Bingo Square – Green (the leaves are green – I wasn’t originally planning on using this and wanted something even more green but after writing the review and remembering how much I disliked the book, I decided I should at least get a bingo square out of it).
I stumbled on Katherine Center after someone reviewed The Bodyguard and have found her novels since to be dependably pleasant reads – Hello Stranger, The Rom-Commers. As a result, I was looking forward to The Love Haters but then after seeing an early review from Classic was a bit hesitant about jumping in. Malin’s reaction didn’t help, either. But damn it, I already had the book! I was prepared that some of the novel might be tedious and boring, the FMC’s internal monologue frustrating but I didn’t expect to be enraged with some decisions at the end of the novel. Like WTF. I guess I should have paid more attention to Malin’s comment about wanting to throw the book.
I haven’t given any of Center’s books 5 stars – while I enjoy them, they just don’t quite hit that level for me. I think sometimes her women leads can get a bit too in their heads about things/too insecure which was never a real detriment before, just something that stopped them from being “great.” Since she tends to write first person POV from a single perspective, sometimes the men could also have a bit more depth but I have enjoyed them.
This novel takes those tendencies and puts them on steroids – Katie isn’t just insecure, she doesn’t simply have body image issues like all of us do to an extent at one point or another, she gets a full on panic attack from a bathing suit. Hutch is this perfect stoic guy. So compared to other romances, it’s a hard one to really get into because so much of Katie’s childhood trauma (and adult relationship trauma) is in the beginning. Also like someone else pointed out, her not being able to swim felt so weird – like her family spent time in the pool and at the beach, but she missed the year they were going to do official lessons because of family stuff when she was 11? Who is regularly spending time in bodies of water and waits till the kids are adolescents to sign them up for swim lessons? Like at that point, it might have just been better to say she never learned and there wasn’t ever a plan to teach her. But finally, it started settling down, Katie was adjusting and making everything work, Hutch was aware of the lie she told to keep the job (she can’t swim but is there to make a video about the Coast Guard rescue team), and the novel stopped being entirely about Katie’s insecurity. It was finally becoming readable, only for Center to decide to throw about fifty million new things into the plot – fake dating with a different guy, more boss drama, a natural disaster … and more character decisions that were completely non-sensical, taking a subpar romance (especially for the author) to rage inducing – I mean it takes TSTL (too stupid to live) to a whole new level.
Here come the spoilers:
There is a damn hurricane evacuation order (they are in Key West) and Katie has been so lost in her own world that she decides she absolutely has to drive to the Coast Guard station for an incredibly awkward goodbye scene with Hutch. Sweetie, I guess yay for you for finally not letting life happen to you but did you consider the man might have work? And you might be interfering with said work … like what the hell? I already wanted to strangle her at this point, and that was before she turned back during a hurricane evacuation to get a dog. I mean I guess it’s hard to be mad at a character for saving a dog but I’m mad at the author for creating this situation where we end up with Katie stranded on an unmoored houseboat with a dog and needing a rescue operation from the Coast guard when it also starts sinking. It’s not romantic. Do you realize how often I get angry at people that disobey warnings and then need rescue teams sent out, to the point that I occasionally wonder if the government should charge the especially reckless ones? And then have your main character do that? Why???