Katie is still trying to live in shadows after getting publicly cheated on and dumped by her now famous, singer ex-fiancé. Her job is in turmoil because job cuts are looming and she is desperate to stay there. When her co-worker, Cole, offers her a job filming a Coast Guard promo video profiling his brother "Hutch," a rescue swimmer in the Floriday Keys, she takes it. While there, she's forced to deal with her body insecurities and swimming fears.

After being dumped in such a public way, Katie's body issues turned traumatic. Her one friend and cousin, Beanie, was her sole source of comfort with daily FaceTime calls until Katie met Rue and The Gals in the Keys. Rue, the owner of the property Katie was staying at, was also the caregiver for Hutch and Cole when their parents died. Rue and her friends enveloped Katie in all the love and friendship she was missing. I loved every bit of their antics.

The side plot of George Bailey, the Great Dane, was highly entertaining and mildly stressful, given what happens in the latter half of the book. (No pets perish.)

Hutch was so caring and treated Katie with respect as he taught her how to swim and go through parts of the rescue training. While this is definitely a slow burn romance, much of the book was dedicated to showing Katie how to love herself even when she isn't feeling it. I think Katie's overall growth helped strengthen her future relationship with Hutch. I wish we had a better epilogue of their relationship but overall, I really liked the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC. The Love Haters is out now.

🌊 B O O K R E V I E W 🌊

First and foremost, thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for always giving me the opportunity to read Katherine's books as soon as they're available ❤️

And second, happiest of Pub Days to THE LOVE HATERS and @katherinecenter !!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

"𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴."


I don't know why I keep doing this to myself... 😅

I love Katherine's books SO much, but they always leave me mad, emotionally devastated, and then hopeful when I hit the very end.

This books took me on a JOURNEY. And I don't know how I'll ever emotionally recover.

🌊 Opposites Attract
🚁 Workplace Romance (kind of?)
🌊 Forced Proximity
🚁 Overcoming Fears
🌊 Handling Past Trauma
🚁 Florida Hurricane
🌊 Body Dysmorphia
🚁 Handling Grief and Loss
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#bookstagram #booksta #books #booksbooksbooks #avidreader #ilovereading #thetwistedlibrarian #professionalbookworm #thelovehaters #katherinecenter #book13of2025 #whatsnikkireading #advancedreadercopy #stmartinspress #netgalley #oppositesattract #workplaceromance #forcedproximity #overcomingfears #florida #hurricane #handlingpasttrauma #griefandloss

I love KC's books; they are always a feel-good go-to read for me. This one, unfortunately may have been my least favorite of hers. The Rom-Commers and The Bodyguard I absolutely loved, I wish this story would have been a bit more like those. Katie Vaughn, takes a job as creating a video profile of “Hutch,” a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. I did not really feel the chemistry between Katie and “Hutch”. I wanted it. It just was not there. The amount of body image issues Katie expressed throughout the entire story was contrasted with the ”perfect man.” Ugh, there is not a perfect man. Why do women compare themselves to this? I did love Aunt Rue as a side character. She seemed like a lot of fun! The writing was entertaining and I did enjoy reading, I just was not as connected with this one as others that I have read from KC. I did listen to the audiobook and LOVED the narrator.

ARC/ ALC REVIEW:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Katie Vaughn is a self-proclaimed, ‘love hater’. After enduring a nasty public breakup, thanks to her famous ex- fiancé, she dove head first into her career. Working as a videographer, documenting has been the major source of her happiness. Unfortunately, her company recently announced it was in the process of major downsizing. With her job on the line, Katie must travel to Florida to secure the reluctant Tom ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson as the subject for her upcoming video. Will she succeed in getting the footage she needs to save her job, or will her budding relationship with Hutch stand in the way?

Don’t be fooled by Katherine Center’s latest novel, The Love Haters, being marketed as a summer romcom. While this book does feature romance, Center demonstrates that love is not limited to the confines we Americans have put on it. Taking a page from the Greeks she beautifully demonstrates self- love (philautia) and family love (storage).

