I did a combination of reading the digital copy and listening to the audio copy of this book. The narration by Patti Murin was spot on and really helped me immerse myself into the story.

I haven't been a Katherine Center reader for all that long, but I have loved every book that I've read by her. This one fell right in line. Her characters all seem so real. They are quirky, vulnerable and flawed. I really wish they were actual people, because I would love to hang out with them.

This story of a video producer who is doing her very best not to get laid off from her job. Apparently, that means signing on to do a story on a guy who is a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard. It's a pretty immersive job, but she takes it out of desperation despite the fact that she can't swim. Hutch and his great dane, George Bailey instantly try to worm their way into her heart and she's immediately in over her head. Good thing Hutch is teaching her to swim!

The underlying messages are of positive body image and learning to love yourself. All I know is I loved this book. Katie, Hutch and George Bailey all made me very happy!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio and NeGalley for the copies. All thoughts are my own.

For Katie, the elephant in her living room was body image. I can relate! The chubby little girl inside will never forget the time a 5th grade classmate told me to go home and not eat. For some of my GR friends, there was too much about learning to love how she looked. I found it to be therapeutic. Here are five things I LOVED about this one:

🐕George Bailey - a larger-than-life dog with an over-sized love for Katie. He wasn't even her dog. She reciprocates in a way that will have you pulling out the tissues.
🏊‍♂️Hutch -my friend Cara referred to him as a "cinnamon roll" of a hero. I love that. Hutch may be my favorite Katherine Center MC yet. What a great guy!
👙Katie - Patti Murin does an excellent job giving us Katie's perspective. Katherine Center gets the credit for writing Katie's story in such an engaging way. See her go from monochromatic and swimsuit averse to wearing all the colors and splashing her way to a much richer life.
👩‍🦳Rue - A woman who has overcome obstacles and grief in amazing ways. Her Key West Starlite Cottages and Vitamin Sea boutique added technicolor to the story as did her group The Gals. They were like a Greek chorus to the main event.
🔑Key West - The Florida Keys are a magic place to visit. I love having this book set there except when a hurricane is on the way. Talk about a nailbiter.

The story of your life is always full of mystery. You can unfold it on a table like a map, and study it, and understand it in new ways.
It's not different, but you are.

Ever wonder why we like to read love stories? Katherine Center has once again given us a book that will help us understand ourselves better while enjoying an engaging read. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC and to St. Martins Press and Edelweiss+ for a digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Love Haters by Katherine Center
Narrated by Patti Murin
Publish Date May 20, 2025

I am a fan of Katherine Center because she does "com" part of "rom-com" so well. I love her dead-pan humor. I also like her author's note at the end of audiobooks. I have been listening to her audiobook at every release for the last four years - it's my summer escape.
In "the Love Haters," the female character works at a mid-size video production company in Dallas. She also has a passion-project on youtube on the side to record a day in a life of a hero. She hears a rumor at her job about a big lay off. Desperate to keep her job, she takes an assignment to film coastguard rescue in Key West, FL. It involves a helicopter rescue mission. She agrees to take an assignment lying about her inability to swim.
This is how the story begin, and in Key West, her interviewee is this tall, handsome, grumpy sunshine with a golden heart and a big dog. It felt a bit cliche and I dislike a set up where main character lies, but I was still having a good time until half way through because Center make it light and funny. Then, as the story goes on, too many plot devices (crazy dramatic ones at that) were introduced to the point I stopped caring about the story because it felt too outlandish. Katherine Center is not afraid to be dramatic and unrealistic judging from other books I have listened to. So if you are a big fan of dramatic scenarios, you might enjoy this book.
She also likes to include current issues (in this one, body image and social anxiety in online age) resulting in some readers categorizing her as women's fiction. I really appreciate this though. It is almost a return of "chick-lit," and why not!?
It happens in Key West, so it is a good beach read - and Katherine Center is still very funny. The romance is not too spicy and you can read this book on an airplane to Florida. In the world that is in love with Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez, I feel Katherine Center is very much overlooked. I would highly encourage give her rom-com a try. This particular one missed a mark for me, but I will pick a new one next year, because I still like her books.
The audiobook narration is light and easy to listen to.
PS. I really disliked the title, "the Love Haters." I didn't care for the title "the Rom-Commers" either (I gave 5 stars for the Rom-Commers though)

An advanced copy of this audiobook was provided courtesy of Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. My opinions stated herein are my own. Thank you so much!!

I've read a couple Katherine Center's romance books previously, and this one had the same beautiful love story at the core of it, making it easy to root for Katie and Hutch, but I had a small issue with how the book was presented. The discussion of ED and body-image issues, while necessary and, in my opinion, well resolved in the story, made the first ten to fifteen percent of it quite difficult to get through, especially as the promo for the book makes it sound like a fun romcom (which it was, in many aspects, but it also did deal with topics like this that would require readers being informed about their decision to read it). A quick author's note before the first chapter mentioning that Katie has a history of ED and extreme body image issues brought on by various factors in her past would have helped with being prepared for these themes in the story itself. I did enjoy the book though and the all the drama that came with the colourful cast of characters!

This was my first Katherine Center book and I wasn’t disappointed. I instantly had sympathy for Katie because of her self image issues, I also struggle with self image issues at times. I enjoyed reading her journey to loving herself. Hit Hutch was such a man! I adored him, he was so sweet and I ultimately expected him to be unlikable. Seeing Katie and hutch’s love story unfold was beautiful. The only person I disliked was Cole. He was so unpleasant I couldn’t stand it. Thank you Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for this ALC

Is anyone surprised that I gave this 5 stars? 😂🤭 I maintain that Katherine Center can do no wrong, I love her story telling and her writing and her characters and her messaging!!!!

This story has a heavy focus on body image so steer clear if that’s a trigger for you! But I honestly think this was written so well, I loved the journey Katie went on in learning to love herself and her body.

I loved the romance between her and Hutch (Hutch was an angel) and the end of the book took a turn that I was absolutely not expecting but I loved how full circle it was!! The Coast Guard aspect was so interesting and I also just loved the community and the side characters.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

She makes documentaries. He saves lives in the US Coast Guard. She is sent to Key West to film a promo video of him because his own brother is too chicken s#%^ to face his big brother but she can’t swim so SOMEONE needs to teach her and omigod just read it. You’ll love it.

I reviewed the plot of The Love Haters on the ebook version, so here I want to focus on Patti Murin as the narrator. She is wonderful and brings KC’s books to life with a voice that’s both animated and also natural enough that I’m not thinking “this is Patti Murin’s story” the whole time I’m listening. Great job!

DNF at 12%, chapter 4!

I couldn’t do it. All this talk of weight and disordered eating habits gave me such ick. It wasn’t what I was expecting from Katherine Center unfortunately. There’s such insecurity in this FMC and I wish there had been concrete steps taken to improve her self image but based on other reviews - it seems to only get worse. Can’t and won’t do this to myself!

I had a bit of trouble with the main female main character. As someone who has an eating disorder and body dismorphia I at first found her relatable but then don’t think it was ultimately handled well. It very much felt like having a man love her made her problems go away. In reality this is something that will always be part of my life. Additionally her getting trapped in a literal life or death situation with the hurricane just seemed way too high stakes for how the rest of the story went and just felt a bit disproportional. I also just felt like she let men walk all over her. Great audio book narrator though and a quick read with good pacing.

Short synopsis: Katie is sent to Key West in efforts to save her job, to interview Hutch (an Internet famous Rescue Swimmer).

My thoughts: I knew going into this we’d have some silly lighthearted moments, and the female MC was going to be a lovable Hot Mess. While that’s mostly right, there is also a lot of body dysmorphia and an ex boyfriend who totally steamrolled her self esteem. Parts of that did hit close to home for me, so I loved the positivity towards the end when Katie finally sees herself.

I adored Beanie and her friendship, everyone needs a friend like her! Always helping Katie find the goodness in herself, she’s friendship goals for sure! I also loved George Bailey and Rue!

The romance was sweet in this one with the embarrassing situations that had me giggling. This is the perfect Rom-Com for the summer!

Read if you love:
* Coast Guard rescue swimmer
* Florida Keys
* Silly situations
* Dogs
* Quirky Elderly side characters

I have read a few Katherine Center books and really enjoyed them. She writes romance novels with a solid plot and real-life problems. Her characters are relatable. I had a hard time getting into The Love Haters. I felt like there was a lot of build up to Katie actually meeting Hutch. I also didn’t relate to the body image struggles of Katie, which made her unrelated to me. Katherine always has wonderful, thoughtful quotes embedded in her books, and this was no different.

⭐️⭐️✨ 2.5/5
Book: The Love Haters by Katherine Center
Format: ARC and Audiobook

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Macmillan.Audio for the ARC! The narrator on the audiobook did a fantastic job!

This was my first Katherine Center book, and I really wanted to love it—but sadly, it just did not click for me. I did not feel much chemistry between Katie and Hutch, and the banter felt more forced than flirty. Hutch was supposed to be dreamy, but honestly just came off kind of grumpy, and their connection never really pulled me in.

Also, just being real here, the constant focus on body image was tough. As someone who is trying to give myself more grace after having two kids back to back, it felt more discouraging than empowering. On the bright side, the dog was my favorite character! I am super thankful for the audiobook, because that is the only way I was able to get through it. This one was a miss for me, but I know it might land better for others!

i overall enjoyed this book, but i do feel there were a lot of tropes used. i was also surprised at the lack of spice! while i would read more of her books, I wouldn’t say that this was Katherine center’s best work

DNF @ 6%

As someone who has struggled with body image issues and disordered eating I was triggered by her inner monologue talking about how many calories she restricted herself too, and how small she was. This was not for me. I think some trigger warnings may be helpful.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC opportunity.

This book is SO different from Katherine Center's previous stories, but after reading her Author's Note I have a deep appreciation for it.

I listened to the first 88% of this story and then I just had to know what happened, so I read the rest. The audio for this one doesn't stand out. It was okay, nothing stellar, but not annoying either. The story on the other hand is not your typical love story between two humans; it's, instead, a love story between Katie, the FMC, and herself. There's some bantar and she does fall for the MMC, but ultimately this is a story of Katie finding and falling in love with herself.

At first, I wasn't a huge fan. I wanted a typical KC read, but when I read her Author's Note and realized that this was her purpose, I realized it was executed well. Katie has a back and forth relationship with her body for much of the book, but in the end she resolves that and falls for herself. I can relate with this in a past and present tense. Women have historically always struggled with body image. There are of course many Beanie's (Katie's friend) in the world who don't, but I think a large group of us do. This would be a fantastic book for a YA audience too, because that is an age where this is very prevalent.

I loved Hutch as well, as his own character. I particularly love the rescue scene (if you know you know) The love element between him and Katie was very back seat to the story of herself. I wish there had been more here, but that wasn't the point or the author's purpose.

Center writes rich characters that feel like real people, and that is something I can and will always love about her writing.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC version of the Love Haters!

Hutch & Cole & Rue’s story?!?! Absolutely ripped out my heart. Hutch’s reason for whistling. Hutch’s mom’s last wish. Hutch’s penny collection. Katie’s flower hair clip. Rue instantly loving Katie and including her in the family. 🥺 Rue spoiling Katie throughout the book. Rue’s gals!!!! 💓 Lucky the toad! I loved Katie and Hutch’s story. 🥹 I loved the glimpse I got of the Florida Keys and it made me want to go visit so badly!!! I also thoroughly enjoyed getting to glance inside the US Coast Guard — that felt epically cool and what an interesting storyline! I absolutely loved Hutch’s dog (George Bailey) and George’s response to Katie. That made for some truly great moments in the story!! I loved that Hutch was truly such a good guy through and through.

I am still trying to figure out how I felt about this book and it’s FMC, Katie. Katie hates her body in a very visceral and extreme way. There was talk about disordered eating. I feel like it is important to have those triggers WAY out in the open. (I wasn’t prepared for that.) In addition to catching me off guard I just didn’t appreciate hearing about the hatred of her body throughout the entire book. I do enough of that myself and while it’s nice to feel “seen” — it’s even nicer to not have to feel anxious about it while trying to enjoy a story. It just made the story a lot less enjoyable for me as we were in Katie’s head.

I did love the people in Katie’s life who helped her to heal… while hurt people hurt people, healed people heal people. And I felt that from Beanie and Hutch and Rue for sure! (Also: not sure at all if this is how we spell their names as I listened to the audiobook!) I did really enjoy Katie’s revelation towards the end of the book while the boat was sinking where she realized how futile hating her body was. How she wasted so much time and energy on that when her body was strong and capable and just right the way it was.

The ending felt “happy for now” rather than “happily ever after” and the epilogue felt a little disjointed as we went through the wrap up and then back to the conversation between Katie & Beanie directly post-rescue after that wrap up? That felt weird to me and I didn’t understand that choice. The ending also felt abrupt and unfinished or hurried to me. I think I just was waiting for something more there that didn’t come.

When I saw Patti Murin was narrating this book I got so excited! I love her so much!! What a lovely human with a lovely voice and stellar acting skills. I enjoyed listening to her beautiful, soothing, funny, quirky voice throughout. At times - and I don’t know if it was just how Patti delivered lines in the audiobook or if it was the story itself - but at times it felt like the romance wasn’t super romantic? Or maybe that Katie was just exuding friend vibes all the time?

All in all, I had a lot of fun reading this book. I absolutely fell head over heels in love with this place and the people within. The characters were the BEST part of this book!!!

✨ARC REVIEW ✨ This book definitely had its pros and cons. I loved the coast guard representation throughout the book. The main female character was kind of whiny the entire book in my opinion while the main male character didn’t talk too much. The idea of this book was fun and good, but I think the fmc played victim too often and was just kind of a downer the whole time. The book did have me laughing a lot and the best character was by far the Great Dane rescue named George Bailey. Overall, I would rate this a 3.5 ⭐️.

While this wasn’t my favorite Katherine Center book, it was a sweet little diddy that I ultimately enjoyed quite a bit! Katie and Hutch were so cute and I really enjoyed the chemistry between them. Aunt Rue was AMAZING and Cole was an absolute twerp but they both added so much to the story along with Katie and Hutch.

If you’re in the mood for a sweet read that’ll hurt jusy a bit, this is for you!

2 ⭐️ I’m guess I'm a hater of The Love Hater

WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ rom-com
✨ key west setting
✨ forced proximity
✨ banter
✨ insta-lust
✨ slow(ish) burn
✨ strong female friendship
✨ HEA
✨ TW: Body image issues (present), eating disorder (past), being cheated on (past), death of parents (past), illness, near death experience


My Thoughts:

Audiobook rating: 5 ⭐️ The audiobook production and the narrator was great.
Story rating: 1 ⭐️ There is nothing about this story I liked.

I didn’t like this book at all. Based on how I felt, it’s a 1-star read. But the writing itself is competent and the audiobook production/narrator were great, so I’m bumping it up to 2 stars.

The biggest issue for me was that the entire story centers on Katie's body image struggles and past eating disorder, which was not advertised. I didn’t relate, and honestly, this just isn’t an “issue” I’m interested in reading about. But even if it’s not my thing, I still think a good story should pull you in. This one didn’t. I only finished it because I got the audiobook as an ARC from NetGalley.

Katie, is just not likable. She’s old enough to have gone to therapy (like, a lot of therapy) for her body image issues and everything that went down with her ex. But nope. Instead, she relies on her cousin/best friend to guide her through every single problem like she’s a child. Their relationship is so codependent I legit got the ick.

Katie felt like a caricature of the insecure rom-com heroine: she hates her body, lets her ex walk all over her, lies to get a job, and constantly objectifies the love interest because he’s SO HOT - while also drowning in inner monologues about how flawed she is. And then, the second the love interest kisses her and tells her she’s beautiful, she suddenly decides maybe she shouldn’t be so hard on herself and raves about how this was such a healing experience. Okay . . . so you needed a hot guy to validate you in order to like yourself? Got it.

As for the love interest, Hutch, he’s a hot cinnamon roll but kind of a dud. Right before kissing Katie, he says, “You’re like a human hot fudge sundae or something.” 🤡 Cool.

There’s also a bar scene that was honestly infuriating. It involves a drinking contest where the "prize" is a kiss from the FMC, which she didn't consent to. The whole setup felt outdated, uncomfortable, and wildly inappropriate. I couldn’t believe how it played out, and it made me lose respect for multiple characters.

There’s also a big emotional climax that’s meant to be powerful, but it just didn’t land for me. The situation itself was believable and tense, but the FMC’s reaction felt totally off. In the middle of a genuinely dangerous moment, she launches into a long self-love monologue, affirming each part of her body like she’s in a yoga class instead of a life-or-death scenario. I get that it was supposed to be empowering, but it came off as unrealistic and kind of ridiculous given the context.

Another major problem was how much telling there was versus showing. I never felt immersed in the story or connected to the characters because everything was just told to me instead of being experienced.

Honestly, I just didn’t like much about this book. Which is a shame, because I’ve enjoyed other Katherine Center books before. But this one? Definitely not for me.