This book is a love letter to the soul and an action packed block buster I did not see coming!

The Gist:
Katie is trying to keep her job as a video producer. Her coworker, Cole, is trying to help her stay employed by sending her to Key West to shoot a promotional video for the US Coast Guard highlighting the handsome Tom "Hutch" Hutcheson. Ok, sounds easy enough... What's the catch? Katie can't swim and Cole is Hutch's estranged younger brother. I mean, what could go wrong?

This book reminds me of the Ru Paul saying, "If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else." or something like that! Katie has some issues with love, but finds her way by the end and you better believe its with her self (and a hot boy,) but mostly herself!

This book is a slow burn and much more character driven than steamy romance, so be prepared. I also loved the author's note at the end about books affecting the brain. Stories are extremely powerful-- it's hard not to be affected by The Love Haters.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy.

St. Martin's Press eARC
I was needing some joy last week, so I dove into Katherine Center's 2025 novel because I know that she will always deliver joy in her storytelling. When I started this book, I was a bit more hesitant because of where she was going with a struggle Katie had, but as the book progressed, I knew this was a message I so needed to hear. She tackled the topic with grace and humor and loving side characters to support Katie along the way. I love how she writes the love stories in her novels, and I fell so hard for Katie and Hutch. I thought there was the perfect balance of sweetness and heavier topics. There was great banter, cringey scenes, and some amazing growth. But one of my favorite additions to this book was George Bailey. I loved, loved, loved how he added humor to the book. As always, I already can't wait to re-read this once it releases.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the arc! When I get an advanced Katherine Center I have to drop everything and read it!

Katherine Center is forever the author that got me back into reading especially her book Things You Save in a Fire. And this is my favorite book I’ve read since reading that one. (Does that make sense )

So I adore a book that makes you sob as much as the next book girlie. KC is very good and ripping my heart out and putting it back together again. But this one didn’t get to that level. And I sort of loved it. I think it’s her easiest book to read recently.

As always, Katie has such a great arc. She’s dealing with her douchebag ex fiancé and the possibility of getting fired. And she also has a complex relationship with her body that KC calls an enemies to lovers relationship with herself. Body image can be tricky, but this was treated with such care and was very relatable.

I don’t want to rant or spoil anything else. But just know this is my favorite book of November and definitely a favorite of the year. My freaken heart.

5/5⭐️

Did I drop 5 fall releases just to start this one... 100%. There is something so special about a Katherine Center book. Her books are full of a special magic where you become part of the characters. I was laughing and feeling along Katie and her journey. Full review to come but starting with this!!

The Love Haters
By: Katherine Center
Pub date: May 20, 2025
Publisher: St. Martins Press
5🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷

Center always delivers a cute rom-com and this one made me smile. The perfect way to spend my day!

Katie is a fun and quirky character who is has her own insecurities. When she finds out her company is making cuts she takes a unique job. She is a video editor but her coworker talks her in taking a job which requires her to be able to swim.

Hutch is a rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard and she is going to work with him. Their meet cute is under unusual circumstances.

The training for this assignment is strenuous, but Hutch comes to her rescue.

Thank you St. Martins Press for his advanced copy. I love Centers work and she is a hoot. I have had the pleasure to meet her.
#thelovehaters, #katherinecenter, #stmartinspress, #stamperlady50, #romcom

One thing I can always count on with Katherine Center's books is the reason I ADORE her books: they will make me smile.

The Love Haters in short is about two people, Katie and Hutch, who claim to hate love..and possibly themselves. While this book does dip its toes into some dark stuff overall it was just an utter delight to read and get swept up in.

With most books I rarely, if ever, highlight a passage. Every time I read one of Katherine Center's book I'm hitting "highlight" in what feels like every page of the book... and the Author's Notes. If you ever read a Katherine Center book DO NOT SKIP THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!! Some of the best writing of the novel is to be found there without fail.

If you need a book to remind you that not only are you deserving of love but most of all that you should be the one giving yourself that love, this is the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

When life feels chaotic, having a new Katherine Center book to become immersed in is a perfect cure. You know that her characters are going to be facing some real challenges and struggles, but you also know they’re going to make you laugh, make you feel warm and fuzzy feelings, and make you fall in love. They’re also going to find themselves in some of their own chaos, which feels good to experience secondhand instead of firsthand for a change.

Katie was a character that I saw myself in, and she’s one I believe many women will relate to as well. She’s in, as Katherine describes in her (superb, as always) Author’s Note, and enemies-to-lovers trope relationship with her own body image. The love story she ultimately finds with herself was quite possibly the most important romance of the book. As someone who has struggled over the past year to adjust to newly prescribed anxiety medication and the effects it’s had on my metabolism and physical self, I want to absorb the messages conveyed throughout this book into my soul. It never came across as being something that is easy or conveyed in a condescending way. It came across as hopeful.

As for the romance between Katie and Hutch, there was also a lot to love there too. Katherine Center’s couples are always so endearing and heartwarming to me, even as they face interference after interference of the universe simultaneously throwing them together and keeping them apart. Hutch was a golden retriever of a man with a touch of Eeyore (we’re mixing animals here but it’s *fine*) and I just wanted to squeeze him. He also had the greatest Great Dane, George Bailey, who was a great character on his own.

I can’t neglect to mention Rue, who had me in Katherine Center’s DMs to say I loved immediately after meeting her. She was a fantastic character and a special woman. The way she was connected to Hutch spoke to her soul and the way she became a mentor to Katie was lovely.

Katherine Center never lets me down. This book came to me at the perfect time and it was such a wonderful escape. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.