My absolute favorite demonstration of love in this book is Katie’s journey to self-love. After being torn down physically from both her step-mother and the public’s unrealistic expectations of her body, Katie begins hating her appearance. It was heartbreaking to see her get to a place where she nearly starved herself. In addition to taking meticulously notes in her food diary, she would scrutinize herself for going over her allotted calories and limit her wardrobe to all black. Knowing first-hand how deeply disordered her relationship with food/ clothing was, getting to see her not only overcome, but be at peace with her own body was truly inspiring.

While Katie’s self-love journey resonated stronger with me, it could be argued the strongest love story in the book was that between Hutch, Cole, and Aunt Rue. The decades of history the ‘family’ members shared makes it difficult to top. I loved the resolution they came to after finally hashing things out (while celebrating the anniversary traditions). I wasn’t sure they would be able to get past their collective pain, seeing as it was so deeply rooted and rarely discussed.

I had the pleasure of consuming this book in two formats; physically reading it and listening to it on audiobook. While I enjoyed both, I highly recommend the audiobook. Patti Murin is a phenomenal voice actor. Her narration elevated the already fantastic story to an even higher level.

Needless to say, I simply adored Katherine Center’s The Love Haters. Her stories make a lasting impression on all her readers. I know I will be thinking about this particular one for quite some time!

Special thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and Katherine Center for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had fun with this. The premise of a woman who can't swim being sent to film a recruitment video following a Coast Guard rescue swimmer is amazing!

I loved Hutch and George Bailey!

I really enjoyed Katie's journey from insecurity to self-acceptance.

My one issue is in all of the Katherine Center books I've read so far, there is always a plotline or scene that I find ridiculous or annoying enough to ruin some of my enjoyment. For this book that is Cole. As Katie said “you just keep making everything worse”. He was the plot device that caused conflict and kept the story moving and it just felt a little forced.

All in all, I had a good time with this. If you love Katherine Center’s writing I think you will enjoy this one.

Katherine Center has been an autoread author for me for several years now and while I enjoyed this one, it wasn’t my absolute favorite. I liked Katie quite a bit as a character. She was silly but had depth to her as well. I think her self-discoveries throughout the book, while a little Hallmarky, were valuable things to consider outside of the book. Hutch was a little too perfect and that was his main flaw for the book which…I don’t know how I feel about that. I still liked his and Katie’s relationship but it was a little “Wait, you don’t know you’re hot?” “Wait, YOU don’t know YOU’RE hot?” if you get what I mean.

The plot itself was a little convoluted. There’s a lot of suspending your disbelief with the way things play out at basically every turn. And there were a lot of times when Katie felt like she had no choice but to [insert poor decision here] and I just feel like with a little more brainstorming, we could have come up with some other solutions.

I liked all of the secondary characters and felt like they added some fun dimension to the story. But I do wish we’d gotten more from The Gals. I also wish we’d gotten more of a two-way relationship between Katie and Beanie. I really liked Beanie, but it felt like she’d been doing a lot of work propping up Katie for decades and I just wanted to see what she gets out of that relationship because it felt exhausting.

Okay, I know I’ve had a lot of criticisms, but I really did like the book. It was interesting to learn more about the Coast Guard. I liked watching Katie develop as a character. And as always, Katherine Center’s books are just so easy to read. The writing is great, dialogue feels natural, and the characters have a great level of chemistry.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Katie as 2 choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch”, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Sometimes, authors can be hit or miss, but Katherine Center is always a hit, hit, & hit for me. I knew I was going to love this book with just 3 pages into it.

Katie & Hutch's chemistry was goofy, swoony, & romantic. I loved all those silly & over-the-top moments they had. Hutch noticing Katie's exact eye color had me blushing & I had this burning desire to be their friends! The old ladies, always-tackling-Katie dog, & Cole's unnecessary drama were cherry on top.

Every second of this book was a comfort to read. Not only the romance, I appreciated how Katie's body image played such a huge role in the story; it was handled carefully, too.

What a beautiful, vulnerable, silly book this is! So lucky to exist in the same world/time as Katherine.

Thank you Publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read this in one plane ride back home from spring break and it really hit the spot! Katie and Hutch had me laughing out loud with people on the plane giving me the side-eye but I didn’t care because I was having the best time 😂. I read Center’s books every year and I swear I enjoy each one even more than the previous and I don’t even know how that is possible since I love them all 💖. This one will make you laugh but will also tug at your heartstrings with the tender core of these sweet characters. Highly recommend!

I've come to expect nothing less than perfectly sweet love stories and beautiful life lessons from everything Katherine Center writes and this was no exception! While there was a heavy focus on body image and self-love (don't miss the author's note at the end for additional insight) Hutch, Rue, and George Bailey made me smile and I've decided we all need friends like "the gals" with unabashed conga lines!

The perfect mix of charm, chaos, and courage. A reminder that love, like life, is worth showing up for, even when we feel like we’re in over our heads. Add this one to your summer list!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review was posted (Instagram, Goodreads, bookishlytara blog, Storygraph) on May 11, 2025. An additional post (with a reposted review) was posted on Instagram on the publication day as well as an Amazon Canada review. (links below)

Katherine Center has quickly become a must read author for me. Her books are always filled with emotional depth & The Love Haters was no exception.

Katie has gone through a LOT before the book starts, and is fighting with how she feels about herself. Even if there wasn’t a love story between the 2 main characters, seeing how she learns to love herself over the course of the book was beautiful. Hutch was the definition of a hero, both in his job & in his life, and KC was able to make that character feel real & not just a caricature. And Katie & Hutch together? Perfection!

The side characters were all so fun & well thought out. There was even some high suspense in the climax of the book. Following and learning about the coast guard was really interesting too.

And absolutely don’t skip the author's notes, Katherine’s are always a must read!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing the ARC for my honest review!

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

This book is a wild ride and I am absolutely here for it.

Katie is a delightful character wrapped up in her own insecurities to really and truly appreciate the world around her and the body she lives in. As someone who has dealt with my own forms of body dysmorphia, reading about Katie's eating disorder and how she still struggles with her appearance and weight was a bit of a downer. It was hard reading all of her disordered thinking on page and not have a knee jerk reaction towards it. It was very similar to my own internal monologue and I could feel myself slipping. But I loved how Katherine Center approached this topic at hand, with her best friend somewhat steering the helm of self acceptance and healing.

Hutch was very much just as Center described him at an author panel recently. While I know that this has been solely Katie's story. I do wish we had a bit more from Hutch"s character than we good. He is so utterly fascinating that I wanted more time with him.

This is a really great. Boom!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC!

This was a truly great book. It was an adorable love story and carried a wonderful message.

Katie and Hutch are very cute together. Despite the somewhat “trope overload” I experienced in this book, it felt very natural to me. I didn’t even mind the tiny bit of miscommunication Center snuck in there. I loved Hutch. He really is just a sweet guy out there doing his best, and I love him for that. I also appreciated George Bailey’s dedication to helping them out. His efforts did not go unnoticed.

I really like all the characters in this novel. They all felt like very real people. Hutch felt a little too perfect at times but I think it balanced out in the end the more we got to know him. This book had a nice bit of everything you could want: complicated family dynamics to jerk your tears, a journey of self love, and heartwarming friendships. Cole kind of sucks, but his arc with Hutch and Rue was both interesting to follow and natural to the plot. Katie deserves her own paragraph, so I'll get to her in a minute. Rue and The Gal’s friendship was such a nice background for this story, which, at its heart, carries the idea that everything will be okay with time if you work for it. I will say, I wish I had seen a bit more of Katie’s relationship with Beanie. While their interactions were all lovely and important, I wish I had seen more of the mundanity I saw from them at the start of the novel.

The progression of this story, even though I literally never knew what was going to happen next, flowed very naturally. It all made sense while simultaneously being unpredictable, so props to Center for that. I also feel like I learned a lot about the Coast Guard in this book—I was right there with Katie at the beginning—so that was a fun bonus!

Speaking of Katie... She was one of the most relatable FMCs, for me personally, that I’ve read in while. As a woman who has dealt with her fair share of body insecurities, Katie's thoughts and feelings were something I felt very strongly. This novel truly impacted my view of how I think about my body and I can say for certain that I will think of this book any time I'm feeling negative for a long time. Thank you, Katherine Center, for writing such an honest depiction of what it means to be a woman today and for helping me change the way I think. I appreciate it more than you know.

This was a good book. I did not know where it was going to end and it kept me on my toes and I had a great time reading it. I would highly recommend it, as not only is it a fantastic read, but it truly made me reassess the way I treat myself.

3.5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ this book looks like a breezy rom-com, but it’s actually about something much deeper. at its core, it’s a story about body image, self-worth, and the hard, messy work of learning to love yourself. the romance is there, but this felt much more like women’s fiction to me. the tone is chatty, chaotic, and honestly super over the top! but honestly I couldn't put it down.

that said, the handling of the body image theme sometimes felt at odds with the book’s lighter tone. it definitely won’t land for everyone. a lot of what katie struggled with mirrored things i’ve seen my loved ones go through, so I found myself empathizing, but the conversation stayed pretty surface level, and the resolution was a bit oversimplified. it could definitely be triggering for some readers so if you're in a sensitive place with food or body image, please read with care.

what worked:
– key west setting + forced proximity combo
– genuinely funny internal thoughts that break the fourth wall
– katie’s voice was relatable, messy, and easy to root for
– the great dane 🐾 a total star!!

what didn’t work:
– the body image arc is central to the book, but you’d never know that from the marketing
– cole. i hate him!
– the MMC being described as an “alpha” (ugh)
– some moments were so melodramatic they made it hard to take things seriously

thanks to st. martin's press and netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest thoughts!

This book was actually pretty enjoyable and easy to read. I feel like it did a good job demonstrating what Katie and tons of other people deal with in their everyday life. I also really enjoyed Katie and Hutch together. I liked the setting and how Katie was able to grow from the beginning to end along with Hutch and Cole’s relationship. A couple of things I didn’t like is I felt like I didn’t feel the tension between Hutch and Katie, I felt like it just happened randomly and then they moved on. I would have liked more build up and little moments that make the reader desperate. Maybe if it was from Hutches perspective also it would have worked. I also felt that things kept happening fast and kind of randomly, like how suddenly she said yes to Cole and just things like that. Another thing I did like though was the setting of Key West and of course George Madison. I also liked the way it was written because I felt like Katie was telling us the story and I wasn’t just reading it if that makes sense. Overall I really enjoyed my first Katherine Center book and can’t wait to read more!!!

3.75⭐️ rounded up!

Katie is a delightful, talented, loyal cinematic director who gets thrown into a job she wasn’t supposed to be in but can’t refuse… otherwise she won’t have a job! What she didn’t expect was to meet and be adopted by group of older & wiser gal pals, conquer some fears, and also fall for Hutch, the stunningly handsome and perfect subject of her current project!

Enjoyed this light, flirty, fun book! Some parts were over the top and I found myself saying “surely that’s not going to happen”, and then it would happen - but I think that’s also what made it fun to me. Cute summer read for sure!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this!! So many funny lines that had me actually laughing out loud. On top of the endearing love story you know is coming, expect to be smitten with the friendships - Beanie and Katie, The Gals, George Bailey and his toad🫶. I appreciated the major themes of family, self-love, and living life in color.

I think this one would make a great movie. Many thanks to St Martin’s Press for the ARC! And to Katherine Center for writing another story to warm my heart. 💖

I was so happy to have found this book early at BN for a book signing last week and i devoured it.

All the characters are so relatable.
Love Katie so much and felt for her with her body image struggles specially with such a negative step mother.

This is one of my fave reads

Another great rom-com by this author! I really liked Katie. She was the type of character that feels like she could be my friend. Her life has been a bit of a mess and that's how she ends up doing the video for the Coast Guard. Who knew it would change her life. I thought Hutch was completely swoony. He is a hero on so many fronts. The relationships with the supporting characters was great. The Great Dane is absolutely my favorite character in the book. I laughed out loud a lot during this book and yet it was so full of heart! Pick it up and settle in for a great mood lifting book! I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I didn't end up loving this one. I had a hard time with the eating disorder storyline and I just had a hard time getting into the book in general. I usually live Katherine Center books, so I'll keep trying her new releases but this I've wasn't a good fit for me.

I will forever love Katherine Center! And any time she writes a book, I will read it.
She writes beautiful and inspiring fiction for women, with love stories are to swoon for.
I admire Katherine for writing on the topic of body image, and the struggle to love yourself as you are. However, I wish she took it a step further, because the topic was lost and dropped and I found myself wanting more depth in the characters.
I still recommend this book to all of my romance lovers.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC