Katherine Center does it again. The Love Haters is funny, romantic, and an all around good time. Katie, the main character, was flawed but I found myself routing for her the whole book. Katie lost her way and her confidence at the beginning of this story, but really worked on herself and came out the other side better for it. Hutch was as dreamy as you would a rescue character to be. Their love story just made sense. Throw in some funny side characters like Rue and the gals, and a overzealous dog, and you have a great rom com on your hands.

Another book by Katherine Center that I just couldn't put down. In the end, it wasn't just your standard romance between two people, but was also the story of how a woman came to love herself. While not my favorite work of the author, it still took me for a ride (on the water).

Katherine Center is an auto-buy author for me, so I was excited to get an e-galley for her newest release. While it’s cute, and definitely has the Katherine Center quirk and charm, this book wasn’t a favorite of hers.

I didn’t check to see if this book had TWs, as I usually don’t really care about them. But I would be interested to see if this one carries any for disordered eating or body dysmorphia, as those two things were a subplot that ran a long way into the book. I did enjoy reading the acknowledgements at the end, to get a sense of where Center was coming from and what she was going for. It did flesh out everything more to me.

The main characters were cute, and I loved the family (found or by blood.) I do wish we had gotten a bit more info/character for the ex-bf, as he felt very one dimensional.

I did find everything about the Coast Guard and search and rescue fascinating. It’s a little-seen part of the military, and I was glad she spotlighted it.

All in all, enjoyed, was cute, just not an all-time favorite of hers.

I received an e-galley on NetGalley. This in no way impacted my review.

Found on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7256183998

Katie goes to the Keys to film a Coast Guard promo video and ends up falling in love with herself and with a rescue swimmer. ARC.

Another Katherine Center banger!! I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't put it down.

Rue was the sweetest and loved her group of ladies and their scheming!

George Bailey was a star, and I need more books with dogs stat!!

My only wish would have been dual POV because sometimes it was hard to imagine what was going through Hutch's mind!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This book was a miss for me. I have enjoyed past books by this author and thought the premise of the book was promising. Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with the FMC or the story. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book early even though it wasn’t for me.

Katherine Center is always an autoread author for me and will continue to be. But The Love Haters did not do it for me. I did not feel the chemistry between the main characters and the miscommunication and lies were so cringy. The main character, Katie, does deal with some bigger self imagine issues and works through that in the book. But sometimes, it felt like she was joking so much about it to take it seriously. There was just a lot that did not work for me in this one. But if you are in the mood for a cheesy, rom com that does handle big issues of loss and self imagine, this is for you. Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced e-copy!

This was a cute, fast read. It was a romance but mostly, it was a love story between Katie, herself and her body. I really liked Katie’s and Hutch’s interactions, and the Gals were a fun group.

I did feel like something was missing from this one. I don’t think we got enough Katie / Hutch time. I also struggled with Cole and that whole situation. But Katherine Center’s books are always fun, charming, and serious all wrapped in one package and this is no exception. A great summer read.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Just when I thought the next book couldn't get as good as her last one, she does it again. I love the self discovery of self love again after life makes you feel horrible about yourself.

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for this arc ◡̈
I started my Katherine Center journey a few months ago and started off with a bang with the Bodyguard. When I saw I was approved for this arc I was so excited. Unfortunately I couldn’t get over the self deprecating FMC. I’m all for positive self image and body positivity but within the first 20% I read more self hate and complete insensitivity toward the FMC’s body than my middle school diary. The body dysmorphia with the swimsuit. This can’t be solved by going to on a shoot for her video production company for the COAST GUARD when she can’t swim 🙃

I love Katherine Center. She’s an auto-buy author for me. And don’t get me wrong, this book was enjoyable and lovely! But it wasn’t what I’d built up in my mind.

My biggest critique is that there was too much going on and most of it felt half baked. Body insecurities, brothers feuding, a looming firing, a celebrity ex that was maybe still in love, found family, and a lie that only got the plot moving over halfway through the book. It just all felt a bit disjointed. It could have been a couple of different stories.

That said, I couldn’t get enough of Rue or George Bailey. I learned a lot about the Coast Guard. Katie annd Beanie’s relationship made me tear up a few times. And I want to move to the Starlite ASAP.

I had a hard time connecting to the story and the characters. On paper, I should be able to relate with Katie on body positive and acceptance issues. But I didn’t care?

