Hello Stranger
By: Katherine Center
Publish Date: July 11, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley, ST. Martin's Press, and the author Katherine Center, for the advanced copy of Hello Stranger.

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖:

"My entire life up until now had been a before. And now I was in the after"

"How could I have ever walked right past him".
"Dr. Nicole was so right, of course. We see what we're looking for".

"We're all so busy seeing what we want to see".
"The more good things you look for, the more you find."

This is my first Katheirne Center and I really enjoyed it! There were so many elements to it and I love how there were a few twists in this romance!! I highly recommend if you are looking for a love story that will keep you engrossed without any mush!!!!!!

Sadie, whose father is a prominent and succesful Cardiovascular surgeon, wants her to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor as well. Instead, Sadie is more creative and becomes an artist, as we find out is the same as her Mother who passed away suddenly. On the cusp of her big break, she finds out she needs elective brain surgery. Her father who was not typically around in her life, especially after her mother passed away, left his conference to personally tell Sadie she must get the surgery, Now! Moments scattered throughout reveal, in the complex way of human emotions and relationships, how similar the reason of her mothers passing was to her own struggle.

Let's not forget to mention her best friend Sue, her parents Mr. and Mrs. Kim, the very gorgeous Veterinarian Dr. Addison, Peanut the puppy(who is 14!), Joe, her handsome and extremely kind neighbor, Her Father and Lucinda- her Stepmother and Parker, her evil stepsister who has never taken kindly to Sadie, ever!

How many times have you seen a person but not seen them? Or, have you had multiple encounters with the same person without realizing, hey, I know them?!

Katherine Center has yet to disappoint me. I can always count on her when I need something cheerful and uplifting and Hello Stranger was a perfect bright spot on a stormy day.

I loved this book so much! I felt like I was in a place of joy and curiousity throughout the entire book! love her descriptions and always love the lessons and happiness we all feel in each story.

4.5 starts rounded up!

Just like every other Katherine Center book I've read, I loved this one! This was truly a journey of self-discovery as Sadie learned to navigate life and her career after being diagnosed with "face blindness." I was rooting for her (and Peanut) the whole time! The romance element of this story was not as prominent as some of her books, but I didn't mind! It was still very sweet and was one of my favorite parts of the book. I would highly recommend this book!!

Such a swoon-worthy book! The depth of facial blindness was so interesting to me. I couldn’t imagine not being able to see people’s faces. I also want to see a real life picture of peanut because he seems soooo cute ☺️

I will never rate a book by Katherine Center anything less than five stars. 🤩 That’s just the truth. But this time in my review, rather than write about how much I loved the main characters or how much I respect the author for the research she did or how much I enjoyed the ever-present banter in the story, I’m going to focus instead on the Author’s Note at the end of the book. It made me cry.

Center’s note at the end focuses on what a romance novel is built on: predictable structure. She suggests, however, that instead of predictable, we should think of love stories with anticipation. She says, “Anticipating that you’re heading toward a happy ending lets you relax and look forward to better things ahead. And there’s a name for what you’re feeling when you do that. Hope.” Center believes that a “guarantee of the genre” is that “things will get better. And you, the reader, get to be there for it. It’s a gift the love story gives you.”

She concludes her note with the idea that “love is a form of hope”; she says, “but what I know for sure is that reading love stories is good for you. That believing in love is believing in hope. And doing that – choosing in this cynical world to be a person who does that – really is doing something that matters.”

How can you NOT love a writer who believes in her craft so joyously and wants to share that joy with readers? Her books are a treasure. 😍

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!!

well hell if i’m not a sucker for a grief story. which, might i add, was handled SO. WELL. in this book 🥹

sadie my girl 🫶🏼 the romance took a backseat in this time around (as i’ve heard most of her books do?) but that didn’t take away from the story and i thoroughly enjoyed this.

it was also super interesting learning more about face blindness and made for such a unique reading experience

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading The Bodyguard, I was so excited to start Hello Stranger. Although I loved The Bodyguard more, I still found this one enjoyable. Throughout this story, Sadie faces a major struggle after becoming face blind and also being a portrait artist. I found it very interesting to read through her struggles and watch her try to overcome and grow from them. Katherine’s writing is so easy and refreshing to read, and I really enjoyed this book overall. Thank you to Netgalley for this arc.

I enjoyed this one - it was really interesting to read about the main character’s condition as it’s not something I’m familiar with. The book kept me interested throughout and was easy to read.

