed. I don't even struggle with all of the same things the protagonist struggles with, but I could still empathize with her experience... especially her fear of rejection.

In her author's note, Katherine summed up the experience of reading this book perfectly:

"It's such an astonishing feat of human imagination. It's so much magic. Researchers have done all kinds of studies about what happens to our brains when we get lost in stories. Our mirror neurons flash. Our brains light up like what we're reading is really happening. We know it's fiction. We know its not real. But we believe it, anyway. And so stories have this power to resonate for us like nothing else in human life can. They teach us things we need to learn, and show us new ways of understanding, and answer questions we didn't know we needed to ask."

She goes on to talk about how this isn't just a love story between Hutch and Katie, it's a love story between Katie and herself "Specifically: Katie and her body - in a kind of enemies-to-lovers trope."

I am always getting myself into debates with people who don't take the romance genre seriously. Romance teaches you so much about the human condition: empathy, communication, connection, vulnerability, growth, healing, grief, fear, hope, passion, resilience, trust, etc. etc... When people compliment me on my communication skills, or my ability to hold an interesting conversation I say "thank you, it's because I read romance" and I truly believe that. Non-fiction can teach you facts, fantasy and fiction can teach you about politics and reveal truths the real world distorts through biases... but romance... romance teaches us how to connect. Connect with ourselves and the people around us. Isn't that a beautiful thing?

And as a certified love hater... this book inspired me and gave me a little bit of hope.

Tropes:
💚love haters to love lovers
🩷workplace romance
🧡found family/ meddling family
💚fake dating/lying/blackmail
🩷videographer x coast guard rescue swimmer
🧡lose yourself to love yourself
💚body positivity (this may be triggering for you, but I promise the ending is worth it)

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

I’m a 36-year-old librarian, and I really enjoyed The Love Haters. Katherine Center always writes stories that feel real, and this one was no different. I liked that Katie, the main character, wasn’t perfect. She made mistakes, had doubts, and felt a lot like someone you might actually know. Her story about starting over, finding confidence, and learning to trust again really spoke to me.

The setting in Key West was fun and colorful, and it made me want to go there myself! I loved the way Katie and Hutch’s relationship grew — it was funny, sweet, and full of real emotions. I also appreciated that the book touched on important topics like body image and grief without feeling too heavy.

As a librarian, I believe stories can help people feel seen and understood, and this book definitely does that. It made me laugh, it made me think, and it left me feeling hopeful.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a love story.

You can always count on Katherine Center to completely transport you to the setting of her book. This story takes place in the Florida Keys & I felt like I was right there with Hutch & Katie. I could smell the ocean air, feel the heat of the sun, and hear the crash of the ocean waves. I could picture the small townhomes Rue owned & The Gals gathered around their community pool every day.

Katie & Hutch are two very likable characters that clearly have a connection with each other. I loved watching Hutch give Katie swim lessons & seeing their bond grow. They both had personal struggles outside their relationship. The conflict for them wasn’t between them, but came as a result of other people & their own personal journeys. That aspect felt very relatable for a lot of readers.

When we read, we often read to escape, but we also want to be seen. I think Center hit the nail on the head in this way.

There’s so much goodness in this story. It makes for the perfect summer read!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This book is set to be released in May!

I love Katherine and her writing. But unfortunately this one fell super flat to me. My main issue was the amount of times her insecurities were brought up. Now don’t get me wrong I love books about body image and body positivity. But i feel like that topic was so heavy in this story it didn’t really seem to fit and overshadowed the whole story between Janie and Hutch. I wish Jamie loved herself a little more and wasn’t so hard on her image. But Her feelings are exact feelings I feel and so relatable but her execution of the topic fell flat. But she loved hard and she was able to overcome so many fears and obstacles and for that I admire!

THE LOVE HATERS by Katherine Center is everything you're used to from a KC book-- a little bit of self-help inspiration, a whole lot of the triumph of love, and just a dash of the most traumatic thing you've ever read.

I greatly enjoy Katherine Center's books, even though I have been blindsided in the past. There are never content warnings up front, but I am here to protect you, soften the blow. This one has a fatal car accident (in the past, but fairly integral to the story) and what I would describe as extreme self-loathing, including past disordered eating (described in some detail!). Oh, and weather-related peril. And a cheating former partner. I think that covers the main traumas, but I'm always happy to get into specifics if you need more details. And yet I would still say this is one of the lighter ones?

Now that we've covered the sad stuff! The POV character Katie is a promotional video maker who gets sent to make a Coast Guard recruitment video. Hutch is the aw-shucks dreamboat rescue swimmer who eschews the title of "hero," even if its true, and is Katie's subject for the few weeks she's in Key West filming. They are of course instantly drawn to each other, although Katie has a lot of internalized fatphobia that she has to deal with in order to learn to swim and also...you know, exist in her body. I appreciated Katie's character arc as she applies a self-help book to her relationship with *herself* and learns to appreciate it. It's heartwarming and life affirming without being like, an "all bodies are beautiful" soap commercial.

