Absolutely adorable ROMCOM. So lucky to receive an advanced copy on Net Galley and it had me kicking and screaming with the banter! 5/5

I've previously read some of Katherine Center's books and found them charming and palatable but they left me wanting more. The Love Haters on the other hand did no such thing and instead has been the best book I've read recently. I greatly appreciated the messaging throughout and witnessing the FMC's personal growth. I also appreciated the fast pace and care put into the story, and will likely reread this again and again.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

With lay-offs looming, Katie has been tasked by her boss, Cole, to fly to Key West to make a video about a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer. The swimmer happens to be Cole's brother. Desperate to not lose her job, Katie jumps at the opportunity despite not being able to swim. She spends weeks in Key West getting to know Cole's brother, Hutch, living with his colorful Aunt Rue, and falling in love while making her short documentary.

The Love Haters is a multi-layered love story. A slow burn with a delightful cast of characters. I'd like to fly down to Key West and stay at the Starlite myself. There's playful funny banter. It was a delightfully sweet and funny story. .

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book!!! Another five star read by Katherine Center!

Katie goes to Key West to try to save her job. She has to film a short story on the Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Hutch. While there she finds herself falling for him while also learning to try to love herself. Hutch is a hero who just wants to help people. The two of them together are perfection!

This book was just what I needed! It was such a heartwarming read. I loved watching Katie’s growth. Katie and Hutch were such a special and fun couple and I couldn’t wait to read what was going to happen next. This book had some laugh out loud moments, but also was touching. The side characters were great too! This will definitely be one of my favorite books this year!

📘: The Love Haters by Katherine Center
🗓️: May 20, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St.Martin’s Press for this ARC!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another fun, engrossing read by the lovely and wise Katherine Center. Her books hook you in from the first page and this is no exception. This book features a particularly appealing male lead, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who reluctantly agrees to film a Coast Guard promotional video directed by our (per usual) kind and funny female lead. Lots of great detail about both the Coast Guard and video production industry. It was a little hard to read so much about our leading lady’s deep, deep insecurities, and the third act conflict was also a bit crazy and unbelievable. Nevertheless, our heroine digs deep with Center’s words of insight and reaches the wonderful catharsis of love and self care and happy ending that we all crave and delight in from Center’s books.

Katie is very unsure of herself and wants to be invisible. Hutch is a hero and Katie’s subject for an advertisement for the coast guard.
I laughed, I cried. Quick and easy romance but with deeper elements. Loved the characters and most of the secondary characters. I would definitely recommend this book! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC! I love the difficult subjects that Katherine Center tackled in this book - body image issues, death, loss, job security, social media, family dynamics, etc. It really made the book feel relatable. I loved the characters - even the side characters, especially Rue! I do feel like certain scenes were brushed over that could have used more time to go in depth on or even revisited later on like the conversation with the brothers - it felt like such a large moment and it felt brushed over. Overall, it was a cute, quick read - 3.5 stars but will round up to 4.

Katherine Center does it again in a cutesy romance filled with depth and self love. We follow Katie as she gets the opportunity of a lifetime at work to short a promo video for the US Coast Guard in the Florida Keys. The star of the promo is her manager’s older brother, Hutch- a perfect specimen who is shredded, heroic, and stern. As she pushes herself to love her own body after a traumatic breakup, she learns how to swim from Hutch and tries to save her job by sooting the perfect promo. Soon though, she realizes that she is falling for Hutch and it seems like it’s mutual, even though he is a self proclaimed “love hater”. I absolutely raced through this book. Both characters were so well developed and the love story was not cheesy at all. I loved learning about the USCG and all the extra information about hurricanes and helicopters. Absolutely would recommend to everyone.

My favorite Katherine Center book! I love the main characters and the storyline was sweet. The side characters really added a lot to the story.

All hail the queen of positivity, optimism and love, Katherine Center! I have nearly completed reading her body of work and every single one has been fantastic. Her newest as absolutely a read for me. It is filled with her signature style of fun, and I was at the end of my seat in anticipation of the happily ever after.

