it's a wonderful life
Katie Vaughn makes videos. Most of them are corporate training or promotional videos. But she has a side gig where she makes videos just for herself, to put on her personal YouTube channel. For those videos, she spends an entire day and night with someone she admires, showing 24 hours in the life of a hero. So when her boss asks her to go to the Florida Keys to make a promotional video of a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, she has to agree. Even though she doesn’t know how to swim. Especially since the rumors are flying in the office that cuts are coming.
But her boss Cole tells her that this is the perfect job for her. Because the rescue swimmer, Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson is the same person who notoriously saved Jennifer Aniston’s dog after it had gone over a cliff and gotten stuck. So not only would Katie be making the video for the Coast Guard, she could also make her Day in the Life video about Hutch. Cole says he can guarantee her access, because he knows the hero puppy rescuer. Because it’s his brother.
When Katie gets to Key West, she meets Cole’s aunt Rue, who not only puts her up in one of her cottages, but she also buys Katie some clothes to help her out until her luggage shows up. Rue takes an immediate liking to Katie and tries to get her to add color to her mostly black wardrobe. And she reassures Katie that she knows a swimming instructor who can help her prepare for the swim test she’ll have to pass before going up in the Coast Guard helicopter to film an actual rescue.
But Katie is horrified to find out that her swimming teacher is Hutch. And having to put on a swimsuit is bringing up her body image issues. Her issues had started when she almost a teenager and her stepmother had put her on a diet. They got worse when her singer/songwriter fiancé Lucas suddenly got a lot of traction online and his career skyrocketed. Katie had gone to an awards show with him, and the online community was most unkind. And then he had cheated on her, publicly. Katie had finally started to feel better about herself, coming up with body parts she liked about herself on their near daily phone calls with her best friend and cousin Beanie.
Fortunately for Katie, Hutch is patient as a swimming teacher. And his dog, a Great Dane named George Bailey, seems to be in love with her. And Katie spends her days learning about the Coast Guard and filming at their base. But she still has to learn to swim well enough to get herself out of a simulated helicopter crash. And her ex-fiancé Lucas has written a song about how he was wrong to let her go. And she can’t help but notice that Hutch is not just a hero and rescuer of dogs, but he is also smart and funny and a genuinely good guy. And tall. And handsome.
But there are secrets between the brothers, and Katie gets caught up between them. She has to go along with Cole, in order to save her job. But she insists that Cole tell the truth, so she’s not caught up in their family drama anymore. And when a hurricane shows up, nothing matters but basic survival.
The Love Haters is a an uplifting rom com about a woman who not only falls in love with the boy, but she also learns to love herself. Katherine Center has a way of writing stories that are funny and smart but also send waves of healing and warmth through my soul.
I listened to the audio book for The Love Haters, and I thought Patti Murin’s narration was perfection. She brought Katie to life, and she read Center’s words with emotional intelligence and grace, imbuing the story with love and wonder. I adored this book and just breathed in this world with each word. This is one of the books of summer. Or fall. Or whatever season you’re choosing to read in, this will be a book that will linger in your thoughts and in your feels for a long time.
Egalleys for The Love Haters were provided by St. Martin’s Press and a copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
