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book notes
title: The Love Hatersauthor: Katherine Center
published: 5.20.2025
publisher: St. Martin's Press
genre(s): contemporary, romance
pages: 302
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
the blurb
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, 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.
Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!
But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
a few notes
❗trigger warnings: ❗
- graphic: body shaming, eating disorder, family death
- moderate: grief, bullying, car accident
- minor: illness, infidelity
POV: 1st person
setting: Dallas, TX; Key West, Florida
keywords/phrases: body image, trauma, acceptance, family
tropes: interpersonal relationship conflict, family drama, family death, fake relationship, misunderstanding
spice: 0/5
language: 2/5🤬🤬
mood reading: in the mood for a story set in a tropical setting, with great characters, and deep feelings.
bonus points: George Bailey, Rue, and The Gals.
my review
This was a heartfelt, funny, and deeply emotional read with interesting characters, whether you loved them or hated them. I also enjoyed the nontraditional-in-romance-novels careers, with Hutch as a USCG rescue swimmer and Katie as a videographer. That was a fun framework for their story.
There was a lot to love, subplots that gave a lot of added joy to the romantic plot and the happy ending. Katie’s struggles with body image and body shaming hit hard, but it was handled in a realistic and beautiful way. There were moments that were hard to read, her hurt so palpable. But it was worth to go on that journey with her. Hutch’s own story was also deeply emotional, albeit in a different way. He was an intense character, but one I really loved. And then there is Rue… what an amazing character in so many ways. In truth, she’s the unspoken hero of the story, for reasons I won’t spoil.
This book hit all the feels, in all the best ways.
a few quotes
These resonated with me.
I could walk over to join the crowd and jeer along with them… or I could kneel down next to myself, and put my arm around that girl, and help her to her feet. I could squeeze her in a tight hug, and say into her ear, closer and louder than everyone else: “I see you. They’re wrong. You’re beautiful.”
If you don’t reject the harsh things people say to you, then I guess, at some point, that means you accept them.
That longing to be looked at lovingly? That longing to be lovable… that’s really also so much about wanting to be valued, and seen, and connected, and safe, and just deeply, fundamentally okay?
Maybe we didn’t have to outsource that.
Maybe we could fill that longing for ourselves.
About Katherine Center
BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She’s the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including The Bodyguard, Hello Stranger, Things You Save in a Fire, and her summer 2024 book, The Rom-Commers. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books: bittersweet romantic comedies about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” The Netflix movie adaptation of her novel Happiness for Beginners—starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes—just hit the Global Top Ten in 81 countries, and the movie of her novel The Lost Husband was a surprise Netflix sensation in 2020, hitting number one and landing in their top 25 movies for the year. Her books have made countless Best-Of lists—at Audible, BookBub, and Book of the Month, as well as Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, and Amazon’s yearly Top 100 books. Emily Henry calls The Bodyguard “my perfect 10 of a book,” and Jodi Picoult says of Things You Save in a Fire, “Just read it, and thank me later.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two almost-grown teenagers, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2025 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
- 2025 PopSugar Reading Challenge
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