CBR17 Book 28: "The Love Haters" by Katherine Center

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 2 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Katie Vaughn is worried about being fired, so she lies about being able to swim, and is persuaded to go to Key West to film a recruitment video about the coast guard. There she meets Tom "Hutch" Hucheson, the seemingly perfect older brother of her co-worker Cole, who has not been informed that his brother has weaselled out of filming the video. Katie is also pretty much adopted by Hutch's "Aunt" Rue and her vibrant and colourful gang of pensioners who hang out in the apartment complex that Rue owns and manages. 

Katie is a "love hater" because her boyfriend cheated on her and broke up with her right as his career as a musician took off, so she's pretty much done with men. Now her ex's songs are playing on the radio constantly, and his most recent hit is literally called "Katie" and seems to be all about how he messed up and wants her back. Katie also has self esteem, a very complicated relationship with food and because of fat shaming by her stepmother early in life, she pretty much hates her body. She literally has a near-panic attack when she has to put on a swimsuit. 

Hutch isn't really a love hater, it's just that his brother Cole doesn't really know his brother at all, he just seems to be jealous that his brother is easy-going, kind, very handsome, has a very impressive job (and became virally famous briefly for saving Jenifer Aniston's dog). So anything he says is likely to be untrue. Hutch agreed to have his work featured, because the coast guard really does need new recruits, but he wanted his brother to do it, so they could spend more time together, and more importantly, with Rue. Nevertheless, he adapts without too much complaint and also agrees to give Katie swim lessons.

Obviously they catch feelings over the course of the book, but now, about a month after I finished the book, I can't actually remember what it is that complicates matters and makes it so that they can't be together. I'm guessing it's probably that Hutch lives and works in Florida and Katie is from somewhere else (again, no memory of where)? The first half of the book is slow, and while I can sympatise with a heroine with some quirks, some of Katie's issues are clearly serious enough that she should have been (and probably still be) in intensive therapy, rather than just have her supportive bestie try to talk her down whenever she has a wobbly. When they dominate the story quite that much, it would be nice if there was some sort of resolution over the course of the story. But there isn't. Although she learns to appreciate colourful clothing and doesn't freak out when she has to wear a bathing suit, so that's good enough, right?

The second half of the book, especially the last third, is when I seriously considered just giving up. If I had a physical copy of the book, I would have been tempted to throw it at a wall. Cole suddenly shows up out of nowhere and pretends that he and Katie are dating. Their boss, who is bitter after an acrimonious divorce, also shows up, and the fake relationship has to happen or Katie and/or Cole might get fired? I think Cole is meant to be charming, I found him to be human garbage. There's also a whole thing about a hurricane and needing to evacuate and Katie making incredibly stupid choices.However, I persevered, hoping that maybe the story could be saved - alas, it was not to be. 

I've only read one book by Katherine Center previously, The Rom-Commers, which I liked enough to rate it 4.5 stars, despite a rather shaky final act there too. This, I can only give 2.5 to, and that's mainly for aunt Rue and her Golden Girls-esque group of friends, and the fact that being a coast guard is a more unsusual profession to give your hero. If this had been my first attempt at Ms. Center's writing, I would not read any more of her books, despite owning several of them as e-books. I did really like The Rom-Commers, though, so I will give her at least one more chance. 

Judging a book by its cover: I have no idea what's going on with this cover, but it doesn't in any way fit with the contents of this book. This makes it seem like it's about people lazing about and enjoying themselves on vacation, which isn't the case at all. Katie gets an anxiety attack just having to put on a bathing suit, there is no way she'd ever display herself so openly on a pool floatie. Hutch is a professional rescue swimmer who doesn't seem to have time for this sort of leisurely relaxation. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 12: "Deep End" by Ali Hazelwood

Page count: 464 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Water words

Warning! Mild spoilers for some plot points later in the review. 

Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling, both with her academic subjects at Stanford and her diving. While physically fully recovered from a bad accident a year ago, Scarlett has a block that prevents her from even attempting the type of dive that had her hospitalised and having to go through several surgeries to fix her broken body. She needs to get her grades up if she wants to get into med school, and she has reluctantly agreed to go to therapy to see if she can get past the mental block that is hindering her diving but doesn't really feel as if it's working. 

Lucas Blomquist is a world champion swimmer and has won multiple Olympic medals. He's one of Stanford's top aquatic athletes and the loyal boyfriend of Scarlett's diving teammate Penelope. When Lucas and Penelope quietly break up, however, Penelope drunkenly suggests that Lucas and Scarlett hook up, because "they're into the same thing", BDSM. While Lucas is apparently a great, loyal and caring boyfriend, sexually he and Penelope just aren't compatible, because Pen isn't into kink at all. Scarlett, however, is. After a few weeks of extreme awkwardness around both Pen and Lucas, she and Lucas actually communicate and discover that their kinks seem to be extremely well-matched. Scarlett is wary about starting anything with her friend's ex, but once she and Lucas spend more time together, she can't really help herself, and they agree on a mutually beneficial arrangement. 

