Member Reviews

The Love Haters is a must read if you like romantic comedy stories. The main character, Katie is a video producer who takes on an assignment a little out of her league. Her inner dialog was so relatable that I enjoyed her character a lot. Her assignment is to profile Hutch, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, but her boss/coworker create a lot of issues for her along the way. This was such a great read and a feel-good story. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

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3.5 rounded up
Was I missing a chapter? While I live this author and I did live the book, it left me hanging. It needed spice, more than it had. I got to read about Lucky the frog in the epilogue, but nothing on Hutch? Had there been even second base, this would have been a 5. It was too PG13

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and the author for the chance to read this book.

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Katherine Center does it again! I love her writing style, witty banter and chemistry. A great summer/beach read!

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4.5 stars
I love Katherine Center!
This book had me laughing out loud! The characters were great.
Katie is a video producer and is trying to save her job. Cole is her boss and wants to help her save her job. He has Katie go to FL to interview Coast Guard hottie Tom “Hutch” Hutchinson.
What can go wrong or right? Let’s see….Aunt Rue, a Great Dane, Katie not being able to swim and faking it, swim lessons, helicopter flights, a hurricane, and more funny things.
Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Could not wait to get my hands on Katherine Center's newest read! But be prepared, this one isn't your typical formulaic rom-com.

Instead of a steamy, tension-filled romance, Center focuses on Katie and Katie's relationship with herself. Throughout the book, Katie has to work through deep-seated body issues. I found myself both rooting for Katie and wanting to tell her to snap out of it! (Fortunately she has Beanie for that!) I was so excited to see where the breakthrough could go.

That said, there is a romance. And Hutch sounds like exactly my dream guy, Katie's too. But this romance didn't pop off the page for me. In fact, its development fell a little flat. I wanted wooing and big declarations. However, that really seemed reserved for Katie's development. Katie and Hutch just seemed to fall together (literally) without much preamble or backstory and build-up. I could have used just a touch more tension. Regardless, Hutch can stay. (Cole, on the other hand, can take a hike.)

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I’m sorry! I like Katherine Center but this veered too far into cutesy for my taste, especially the beginning—i expect some degree of implausibility from KC but the first two or three chapters were just the most insane setup so she could put her heroine into the situation she wanted. better once we got there but the fake girlfriend plot line around 75% made me so annoyed. I do feel the heroine was beyond her normal heroine in obliviousness, I think you can struggle with body image without being portrayed as someone everyone falls in love with anyway and you never see that.

I still like her writing and will tune in to the next book. The dog and the pie piece in the eye were very cute. Hutch noticing the sectoral heterochromia was definitely my favorite part

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Another great read from Katherine Center! I always know what to expect from her books and this definitely delivered. Great characters, depth, good banter! Interesting reflections on societal beauty standards and the impact they can have on people. Only reason I knocked this down to 3 stars instead of 4 is that the main conflict had to do with basically miscommunication and a somewhat outlandish situation that felt kind of out of place and unrealistic whereas the rest of the book felt very grounded and realistic. Overall a great read though would recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this earl in exchange for my honest opinions all opinions are my own!

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I haven't read a Katherine Center book that wasn't 4-5 stars and this one was no exception! I loved the romance between Katie and Hutch but even more so, I loved the romance between Katie and herself. The best love stories are the ones that are about more than romantic love and Katie's self image issues felt extremely personal to me and relatable.

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I was so excited to receive an advanced copy from SMP and NetGalley as Katherine Center is a top three author for me. I loved everything about this book. The character development was so strong that I was immediately sucked into the storyline. I loved the bigger lessons in this book, learning to love yourself and learning to conquer your fears. Sometimes that can lead to things you never thought possible. Rue and her friends were a delightful extra to this book. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with them?!? The backstory of Hutch, Cole and Rue was unexpected and heartbreaking but so full of love and redemption that you couldn’t help but smile. Add this to your list to buy in May 2025. “It’s good before, and it’s good during and it’s good after”

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Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of 'The Love Haters' by Katherine Center.

I loved this one! The past couple of Katherine Centers' books have been hit or miss for me. I felt like this was her best one in a few years.

I loved the relationship between Katie and Hutch. More importantly I loved how much Katie grew and worked on herself throughout the novel. It was awesome. I also loved the community that they built with Rue and The Gals in the village. It's like I was visiting my grandmother.

Congrats to Ms. Center. I will keep reading everything she writes.

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📚The Love Haters by Katherine Center

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🫑

🚁 Just like with The Rom-Commers, Katherine made me cry, burst out loud with laughter, and annoyed my husband many times with "listen to this" moments when I read him funny parts.
The Love Haters was a joy to read, and I wiggled my toes in anticipation of what would happen next many times! I also learned so much about Coast Guard rescue 😳 and about other things (I don't want to spoil the book if I tell you because I know you'll google its meaning😉). 🌺 I love how Katherine writes wounded characters, but their hurt doesn’t come out as anger but as vulnerability and kindness. And the plot?! Oh my, so good. And her author's note is a love letter to all of us. Love, love, love this book.

And at last, I have another fictional boyfriend. Everyone needs Hutch Hutcheson in their life. 💓

❤️ I can't wait to read Katherine Center's next book.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for eARC.

Tropes:
💏 Strangers to lovers
☯️ Grumpy/sunshine 
🫂 Found family

⚠️ TW: Death of parents 
⚠️ TW: dysmorphic disorder

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The Love Haters by Katherine Center
Rating (5/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Publishing date - 05/20/25

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc! This is one of my most anticipated reads for 2025 so I was excited to be approved by Netgalley last week.

Absolutely loved it. Could not put this one down! Memorable characters especially the Great Dane named George Bailey. With laugh out loud moments & heart felt scenes ; this book is sure to be a hit next year!

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Katie, whose job involves filming documentaries, takes an assignment to film a promo for the Coast Guard. This job highlights rescue swimmers which sounds exciting until Katie realizes her omission about not knowing how to swim may cost her the job. Then she meets the rescue swimmer, Hutch, and with the help of Rue and the gals at the motel Katie gets the shot of ‘Vitamin Sea’ she desperately needs!

One of the characters who especially stood out to me is Rue. Her outlook on life just simply made me happy. I loved her backstory and her optimistic view of life in technicolor- such an endearing character.

I loved this book and guess what? I found my new book boyfriend! Thanks so much to @stmartinspress for gifting me the opportunity to read this via @netgalley.

When this releases on May 20, 2025, be sure to read the author’s note at the end. She discusses the messages of body image, self worth, confidence, and how self-love is vital.

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This was a solid rom com. I enjoyed learning about the Coast Guard and the setting in the Keys. I also enjoyed the relationships the main character, Katie, had with her best friend as well as the other women (Rue and The Gals) in the book. The main male character was a little flat for me.

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I have a lot of conflicting thoughts on this book. For one, I was really into it! As someone who has struggled with disordered eating in the past, I really enjoyed her journey (and beanie was straight precious!) I was loving Rue, and the little old ladies, and the dog (I'm a fellow great dane owner myself) and both the MMC and the FMC.
AND THEN
After around three fourths of the book, the most stupid pointless deception came into the book, and the FMC just... went along with it! I was so mad, i almost gave up on the book. I'm glad I didn't, but i really hated that.
Now the scene with the hurricane and water rescue were really intense, and i was into it for sure. I did enjoy the book. But them finally getting together just felt so quick, and even though the epilogue was thorough, I still felt like I was missing a final connection. Have him asking her to be his girlfriend or something... asking her to move to florida... SOMETHING.

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As usual, Katherine Center deals with difficult topics with grace and tenderness. I fell in love with these characters and am not afraid to admit that I did have tears falling while reading! We may not all find ourselves in extreme circumstances but we certainly all are tasked with finding ways to live with ourselves, even those parts of us that prove more difficult to love. This book will make you love yourself, and the world, just a little bit more.

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Katie and Hutch are so real!! 🥹 As usual Kathrine Center has outdone herself! Definitely looking forward to listening to the audiobook next (KC’s audiobooks are always so well narrated!)

I definitely recommend this asap! This is the best way to hate love 🥰

Thank you St Martin’s for this ARC.

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Katie is a documentary filmmaker, sent by her colleague Cole to highlight the Coast Guard, and specifically, Hunky rescue diver, Hutch. The problem is Katie knows nothing about the coast guard, and doesn't even know how to swim. She needs to learn both things while keeping her head on straight in such close proximity to a man with the body of a Greek god.

I really liked this book, it has a lot of depth to the story, a nice pace, and a multifaceted love story. I will say, as someone who cares for young adults with eating disorders and who had disordered patterns around food and poor body image for over half my life, I did feel triggered by the language used around Katie's relationship with food and her body. I think it becomes easier to manage feelings around as this story evolves and grows.

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4 stars

Another fun and sweet book from Katherine Center.
I liked this book, but unfortunately I didn’t love it. I enjoyed the atmosphere and all the action and thought it was a really fun premise but I didn’t get much from the romance. Hutch felt like a pretty one dimensional character and I didn’t feel much of a connection between him and Katie. Additionally, for about 67% of the book, pretty much nothing happens. I read this as an ebook so I was SHOCKED to find out when the book started to get interested that I was already well over halfway through.
This book is called The Love Haters and although we are told that the main characters hate love and even WHY they hate love, that really doesn’t translate into how they act. They have an almost love at first sight connection very early in the book, which really negates everything we are initially told about them.
This definitely wasn’t a bad book, but it kind of fell flat and definitely doesn’t live up to Katherine Center’s other books

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

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If NetGalley didn't require to to have a certain amount of words/characters for reviews, I would simply have put, "No Notes".

No Notes. None. Katherine Center is an angel from heaven who crafts the best rom-coms. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
Full Review to come.

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