⭐⭐1/2
Romance / Contemporary Fiction
🏷️ humor, female leading characters, family trauma, lies, heroism, Florida Keys, Coast Guard, insecurity, body image
There’s a thin line between love and love hater. This fast-paced romcom about rescuers and being rescued is charming and funny.
🏆 Awards: LibraryReads Favorites (2025)
Summary
The Love Haters follows Katie, who has had a string of bad luck in the romance department and is now at risk of losing her job. Katie is a smart, awkward, funny, and very attractive woman with a poor self-image. She has a best friend who also functions as her therapist. And a boss who is taking her divorce rage out on her employees.
Her supervisor, Cole, sends her to the Florida Keys in his place to film a Coast Guard recruitment video. What unfolds in the Keys is a discovery of self, a web of lies, and a redefinition of what makes a family.
This story follows the classic romance novel arc: a woman is amazing but hates herself; she meets an incredibly handsome man under non-romantic circumstances; they remain professional but fall in love; neither man nor woman communicates well; they kiss. Lies are told, and other people make things complicated; their poor communication skills drag things out, feelings get hurt, and then someone rescues someone/something else from something real or metaphorical, and they forgive and fall in love for real.
The much more interesting and surprising storyline belongs to the brothers, Cole and Hutch. Hutch is the man that Katie falls in love with. Their complicated relationship, marked by childhood tragedy, was unexpected and truly heartbreaking. The healing was also beautifully orchestrated in the book.
My Review
At first, it was ok but nothing remarkable. Then Hutch’s and Cole’s story was told, and I thought that I was making an emotional connection to the book! But then it returned to Katie’s story, and I just couldn’t get on board. Her body shaming was just too much. The writing was wonderful and literary, and if it were telling a different story, it would have been one of those “it changed me ” books. But Katie was so annoying. I really wanted to like her, and I guess I do. But even when she was on a sinking boat alone at sea, we got a whole chapter about her relationship with her body, and it was so annoying. Hutch and Cole were the more interesting characters. I wish the book were about them, and that Katie were just a side character!
Just ok. It was a lighthearted read. Something great for the pool or beach while on vacation. But nothing that will get a book club talking!
🎧 I listened to the audiobook on Libby. The narrator was great! I liked her cadence and acting. She was really enjoyable to listen to.
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