For reasons known best to herself, Pen doesn't really want to publically break up with Lucas, so Scarlett and Lucas can't really be public with their hook-ups. Soon they are nevertheless spending a lot of time together, working for the same professor on a biology project, and getting more and more obsessed with one another. Scarlett's history with PTSD and her self-esteem issues make it difficult for her to trust anyone. Her growing friendship with Penelope also makes her unsure about her relationship with Lucas, are they really as over each other as they claim?

I understand that Ali Hazelwood's books aren't for everyone and that her writing style can be annoying. By now, it's becoming obvious that to me, her writing works perfectly for me, and with each new thing she publishes, I like her even more. I also love that as she becomes more successful as a writer, she publishes stories she's clearly wanted to write for a long time. She gets criticised for writing the same story over and over, and yes, she does have a tendency to feature huge, hulking guys and vulnerable petite heroines. Would I love for her to have a towering, Amazonian heroine and a short king hero in the future? Absolutely. But she's been changing up her formula more and more. In the last two years, she's written YA, and paranormal romance (book 2 is out in October!) and exploration of kink is getting more prominent in some of her books. I've seen some people say this is her best book to date, but I still think I prefer Not in Love and Love, Theoretically. Part of that is because Scarlett and Lucas both felt so young (this is definitely New Adult) and part of it is because of Penelope. 

Over on Threads, the algorithm has clearly realised that I like Ali Hazelwood, so I see a lot of posts about her writing, especially this new book. Penelope is clearly a divisive character, and without spoiling too much, her actions towards the end of the book are objectively shitty towards both Scarlett and Lucas. A lot of people seem to think that what she does is unforgivable and to some, her mere presence in the book, apparently ruined it for them. I liked that Hazelwood introduced a close female friendship between two characters who were both rather messed up (Scarlett and Penelope both have their issues), and as a result, mistakes were eventually made. 

I think that over the course of the story, some of Penelope's demands on both Scarlett and Lucas' time were a bit unreasonable, and personally, I would have told her to bugger off occasionally, but as they are written, that is not something Scarlett or Lucas would do. Scarlett's choice to eventually forgive Penelope is one of the things that made me like this book more. Female characters so easily fall into archetypes. The bitchy, sabotaging ex is such a stereotype in a lot of romances. Penelope is so much more than that. She is genuinely a great and supportive friend to Scarlett. She's happy that Scarlett and Lucas find a connection she wasn't able to have with him. When a series of events mean that her life is less than great, she says and does some pretty awful things. Does that mean that she's an utterly irredeemable character? Once again, these characters are young. They are in their early 20s, only starting out in life. I respect and like Hazelwood more for including a complicated friendship dynamic in the book and for letting Penelope be more multi-faceted than the standard jealous ex-girlfriend trope.

Scarlett is another of Hazelwood's vulnerable and skittish heroines. Because she used to be effortlessly good at a lot of things, like professional diving and academia, it's very difficult for her to adapt to life becoming more challenging. She has PTSD from the behaviour of her emotionally abusive and controlling father, which makes her very uneasy around most men. She has a great relationship with her stepmother, who is an important part of the great supporting cast of this novel. Scarlett doesn't really believe she deserves good things, so in her mind, her relationship with her perfect boyfriend specimen Lucas Blomquist is never going to be a lasting thing. Their hook-ups are only supposed to be temporary, and as she keeps catching deeper feelings, she struggles to accept them and own up to them.

Thankfully, Lucas really does seem to be the perfect man, almost annoyingly so. I really would have liked for him to have some sort of flaw, but no, he's understanding, and supportive, if a bit of a perfectionist, and from the descriptions of him, he looks like a mix between Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Phelps. I don't think Hazelwood has written a single book where the hero doesn't fall first, and that is also the case here. Because Lucas is also more emotionally mature, he is able to acknowledge his own feelings, while patiently waiting for Scarlett to catch up, giving her time and space to join him in being head over heels.

Lucas is also Swedish. The previous time I read a novel with a Swedish protagonist, Olivia Dade's Ship Wrecked, one recurring term of endearment drove me nuts and it annoyed me enough that I couldn't rate the book more than 4 stars. In this, there are some uses of Swedish, but they are actually accurate and suitable for the situation, so I wasn't bothered by them. The way Hazelwood describes Lucas and his brothers and the place they come from felt authentic to me as a Scandinavian. I suspect that the audiobook will be harder for me to get through, though, unless they have an actual Swede narrating Lucas' parts. 

As far as I can tell, not in any way being into kinky stuff (happily Asexual and celibate, over here), all the BDSM stuff covered in this book, from Lucas and Scarlett's lists when they compare what they are into, and throughout their relationship, is very respectfully and accurately described. The spice level seems to be getting a bit higher with each new Hazelwood, but I still think that a lot of readers would find this relatively mild, comparatively speaking. It's certainly not anything like, say, Christina Lauren's early romances (they've gone a lot more tame now) or anything by Kit Rocha, or Katee Robert. 

Judging a book by its cover: If my Threads feed is anything to go by, a lot of people have been clutching their pearls over the level of spice/smut in this book. With a cover like this, what are you expecting? Those are clearly not the hands of people who are just waving at each other. Personally, I love that there are no people on the cover, that way I'm free to picture the characters exactly as I want inside my head. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read