The Love Haters follows Katie as she journeys to FL to make a training video about an irresistible Coast Guard rescue swimmer. I enjoyed the added layer of Katie’s relationship with her self and self-image along with the romance. The ending was a bit much for me but overall this is a great read. George Bailey the Great Dane will steal your heart.

Katherine Center always manages to craft a story that balances out heart warming moments and romantic comedy laughter. The Lover Haters was such a fun read - I enjoyed every moment and finishes it within 2 days. I had purposely waited to start reading it until January so that my first book of the year could be a guaranteed amazing one! The characters a likable and you can’t help but root for Katie and Hutch. Add in Hutch’s dog who has a personality and a half, plus an eclectic aunt with a colorful group of friends - it’s just the perfect recipe for literary magic.

Katie and the supporting characters (Rue, The Gals, Beanie) were very relatable and enjoyable to read about. Katie's pov would have me either laughing for a chapter and then crying especially when it came to her body image and her journey to self love and acceptance. Rue from the beginning I knew was going to be my favorite character in the book because she was always that ray of sunshine in everyone's lives whether she knew you for years or for five minutes. George Bailey, I hope he saves every non-poisonous frogs for the rest of his life. Hutch, I could not get into him, he seemed too unrealistic and just couldn't connect with him. Cole...I hoped Katie would punch that man in throat.

Which is where my reading was starting to struggle because the progression of Katie and Hutch was going great and them developing feelings through time was great, it was until Cole brought in the fake dating thing that I was actively screaming at my kindle as if Katie was my friend and telling her to not go through this. Overall this is a very thoughtful and heartwarming story and the authors note is a definite must read.

Available May 20, 2025
I don't know if this is just an arc thing but there should be a content warning list because it goes heavily into sensitive topics that definitely need some warning.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a really cute book. I’m just not sure I love the title. The characters were well developed, and I love the emphasis on self-esteem and overcoming past trauma. You do have to suspend disbelief, just a little bit for surviving the night during a hurricane.

The Love Haters by Katherine Center does what Katherine Center books always do: drop the reader in the middle of a situation that is not ever going to be resolved simply, because each choice the characters make creates more difficulties. Complicated, fast-paced, compulsively readable exploration of body image issues, a grumpy hero, broken families, miscommunications, and what it takes to love again in a slow-burn romance that never quits. (Nor do the main characters.)

California-based video producer Katie Vaughn reluctantly accepts her co-worker Cole's push to take his place doing a profile of Tom "Hutch" Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West, Florida. Why? Well, there are layoffs coming from their employer. Cole says he is trying to protect her job. She will also have a chance to do one more of her documentary passion projects -- A "Day in the Life" - featuring Hutch. None of this is easy. Some of what Katie faces is downright terrifying. But she is encouraged by Hutch, who doesn't seem quite as grumpy as Cole said. Then there's Aunt Rue, in Key West, who welcomes Katie with not only a place to stay but also dinners, drinks, friendship, company, and brightly colored new clothing.

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


The Love Haters follows Katie, a video producer who’s been through a rough few years—engaged to a man who went viral for the wrong reasons, body-shamed by internet trolls, and betrayed by a fiancé who cheated on her. When her job offers her the chance to produce a project profiling the Coast Guard in Key West, Katie, eager for a fresh start, reluctantly agrees. There, she meets Hutch, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who recently went viral for saving Jennifer Aniston’s dog, and the sparks between them fly instantly.

What follows is a mix of hilarious mishaps, self-discovery, and undeniable chemistry. Katie, still recovering from a failed relationship, steps out of her comfort zone as she navigates her unqualified role in the project and her growing feelings for Hutch. With the help of a quirky, magical woman named Rue, and a few splinters along the way, Katie starts to put her life back together. The Love Haters is a heartwarming, funny, and swoon-worthy story about second chances, self-acceptance, and embracing the unexpected.

I absolutely loved this and could not read it faster. This is only my second Katherine Center book but it was just as good as the first! Katie was such a relatable main character and I saw so much of myself in her and her struggles as she navigated the new and uncomfortable situations she found herself in in Key West. You couldn't help but root for her and Hutch from the jump, and I found that I couldn't put my book down for too long because I needed to know what would happen next with them. Such a great read and I cannot wait to continue discovering more of Center's work going forward!

As with every other Katherine Center book I've read, i absolutely adored this book. As a 'Love Hater' myself, this was such a relatable read. So many of us, women in particular, feel the need to dim our own light and dull our own sparkle for the comfortability of others. This was such a fun and heartwarming story.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!!!
This was a love story that also focused a lot on self love. I enjoyed the story and the characters but I felt like something was missing? The ending fell a little flat for me. I was wanting more between Katie and Hutch, especially in the epilogue

Katherine Center gets me every single time, and this book was not any different. I loved exploring the varying relationships and complicated dynamics. A wonderfully written and thoroughly engaging romance!

The Love Haters by Katherine Center is a laugh-out-loud, feel-good rom-com that blends humor, romance, and personal growth in the most delightful way. Katie Vaughn is a character you can’t help but root for as she fakes her way through a career-making gig profiling Coast Guard rescue swimmer Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson in Key West. The catch? She can’t swim. The other catch? She’s got history with Hutch’s brother, Cole, and they do not get along.

The chemistry between Katie and Hutch is undeniable, especially as their interactions move from awkward to adorable. Hutch is a bit of a love-hater, but watching him soften around Katie, while she tries to keep her lie under wraps, was both funny and heartwarming. Throw in some swim lessons, helicopter flights, hurricanes, and stolen kisses, and you’ve got a perfect mix of romance and adventure.

Katie’s personal journey is just as compelling as the romance, and the tropical setting of Key West adds an extra layer of charm. From her fake swimming lessons to navigating her relationship with Hutch, Katie faces her fears and discovers what it truly means to be brave—and to open up to love.

The Love Haters is a must-read for fans of rom-coms that balance humor with heart. It’s funny, swoon-worthy, and full of twists that keep you turning the pages.

I was thrilled to receive an ARC of this book! As a fan of Katherine Center's work, "The Love Haters" did not disappoint.

Amidst rumors of layoffs at the video production company Katie works for, she agrees to take on a project in Key West making a promotional video for the Coast Guard. The catch? She’ll have to film a rescue swimmer from a helicopter, but she can’t swim. In Key West she meets Hutch, the rescue swimmer and Rue, his aunt, whose vacation rental she’s staying at. After coming out of a very public relationship, Katie is struggling with her body image and much of the book centers around her journey to find self-love.

I found the book to be less about the romance and more about Katie’s journey with her own insecurities with the romance as a smaller subplot. Katie was a wonderfully relatable main character, and both Hutch and Rue were fully developed and added so much depth to the story. I found myself eagerly turning pages not just for Katie’s interactions with Hutch, but also for her connections with Rue and her group of friends. Overall, this was a fantastic read and would make the perfect summer book!

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

Thanks to Netgally and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for honest review!
I have loved every single book I've read by Katherine Center and The Love Haters exceeded my expectations. I loved Beanie and Kate's friendship and how supportive Beanie was about Kate's body image issues. I LOVED Rue from the second she was introduced into the story and I loved her even more when I read her back story and how she came to foster/adopt Cole and Hutch.
The romance checked all the feel good, heartwarming boxes, and the story itself did a wonderful job with a sensitive subject such as body image. I also thought it was super cool how Katherine Center did so much research on the coast guard rescue missions. I just really, really loved this book. I can't wait for her next one 💜

✔️ Workplace but in a Vacation Setting
✔️ Fake Dating Uno Reverse
✔️ One Bed

Hi, please meet my new favorite Katherine Center book, The Love-Haters. I knew I would enjoy this one but it is a whole other level of swoon, laughs, delight and inspirational too.

It starts with an amazing FMC, Katie, who is reeling from a breakup and years of body image issues. I loved everything about her from the start. Sure, she's a situational underdog but she is also so funny! I want to join her friend group asap.

The plot was a little zany - but that's what made it so delightful. The vibe of the plot was similar to last summer's Anyone But You - just fun mayhem, great characters, a terrific location and you walk away having had the best time.

But that's not all. Seeing Katie fall in love with herself and reaching a turning point where she truly loved and was grateful for her perfectly imperfect body? Amazing.

This is a closed door read and yes, usually I prefer spice in my books. However, KC does a terrific job in really making the emotional payoff worthwhile! That and she knows how to write great kisses/makeout scenes.

Highly recommend 5⭐️ and I already preordered my own copy!

Steam 🔥
Banter 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Swoon 💕💕💕💕💕

This book had me hooked right from the start! Katherine Center is one of my go-to authors. The humor and witty remarks has me laughing out loud while reading this. The characters were relatable. I would have loved to join "The Gals" poolside. It was a fast paced and I would highly recommend this book for any one that enjoys rom com's!

I want to preface this: I ADORE Katherine Center. Pure adore her.
This was 3.5 /5 stars for me, but without my love of KC I think it would lose at least one. Thank you to St Martins SO much for the opportunity to read it early.
This story follows Katie, a career driven woman in the film industry, as she travels to Florida to interview Hutch, a coast guard rescue swimmer whose gone viral for saving Jennifer Aniston's puppy. They both have deeply traumatic pasts: Katie had a bad breakup with a celebrity and severe body issues, Hutch and his brother were involved in a car crash that left them orphans. As can be imagined, sparks fly between Hutch and Katie (all relatively PG-13 and chaste, per Center's style), but a whirlwind of antics threaten to break them apart in the middle of a hurricane.
I liked Hutch and Katie. They don't hold a candle to some of her other characters but they're both developed pretty well. Katie's body image story does not hit home from me, and in fact is hard to relate to, but if you ever had body dysmorphia, I feel like this might appeal to you.
The antics for me are where this falls apart: I don't love the secrecy, the pretending aspects, the back and forth Katie goes through, the way in which Hutch was played with...none of that felt real. It all felt really gimmicky. Especially in a romance where you know the happy ending is coming, it felt all a bit ludicrous. I love KC's humor...but here it just felt really silly. I hate the employment portion and I just wanted them to either be together or not.
I also feel like for being love haters, the romance timeline just felt insta-love like? Kinda a gigantic hypocracy? It felt off to me.
This gets its stars because I love the author and the fourth wall breaking and overall I enjoy rescue stories (in every aspect that rescue comes into play here) and the romance is sweet...but I would recommend others first.

What a delightful book! I had previously read Katherine Center's the Rom-Commers and totally enjoyed it--zero spice romance, if that's the sort of thing you prefer. She uses the same conversational, short-paragraphed writing style here, which very much suits the genre. Here, videographer Katie gets sent to create a Coast Guard recruitment film centering on her supervisor's too-perfect-to-be-true brother Hutch, in hopes that she can separately profile him for her YouTube channel on day-in-the-life videos. Naturally, Hutch is far less standoffish than he was described, and honestly I'm not sure either of the main characters could accurately be described as a "love hater"? But in any event, this book has its eyes on larger themes than just romance (body image/disordered eating, post-traumatic stress responses, terminal illness to name a few). It is a super fast read with some legitimate edge-of-my-seat moments. Recommend! (ARC provided by NetGalley; opinions herein are my own)

I love Katherine Center's books, so I was really excited when I saw she was coming out with something new. I immediately started reading it once I received the eARC, and it did not disappoint. This book made me feel so many feels. I found myself tearing up at times, laughing at times, and enjoying myself throughout the entire reading experience. The characters feel so real, all of them. Katie is lovable and fallible and she deals with things that many people are familiar with, like body image issues and insecurity. Hutch is a babe doing the most and succeeding, but also trying hard to be strong for everyone around him. The other characters are so fun, I would kill to spend a day with The Gals by the pool. Beanie is the ultimate best friend. Cole sucks but once you learn more about him the suckiness makes sense. Thank you so much St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC! It really is spectacular.

Katherine Center does it again!
Katie and Hutch might just be my favorite couple of hers yet. They, and their world, feel real. They feel like characters you could be friends with in real life.

Hutch is pretty much the ideal book boyfriend, and teaches Katie that there is so much to love about herself.

Add in Katie's best friend Beanie, Hutch's brother Cole, a great dane that's afraid of storms, and a boss threating to shake up Katie's world, and you have a fun adventure in Key West.

Let's all learn about love together with Katie and Hutch, it's worth it, I promise.

I had mixed feelings about this novel. The pacing felt uneven. While the middle 10-15% flowed well, both the beginning and the latter half felt slow. The section detailing when Katie is shipwrecked, in particular, felt drawn out, and it wasn't until around the 66% mark that I found myself fully engaged.

The plot felt somewhat predictable. Both the reveal of the lie about Katie and Cole's relationship and the subsequent development of a relationship between Cole and Sullivan were plot points I anticipated early on.

The romance felt rushed. Hutch’s apparent rapid shift to romantic feelings, seemingly before any meaningful interaction with Katie, felt unconvincing. While I'm happy to suspend disbelief for the sake of a story, this particular element didn't resonate with me.

I also struggled with the character of Sullivan. Her decision to lay off half her staff due to her personal circumstances following her divorce felt jarring and potentially insensitive, particularly given current public sentiment regarding CEOs and billionaires. The subsequent romantic pairing of Sullivan and Cole further detracted from my enjoyment.

As a fan of Katherine Center, especially after enjoying "Happiness for Beginners," I was eager to read this book. However, like “What You Wish For”, this one left me wanting more. The narrative felt disjointed, lacking a cohesive flow, and ultimately read more like a loosely connected outline than a fully realized story

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the complementary advanced digital copy - all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is not my favorite by hers I feel the last few books lack the spark her books once how they have become almost formulatuc to the point I don’t know if I will continue to read them
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book