Spoiler alert: I am a big fan of Katherine Center. I enjoyed The Love Haters, which revolves around a documentary profiling a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. The story moved along quickly, and I enjoyed Katie's growing relationship and the cast of quirky characters that seem to be a staple in Center's books.

For me, summer starts with a Katherine Center book—and The Love Haters was the perfect way to kick off the season. I’ve loved every single one of her novels, from their cheerful, unmistakable covers to the deeply emotional, always-uplifting stories inside. And with their traditional May pub dates, her books have become a kind of warm-weather ritual. While Happiness for Beginners might still be my forever favorite, The Love Haters comes very, very close.

This sun-soaked, witty rom-com follows Katie Vaughn, a video producer whose career is teetering on the edge—until she’s offered a dream assignment in Key West: profile Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a grumpy and gorgeous Coast Guard rescue swimmer. There’s just one problem: she can’t swim. Oh—and Hutch is her coworker’s estranged brother. Cue secrets, swim lessons, sizzling chemistry, a massive Great Dane, conga lines, hurricanes, and more than one life-changing truth.

What I loved most? Katherine Center has once again written a romance that is not only swoony, adorable, and refreshingly healthy—but also surprisingly profound. Katie’s internal journey is as compelling as the love story. Her struggle with body image, fear, and self-doubt was portrayed with such honesty and warmth. Center doesn’t just write romance—she writes healing. This book felt like a hug. A joyful, technicolor, life-affirming hug that gently unravels the lies we tell ourselves and replaces them with kindness and courage.

The pacing is tight, the dialogue sparkles, and every side character is vividly alive. Aunt Rue, in particular, stole my heart. And Hutch? He’s not just hot—he’s kind, flawed, honest. Real.

The Love Haters is full of humor, heart, and heat. It’s about facing fears, telling the truth, falling in love, and learning to live bravely. I adored every minute of it. Easily a five-star read—honestly, make that six.

Highly recommend for fans of heartfelt rom-coms, body-positive heroines, grumpy-sunshine dynamics, and stories that celebrate real love, real growth, and real joy.

Katherine Center hits it out of the park again with her newest novel. Her characters are delightful and relatable. I enjoyed reading this one from start to finish and hope her next one comes out soon.

Katherine Center is a genius! I do not know how she does it, but I absolutely adore all of her books. She does such a thorough job with her research, and it shows. Her characters are likable, but also believable as they are flawed and in no way perfect. I adored Katie and Hutch, enjoying the way their relationship progressed. I loved Rue and her friends and the way they just took care of each other. Rue's connection to Hutch was phenomenal and all I will say is WOW! Her stories have so many layers. As for the antics they got into, I loved the humor and laughed out loud many times. I will read every book Katherine Center writes from here on out. And if you have never seen her in person, you are missing out. She is absolutely HILARIOUS and will have you cracking up! The story of how she met Josh Duhamel is absolute gold!

I have loved everything I've ever read by Katherine Center and I will continue to read everything she publishes. However, I'm not sure "The Love Haters" really landed for me.

I'll start with the things I liked about this book, because it was overall an enjoyable read. More than anything else in this book, I loved Katie's character. While this book was a romance in the traditional sense, a lot of the story really focused on Katie's relationship with herself, particularly with her body. I loved this element of the story and thought it was a really true-to-life depiction of how these issues can affect and consume people. I loved all of the supportive people in Katie's life who helped pull her out of her funk, especially the supportive women.

I think that the romance here just didn't quite sell me. I've said before that Katherine Center does a phenomenal job at writing emotion in her romance novels. Compared to her prior novels, I didn't really feel the connection between these two characters. We're told that they're connecting and growing together, but we're not really shown it. (<spoiler>This especially includes the end, where Hutch literally has to rescue Katie from a hurricane and approaches the whole thing with almost cool indifference. We're told he was frantic about the whole thing, but on the outside he sure is stoic </spoiler>). The book is called "The Love Haters" but that's not even really the plot. There's maybe two throwaway lines about it. If anything these two have very instant lust/chemistry.

3 stars

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The Love Haters was a sweet, forced proximity that touched on deeper topics. With a beautiful found family, I was completely enamored with Katie, Hutch, Rue, the gals, and George Bailey! This felt like a book I would want to bring to the beach.

Katie was her own worst enemy at times. She could be so negative and hateful to herself. And while her internal monologues went on longer than I would have liked, I loved watching her grow. Her journey to finding peace, positivity, and love with herself and her body was a fabulous one! And Hutch was someone I loved right away. He could be so quiet and serious, but he was also kind, caring, and so sweet. I wanted to know all of his thoughts! Plus, his dog was the cutest! I would love to steal George Bailey from the pages!

Watching Katie and Hutch work together, while the tension simmered, was a lot of fun. But their path wasn’t easy. Thankfully they had Rue and the gals cheering them on. They were such a hoot! Closing this story, I loved Katie’s journey with herself. I loved Hutch and his dog George Bailey. And Rue and the gals!

