4.5⭐️

I read The Bodyguard and absolutely loved it, so when the opportunity presented itself to receive an early ARC of Hello Stranger I jumped right on it. I loved that The Bodyguard was a light, quick, and very cute read and Hello Stranger was no different.

Sadie faces a medical emergency early on in the book that leaves her temporarily disabled (face blindness), and the story follows her struggles with coming to terms with her “new normal”, especially for a portrait artist. She’s fiercely independent and has the strongest bond with her dog, *can relate*, though slowly learns to accept help from others. There are two leading men in the story, Dr. Oliver Addison the vet, and Joe, the friendly, incredibly helpful, golden retriever energy neighbor, who were both great characters. I figured out the plot twist a little later than some other reviewers, but it took absolutely nothing away from the story for me.

There were a few heavier tones in this story, particularly around parental death and lack of family support, so it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but still overall had a lighter feel. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be more than happy to pick up a physical copy when it comes out in July 2023!

*I received an uncorrected ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Special thanks to the author and her team for giving me the chance to enjoy this early!*

Katherine Center delivers again. 4.5⭐️
Sadie suffers from face blindness and this is something I’d heard of but never read about and found so interesting. I was googling things to learn more. Watching her cope with this new condition was just as interesting as the romance to me.

I guessed the reveal that I think was supposed to be a surprise at the very beginning. The author’s note at the end mentioned that predictability in romance is looked down on but is part of what makes the genre so great. I generally agree and don’t want to dock stars for that but this small reveal felt like it was supposed to be a bit of a surprise.

As always I love how Center’s books are closed door but they still have tension that make the romance feel real and fun which I feel like a lot of clean romances can lack. It’s the perfect balance for me.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for my honest review.

I can not believe it took me this long to start reading katherine center, but i am so excited that there're'll be a backlist waiting for me already.

My sincere thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read Hello Stranger and give my unbiased opinion of it in the following review.

Hello Stranger follows Sadie who is a portrait artist. At the beginning of the book, she has a medical incident while crossing a busy street. She finds out that she has an abnormal vessel in her brain that needs to be fixed. While hesitant at first, she allows her surgeon father to convince her not to delay the surgery. All goes well and the surgery is a success with one glitch. She has some swelling near the part of her brain that allows her to recognize faces. This is not very convenient for a portrait artist who has a chance to win a contest that could be her big break and can now not even recognize her own face in a mirror. There is so much to this story. There is a swoony love interest, an evil stepsister, a loyal friend, an absent father, and an adorable dog. Combine all these elements with Katherine Center's writing style and you will be staying up late reading this book just as I did.

This story was so unique. I had never heard of acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia or face blindness before and when the story started, I wasn't sure how the Katherine Center was going to make this work. Sadie has to learn other ways to remember how to recognize the people she meets, even people she has known for years. She is never sure if she can trust what she thinks is real or not. The whole idea that not everything is as it seems is brought home more than once. In romance or love stories, there is always a good amount of emphasis on the looks of the love interest, and while Sadie does notice some nice physical attributes, she is also drawn to more than just that. What can I say, Katherine Center's stories just make me feel good. 5 enthusiastic stars. I highly recommend this book.

Lastly, please take time to read the author's note at the end. Katherine has put into words better than I have ever been able as to why I have always loved to read romantic stories.

Katherine Center knocked it out of the park with this delightfully charming story that I could not put down!

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist with more family issues than one can count; evil step-sister, disinterested father, and overbearing step-mother to name a few. After the death of her mother she decides to follow in her footsteps artistically, but she's barely making it by doing pet portraits for $100 a pop until she earns a coveted finalist spot in a competition that has the potential to turn her life into what she's already told her family it is. This is the same competition that her mother placed in years ago which makes the competition so much more important to her.
Everything is going great and she feels like her life is on track until she finds out she has to have surgery, six weeks before the show. She decides to have the surgery and then paint her masterpiece that will win her this coveted award, what she didn't count on was complications from the surgery leaving her face blind! How can a portrait artist paint a face that she can't see? With the support of her best friend Sue, and sweet dog, Peanut, she knows that she can't lose, even with her setbacks until Peanut gets sick. So sick that a trip to the emergency veterinarian is in order. Without seeing his face she falls in love. She doesn't share that she can't see faces, but she does share her number! Sadie continues to work on her painting while new challenges crop up everyday like her evil stepsister moving into her building! As she confronts these new challenges she's forced to take the help of her neighbor, Joe, a guy that always seems to be around whenever she needs him. Before she knows it there are two men in her life, each offering different things that she needs. Which one will she choose? Center takes us through all of the twists and turns making us fall in love with this book, these characters, and her writing again and again.

Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell, boy do I have a rom com adaptation for you!
Is it a bit predictable? Yes, but I desperately needed to turn off my brain and enjoy a romance. On par with Emily Henry’s books and a good change of pace between my high fantasy reads.

I gotta say: I KNEW IT. k maybe it was obvious, but man that reveal was just the best. Then all the other interactions made sense. Such a fun, funny story but also touches on some serious topics. Had no idea about prosopagnosia and still can’t quite wrap my head around what exactly a person with the disorder sees, but I thought the author explained it pretty well.

I thought the evil stepmother and stepsister were a little much. And man Sue wasn’t the greatest friend. But otherwise! Loved all the other characters. also always love when the hero has been pining for the heroine who just didn’t notice him at first.

I look forward to Katherine Center’s next romance!

Another win from Katherine Center - this book was SO cute! KC is the queen of quirky, lovable MCs and ridiculous one liners that make me cackle out loud. Here's an incomplete list of the things I loved about this book:
- I loved Sadie and her personal journey in this book, and the romance was icing on the cake.
- I loved the overall themes of asking for help and being aware of your surroundings/being present instead of existing only in your own head.
- I loved learning about the brain and prosopagnosia (face blindness)!
- I loved her best friend, Sue, and how freaking messy of a friend she was. She did not fall into the "perfect best friend" stereotype and it was glorious and so much more realistic than I'm used to!

This book was definitely more serious in tone in the beginning and I liked the depth but was also very sad/stressed for the first quarter of the book in a way I wasn't expecting. I also just could not get over the Parker storyline from her past and it stressed me out so much.

Overall, highly recommend this one - and also adored the author's note that's an ode to the romance genre, so sweet!

Many Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Since I'm being honest, I want to suggest starting at the back of the book reading the author's note. I felt like she poured her heart and soul into those notes and it made me an instant admirer of her work.

That aside, I found this book hard to put down. I was mildly skeptical in the beginning that it was going to hold my interest as she seemed to be a character who didn't want "help"... but then Sadie has a seizure, and then brain surgery, and then realizes she's suffering from “acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia”-Face Blindness. I found myself entranced in a world where she can't see - she meets a cute vet and then grows fond of her quirky male neighbor and I just kept picking up the little bread crumbs of details hoping that I was right in my thoughts of what was happening.

I often find reading to be an escape and this was no exception. And oh the scene where she figures out how to paint a portrait... dreamy.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5434163515

Only Katherine Center. In Hello Stranger, Center manages to take a storyline that’s possible, albeit one that’s incredibly unusual and pretty unlikely, and turn it into a charming story filled with love, friendship and personal growth. What are the odds of a portrait artist having complications from brain surgery that cause face blindness? While face blindness isn’t incredibly rare, Center manages to find one of the few professions where it’s truly a problem that’s difficult to surmount. Making it even more challenging is the fact that Sadie is a finalist in an art competition that requires her to submit a portrait right in the middle of everyone’s faces looking like they’ve been interpreted by Picasso. So yeah…that’s a challenge. Sadie has her cheerleaders in her best friend Sue and her parents, and her enemies in … her family. She lost her mom to the same medical issue that was left untreated, and her father and stepmother are distant and not overly nice. Her stepsister Parker is downright evil. And right in the thick of everything are Joe, the neighbor, and Oliver, the sexy veterinarian. Despite not being able to see Oliver’s face, everything else about him convinces Sadie that he’s her future husband. But after being stood up by the dream doctor, she runs into Joe and begins to realize that the picture she’s formed of him in her head based on passing experiences is completely different than the person she’s getting to know and love. Naturally chaos ensues. There’s definitely some downer moments, even if you don’t agree with Sadie’s decision to tell people their faces look puzzle pieces scrambled together, that make your heart break for her. To grow up in a family where you don’t feel wanted, with a stepsibling that takes their anger out on you in devious and malicious ways. To feel a little bit terrified of going outside with no facial recognition. To worry about losing the dog that’s been your support network since your mother died. And of course the art deadline situation. Sadie gradually begins to seek out the positive and a future begins to come into focus, until the situation with Joe and Oliver blows up in her face. Center has once again come up with a unique and creative way to generate warm fuzzies that is charming. I love her stories and her happy endings – and for anyone that thinks that romance novels are a guilty pleasure or not worth reading because they don’t have the weight of literary fiction, I strongly encourage reading her afterward to this book too.

“Love is nourishing” 🌱 and “joy is a choice”

If an author’s note quote is what is used to begin this review, you already know the book is good.

Sadie is an artist who is finally at a turning point in her career when she experiences ‘face blindness’ as a result of brain surgery. Ya know, typical twenty-something things. She can’t see faces or make sense of them, which isn’t great as a portrait artist. This makes her rethink how she views the world and she, as any good heroine, also finds love while she finds herself.