It is cute and fun and I read like 95% of it in one day, because I couldn't put it down without finding out what happens, which is always a good sign, if you ask me.

You know how one little lie of omission can snowball? The best snowballs come with swoon worthy grumpy cinnamon roll heroes in the middle of the story. Take my word for it and read this one.

I loved this book so much. Katherine Center always seems to not only write beautiful romances but there are always life lessons that I feel I can use in my own life. The Love Haters was no different.

As we get to know Katie and Hutch we find they are dealing with problems that many we do, body image, insecurity, loss of love ones, family conflicted, etc. In many ways this helped me connect with Katie because I too have dealt with many of her conflicts. As she overcome her challenges I too could overcome mine.

I had the hardest time putting this book down. Every time I did I just wanted to be back in Hutch and Katie’s world watching them fall for each other.

Thanks St. Martin’s Press for giving me an eARC through NetGalley.

It's cute and all, but it feels more like a body-positivity thing than a romcom. I wish Hutch and Katie had more on-page conversations, though, because it felt like they were falling for each other through a handful of conversations and some off-screen things. Half of their talks were about deep, meaningful things, though, so their attraction had some foundation.

I do believe the body image issues were the primary focus, though. It was mentioned too much and too integral to Katie's character for it not to be the main point.

Also, the miscommunication issue Katie fell into? Originally, no, it wasn't her fault. But she also stood by and let things happen. Sure, she'd protest, but also she'd let herself be walked over and just went with it when honestly, she should have just left the bar. That probably was the most frustrating thing about this- there were just a couple of things that happened that Katie "protested" but also let it slide when the other guy didn't budge.

Overall, cute, but I was hoping for more of a romance-focused book rather than something with a cute romance on the side.

thank you Netgalley and Katherine Center for the arc!

This book was really cute and I really enjoyed it for the most part. I really loved the narration / audiobook. I just felt like I was left wanting so much more overall in the end. I would still recommend this book but for me personally it wasn’t very memorable.

I was really excited for this book! Every Katherine Center book that I have read, I have thoroughly enjoyed. While this one was not bad, I didn't love it. I felt like I had a really hard time connecting with the characters and just didn't fully love the story. As a plus size woman myself, I am a huge advocate for body positivity and overcoming those fears. When I first started listening to this, I thought this is going to be a great representation but the amount of times that this is in the beginning of the book really turned me off. It was literally the first 40% of the book and I just was not vibing with that.

over all, this is a cute romance that I still think it is worth the read. It does have a great story about learning to Love yourself and overcoming fears.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC. Okay, so let's start with the premise. Katie (fmc) gets hired to go to key west and make a mini docu series on the coast guard and do a profile on a rescue swimmer. Hutch (mmc) is described as "frowning is his only hobby", and is made out to seem like he will be quiet, standoff-ish, rude. I found this was not the case at all. If anything, Hutch is giving major golden retriever energy. Another main theme of this story is body dysmorphia, low self confidence, and childhood trauma. So read any trigger warnings if you need to before reading!

Katherine Centers writing is fun, not too serious, a little cheesy as times, but I would recommend if you're looking for a fun and quick summer romance. I don't think I would say that I loved this book, but it did keep me entertained.

Loved this one!!! From the beginning to the end. The MC had a good arc of change and the other characters were great. There was one that was fun to hate, one to love and a group of ladies called the Gal Pals who were a kick! OF COURSE George Bailey was in a class of his own. Talk about a scene stealer. The information about the USCG and the job of rescue swimmers was interesting. I loved the setting of Key West with its easy breezy, colorful description. The story was engaging and fun and the ending worked for me. This author has become my go to if I am thinking about reading a romance. 5 stars for me!

This book was phenomenal!! I loved the tropes,relationships, the plot- pretty much everything about it. It had me hooked.

The Love Haters by Katherine Center was such a fun, heartwarming surprise! This was my first time reading one of her books, but it definitely won’t be the last—I absolutely loved her writing style. It’s smart, funny, and packed with just the right amount of heart.

Katie Vaughn’s journey had me hooked from the start. I loved the mix of humor, adventure, and emotional growth woven into her story. The setting in Key West was vibrant and lively, and Hutch (plus his Great Dane!) was the perfect combination of swoony and complicated. The chemistry between Katie and Hutch was fantastic, and the humor throughout kept the story feeling light even when deeper moments surfaced.

There’s a lot to love here: great banter, charming side characters, some hilarious situations (Katie pretending to swim was pure gold), and a sweet message about bravery and second chances. I can’t wait to pick up more of Katherine Center’s books after this one!