This book was, unfortunately, just not for me. I can see why others might like it, and I enjoyed the Coast Guard aspect of it, but the "romance" just wasn't working for me. I didn't really care much about the FMC storyline (trying to save her job), the "romance" at times just felt forced. I might just be in the minority.

Heartfelt Journey of Self discovery

A meaningful narrative about self love and personal growth. This story was engaging and while not my favorite Katherine Center story- I did like the character drive and development.

<b>2.5 stars</b>
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Katie Vaughn is worried about being fired, so she lies about being able to swim, and is persuaded to go to Key West to film a recruitment video about the coast guard. There she meets Tom "Hutch" Hucheson, the seemingly perfect older brother of her co-worker Cole, who has not been informed that his brother has weaselled out of filming the video. Katie is also pretty much adopted by Hutch's "Aunt" Rue and her vibrant and colourful gang of pensioners who hang out in the apartment complex that Rue owns and manages.

Katie is a "love hater" because her boyfriend cheated on her and broke up with her right as his career as a musician took off, so she's pretty much done with men. Now her ex's songs are playing on the radio constantly, and his most recent hit is literally called "Katie" and seems to be all about how he messed up and wants her back. Katie also has self esteem, a very complicated relationship with food and because of fat shaming by her stepmother early in life, she pretty much hates her body. She literally has a near-panic attack when she has to put on a swimsuit.

Hutch isn't really a love hater, it's just that his brother Cole doesn't really know his brother at all, he just seems to be jealous that his brother is easy-going, kind, very handsome, has a very impressive job (and became virally famous briefly for saving Jenifer Aniston's dog). So anything he says is likely to be untrue. Hutch agreed to have his work featured, because the coast guard really does need new recruits, but he wanted his brother to do it, so they could spend more time together, and more importantly, with Rue. Nevertheless, he adapts without too much complaint and also agrees to give Katie swim lessons.

Obviously they catch feelings over the course of the book, but now, about a month after I finished the book, I can't actually remember what it is that complicates matters and makes it so that they can't be together. I'm guessing it's probably that Hutch lives and works in Florida and Katie is from somewhere else (again, no memory of where)? The first half of the book is slow, and while I can sympatise with a heroine with some quirks, some of Katie's issues are clearly serious enough that she should have been (and probably still be) in intensive therapy, rather than just have her supportive bestie try to talk her down whenever she has a wobbly. When they dominate the story quite that much, it would be nice if there was some sort of resolution over the course of the story. But there isn't. Although she learns to appreciate colourful clothing and doesn't freak out when she has to wear a bathing suit, so that's good enough, right?

The second half of the book, especially the last third, is when I seriously considered just giving up. If I had a physical copy of the book, I would have been tempted to throw it at a wall. Cole suddenly shows up out of nowhere and pretends that he and Katie are dating. Their boss, who is bitter after an acrimonious divorce, also shows up, and the fake relationship has to happen or Katie and/or Cole might get fired? I think Cole is meant to be charming, I found him to be human garbage. There's also a whole thing about a hurricane and needing to evacuate and Katie making incredibly stupid choices.However, I persevered, hoping that maybe the story could be saved - alas, it was not to be.

I've only read one book by Katherine Center previously, <i>The Rom-Commers</i>, which I liked enough to rate it 4.5 stars, despite a rather shaky final act there too. This, I can only give 2.5 to, and that's mainly for aunt Rue and her Golden Girls-esque group of friends, and the fact that being a coast guard is a more unsusual profession to give your hero. If this had been my first attempt at Ms. Center's writing, I would not read any more of her books, despite owning several of them as e-books. I did really like <I>The Rom-Commers</i>, though, so I will give her at least one more chance.

<b>Judging a book by its cover:</b> I have no idea what's going on with this cover, but it doesn't in any way fit with the contents of this book. This makes it seem like it's about people lazing about and enjoying themselves on vacation, which isn't the case at all. Katie gets an anxiety attack just having to put on a bathing suit, there is no way she'd ever display herself so openly on a pool floatie. Hutch is a professional rescue swimmer who doesn't seem to have time for this sort of leisurely relaxation.

I unfortunately had to DNF this one. The plot was interesting and I was curious to see where it was going to go with the whole lifeguarding thing. That being said, I cannot read anymore about the heroine and her personality. She had an eating disorder when she had her breakup and has a lot of struggles with body positivity. I hated reading how she wouldn’t try anything. Just not for me. Would really advise everyone to check the trigger warnings for if some of these things are ones you want to avoid reading.

