The Love Haters by Katherine Center

1/5 stars

SPOILER ALERT

What the fuck. Literally just what the fuck, this was so horrible I feel betrayed. I’ve had mixed reviews on Katherine Center’s books before, but even the ones that weren’t great weren’t this hard to get through.

I truly could not have been more annoyed at this book from the jump. Any book that has mentions of real-life things already has me questioning if I should finish it before I can even give it a chance, and we started off heavy with Jennifer Aniston, TikTok, Noah Kahn, and the Jonas Brothers in the first couple chapters. I should have known it would only go downhill from there.

I think the best way for me to get all my feelings out is to provide you my internal monologue while listening to this, so here are a few of the thoughts I wrote down while torturing myself:

“Is she saying that she’s had a full on personal growth journey after getting very publicly cheated on and it only took her one year? Personal growth doesn’t work that way, girlie.”

“Oh god, physically cringing so hard at the fact she’s literally, unironically pretending to be a mannequin right now…”

“Not her saying that a halter top bathing suit with a LITERAL SKIRT “barely covers her.”

“Oh my god, girl, just say ass for Christ sake, you’re too grown to keep saying “bottom” and “nether regions” Jesus.”

“She did not just say he was a “total alpha”…”

“Hutch is giving nothing.”

“Could she be more presumptuous about this guys family dynamics? Why does she think it’s her place to put in a good work for him to his brother?”

“I’m sorry… having him stand shoulder width apart, helmet under one arm, to look more “alpha” has me gagging.”

“If I were Hutch I would literally kill myself during this fucking interview. If I had some obnoxious bitch standing in front of me laughing too loud, badly flirting, and making weird noises at me I would also be incredibly uncomfortable.”

“Bro… her earlobes and ankles being her favorite things about herself? Grow the fuck up that’s so stupid.”

“DID HE JUST SAY HIS “LAYER OF BLUBBER” MAKES HIM “AN EXTRA GOOD SNUGGLER” BECAUSE I WILL OFF MYSELF AND IM TAKING KATHERINE WITH ME.”

“She just described a racy black bathing suit as “an oil slick of naughtiness” and said that it was so provocative it would get her kicked off of a nude beach. What is wrong with this weirdo. Oh good and now he’s trying to cover her up because it’s “too sexy” Jesus Christ.”

“He just called her a “human hot fudge sunday”...”

“I’m sorry, a drinking contest to determine who gets a kiss from her? Does consent just not exist or what?”

“Cole needs therapy…”

“Oh my god, if she doesn’t just fucking tell the 911 dispatcher what is going on I’m going to scream.”

“Oh my GOD I cannot handle her talking to Beanie on the phone and not mentioning that she’s ON A SINKING BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN????? WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT YOUR BODY ISSUES RIGHT NOW????”

“Jesus Christ you would not be reflecting on how mean you were to your body when you’re literally about to die in the middle of the ocean.”

“There is just no way that the Coast Guard would take the dog first and leave the human behind. Like obviously take the dog and let this bitch drown to save the rest of the world of her but come on be so for real.”

“Jesus there were so many fucking side plots I completely forgot about Lucas until just now. Also forgot that this was a work assignment??? In what world.”

“This guy is barely even appreciative of her almost DYING TO SAVE HIS DOG??? Like she literally (unrealistically) survived a hurricane on a house boat just because she wanted to save his dog and all he says is one little thank you? Good bye.”

So, as you can gather I absolutely hated this. I’ve never met a more annoying FMC, and I dare any other author to write one. And truthfully that’s only about 50% of the thoughts I had listening to this book. I zoned out for like a quarter of it because I just couldn’t be fucked to pay that close of attention to her whining.

I understand having body image issues, every woman does or has at some point. It’s a great topic to bring awareness too and women should feel comfortable in their skin. But this was so obnoxiously over-talked about throughout this whole book that by the end I quite literally could not have cared less about her or her self-image issues.

Can’t believe I used an Audible credit on this, I deserve to be compensated. Katherine Center is one bad book away from getting the Ali Hazelwood treatment from me (literally banned from my thoughts or my tbr for the rest of eternity).