“The more good things you look for, the more you find.”

I love this quote 👆🏻

Struggling artist Sadie could really use a break. When she snagged a finalist spot in a coveted portrait competition, she thought things were finally moving in the right direction, until they suddenly weren’t.

After a small accident with a tiny little injury to her brain that leads to a minor surgery, Sadie finds herself with this little thing called face blindness. Yikes! Definitely not something someone would want to go through when they’re entire career has to do with the human face.

Did I mention she needed a break? It seems as tho Sadie just can’t catch a break, when she finds herself at the vets office with her childhood friend and pet, Peanut. (Insert a meet cute scene here) HELLO Dr. Addison. He’s a cutie, if she’s ever seen one. Well, technically she hasn’t SEEN him, with her little issue and all… but she can just feel it. With his long lab coat and his gait. Yes. Please.

Let’s fast forward a tad and we have Dr. Addison asking Sadie on a date!! but at the same time we also find Sadie possibly developing something for her neighbor Joe as well?

To do list:
Save career
Confront her past
Try not to fall in love with two different guys


Yeah. Sadie needs a break. But also, you should totally take a break and read this one for yourself because ITS THAT GOOD! Did I cry? Yes. This just makes a book even special when it can reach my little heart strings.

I love Katherine center and this one was no different. I thought the storyline was super unique and I loved that aspect of it. Once you get into the conflict of the story I think most of us can guess the outcome. But this isn’t a thriller and the author taught us some great lessons along the way. This one will keep you laughing the entire time like any of centers books. I really enjoyed

This review has been added to Goodreads, Literal and Storygraph, as well as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. This will be posted to my instagram (@manymerrybooks) within the week.

Thank you for allowing me to read this story!!

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling portrait artist. She lost her mom at a young age, and her father has never supported her career, preferring that she had become a doctor instead. Sadie thinks she finally has caught her big break when she makes the top ten in a coveted portrait competition. But luck has never been on her side. Immediately after finding out that she is a finalist in the competition, she finds out that she needs brain surgery to correct a bleed in her brain. A surgery that her mother put off having, which led to her untimely death. Sadie is whisked into surgery only to wake up and realize that she has lost the ability to see faces. How is a portrait artist supposed to work with face blindness?

This book was.. different. The scene setting was not the greatest, and I struggled to get into the book in the beginning. A lot of the story telling felt random and thrown together in a way that did not make a ton of sense.

That was until about the 70% mark. I will say that I had to knock this book a star because of how I felt at the beginning, but the twist once you get to this part of the book, and the way all the randomness comes together was like a lightbulb going off. I commend Katherine Center for being able to tie everything in the way she did.


I went into this blind, and maybe that added to my confusion at the beginning. But it turned out that this book was worth sticking around for.

🎨 I went into this book blind, which given the subject matter is actually a bit ironic. So I’m not going to tell you what this book is about, because I don’t want to reveal even one ounce of its magic. I’m just going to tell you that the premise was incredibly unique, and I was utterly fascinated. I will also tell you how it made me feel.

🎨This book made me believe in hope. It made me believe that we can endure hard things and that something wonderful can even come out of it. It made my heart feel warm and fuzzy inside, literally, it was bursting with happiness.

🎨I stayed up way too late reading this book because I was halfway through when my head hit the pillow but there was no way that I could wait to find out what happened.

🎨I have read and loved every one of Katherine’s books, and this is my favorite one yet!

🎨Katherine, you and your books are a light in this world, a joy, a happy ever after bursting with hope and beauty. I love your paintings, your books, how you radiate joy and kindness, and bring more happiness and color to the world. I will continue to read everything you write.

🛼🌼

“Love isn’t blind, but it’s a little blurry”

Sadie is a struggling artist who just scored a spot in a highly competitive art show. As she’s on her way home to celebrate her big news, she has a seizure in the middle of a cross walk and is rushed to the hospital. While she’s there, the doctors find that she has a small bleed in her brain that requires surgery. She’s reluctant- she has a big show to prepare for and needs to get started on her portrait. But father, a successful surgeon, schedules the surgery for her. Post surgery, her best friend Sue comes to visit her but Sadie doesn’t recognize her at all. She has never seen her face before. It’s determined she has acquired facial blindness (possibly temporary!) from the swelling in her brain. Her world as she knows it is quite literally turned upside down. How does a portrait artist make a living with facial blindness? How do they recognize their friends, family? How are they able to fall in love when they can’t see the person they might be dating?

•

This was such a unique story and I really, really enjoyed reading it. I have never been disappointed by a Katherine Center book. Learning about acquired facial blindness was truly fascinating- how do you go through your day-to-day life not recognizing the people you should? Sadie was so quirky and the story line was so fun, sometimes comical- kudos on putting a funny spin on a crappy situation. Her family was terrible and she literally had an evil-stepsister, I quite literally wanted to smack her when ever she appeared. The dating problems were even more entertaining- possibly dating 2 guys at once when you can’t see who they are? Amazing. This was a fast and fun read, be sure to check it out on July 11th!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Katherine Center's Hello Stranger (coming out 11 July 2023) was wonderful in all the ways a romance novel should be wonderful. The point-of-view character, a portrait artist, acquires prosopagnosia, more commonly called face blindness. What I love about this book (and the author even talks about this in a short, worth-reading afterward) is that it leans in to the primary joy of reading romance: knowing that love will find a way. Even though some of the twists and turns were predictable, many weren't. The main character's journey to learning a lot about herself through the worst time in her life kept me engaged.

Tropes:

mental illness
great best friend
enemies-to-lovers, sort of
not who you think they are
evil stepsister and stepmother
artist who can't art
deceased mother
getting caught in embarrassing moments
If you're all-in on contemporary romance, you'll certainly enjoy this book.

Overall: 4 stars

First let me say thank you for allowing me to review and read this.
I do believe this is my first Katherine center book and I can honestly say I’m hooked. I absolutely loved her writing style and the plot was adorable.

Main characters: Sadie and Joe
Plot: Sadie has the most Cinderella story of them all. If you combine all the evil and just put it in one person, her sister Parker. Things are finally about to change for Sadie. They most definitely do but not in the way readers may think.

What I loved: is it a Katherine center book if I don’t cry?

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for providing this title via NetGalley. This book has a publishing date of July 11, 2023!

The Body Guard was one of my favorite romance reads of last year so I was excited when Katherine Center's follow-up release was announced. I'm happy to say it was a charming read that did not disappoint. Although predictable with its big twists and a little unrealistic/extreme in some aspects (ex. an almost cartoonish adversary found in the form of a truly evil stepsister with little backing as to why exactly she's so evil into adulthood), this was a nice cozy read that still manages to be down to earth and relatable despite being a book full of escapism.

Having read and enjoyed two of her works, Katherine Center is now on the list of authors I keep an eye on for new releases and I'll definitely be looking into her back catalog in the near future. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center!

Really enjoyed this book. It is my second Katherine Center book and read it after I read and LOVED The Bodyguard. It took me a minute to get invested in the storyline and where it was going but once I got hooked I could not put it down.
Sadie is an artist who is forced (by a medical condition) to figure out who she is as an artist how to not draw conclusions of others, and how to be accepting of those around her and herself. I enjoyed the characters and the storyline. All except for the stepsister... Parker seems to mean to be real. Would recommend!

"We're all just muddling through, after all. We're all just doing the best we can. We're all struggling with our struggles. Nobody has the answers. And everybody, deep down, is a little bit lost"

What an adorable, feel good romance this was! I ended up reading it in one sitting while going through the full spectrum of human emotions. I laughed, I got choked up, I got frustrated right alongside Sadie.

Sadie is so relatable in her quest to make something of herself and her life. I feel like she perfectly encompassed the vibe of your late twenties. I loved her internal monologues (that I also felt like could have been my inner thoughts), and was laughing out loud at multiple parts. While some of this was lol-worthy, there are some heavier themes in this book, but it felt like the perfect balance. And Joeeeeee. Omg I swooned. Joe was written for the acts of service girlies, and the acts of service girlies only.

Overall, the plot was a little predictable, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the novel. The twisty aspect of Hello Stranger reminded me a little of The No Show by Beth O'Leary, and that is one book I have been thinking about for a loooooong time.

If you're looking for a swoony, relatable romance, definitely check this out. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center!

READ THROUGH NETGALLEY. Okay so I really liked this book, except the ending left me feeling so unsatisfied. I don’t know something about it just feels weird to me. I don’t exactly know how to describe. It’s just like oh the story is going great. I loved Sadie, I loved Joe, and Sue seemed like a good best friend. Then was of course the third act breakup, but something about the breakup didn’t make sense to me, which is where the ending comes in. But the ending was weird and left me with so many questions. Still would recommend though.

Wow, this one caught me with the twist at the end. I love her books - they’re just sunshine for me. She’s a definite must read for me.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is an enthralling tale that gripped me from the start and didn't let go until the end.
This is the story of Sadie, who is a down on her luck portrait artist that is fighting tooth and nail to prove to her father that she can make it as an artist on her own. She has no money and is having a hard day when she gets fantastic news! She has placed in the final ten of an art competition her mother placed in as well that has a grand prize of ten-thousand dollars. She is buying $6 wine to celebrate when she can't pay. A kind man offers to pay, but Sadie is not good at accepting help and repeatedly tells him no. He continues to insist, but she says no and leaves. Then he shows up on the street corner having bought her wine, and the flowers she had been looking at, but hadn't planned to purchase. They argue some more and before she was planning to say thank you, everything goes black.
She had a seizure right in the middle of a cross-walk and was saved by a good Samaritan. It turns out she had what her mother had and needs brain surgery to fix it. She gets the surgery but afterwards realizes she has acquired prospopagnosia, or face-blindness. How can she possibly complete the portrait for the contest when she can no longer see faces? Faces are now a mixed-up puzzle of their features, including her own. It could resolve, or it could be permanent.
Through this time Sadie meets Joe, the neighbor who she calls the weasel for having some harsh things to say about a one-night stand and a kind veterinarian. She also deals with her evil step-sister, step-mother, and absent disapproving father.
What unfolds is a beautiful story about finding oneself, our view of the world, and conquering confirmation bias to make the best of our time. It is also a wonderful love story that I could not recommend more. Buy it now!

This was my first Katherine Center book although I have a few on my TBR. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did but this was soo cute! I knew after about 30 minutes in that I was going to love this book and Katherine's writing style. It reminded me a lot of Christina Lauren, another of my go-to authors. I did piece together who Joe was pretty early on but it was still lots of fun watching everything unfold. I am looking forward to more of Katherine's writing.

This book is nothing short of phenomenal! It's a wonderful story with satisfying twists, amazing friendships, plenty of humor, hope and love. The storyline is brilliant with delightfully complex and authentic characters. I laughed, I cried, I swooned. I could not help but love every moment of this book. Thank you, Katherine Center, I happily had a blissed-out book hangover.

I really liked this book. It was a quick read for me.

It's about a girl who develops face blindness after having a surgery. She needs to learn to navigate her world from a new perspective. Going out is terrifying because she can't recognize anyone. Everyone is a stranger. Her job, as a portrait artist, seems doomed.

This book has great characters, from all the people in her building, including a man who seems to be quite the lothario to her evil stepsister, her dad and her stepmonster, her best friend and a handsome veterinarian.

I couldn't wait to see how this turned out. I think anyone would like this book.

"This love story really created fantastic anticipation."

Sadie, an artist that is struggling so much she is living in her studio hovel, gets amazing news when she is chosen as a finalist for a portrait competition that is conveniently being hosted in her town. Sadie prides herself on being able to take care of herself and pretending to be fine. Her mother passed away when she was 14 years old and her father remarried fairly quickly to her "evil stepmother." Lucinda (ES) came with a horrible stepsister for Sadie.

As Sadie is heading home from picking up wine for the celebration her friend Sue insists she have to commemorate placing in the contest, she has a seizure and a good Samaritan pushes her out of the way of a car. Unfortunately, her tests come back showing that she needs to have brain surgery. They say it isn't a big deal and recovery shouldn't take too long. She wants to put it off until after the contest, but her father, a cardiologist, disagrees and insists she do it now. It will cut into her portrait time, but she will still have time after the surgery. She wakes up with face blindness, which really hinders her ability to draw the portrait required for the competition. And not being able to tell people apart by their faces is pretty inconvenient. Her neuropsychologist works with her to discuss other ways to distinguish people and also wants to help her resolve some issues from her past.

When her favorite face in the world, her dog Peanut, becomes ill, she meets the handsome (she can just tell) Dr. Oliver Addison who saves Peanut's life. Sadie does not want anyone to know about her problems with having surgery and the resulting face blindness so she does her best to keep it a secret. Her family and best friend know and she finds that to be more than enough people. While she prides herself on not needing help, her neighbor Joe is a person who helps too much. And he is always there when Sadie needs help but is scared to be weak.

I loved this book SO much! At first, I felt like Sadie was a bit ridiculous with her desire to not need help (seriously, a guy offered to pay for her items when she realized she left her purse at home and it was a huge ordeal). The exaggeration of it was funny and helped her grow on me, especially once you learn a bit more about her past. The ways she related to her mother were sweet and fun. A quote from the author's note at the end (a must read!) summarizes why this book was such a joy for me to read: "I think the ways we take care of each other matter just as much as the ways we let each other down. That light matters just as much as darkness. That play matters as much as work, and kindness matters as much as cruelty, and hope matters as much as despair. More so, even."

Another great read by Katherine Center! It was twisty, entertaining and lighthearted. You really cannot go wrong with this romance. I really enjoyed reading (and learning!) about facial blindness and the struggles she endeared.

Hello Stranger, by Katherine Center

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5

This was such a sweet and unexpected novel!

I adored that the focus was mostly on Sadie Montogmery. In a romance, it's really easy to have the relationship be the core focus of the book, but I didn't feel that way with this one.

One sentence summary:
Hello Stranger is about Sadie's recovery and finding herself again after going through a traumatic experience — the fact that she falls in love along the way is a bonus.

Stand out quote (from the author note, not the book!):
"Romance novels, rom-coms, happy love stories — they all run on a blissful sense that we're moving toward something better. The clues writers drop in romance novels don't give you something to dread. They give you something to look forward to. This, right here — more than anything else — is why people love them. The banter, the kissing, the tropes, even the spice ... that's all just extra."

What I liked:
The plot was really interesting and unique, and kept me hooked the whole time. I enjoyed the journey of figuring out along with Sadie what a portrait artist was going to do now that she couldn't see faces! The love interests were also really great and totally swoon-worthy. Mr. Helpful, indeed.

I also enjoyed Sadie's creativity and resilience in going after her dreams. While they didn't play out how she expected, I think the outcome was a lot stronger for her.

I did guess the twist, but I still had a blast reading it to see how it would play out. As Katherine explained in her author's note, the anticipation was great and I couldn't wait to see how it would unfold.

What I didn't:
Katherine does a great job in her novels of bringing the characters to life.

That said, I didn't totally understand the need to have Parker be SUCH a bitch. Having a mean stepsister is one thing, but Parker was essentially a psychopath with no redeeming qualities. I found it hard to believe that Sadie's dad or stepmom wouldn't have noticed. While her dad wasn't totally present for her after her mom died, it's another thing entirely to have this terrible of a person not have anyone notice how terrible they are.

And honestly, Sadie was having a hard enough time without an evil step sister!

Overall thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. It kept me hooked, it surprised me, it made me laugh, and it made me feel all the things. It really is such a heartwarming and touching love story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.