ALC Review: The Love Haters by Katherine Center
The Love Haters
Author: Katherine Center
Narrator: Patti Murin
To Be Published: May 20, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours 33 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 31-April 6, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book 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.
Jessica’s Review:
The Love Haters is far from my favorite book written by Center, but I did still enjoy it! It’s a rom com and will make for a great summer beach read, especially if you are vacationing in the Florida Keys this year! I’ve never been to Key West, but now I would surely like to go!
We have Katie Vaughn who is at a crossroads jobwise: Take a job in Key West featuring a Coast Guard hero who saved Jennifer Aniston’s dog (Yes, that Jennifer Aniston!) or risk getting fired. The catch is: Katie can’t swim. Being this is a romcom, of course Katie takes the job. And chaos in many forms appears throughout the story! With chances of being fired still popping up throughout the novel
The Coast Guard hero Hutch is her boss’s brother and Katie’s type. Katie meets Aunt Rue and a Great Dane named George Bailey (Yes, that George Bailey!) Aunt Rue and George Bailey enhance the story and at times steal the show! And Aunt Rue has some friends, so it’s like The Golden Girls at times!
There is some seriousness to the novel: Katie has body image issues. Seemingly like all women, but Katie’s tends to be worse due to her stepmother and a previous relationship where the media was all over Katie. Over the course of the novel, we see Katie go through a transformation with her body issues.
Katie’s body issues did seem to overshadow at times, but we get some potential romance and coast guard training in as well! Hutch was a ‘bit dreamy’ too. You can tell the Center did some research on Coast Guard training. Did she go through training like Katie did???? I enjoyed the ending and this is a fun read.
Patti Murin is the narrator. She is one I will listen to and she delivers on her narration every time!
Many thanks to the publisher Macmillan Audio for granting me an alc to listen to and review! I enjoyed it!
ALC Review: Remote: The Six by Eric Rickstad
Remote: The Six
Series: Remote #1
Author: Eric Rickstad
Narrator: Ari Fliakos
To Be Published: April 8, 2025
Audiobook: 8 hours 34 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: March 10-21, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
A serial killer is rampaging across the country, tying families to chairs–arranged in puzzling tableaus–then murdering them, without leaving a trace of evidence.
FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark has been hunting the Tableau Killer for eighteen months but is always two steps behind in a maze of dead ends. He has no understanding of why the killer stages the scenes so meticulously or chooses entire families. Burning out, Stark is forced to take on a new partner, Gilles Garnier.
Garnier, an odd loner with a vague past, claims he’s a remote viewer who “sees” people, places, and events far away–remote–as if they’re right in front of him. Stark knows this sort. Cons. Wannabes desperate to worm their way onto a sensational case. Stark dismisses his new partner as a fraud … until Garnier precisely describes a new Tableau Killer crime scene from hundreds of miles away.
As Stark and Garnier track the Tableau Killer across the country, they start to believe they finally have the advantage. But Garnier’s ability to remote view fails him and leaves him ill and weak. Then Stark realizes how the killer has stayed ahead of them all this time. The reason is more terrifying than either man can fathom.
They face a killer who may be unstoppable, and stand at the abyss of a conspiracy so ominous, it shakes their reality to the core.
Jessica’s Review:
This novel is released tomorrow, and I am sharing my review with you today!
The Six is the first in the Remote Series with the second book scheduled to come out July 8th. The Six is about a serial killer, the Tableau Killer, who graphically kills families. This is a dark and could be a disturbing book to some readers because the Tableau Killer does kill children. The Tableau Killer has been killing for eighteen months and Special Agent Stark grudgingly ends up with Gilles Garnier, a partner with a unique ability. And together Stark and Garnier track down and try to hunt down this killer before he tortures and kills another family. All while uncovering many secrets.
Stark is our main character and he is a very flawed and unlikeable person. He has been working this case for sometime and is also estranged from his family. We see both Stark’s professional and personal lives. I was leery of Garnier for most of the book, but he did eventually grow on me.
The main story is solved with The Six, but the ending also leads into the second book in the series which as of now is scheduled to be released on July 8th. I might just be interested in continuing this series. Especially seeing that the narrator for The Six Ari Fliakos returns to narrate the second book in the series: The Five. I really enjoyed his narration, Fliakos definitely added to the ‘creepy factor’ of this novel for me!
The Six is my first novel by Rickstad, and I may find myself looking at what else he has written!
Pre-Order Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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Audiobook Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Incidents Around the House
Author: Josh Malerman
Narrator: Delanie Nicole Gill
Published: June 25, 2024
Audiobook: 8 hours 23 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: February 24- March 1, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.
But Other Mommy needs an answer.
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home.
Jessica’s Review:
This was one extremely creepy novel! Similar to the book Room by Emma Donoghue, Incidents is from the perspective of a child. In Incidents 8-year-old Bela is our narrator and also gives us our point of view.
Mommy was not very likable for me and I found Dado a strange name, though I did like him just a little more than Mommy. And “Other Mommy” was down right frightening. “Other Mommy” wants something and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Malerman did a great job giving us the perspective of a young girl with the variety of emotions Bela experiences over the course of the novel, especially in the last quarter of the book.
I had no idea what direction this novel was going to go in. There are several twists and turns that hit the reader in varying degrees. I would say save this book for October if you are looking for horror novels to read! Just be prepared you will be reading from a child’s perspective.
Now the narrator: Delanie Nicole Gill, this young lady was beyond superb! Incidents was her first audiobook and she definitely delivered! She made Bela real for me. If there is an award for narration, then she deserves it. She brought this book to life for me and it was hard to stop listening to it, but you know: I had to work! Normally I do speed up my audiobooks some, but was not able to in this case. It was due to the narration, but definitely not in a bad way!
Incidents Around the House is definitely recommended! And if you can, I say listen to the audiobook!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK