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bookish_platypus 's review for:
The Love Haters
by Katherine Center
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As with every Katherine Center book I've read, the premise of The Love Haters was fairly unique. The FMC is a videographer who's going to film the MMC at his job as part of the Coast Guard. The only problem is she doesn't know how to swim even though that's part of the job requirements. Who better to teach her than Mr. Coast Guard himself?
The Florida Keys setting was pretty fun and bright - a big contrast to the black on black our FMC likes to wear. I also really enjoyed Rue and her friends, they're all a bit older and quirky and they brought some levity into the plot which was pretty necessary with the difficult topics of body dysmorphia and eating disorders etc. laced throughout the book. It's tough to deal with hard topics like that in romance and to be honest I'm not sure this book did a very good job of balancing all of that.
Hutch was dreamy lifeguard material. I never did watch Baywatch, but I can imagine he came straight from there and onto the pages of The Love Haters. He would be a great book boyfriend to add to the collection. I actually really loved Hutch but he also felt slightly underdeveloped - with no friends or hobbies, just a dog and a job. Aside from missing a little more development, he was very much the watch her from afar, love her in the little ways, silent about his feelings type which was quite endearing.
Unfortunately I just REALLY didn't care for Katie (or her side character cousin/BFF Beanie for that matter). This may 100% be a personal opinion but I don't think her self-deprecation and body dysmorphia was dealt with very well and I'm also not sure something that difficult could handled in tandem to a romanic plot successfully. Center seemed to be very careful in her writing keeping Katie from ever fully needing saving from Hutch, she was always dealing with her issues first (sometimes along with Beanie) before Hutch could swoop in. But at the same time all of her emotional homework felt so FORCED. And also begs the question of why she wasn't addressing her issues with a professional instead of Beanie? It was just mind boggling. I think it's a weird friendship dynamic for one friend to therapize another the way Beanie did to Katie.
In addition to Beanie, there was Cole. Cole, the other side character, is Hutch's brother and Katie's superior. But he was practically non-existent for way too much of the book. He and Hutch have their own issues to deal with but so much of this book is about Katie and her problems that I think that overshadowed everything - even the swimming lessons subplot ends up becoming an off-the-page thing fairly quickly.
(Also to note, there are some weird, random 4th wall breaks where Katie talks to us (the reader) and I was not a fan of that.)
All this to say, I think if this was a Women's Fiction book about Katie that could've worked for me. Or if this was still a Romance book but all the body insecurities were removed, that also could've worked for me. As it is, I liked the unique jobs, I liked the setting, and I liked both Rue and Hutch, but the rest was a miss for me.
Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for the ARC through Netgalley!
The Florida Keys setting was pretty fun and bright - a big contrast to the black on black our FMC likes to wear. I also really enjoyed Rue and her friends, they're all a bit older and quirky and they brought some levity into the plot which was pretty necessary with the difficult topics of body dysmorphia and eating disorders etc. laced throughout the book. It's tough to deal with hard topics like that in romance and to be honest I'm not sure this book did a very good job of balancing all of that.
Hutch was dreamy lifeguard material. I never did watch Baywatch, but I can imagine he came straight from there and onto the pages of The Love Haters. He would be a great book boyfriend to add to the collection. I actually really loved Hutch but he also felt slightly underdeveloped - with no friends or hobbies, just a dog and a job. Aside from missing a little more development, he was very much the watch her from afar, love her in the little ways, silent about his feelings type which was quite endearing.
Unfortunately I just REALLY didn't care for Katie (or her side character cousin/BFF Beanie for that matter). This may 100% be a personal opinion but I don't think her self-deprecation and body dysmorphia was dealt with very well and I'm also not sure something that difficult could handled in tandem to a romanic plot successfully. Center seemed to be very careful in her writing keeping Katie from ever fully needing saving from Hutch, she was always dealing with her issues first (sometimes along with Beanie) before Hutch could swoop in. But at the same time all of her emotional homework felt so FORCED. And also begs the question of why she wasn't addressing her issues with a professional instead of Beanie? It was just mind boggling. I think it's a weird friendship dynamic for one friend to therapize another the way Beanie did to Katie.
In addition to Beanie, there was Cole. Cole, the other side character, is Hutch's brother and Katie's superior. But he was practically non-existent for way too much of the book. He and Hutch have their own issues to deal with but so much of this book is about Katie and her problems that I think that overshadowed everything - even the swimming lessons subplot ends up becoming an off-the-page thing fairly quickly.
(Also to note, there are some weird, random 4th wall breaks where Katie talks to us (the reader) and I was not a fan of that.)
All this to say, I think if this was a Women's Fiction book about Katie that could've worked for me. Or if this was still a Romance book but all the body insecurities were removed, that also could've worked for me. As it is, I liked the unique jobs, I liked the setting, and I liked both Rue and Hutch, but the rest was a miss for me.
Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for the ARC through Netgalley!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident
Minor: Chronic illness, Vomit, Death of parent