Hello Stranger
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

3.5

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. The premise is interesting and I will say I’m not usually into amnesia plots and although this plot involves the main character developing face blindness, it does give a similar vibe. Sadie’s character became more like able as the story progresses but for much of the story I had a hard time relating to her. The big reveal at the end was something I had already guessed early on in the book. In the authors note she does talk about how love story’s are predictable sometimes but maybe we should think of it more as “anticipation” to paint it in a more positive light.

I really liked the dog and make lead in this story. I think it’s good to also see Sadie, the FMC, work through and process more of the grief of losing her Mom from years ago.

However, the whole plot with her family and particularly her step sister didn’t always feel super necessary and then wasn’t given as much of a resolution as I was hoping for. There was some real hurt and trauma there and it seemed to just be wrapped up in a neat little bow.

I found myself waiting in great anticipation for the big reveal and moment and enjoyed that. I just struggled through the first 50-60% of the book so that’s why I’m not rating it higher. I expected to love this after loving the Bodyguard so much so there was some disappointment. Overall I still enjoyed it and would recommend you check it out!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for approving me for this ARC!

Mini review to be posted on instagram stories on March 8 then remain in highlights on Jensatt.shelves instagram

This love story really created fantastic anticipation.

When I started reading this I was buzzing. Another Katherine Center novel? Don’t mind if I do! I casually read this in 3 sittings.

The emotional arc of our main character was beautifully crafted, and that ENDING!!! Are you kidding me 😭

I’m going to be short and sweet with this one:

Read it.

Favorite quote: “The more good things you look for, the more you find.” I was looking for a good read and oh, I found one🥹

Such a unique rom-com, with a quirky MC and a loveable golden retriever love interest. I especially loved Sadie’s growth and acceptance as the story progressed.

I did struggle to get into the first 50%, but absolutely devoured the second half.

I really enjoyed this novel. I do know my friend really needed a trigger warning for reading this due to some content she found traumatic. I appreciated being able to learn about a medial condition I knew nothing about! I walked away happily feeling like I learned something but also felt like the characters were my friends. It was a warm hug of a novel.

Thank you @netgalley and @katherinecenter for this ARC of Hello Stranger! After reading The Bodyguard, I knew I would be amused the whole time I was reading and I was right. While this book touches on some hard topics, it is hilarious and lighthearted as a whole. It had me laughing out loud multiple times throughout my read! This was a great plot with characters I absolutely adored. If you need something happy and funny, I highly recommend this one! I definitely will be recommending this one once it is released in July.

Katherine Center has done it again because I absolutely loved this!!!

First of all, I really liked the concept of writing an artist with "face blindness." It felt different and fresh and I enjoyed learning something new. The author's descriptions of objects and people without the most defining feature were wonderful.

The characters were also very believable and loveable. I thought the romance was great and loved the reveal at the end!

Overall, this book felt like a cold glass of lemonade on a hot day. It was refreshing, sweet, and left me with a big smile on my face.

I really enjoyed this book by Katherine Center. As a new reader to this author, I like the way her story flows and the humor that her characters show even in bad circumstances.

It was really interesting to read about a character with face blindness in this book as I didn't really have any knowledge about it. It kind of broke my heart to see Sadie deal with it and face so many obstacles, especially when it so strongly affects your personal and professional life. At first I think I was frustrated with the outcome at the end, but then I realized how hard it would be to recognize two people from two completely separate parts of your life as the same person when their face is unrecognizable. I'm glad that everything was communicated well in the end, though! I would definitely read more of Center's books in the future.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a digital review copy of this book via NetGalley!

Hello Stranger is my second Katherine Center book (after her well-loved 2022 novel, The Bodyguard, which I enjoyed). It features Sadie, a portrait artist who after a brain operation develops prosopagnosia (face blindness). This is a condition I've heard of but have never come across in novels before, so it was definitely interesting to follow Sadie's story as she struggles to create her art with this important sense impaired. She also develops a relationship with a guy in her building, Joe, who always seems to be there for her.

