Review by reading_historical_romance - The Love Haters

reading_historical_romance 's review for:

The Love Haters by Katherine Center

DID NOT FINISH: 22%

DNF at 22%. I've never read Katherine Center before, but she is so highly recommended by my friends that I was excited to read this one. I was unpleasantly surprised when I started reading and realized that the primary conflict for the FMC of this rom-com? is her body image issues and history of an eating disorder. There is no mention of this in the summary of the book or the blurb. I have no problem reading heavier material and difficult topics, but not packaged as a light-hearted, forced proximity, summer romance. I was really turned off by a prolonged scene where the FMC has an internal spaghetti-western style "standoff" with her bathing suit because it's the first one she's contemplated trying on since middle school. She's crippled by her anxiety and negative thoughts, which her best friend laughs off as being a "phobia" she needs to get over by using exposure therapy techniques. I mean, why would anyone think such a situation is funny, and should be played for laughs? There are no TW/CW either in the e-ARC I received.

Thank you SMP for the opportunity to read this novel prior to release. I was not compensated in any way, and all of my opinions are my own.

Content Warnings