It was cute. It was fine. It was boring.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Katherine Center for the ARC.

Well this was… delightful.

Not only did this new book by KC score high for me on both the ‘fun’ and ‘good’ scales, it was also SOOOO funny. The FMC, Katie, is just so inside her own head and so self deprecating it just had me giggling.

The good: I love how Katherine’s writing is always so emotional. I swear she always gets me. Like she always throws in something that surprises and delights me. I also love how every fmc she writes has such a clear voice and is usually on some amazing personal journey that’s so relatable.

I loved both main characters. From Katie’s hilarious inner monologue to the yearning from Hutch and all the cute stolen moments and banter they have together and their sweet little romance. I also love that the MAIN trope in this book, as pointed out in the afterword, is really the enemies to lovers journey Katie has with her own body. Let me tell you, as an owner of a body, one that I don’t always have the best relationship with, some of her self discovery moments were so beautiful and poignant.

“She thought the most important thing a woman could be was tiny” giiirl, hasn’t every woman had that one bad role model in our lives teaching us the same thing? I love that in 2025 so many women are working so hard to break the cycle.

“She loved all of her everything because it was hers, it was such an astonishing idea”. So simple. So true.

I also deeply enjoyed the female friendships in the book and the community building.

The bad: I really disliked Cole and the lies. It’s not that I disliked the story at all, I just did not enjoy this character and the corner he painted Katie into. I wanted to punch him myself, so thanks Hutch for taking care of that for me.

The ugly: Nothing! Except for maybe Lucky the toad. Because toads are ugly.

I love Katherine Center books, and this one was no exception. The combination of love on many different levels, friendship, multi-generational, romantic, loving yourself, and doggie love, made this book a standout for me. Plus, you'll learn about the U.S. Coastguard as well. I highly recommend this book!

I love reading Katherine Center books. This book was so beautiful because I felt like it wasn’t just a love story between a boy and girl. I loved the personal growth Katie made and how she learned to love herself. Of course I loved the story of Katie and Hutch and how their relationship developed. This was another hit by Katherine Center, well done! Beautiful job. Thank you for allowing me to read it early.

Love, love, love. This was my first Katherine Center book and had no idea what to expect. I found myself laughing out loud, kicking my feet while reading this. I related to Katie a lot in this book. We oftentimes get down on ourselves and have difficulties looking at ourselves in a positive light. However, with time she was able to find love again with herself and with someone else. Some parts of this were a little extreme in descriptions, especially the beginning. But overall, I loved it and will definitely read more of Katherine’s books in the future.

Thank you for allowing me to read this advanced copy. I will be doing a social media post on my Instagram in the next week.

This book discussed a lot of though topics in a thoughtful way. I enjoyed getting to learn more about the Coast Guard while following Katie and Hutch’s stories.

Katherine Center’s ability to create well developed characters is impressive and without flaw! Katie, Hutch, Rue, George Bailey and the gals will stay with me. This is a story of empowerment and unity of beautiful people.

Katie has had a rough go and willing to save her job takes an assignment out of her comfort zone. This fun novel has you laughing, brings hope and even a few tears. Thank you for writing such a fun novel to read.

Thank you NetGalley & St, Martin’s Press for this ARC.

A fun journey to Key West with entertaining hijinks and predictable twists along the way. I prefer more natural conflict between rom com leads than was featured here (and the conflict was so cringe). Katie’s issues were touched on more than they might have been in other books, which I appreciated, but all the context of her life felt like it still needed more definitive strokes than the shadows we received. Overall, enjoyed the escape while I was there.

3.5 stars rounded up. This book was really sweet! I haven't read Katherine Center before, but after this I'll definitely check out her other books. I really enjoyed her writing style, and while some of the messaging was a little heavy-handed, I appreciated the representation of body image struggles and the references to the Gottmans. While I loved the characters, I do wish we got to see a little more of them being sweet and flirty, rather than angsty and confused. I appreciate yearning as much as the next person, but I also love seeing characters happy together. Also, some of the behaviors in this book, primarily Cole's, was forgiven way too quickly in a way that felt unrealistic.

All of that aside, it was cute and fun and entertaining. It'll be a great summer read for fans of contemporary romance novels, and it never hurts to have a sweet, giant dog thrown in the mix.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!