I immediately knew what the plot twist was going to be, and was just waiting for it to be revealed. I also found the story to be a little contrived, and the payoff wasn't the most satisfying. Especially the plotline with Parker, one of the most blood pressure-raising examples of the "evil stepsister" trope ever, ugh. But I do commend Center for writing an entertaining book (and I really love her defense of romance novels and the genre itself for being a source of nourishing, optimistic, and hopeful stories).

WOW!! One of my favorite things about Katherine Center’s books is that they each have a unique story. Hello Stranger was not at all what I was expecting from page one. Sadie has so much depth to her. She’s an artist who had to have a surgery that’s totally flips her world upside down. We get to see her work through life with new eyes and learn to ask for help. It was a touching story and I loved every second of it.

Katherine center does it again! I loved Hello Stranger so much! Sadie goes through the unthinkable — becoming blind temporarily after brain surgery. And then she is fortunate enough to have thanksgiving attention of not one but two men that she can tell are very handsome! I was so invested in the story. I did think she would pick Joe but I could not figure out how Dr Oliver Addison would come to play.
I loved the ending. I loved the storyline. I loved the characters (all of them— even Parker). I just wanted the book to keep going. Highly recommend you pick up Hello Stranger

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exhange for my honest thoughts!

-This was my first Katherine Center book and I don’t think it will be my last!

-The main character, Sadie, is a portrait artist who is a disappointment to her father, stepmother and also herself. She has been trying for years to make it in the world of fine arts, without much success. She finally gets her big break, and then winds up fainting and having to have an operation which leaves her with some residual issues post surgery that causes her life to spiral into chaos.

- Sadie has to choose between two romantic love interests, Dr. Oliver, and Joe from her building. Having two men to choose from….. what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!

- this book was an easy quick read for me and I really did enjoy the ending. This was my first Katherine Center book, but I don’t think it will be my last!

I received a complimentary ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I will start off by saying I did enjoy Katherine's first book of this type, at least to me, The Bodyguard. Additionally, I really enjoyed this book. This author is one of my will read all her new rom-com like this one. The characters were great, it was fun listening to Sadie's situation through her eyes with all her other senses. I read the acknowledgments and loved that she names several of the characters after people who helped her with research on this book. I can't wait to read the next one from this author and this one hasn't even been published yet.

Sadie Montgomery, struggling portrait artist, is so close to the break of a lifetime. She has just found out she is a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition which has a grand prize of $10K. One minute she is crossing a crosswalk with the wine for the celebration of her accomplishment, and the next minute she is in a hospital bed and acquires face blindness. Which is really not good since her portrait entry for the final competition is due in a matter of weeks. As if that dilemma isn’t enough, she is working through the of loss of her mother, family drama, AND she falls in love with two different men all while her brain can definitely not be trusted.

Katherine Center became an auto-buy for me after reading The Bodyguard last year and Hello Stranger definitely did not disappoint. It actually maybe my favorite yet by Center. I loved the theme of healing throughout this book as Sadie faces so many struggles including grief and mental health. The romance aspect was sweet and a little comedic. The writing and the details and descriptions of the story really put you in Sadie’s shoes and made you feel for her. Overall, I couldn’t put it down I enjoyed it so much.

This book was somehow able to be fun and lighthearted while tackling some complicated topics. I really appreciated the note from the author at the end where she says, “tragedy is a given, but joy is a choice,” and that really shows why this genre of book is nice to read. I had predicted some of the story, but was still surprised at moments.

This is the second book I have read by Katherine Center. I really enjoyed "The Bodyguard" by her and I had high expectations for "Hello Stranger".

The premise of the book was so cute and interesting. This is the first book I have read about face blindness and I enjoyed learning about as I did not know this was a thing. For this book I was so excited to see how it would play out but it was kind of predictable. I also was not a huge fan of the main character, I found her a bit unlikable and annoying. For the most part, the book was pretty slow moving and not interesting. However, the last 30% of the book was enjoyable and I did like the love interest. I also was not a fan of how Sadie's family situation played out.

Overall, this book would be perfect for someone who is looking for a cute romance read and is a fan of Katherine Center. I do look forward to reading more of her books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this e-arc! All my opinions are my own.

This book is about Sadie who is a struggling artist who paints portraits like her deceased mother. She just got her first career break by becoming a finalist in the North American Portrait Society's yearly contest. At a crosswalk, she ends up having a nonconvulsive seizure and a Good Samaritan pushed her out of the way saving her life. She ends up in the hospital and the doctors find out that she has a neurovascular and she needs brain surgery. Which of course she does not want brain surgery because she only has to get her portrait ready for her big break in six weeks and has no time for brain surgery. Her father is a surgeon and schedules the surgery for her as well as talks her into having it. After the surgery, she realizes that she has face blindness and now has to adjust to a life of not being able to recognize people by their faces. Lucinda the stepmother and Parker the evil stepsister does not make it easier for Sadie to adjust. Sadie starts to get to know her neighbor Joe better who she has the wrong impression of due to a conversation he had with somebody on the phone and that she sees him going in and out of people's apartments late at night or early in the morning. When Sadie's dog Peanut gets sick, she takes him to the vet clinic and falls in love with Peanut's vet Dr. Oliver Addison even though she does not know him.

This is the second book I have read from Katherine Center, and I did notice that the epilogue told the reader instead of showing them what happened in the end. I feel like in the epilogue that it needed to be different which is how I felt in The Bodyguard. I loved the side characters except for Parker of course. I did not know who the Good Samaritan was, but I did have an idea who Dr. Addison the vet, and Joe the neighbor really was. I absolutely love it and I definitely recommend this book.

Release date is July 11, 2023.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin’s Press for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

Hello Stranger is a sweet, fun, heartwarming, quick-read rom-com. The story (which feels like a loose retelling of Cinderella with a twist) follows Sadie through the highs of placing as a finalist in a prestigious portrait competition, to the lows of requiring a life-saving brain surgery that leads to her acquiring face blindness. Sadie now has to navigate her world, without being able to rely on her sight to know who is around her. She unfortunately does not have the support of her family, and to top it all off she seemingly falls in love with two different men.

I enjoyed many elements of this book. It was sunshiny and made me smile, and the dialogue between Sadie and Joe was very sweet. However, the Cinderella parallels led to an over-the-top evil stepsister that was a bit hard to digest and made me want to skim out of discomfort.

That said, I really did enjoy watching Sadie’s relationships bloom and her growth as a character. This was my first Katherine Center, but it will not be my last!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Katherine Center, and NetGalley for this advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Katherine, you knocked it out of the park with this one. Sadie is on the verge of her big break when an accident leaves her needing surgery. A textbook procedure leaves Sadie healing beautifully, except now she can’t see faces which is kinda a big deal given her livelihood.

What a fabulous and interesting premise! The struggle, the heartbreak, the healing. This was a rollercoaster of hurdle jumps and blossoming relationships. The dynamics of overcoming life’s struggles was beautiful. Sadie at first is very doom and gloom and represents how most would probably react and sink with this news. She is so incredibly resilient and stubborn though that the change in her own mindset pushed her character development to a whole new level.

An entire side cast of characters who raise their own trials and tribulations, the navigation of being vulnerable and chasing your dreams had me tearing up multiple times. Let’s not forget about the wittiness, the banter, and those twists! I had a theory, I just didn’t realize how committed Katherine was at creating this massive spiderweb of connecting pieces!

This book was absolutely adorable! It took a little bit to get into at first but once I did I couldn’t put it down! There were several small twists that I didn’t always expect and kept me interested. Will definitely be suggesting this to everyone I know!

This book was a quick read and relatively enjoyable. What I struggled the most with was wanting more in general. I feel like I wanted to know more about the family dynamic and the plot line between her and Joe/Oliver felt really all over the place with limited threads of believability. I just wanted a little bit more of everything.