Every face, including that of her own, is unrecognizable. Like a pile of mixed-up puzzle pieces. Or like pickup sticks. Sadie has "acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia...face blindness." How did this happen? One day Sadie experienced what was called a nonconvulsive seizure. Because of this event, Emma underwent several tests and it was determined that she had a malformed blood vessel in her brain. And this required brain surgery.

When Sadie awoke, she was in turmoil. She was utterly confused. Her friend Sue came to visit. At least it sounded like Sue. But Sadie could only recognize one feature at a time, like the eyes, nose, etc., but she could not put the composite of those features together to form a recognizable face. This does not bode well for someone who has a career as a portrait artist.

Meanwhile, Sadie has a double crush - that of her veterinarian and that of her neighbor Joe. She decides to put those feelings for her vet aside and spends time with Joe, working on a portrait without actually being able to see his face. Sadie's face problems continues to cause issues, but she holds out the hope that once she fully heals, her ability to recognize faces will return.

Sadie has other issues - one being her evil stepsister. It seems she just cannot get away from her. Dealing with Parker, all while slowly falling for Joe gives this story plenty of form. Katherine Center is a fabulous writer. and she did a great job with Hello Stranger.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Hello Stranger was an overly predictable romantic comedy with some life lessons thrown in. It was cute, but definitely did not meet the expectations I had built after reading Center’s “The Bodyguard”.

The book follows Sadie, a portrait artist that, after an accident and resulting brain surgery, wakes to find she is face blind. Comedy ensues, a step-sibling villain emerges, and Sadie finds herself torn between two very different men.

What really disappointed me was the inconsistencies in the plot. I never expect romantic comedies to be literary masterpieces and often they do have parts that I just have to pretend make sense. But, Hello Stranger just had so many? I ended up being really frustrated with the characters, particularly Sadie, and that made the whole book kind of a drag for me.

I won’t let my reading experience of this book sway me from reading more of Center’s books in the future. I’m hoping this was just a fluke.

Really enjoyed Katherine Centers other books however this one was just a little too odd for me. A portrait artist loses her ability to see faces and chaos ensues. I enjoyed the characters and the little plot twist and ultimately the book very cute but I liked the bodyguard better. 3.5/5

This book was so so good! I wasn't sure that I was going to like it at first and then I was completely blown away by Katherine Center's writing. I thought that Sadie though seeming over the top at first was going through unimaginable circumstances and I thought she carried it with grace I never would have. I'm so glad that things ended well for her and Joe and I really truly enjoyed this story and cannot wait to read more from Katherine Center.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I love this author, and even after reading this bummer of a book, I'll still read more of her books. The main character is an artist who ends up with face-blindness. Unlike the terribly injured lead in How to Walk Away, I did not connect with Sadie or her plight in Hello Stranger. The love interest seemed too insta-love, and the twist, if we're calling it that, was super obvious. I kept reading this book hoping it would land, but it ended up a let down.

I ADORED this book! I thought I saw the "twist" coming, but I didn't even have the full picture of how perfectly this love story would work out. The cinnamon roll male main character was to-die-for and I ATE this one up! Katherine Center is the QUEEN of closed door romance and I love her for that!

Synopsis:

Sadie Montgomery places as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition just before she is diagnosed with a "probably temporary" condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face is a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. As she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls in love with two different men. There are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Review:

Is there such a thing as face blindness? Either way, I enjoyed reading about it. Katherine Center has a way of writing these endearing FMCs that are such a pleasure to read. Her love story is a little bit unbelievable but it was still a fun story. Peanut was super cute and a nice addition to the cast of characters. There are many people in Sadies family and apartment that we get to know as we read the book. I found her family awful and disappointing but she somehow finds a loving family where she lives. It's a great reminder not to take for granted what we have today, because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my eGalley!

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick easy read like most of her books have been! There were a lot of components to it like family drama, personal drama, medical drama. I wish there was more closure with Parker, maybe her side of it. Overall, very good! A little easy to predict as you got towards the end, but it made you want to see how it was going to come together!

Katherine Center writes such beautiful stories that always leave me feeling like the characters are my friends and I’m cheering them on the whole time. I felt intrigued by the medical diagnosis which is very relevant to the main Character’s experiences throughout the book - what a unique storyline outside the “tropes” often represented in romance reading. Well done Mrs. Center you never disappoint!

One of my favorite books from Katherine Center, I loved Sadie and related to her in some ways and the storyline is one that I think is difficult to write well without making it overly cheesy and she did an amazing job with it.

Wow! Katherine Center…. shocked me, swept me away and taught me something entirely new (without giving spoilers that’s all I’ll say). Hello Stranger absolutely charmed me in every way! Highly recommend!!