The absolute excitement that came with receiving this ARC was out of this world! Every Katherine Center book I have read has been an immediate 5 ⭐️’s, so to have this privilege was incredible!
I did love the setting of this story in Key West - it gave a perfect summery, beach vibe. The main characters Katie and Hutch were super cute, although I didn’t feel as strong as a connection with them as I have with Center’s other leads. Aunt Rue and “the gals” gave a much needed comedic relief when heavy topics like Katie’s ED were frequently discussed.
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the brilliant Katherine Center!🏝️🩱☀️

This story had a lot of potential, but unfortunately wasn’t executed well. Katie was whiny and had so little confidence it was difficult to read. After reading many books by Katherine Center, I had very high hopes for this one, but it was a total miss.

“Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past, now she may be lighting her career on fire. 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.
Plus, Cole and Hutch are brothers. And they don't get along. Next stop: paradise! But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen . .. but maybe a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.”

This was a cute read. It was fun, but it also had its emotional moments. I think there was a topic that shouldn’t really have been the centre of the book. I get where the author was coming from, but it took away from the story. I really loved George Bailey though.

Wasn’t my favourite Katherine Center book.


Thank you to NetGalley and and St Martin’s Press for a DRC. The Love Haters is available now.

Katherine Center is becoming a go-to author for me. Her newest release, The Love Haters, is an excellent example of how to write a clever rom com novel with heart and depth.

Katie Vaughn has had a rough year and is on the verge of things getting even worse when she takes an assignment for work that she is woefully unqualified to accept. As a video producer, she is sent from the office in Dallas to film on location in the Florida Keys. Her assignment is to create a Coast Guard recruiting video featuring Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a man whose rescue of a celebrity’s dog went viral years ago but has shunned fame since. Can Katie overcome her own personal doubts and inadequacies to complete the job she’s been assigned and convince Hutch to allow her to make a personal video for her own YouTube heroes day-in-the-life series? As one obstacle after another are thrown her way, it seems unlikely.

The Love Haters puts Katie and Hutch in hilarious situations while simultaneously allowing them to have deep discussions about real things from their pasts. This story is much more than a romance. Katie learns to love herself and find her inner strength along the way. Hutch and his family also have some past hurts to overcome and broken relationships to mend. Although I really dislike the book’s title and the cover graphic has absolutely nothing to do with the storyline, I loved this book and highly recommend it for anyone looking for an uplifting and fun read. Also, I appreciate that this is a relatively sweet book with low level steam, unlike so many of the rom coms on the market lately.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Love Haters is a charming, feel-good read with a fun premise and heartfelt moments. Katherine Center’s writing is warm and engaging, though the story felt a bit predictable and the spark between characters wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped. Still, an enjoyable romance for a cozy weekend read.

Perfect for fans of feel-good fiction with emotional bite, The Love Haters is a tropical getaway in book form—with a few waves, some real heart, and a love story worth rooting for.

I’m usually a big fan of Katherine Center, but this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me. The Key West setting was vibrant and fun, and I really enjoyed the group of women who brought a great energy to the story. But the romance fell flat—I just didn’t feel enough buildup or emotional tension between Katie and Hutch. The ingredients for a compelling love story were there, but the execution felt a bit rushed.

Katie’s preoccupation with her body became repetitive, and the final stretch of the book veered into territory that felt more implausible than heartfelt. That said, Center’s signature warmth and humor were still present, and I appreciated the overall lightness of the read—even if it didn’t fully land for me this time. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC!

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center is a heartfelt, joyful story that offers so much more than just a love story. One of the standout elements for me was the vibrant setting in Key West, especially the scenes with Aunt Rue and the Gals. Their energy, wisdom, and humor added so much charm and heart to the book.

Learning about the Coast Guard through Hutch’s character was a fascinating and refreshing layer to the story. It’s a world that doesn’t often get explored in romance novels, and it added depth and texture. Plus, his dog George Bailey was a scene stealer in the best way.

But ultimately, this was Katie’s story. Her journey of confronting her body image struggles felt deeply authentic. Katherine Center handled that with care and realism, and it’s something so many women will relate to. Watching Katie embrace herself and begin to see her own worth was powerful and moving. Her cousin’s steady support throughout that process was incredibly touching.

While the romance with Hutch was sweet and swoony, it felt secondary to Katie’s personal growth. This is a quick, thoughtful read that reminds you how important it is to love yourself first, and how love often finds you no matter where you are on that journey.

One of my most anticipated books of the year and it was such a delight! I thought Katie was so funny and relatable and I especially appreciated the mental health/body image representation! It also has a fantastic cast of supporting characters- though George Bailey 🥺🐾 easily steals the show! It was hopeful, emotional, and heartfelt with the perfect summer setting! 4.5⭐️

If Katherine Center wrote the phone book, I would read it. All of her writing is wonderful. In Love Haters Katie works toward her dream job and meets "Hutch", an active Coast Guard member who's related to her boss! As they fall in love, there are many different humorous and some serious situations that the two find themselves in. The pacing and writing is excellent. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.