The Love Haters

The Love Haters is a 2025 novel by the bestselling novelist Katherine Center. A romantic comedy about fear, acceptance, and courage, The Love Haters centers on videographer Katie Vaughn as she films a promotional video involving “Hutch” Hutcherson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer with whom she tries not to fall in love. By employing many classic tropes of contemporary romance, Center explores themes of The Importance of Body Positivity, The Varied Forms of Courage and Heroism, and The Psychological Toll of Fame.

This study guide refers to the 2025 St. Martin’s eBook edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions and discussions of bullying, mental illness, disordered eating, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty, sexual content, cursing, illness, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Katie Vaughn worries she is about to lose her job as a mid-level video producer when her boss plans to lay off half the staff. Though producing promotional and commercial videos is not her passion, Katie feels like she needs this job to support her hobby of making mini-documentaries about everyday heroes. Her supervisor, Cole Hutcheson, approaches her with an idea that might help Katie prove herself to their boss, Sullivan, and let her keep her job, all while pursuing her passion project of documenting heroes on the side.

Cole has been tasked with filming a recruitment video for the Coast Guard’s team of Aviation Survival Technicians (ASTs). ASTs jump out of helicopters to perform open-water rescues, and one rescue swimmer in Key West, Florida, recently went viral in a video in which he rescued a celebrity’s golden retriever. This rescue swimmer, whom the internet nicknamed “Puppy Love,” has not wanted any publicity for his heroics, so Cole thinks he would make a good subject for Katie’s documentary series. However, Cole also has a less selfless reason for asking Katie to take this assignment instead of him: The famous AST is his brother, Hutch.

Cole and Hutch have a tenuous relationship that Katie doesn’t quite understand, but she is excited about the opportunity, knowing what it could mean for her job. However, she worries when Cole mentions that the assignment will involve a lot of swimming. Katie has dealt with negative ideas about her body since childhood and is afraid of being seen in a swimsuit, so she never learned to swim. She lies to Cole about her swimming ability and takes the job.

Katie’s issues with her body image plagued her into adulthood, especially when her former fiancé, Lucas, suddenly became famous and Katie was thrust into the spotlight with him. Malicious comments on gossip sites led her to develop an eating disorder, from which she is still emotionally recovering a year after Lucas cheated on her and they broke up. Putting on a swimsuit in front of others scares Katie more than many of the real dangers involved in this assignment, as does the fact that she will have to weigh herself in front of others in order to get onto a helicopter with the AST team.

After Katie arrives in Key West, her fears are somewhat calmed by her fast friendship with Cole’s aunt, Rue, from whom she is renting a cottage while she is in Florida. To Katie’s surprise, the colorful and vivacious Rue takes her under her wing and wants to help her, seeing that she is struggling with more than just her career. Rue invites Katie to a swimming lesson at the pool of her vacation cottages and buys her a brightly colored swimsuit to wear. Though Rue makes her feel comfortable and welcome, Katie still panics at the idea of her body being so exposed around others, but her best friend and cousin Beanie is able to help her face her fears.

At the swimming lesson, Katie meets Cole’s brother, Hutch, after his dog, a Great Dane named George Bailey, tackles her. As Hutch helps tend to her wounds, she is too embarrassed to introduce herself as Cole’s videographer. During this awkward encounter, Katie realizes that Hutch is nothing like the cold, serious, and boring man Cole described. Katie develops a crush on Hutch from their first encounter, and his kindness and warmth make her wonder what caused his brother to avoid him. However, when Katie arrives at the air station the next day to begin work on the video, Hutch is angry when he sees that Cole isn’t coming, after Hutch had planned for his brother to work on the project during that specific time.

Hutch is also angry that Katie lied to get the job, as he knows she cannot swim from the previous day’s experience. However, he and Katie make a deal that Hutch won’t tell Cole she can’t swim, and Katie will put in a good word for Hutch whenever she talks to Cole. Filming for the recruitment video goes well, but Hutch turns Katie down when she asks him to be part of her documentary video, not wanting the publicity that could come from it.

Over the following weeks, Katie shadows Hutch at the air station to get footage for the recruitment video, and he teaches her how to swim. They grow closer to one another as Katie tells Hutch about her relationship with Lucas, and Hutch begins to open up about his struggles with his brother. One night, Hutch admits his attraction to Katie, and they kiss, but the next day, Hutch acts cold and distant again. He reveals that Cole has convinced him to make the documentary for Katie, even though she understood why he didn’t want to make that video and was not going to push him to do it.

Hutch pushes Katie away over the next few days, even after they spend the whole day together making her mini-documentary. Yet Katie learns why Hutch is acting this way when Cole arrives in Key West and starts calling Katie his girlfriend. Cole reveals that he began lying to their boss, Sullivan, to keep their jobs. He told Sullivan that Katie is his girlfriend and that Katie can set up Sullivan to date Hutch. The lies snowballed, and now Cole and Sullivan have come to Key West to see Katie’s progress on the two videos. Cole also reveals that Rue has a terminal illness that no one else knows about, and she wanted Cole in town for an important anniversary. After much hesitation, Katie agrees not to contradict his lies for the three days Cole is in town to make Rue happy, as Cole convinces her that telling Rue would break her heart.

Getting caught up in Cole’s lies further hurts Katie’s relationship with Hutch, who continues to grow more distant. During an argument between the brothers on Cole’s last day in town, he reveals the truth about his relationship with Katie, leading to a physical confrontation between the brothers. They eventually clear the air and come to a truce, but shortly after, Hutch leaves without saying goodbye to Katie. Katie is unable to get a hold of Hutch the next day, but learns that a major hurricane is coming and that Hutch might be working at the air station to prepare for it. Key West is evacuated for the hurricane, and even the Coast Guard flies to Miami to weather the storm.

However, as she is leaving the Keys, Katie gets a call from Rue saying that the person who was supposed to pick up George Bailey and take him to the mainland was unable to do so. Katie turns around and heads toward Hutch’s houseboat, where she finds the dog, who is afraid of thunder. Before she can get the dog off the boat and into her car, lightning strikes the dock and sets Hutch’s houseboat adrift. Katie calls 911, but rescuers are unable to come during the hurricane, so she and George Bailey must figure out how to survive a day of storms as they drift away from land.

The hurricane eventually calms, and Katie can reach 911 again, who are now able to send search and rescue. As Katie waits and worries about her fate, she recognizes how badly she has treated herself over the years and begins to grieve the loss of the body she had never been kind to. The Coast Guard eventually arrives, and Katie feels she is hallucinating when she sees Hutch swimming toward her, but he assures her it is really him. As they fly away together, Katie apologizes for getting caught up in Cole’s lies, and the two reconcile. Though Katie eventually receives acclaim for her videos, she decides to move to Key West to be closer to Hutch and Rue.