This is my second book by this author, and when I read ‘The Bodyguard’ I went in with zero expectations and ended up loving the book. Needless to say, the expectations here were high and I was doubtful. However, I needn’t have worried. After the first banter exchange, the writing style enveloped me and I was hooked. The book was addicting, since even through the ‘twist’ is apparent from the beginning, seeing it unfold in zany ways is a fun ride. In my opinion, it’s more dramedy than romcom since at times it feels like Sadie’s love life is more of a subplot than the main plot, almost like reading about Sue and Witt. The book doesn’t take itself too seriously and although it discusses serious events in Sadie’s life, the light tone is kept throughout. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Love Katherine Center! This is her best yet, by far! I loved the story and I loved the wrap up. It was a little mystery wrapped right in there also. While Parker is a great character to hate, I actually did not care much for Sue. She seemed to be quite out of touch for being Sadie's best and seeming only friend. I learned a lot about face blindness and appreciate the work that Center put in researching this book. Great read!

Thank you to Katherine Center, Netgalley, and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Wow. Just wow. This book is SO endearing and interesting. The main character, Sadie, experiences an accident in which doctors discover she is in need of brain surgery. The surgery leaves her with face blindness. Every time she meets someone it’s like the first time, and she must rely on her other senses and details to keep people straight. This, as you can guess, makes dating difficult.

All of the characters, save an evil stepsister, are SO wholesome and wonderful. I smiled, I cried, and I laughed so many times while reading this book!

This is my second by Katherine Center, and I am official a huge fan.

My new favorite Catherine Center book! I loved The Bodyguard so thought no way this would compare. Hello Stranger is funny and cute and just the perfect amount of angst, love, and miscommunication (or no communication) trope. I read this in a day with my new born and I had the hardest time putting it down. Give me all the Catherine Center!!

This book was adorable! Katherine Center did such a great job with every twist and turn in this book. If you are looking for a fun read, this is the one!

I recommend not reading any spoiler reviews and just jumping into it!

Sadie’s world turns upside down when she loses the ability to see faces overnight. It forces her to change her perspective on life and allows her to really grow. She’s forced to focus on other aspects to develop relationships and recognize people.

This is a feel good romance but also digs a lot deeper. What happens when something you rely on the most changes? How will you handle it? There’s also a lot to gain from being open about your struggles.

Overall it gets 4.5 stars from me. I wish I had been able to see more of the relationship between Sadie and Joe, because the chemistry was there for me, but I needed to see more of their relationship for it to really build. I loved reading this book, I absolutely devoured it. And I will probably be thinking of it and the lessons for a while.

This book surprised me in the best way! I definitely predicted the reveal at the end but that didn't take away from it's charm at all. Sadie was such a fun and quirky character, added to her already spunky yet jaded self is all this crazy situations that happen to her through the course of the book. It was fascinating for me to see just how different circumstances can be perceived when you can't see the same way as you always have. Even without her current limitations, there were things from the past brought up that weren't affected by this challenge but instead were the product of poor communication while in the midst of grief - I can definitely relate to this and got a bit emotional when Sadie and her dad were finally hashing things out.
Sadie and Joe were so sweet to watch despite their miscommunications. Joe just genuinely seems like an overall kind hearted man and I was seriously routing for them the entire time. I think this was one of my favorite love stories from Katherine!

Hello Stranger made me laugh, cry and think through a completely new perspective.

This book is unique in its premise — a woman suffers from temporary face blindness after brain surgery and has to paint a portrait for a competition. Since she can’t identify people by their faces, she has to take on new tactics to know who a person is, falling in love in the process with a man whose face she’s never seen (and a little bit of chaos ensues).

What I loved about this book was it took on topics beyond romance — complicated family dynamics, loss/grief, figuring out who you are in the world, etc. While reading, you have a good idea of what might happen, but instead of every single problem being tied up in a nice little bow, it takes some time for the characters to resolve the issues, which I appreciated. I’m not usually a fan of a miscommunication trope, but this book turns the trope on its head — when you literally cannot see what’s in front of you, everything can appear off. A simple misunderstanding can last an entire book because her world is turned upside down, and thus, readers have to experience that with them. This was a beautiful story, and I’d highly recommend it!

Katherine Center has a way to tell stories that could be tragedies but instead are stories of hope and joy. I love how she writes flawed characters that are going through hardships and how they get past it, how they grow into becoming better versions of themselves, how they find their way. Hello Stranger tells the story of Sadie, who is going through some difficult things, emotionally and physically and her growth journey. I love how she learns how to win while losing. I really liked Sadie, she is stubborn and strong and a little too independent. I felt for her, and with her. I liked the romance, I kind of guessed what was going on early but it didn’t matter, it was still so satisfying to read how everything unfolded. It’s a great book, with some great life lessons.

Katherine Center has done it again! Compelling characters, a fascinating plot, and a great love story will keep you from putting this book down. When portrait artist Sadie devops the condition of face blindness, she must rethink how to get along in the world, not only in her social interactions but in her career as well. With a story that is both heartbreaking and hilarious, you'll find yourself crying and laughing and always, always rooting for Sadie. I particularly loved (to hate) Sadie's evil step-sister, Parker. I am a huge fan of Katherine Center, and this newest novel does not disappoint!