Katie is a promo filmmaker tasked with creating a Coast Guard recruitment video, despite not knowing how to swim or anything about the Coast Guard. Her subject, Hutch, is not interested in being in the spotlight and is blindsided when she arrives on day one for filming, as he only agreed to the video because his brother was supposed to make it.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is how Katie struggles with body image issues—such an important topic to address. This story isn’t just about Katie and Hutch and their love story, but also about the importance of learning to love ourselves.

This book publishes in May, and it’s a must-read—it will fill your heart! Thank you, Katherine Center, for writing this book. I also loved the author’s note at the end!

FIVE STARS!!!

This is my favorite Katherine Center book yet! Laugh out loud funny, moving, emotional and romantic all tied together with a perfect bow. Katie's body image struggles are something that every woman can identify with and the journey Katie goes through is quite thought provoking and had me reflecting on my own self esteem. Hutch is a day dream. All the description needed. I will think of the dog George Bailey in every storm forever now, Already can't wait to reread this masterpiece.

Katherine Center books will forever live rent free in my head. I have a need to read everything she writes and this one was no different. Katie is a documentary film-maker who is approached at work by a superior with the opportunity to 1. save her job, 2. go to Key West to film a promo video for the US Coast Guard and 3. have an opportunity to add to a video series she films called 'Day in the Life' where she follows around and film a hero in their everyday world.

There are a few problems. Katie doesn't swim. "Hutch" who is the hero also doesn't do interviews but Katie is determined to ride this out and see where it goes. This book grabbed my heart in several places. Katie deals with some severe body image issues throughout the book. As someone who it took a long time for me to really get to a place where I love my body (which is not a switch and still something I struggle with), I really appreciated the fact that this was also a love story for Katie learning to love herself.

This book was something I enjoyed and didn't want to put down. Were there several moments where the pace seemed a little rushed or the web of lies got borderline ridiculous, absolutely. There were also plenty of moments that took my breath away and made me laugh out loud. This book warmed my heart in a way only Katherine Center can and for that, I absolutely recommend this read!

3.5 Stars

Katherine Center is another author who I really enjoy, so I was excited to read this on NetGalley. Now honestly, this wasn't my favorite. It was a decent book, but nothing has topped The Bodyguard for me. Katie and Hutch were enjoyable main characters, though sometimes Katie's inner monologue was a lot for me to read. Hutch was really well written, and he should be protected at all costs. Rue was honestly my favorite character because she helped the others grow and become better people, even though she had been through a lot. She helped Katie get out of her shell and just brought lots of fun to the book. Cole and Beanie (the side characters) lacked some depth, but Beanie was a bit more enjoyable than Cole.

The story was good, but the pacing felt too fast at some points. Some of the emotional/big reveal moments felt glazed over. Katherine Center wrote about subjects that many of us go through, which I appreciated...but again, it felt lacking sometimes. Overall. this was a quick and cute read, just not my favorite of hers.

I received an advance copy of Love Haters through NetGalley. I love all of Katherine Center’s books! This one had a little bit of a slower start for me, but once it got going I was hooked. I thought the background story for Hutch, Cole, and Rue made for an interesting story. I would have liked to know even more about Rue. I thought the love story with Katie and Hutch (and George Bailey) was sweet but I would have liked more!

While, I liked this one more than The Rom-Commers, I still wasn't 100% completely in love with it. The amount of time spent discussing all the FMC phobias was exhausting. I completely understand hating your body, yourself, and having fears but this just felt a tad exaggerated at times. I did really enjoy how she was able to start getting over those and start to see her own self-worth. This is definitely a slow burn but it was enjoyable. I absolutely adored Hutch, Rue, and the gals. At times, it just felt like there was too much going on and it just felt like it was missing something for me.

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

I really enjoyed this read. While it was not my favorite Katherine Center read it was still one I would recommend.

There were at times where I felt the romance was not as strong as it has been in her other books. This book really focused on the FMC overcoming the hate for her body. I loved the character growth we saw in her, especially with such a challenging topic to face, I wished there were more growth in the romance between Hutch and Katie. I loved being immersed into the coast guard, but I also feel like I have read 3 other books recently that focused on the coast guard so it was funny.

Cole was so incredibly annoying and caused so many issues that consistently made me roll my eyes.

Overall good read! Will still be recommending to friends!

This beautifully written, charming, entertaining, creative story filled with brilliant characters, laughter, awww moments and sunny, water filled days had me sitting comfortably for a few hours to devour each and every word. The Love Haters brings a whole cast of brilliant characters you can't help but love and root for. I enjoyed the cast and the various relationships of this book.
This one touched on a few real-life topics that I appreciated. A big one being self-image and facing fears. Center writes a beautiful author's note at the back of the book about writing her characters that struggle with the same things she does. For her, it's healing. Reading this and thinking back on the book and the way she incorporated body image, fears, self-worth into the MFC made me question how I talk to myself and how I view myself versus how my circle sees me and then the rest of the world. Self-reflection was definitely a huge part of this book and I carried it with me well afterwards.

The MFC, Katie Vaughn has had not the best time lately. She's a videographer and her job is on the line due to possible layoffs. At this, she takes her boss request to go produce a piece on his hot shot, hero brother. Her ex-boyfriend is a rock star whose fans have found her social media and have commented the worst things you can on her body and image. With looming fear of losing her job, and a torpedoing downward self-body image she tells a teeny tiny little lie about being able to swim and high tails it down to Key West to get started on her career saving project.

When she arrives she's greeted with the queen of color, Aunt Rue, Hutch, the boss' brother and his dog, along with Rue's group of girlfriends so lovingly called "The Gals". Hutch has sad eyes, a perfect body and a giant great dane rescue dog that seems to like causing a ruckus around Katie. Both Hutch and Katie explore working together on this project while Katie tries to get over her fears and Hutch tries to save and do everything for everyone.

This book is filled with self journey, swim lessons, friendships, family, rescue dogs, secrets, and bravery. I've only read one other Katherine Center book and I loved that one so much, when I saw this one coming out, I knew I immediately wanted to read it. She doesn't disappoint. She does make me want to go back and read all the books before this. Two home run books wonderfully written with love, laughter and well thought out storylines, I want to know what else is out there she's produced.

I’m pretty sure Katherine Center could write an artist’s rendition of the phone book and I would rate it five stars. She has a unique ability to bring hope, joy, and love to any topic she addresses in her books while respecting what they are. Although she has addressed body image previously, this one hit home for me in the way Katie thinks about herself. She reminds me of how I’ve thought about myself growing up and how I continue to battle how I think of myself as a postpartum mom.

KC also has a unique ability to use topics my husband and I genuinely love. He’s grown up as a volunteer firefighter (iykyk) and has always said in a different life he was a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer… and I’ve always said we need a Great Dane 😬 Rue reminded me so much of my Nana it felt like she was visiting me through this book ❤️

Why am I rambling on in this review about personal things? This is just where I am after reading any KC book. It feels personal. I know when I read her books I’m going to feel like I’ve been visited by an old friend, just like Beanie and Katie.

For those of you not rating this book five stars, I highly suggest watching Katherine Center speak live. She is truly sunshine in human form and after hearing her speak her books come alive in the best ways, especially her humor. I’m usually understand that not everyone has the same preferences and taste in books, but this time I feel like I’m defending one of my closest friends and you may need to reassess 😅

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

I was so excited to receive this book early, I will read anything Katherine Center writes! While I feel like this book deals with some heavier topics there was such care with the way it was written. I appreciated the growth that Katie experienced towards herself throughout the book. The development of Katie and Hutch's relationship felt steady and fun. Aunt Rue and The Gals were such a fun and beautiful part of the story that kept it moving with heart and laughter. Pick this book up if you're ready for a laughs, secrets, and one giant dog who can't stay away from Katie (similar to his grumpy owner!).

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

Thank you Net Galley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for this ARC copy of The Love Haters.

Not me over here, super excited about this ARC from one of my favorite authors!!! Now, I anxiously await my signed copy, which will come in May!

I have a love/hate relationship with all of Katherine Center's books. I love everything about them but hate how reading her books comes to a quick and then I have to wait another year until I can read her new book!

The characters in her books are always so amazing, and I love their journey of self-discovery, bravery, and love. I love how in all of her books, there is a sense of love and friendship between not only the main characters but also all of the other characters within her books. This book, in particular, had quite a few characters who also have life lessons they discovered and worked through. What was even more touching about this love story between the MMC and MFC is the love story that unfolds within Katie's story and how she learns to love herself before she can truly love others.

SO GOOD!!!