Katherine Center Archives - The Litertarian

Book Review:: The Love Haters | Katherine Center

The Love Haters is one of my most anticipated reads of 2025 and I was lucky enough to snag an early copy of it for review. In case you’re wondering why you might want to be an arc reader…that’s it. That’s the whole reason. (Except now I have a longer wait until her next release unless I, by some miracle, get the next one as an arc as well).

Now – before I get into the nitty gritty – this is not my favorite Katherine Center book I’ve read. In fact, I was a little annoyed with the main character for awhile. But when I tell you that by the end I was inside her body, living her experience, completely immersed…I mean I was in the water with her.

Five. Whole. Stars. All. Day. Long.

The Love Haters by Katherine Center Book Cover

Katie is a videographer on the brink of getting fired. The company is in crisis, and she needs a miracle to survive the layoffs. Then her colleague hands her one: filming a promo doc for his brother, who is in the coast guard. The only problem is…she can’t swim. Also, he only agreed because he thought his brother was coming to shoot it. Let’s just say the foot they get off on has wobbly sea legs.

Katie and I got off on a bad start.

She begins the book by lying her ass off in order to get a job. Sure, it’s standard practice in her industry, but she’s going to be filming with the US Coast Guard, rescuing people who have no other escape. And she can’t swim. She also has a paralyzing case of body insecurity that has her terrified of bathing suits and the fact that she’ll have to announce her weight to the helicopter pilots before she can get on one.

Whyyy.

Let’s just say it was a lot to overcome for Katie and I to get back to a proper understanding. Lol.

However.

The themes in this book are incredibly impactful, and all of this plays into the plot, too. So does the great Katherine Center get away with starting her book with a character we love to hate (okay, it’s not that serious but it was too good a play on words with the title here)? Ugh. Yes. Yes, she does.

Actually, if you are someone who struggles with body insecurity, I really think you should read this. The conclusions Katie comes to by the end about her body are very powerful and might just help your own perspective and your own journey to self-love.

This book is also about honesty, and family, and found family, and trust. It’s also about frigging heroic rescue divers who risk their lives every day to save others. It’s kind of epic.

Katie and Hutch weren’t supposed to fall in love. In fact, his brother said he was a love hater. Katie was, too, after a bad break-up that continues to haunt her even now. But even when you’re set against it, you never know when you’ll find someone that fits you. Their road is not a straight-shot highway. It’s a winding road with unexpected road closures and mudslides and wildlife throwing kinks into the journey, but it’s a ride you won’t want to miss anyway.

As always, Katherine Center has achieved a book that is relatable, sweet, swoony, and will even make you chuckle. It will also make you clench your fists and threaten to throw your book across the room at some points, but that’s what five-star books do. They make you feel real feelings. You get invested.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Love Haters
Author:: Katherine Center
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: St. Martin’s Press
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 10h
Audiobook Narrator:: Patti Murin
Published:: May 20th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Rom-Commers | Katherine Center
Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour | Nora Nguyen
The Paradise Problem | Christina Lauren

Book Review:: Hello Stranger | Katherine Center

Another beautiful romance by Katherine Center, this one with a high concept and a Cinderella twist that is sure to move you.

Hello Stranger Katherine Center Book Cover

Sadie Montgomery is a finalist in the same prestigious portrait contest that her mother once participated in, before her untimely death. It could be the big break she needs as a struggling portrait artist to prove to her father and to herself that she won’t wind up in a pauper’s grave. However, a medical scare leaves her with symptoms that throw her entire world on its head when post-surgical swelling leaves her unable to recognize human faces – even her own.

There are two men in Sadie’s post-surgical life. The veterinarian who helped save her beloved dog’s life, sparking with potential, and a bowling-jacket wearing Lothario who lives next-door who made a terrible first impression with an overheard phone conversation but seems to always show up in the right place at the right time.

Sadie and Cinderella have a few things in common. A mother who has passed and a father who married right away. An ‘evil’ step-mother and step-sister who take pains to misunderstand her and even torture her a little bit. Being so poor she has to live essentially in squalor (crashing in her art studio because she can’t afford an apartment). The ‘unable to recognize someone in different contexts’ element is switched, because The Prince knows it’s her all along, it’s Sadie who can’t recognize him.

There are a lot of valuable takeaways from this book. Seeing beyond someone’s physical appearance. We take so much for granted every single day – things as simple as recognizing someone when they’re right in front of you. It’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes. Nothing is ever all bad or all good, even if you don’t see it right away. Sadie is holding onto a lot of heavy stuff from her past, and though she hardly realizes it herself, she’s letting it guide who she’s become as an adult. Through this difficult time, she learns that maybe it’s okay to be a little more herself.

What does it say about me that I identified with Sadie through much of the early story? She holds herself to perfect standards and has to be okay, always. Fierce independence, I call it in myself. Difficult to ask for help. Difficult to even acknowledge it’s needed in the first place. I saw her so completely in that feeling. It was nice to see that reflected in a character so exactly. I clearly have some work to do on myself, too – ha.

I am once again so impressed with Katherine Center’s skillful storytelling. There are lots of clues throughout the novel for what the romantic climax will look like. No one thing is blaringly obvious, but the volume is such that I feel confident saying everyone knows where the story is going except Sadie herself. Still, the layering of clues really puts us in Sadie’s head, so we understand the story through her currently distorted perspective.

Some of the drama might have gone a little over the top (the evil-stepsister element, especially) but I can’t deny this little gem is absolutely a five-star read! I loved it!

Details

Title:: Hello Stranger
Author:: Katherine Center
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: St. Martin’s Press
Length:: 323 pages
Audio Length:: 10h 39m
Audiobook Narrator:: Patti Murin
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: July 11th, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

Linky Links!!

Goodreads
Author Website
Amazon Affiliate Links
[Hardcover] [Paperback] [eBook] [Audible]

If you liked this book, check out…

The Rom-Commers | Katherine Center
Savor It | Tarah Dewitt
Business Casual | BK Borison

Book Review:: The Rom-Commers | Katherine Center 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Sometimes you read a book that kind of ruins you for awhile. You finish the last pages, close the back cover and just linger in the tingly afterglow for a moment, thinking about what a marvel you just witnessed. You think about the characters in the story like they’re real people and can imagine what might have happened between the pages. You remember the scenes you liked best and wonder how the hell someone came up with something so brilliant and moving and wonder why exactly it is as good as it is…like you learn something new about yourself for having found something you love so profoundly. That’s the feeling I had after finishing The Rom-Commers, by Katherine Center.

I knew it was something special when I stopped to tell my husband this is the kind of book that makes you wish you didn’t hand out so many five star reviews, so when you say this is a five-star book, it carries a little more weight. Folks, this is a five-star book. For realsies. That’s why I put them in the title of this post, if that wasn’t clear.

The Rom-Commers Katherine Center Book Cover

The premise is a once-promising screenwriter, who had to abandon her dream to care for her father after a catastrophic accident, gets a call from an old-friend-turned-agent begging her to help one of his clients rewrite an “apocalyptically shitty” rom-com screenplay. The client just happens to be one of the most renowned writers in the business who’s off his game, and Emma, our protagonist, worships him — in the manor of professional mentor, of course. The timing works out just so for Emma to have no excuses not to go, so she’s on the next plane to L.A. to see if her dream may still be in reach after all this time. When she gets there she finds out Charlie Yates (the Hollywood writer phenom) has the yips (*wink* not writers block *wink*), and hasn’t been able to write anything in the past five years. He only needs to write this catastrophe of a rom-com well enough to be ‘passable’ so he can get his actual passion project produced. Oh, also, the mutual-agent-friend, Logan (the real hero of this story), didn’t tell Charlie Emma was coming. Did I mention he also doesn’t believe in love? Emma has her work cut out for her!

(Also, look at that spectacular cover — friggin swoon)

There are so many things I could talk about loving in this book, but I think it boils down to the details. The superstitious items of clothing, the ever-the-optimist father, the casual googling of highly specific questions, the heartbroken guinea pig named Cuthbert, the douchebag bro-dude wannabe rival, Teej. And the more romantic ones: the writing workday detritus, morning laps in the pool, grocery shopping and cooking together, nicknaming the mean ex-wife the mean ex-wife. Some of them aren’t even really on the page, but alluded to in a way that is so real and tangible, that it makes it easy to sink in and adore the story.

One of my favorite things in the book is Emma & Charlie’s mutual recognition of anxieties. They don’t have the same ones, but they both experience it. Instead of trying to ‘fix’ it when it appears in the other, they more so just sit in the feeling together, steadying one another, instead. It felt real. It felt…beautiful. My favorite scene is the middle of the night earthquake/panic-attack where Emma finds Charlie and Cuthbert the broken-hearted guinea pig already up and playing a mindless power-washing video game that soothes them all back into calm. It was so tender, but also…was it? Nothing romantic happened. Hardly anything happened at all. That’s the point, really. And that’s when I fell in love with Charlie Yates.

It’s a lovely book with a compelling, witty narrative with a thousand thoughtful intricacies. Here I was thinking that Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major was going to be my favorite book of the year — but that was before The Rom-Commers. Bravo, Katherine Center. It’s a standing-O from me!

Details

Title:: The Rom-Commers
Author:: Katherine Center
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: St. Martin’s Press
Length:: 336 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 39m
Audiobook Narrator:: Katherine Center & Patti Murin
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: June 11th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars