Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Romance
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 320
Date of Publication: May 20, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.
The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.
Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!
But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.
The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.
Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!
But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.
Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.
MY THOUGHTS:
Katherine Center’s latest romantic comedy revolves around a troubling romance and sibling rivalry. Katie Vaughn, with a less-than-stellar romantic history, is skeptical about finding a worthy partner. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she becomes inexplicably drawn to a new client.
With Coast Guard rescue swimmer Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson as the client that could make or break her career, Katie finds herself in the middle of the issues between Hutch and his brother Cole, who is actually her coworker. Could it be true that Hutch is truly a “love hater”, thus making it very unlikely that Katie’s instant attraction to him could go anywhere? Before she can even think of romance, Katie must play her role as someone who can swim. Between her pretending that she knows even the slightest thing about handling her herself in the water, Katie finds herself living another lie while around Hutch, and she has a lot at stake.
This one-sitting read was easy to enjoy as I loved Katie and her resonant attitude. Hutch was the ideal hero, and was just the sweetest when it came to the devotion that he had for his rescue dog, a very fortunate Great Dane he named George Bailey. Then we have Hutch’s sweet Aunt Rue, who really made a wonderful impression on Katie.
Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
She won a creative writing scholarship in high school, and then went on to major in creative writing at Vassar College, where she won the Vassar College Fiction Prize. At 22, she won a fellowship to the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program and moved home to Texas with plans to become Jane Austen ASAP.
Didn’t happen quite that way. Of course. Instead, she began a decade of struggling, agonizing, and questioning the meaning of life before finally finding a fairy-godmother-like agent and getting a dream-come-true book deal for her debut novel, The Bright Side of Disaster.
A total happy ending. And also, just the beginning.
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