Im pretty new to Katherine Center, but so far I’m loving what I’m reading! Hello Stranger had the right balance of playful banter, introspective internal monologue, and sarcastic wit to keep me engaged. I will admit I figured out the ending by about chapter five, and so some pacing was a bit slow for me. But all in all, this was a cute story with a very unique theme - it makes me want to know more about the main characters medical diagnosis! This will be one that sticks with me for a bit.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGally for this arc!!

Lovable characters, interesting family dynamic, but the “plot twist” was just a little too unbelievable but yet also predictable by about 70% in. I liked it, but would recommend others by Center much more

I loved this book and I definitely want to buy a physical copy when it comes out! I really enjoyed these dynamic characters and how we got a deep dive into Sadie’s family relationships. I felt like this helped us understand Sadie as a character even more and it felt very healing to see her father begin to resolve some of their struggles and own up to his mistakes.
I felt like this book was full of hope and happiness and humor and I loved experiencing it! I also did not see the twist coming at the end and that was a really fun surprise. I thought maybe Joe was the Good Samaritan but I did not think he was Dr. Addison!
Another thing that I really enjoyed was that Sadie’s face blindness condition was based in scientific fact and I could tell how much time the author put into researching this condition. All in all, this was a great read and I loved the author’s note at the end, it felt like a hug.

Another story to add to your list is Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. It’s out in July and I’m actually sad I read it prior to its release date because it’s so good! Sadie is a portrait artist who is in the running to win a National contest and $10,000. She discovers she has a genetic mutation in her brain and has to have surgery. Turns out her mom had the same mutation and died from it. She has the surgery 6 weeks before her art show and ends up with facial blindness. Now the story gets really good! Throw in an evil stepsister; a hot vet doc and an interesting neighbor turns the story from good to great. Pick it up come July if you love quirky romcom stories! 5 stars

I would like to start off this review by saying I am a huge fan of the unbelievable, I am happy to suspend my disbelief and to ignore plot holes (sometimes to a fault) to fully immerse myself and get wrapped up in a good story! So when I say that this one was way too unbelievable for even me to enjoy, that is saying something!

Waaaaay too many coincidences, accompanied by plot holes that were poorly addressed or ignored completely. I can’t count the number of times I thought the words “yeah, okay…” during the course of this book!

In addition to the unbelievability, it just felt like there was way too much going on to be fully invested in any of it? I think this one could have been edited down to include only one or two of the major conflicts so we could have gotten the well rounded set up and resolution the story deserved.

After finishing this one up, I’m not only left with a lot of questions but just an overwhelming feeling of… so what? A happily ever after didn’t do it for me here! It wasn’t enough.

On a positive note, this book was definitely different than anything I have read before and I commend the author for venturing outside of the typical romcom form to try something out of the box! There was a lot of potential here, but unfortunately it really missed the mark for me!

Still a die hard Katherine fan though, and I look forward to continuing to enjoy her work in the future!

Keep me interest till I couldn’t put down. Had enough mystery about it to make a reader keep turning pages. Very good plots, characters were well explained & details on conversations & p,aces both outstanding.

Katherine Center is a guaranteed 5 star read for me always. I love her story lines the her characters and the fact I know I need to clear my schedule to plan for finishing the book in one sitting! Hello Stranger did not disappoint and I learned about a rare medical condition I have never heard of. If you haven't read any of Katherine's books please go order every single one, they are all amazing!
Sadie is a portrait artist and learned everything she knows from her beloved mother. Her family life is non-exsistant and she really doesn't have many people in her life besides her dog and best friend. Just as things appear to be getting worse Sadie finds out she is a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition and must come up with a portrait to submit. This is exactly what she needs because if he wins there is a hefty prize.
Unfortunately Sadie gets in an accident which sends her to the hospital and when tests are ran the news is not good. She's fine from the accident but they found a lesion on her brain that must be removed immediately. The surgery goes well but when Sadie wakes up she realizes she cannot make out anyones face. She can she them and hear them but their face is scrambled. Her doctor tells her it's probably from the swelling and should go away eventually, but face blindness is the worst diagnosis for a portrait artist.Sadie paints faces to make a living. She has to paint a new portrait for the competition and there's no way she can.
While she's waiting and recovering Sadies best K9 friend gets sick and has to be rushed to the vet, and that's where Sadie meets her future husband and father of her children....well a girl can dream. At the same time a guy in her building who she has avoided like the plague really shows himself as a kind and caring man and him and Sadie strike up a friendship. It seems like Sadies life is becoming more and full and she actually feels happy, but winning this contest seems completely out of reach.
Sadie gets a hard lesson on ways she needs to change and how her face blindness is helping her see people more clearly. This will be a time of reflection and change and finding what's most important.

Thank you NetGalley and Katherine Center for the arc.

This was a cute read. Sadie and Joe definitely leave you wanting more. Sadie’s relationship with her step sister is wild. Overall a fun romcom.

This was my first romance that I received through NetGalley and I can’t tell you how excited it made me! First, I am new to the whole bookstagram thing, so being able to get an ARC is very thrilling but to get a KATHERINE CENTER ARC was even better. I remember picking up Things You Save In a Fire and burning through it (bad pun there). Center is definitely one of those authors that I will pick up the book as soon as it is out.

So Hello Stranger has a twist I’ve never read in a book: after brain surgery, our heroine, Sadie, develops face blindness (not the technical term, you can look it up, I have a hard enough time spelling normal words, so I am not going to attempt medical terms). This is a problem because Sadie is a portrait painter and she has just won entrance into a prestigious competition and must enter a new portrait within a number of weeks - how can she paint what she can’t see?

The novel has a whole host of great characters, the zany best friend, the adorable senior dog, the substitute family, the evil stepmother and stepsister, and the distant dad. And of course, the love interests, in this case one that Sadie wants to fall for, Dr. Oliver Addison, and the one she is reluctantly falling for, her neighbor, Joe. And since this is a story about a woman who has lost her ability to see faces clearly, obviously she can’t see what is right in front of her.

I loved the romance aspect of the book, obviously, and the growth of the relationship between Joe and Sadie is adorable. I laughed out loud a number of times - there is a scene in which Sadie is roller skating on her roof that you just know will end in disaster (an aside, I just went roller skating again for the first time in like twenty years and I shared Sadie’s awe at rediscovering this). There is a lot of mistaken identity, and Sadie and Joe’s first interaction is quite clever. I wasn’t sure how Center was going to rehabilitate Joe after that, but the resolution is entertaining.

I think where Center shines the most in this book is her treatment of Sadie’s struggle with face blindness. At one point Sadie and Sue are talking and Sadie says she can’t watch TV anymore because she can’t tell the characters apart and it shocks Sue, who remarks “wow…what a nightmare.” That moment really drove the issue home and as I was reading the book, all I could think was how do you deal with losing the one thing that helps you navigate the world? Center created an indomitable heroine, with Sadie’s admirable determination to just keep going, to paint, to enter this contest, to go out in the world, even to date the lovely Dr. Addison. The reader just can’t help cheering for her.

At times, maybe Center piles on a bit to poor Sadie (the evil stepsister is pure psycho) and maybe one less trauma would have been ok. Of course a lot of the drama could have been solved if Sadie just told people what she was experiencing but then, where is the fun in that?

Hello Stranger is coming out in July and it will be the perfect summer read.

[Spoiler] Katherine Center posted a picture of John Krasinski the other day and was like, this is our hero and OMG he is - Jim from The Office is Joe and Jack from Jack Ryan is Dr. Oliver Addison. I'm ready for him to star in the Netflix original of this book.

Let me first off by saying thank you for my advanced copy!

Hello Stranger was a delightful story. It was so easy to get into and I loved the quirky characters from the beginning. My favorite part was how everything came full circle in the end!

Did I think Sadie’s immediate obsession to Oliver/Joe was a little weird? Sure. Did I find Parker’s banishment to Amsterdam a real problem? Yep!

But overall, I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to finishing my other Katherine Center backlist novels!

4.5 ⭐️ rounding up

After brain surgery leaves Sadie face blind, she must learn to cope with her “new normal” as a portrait artist who can’t see faces. She struggles with feelings of rejection from a new love interest and is forced to reconsider that a neighbor isn’t the “weasel” she thought he was.

She also confronts her feelings about growing up with a narcissistic step-sister, a step-mother who never believed her, and a distant father.

I loved this romance about first impressions and second chances. About trusting yourself and learning to trust others after being hurt.

**minor spoiler**
*
*
*

the dog lives

First off thanks to netgalley for providing me an ARC!

Sadie a portrait artist who just beat out1990 people to be apart of a competition. This competition could change her life. Then a crazy accident happens and she ends up needing brain surgery..but it leaves her with face blindness..
Faces now look like pixalated blobs and her competition is coming up!!
Post accident her family starts hanging around, including her evil step mother and step sister, who's sole mission is to make her miserable. And to top it off, her dog gets sick! At least the vets walk is distinctive and appealing, and he asks Sadie out! But when he stands her up, Joe, her playboy neighbor ends up saving her, starting a fun new relationship.

Will Sadie be able to see faces again and paint her portrait? Will she unpack her complicated family issues? How will her love triangle resolve? You better read this one to find out :)

This book was so adorable and fun. I loved it! The ending definitely had me in my feels.

What I loved: This was the first Katherine Center novel I've read, and it won't be the last. This was a fun and engaging read. I enjoyed the storyline and most of the characters. It will be a great beach read this summer. The chemistry between the two main characters was excellent; I wish we'd gotten more spice between them!

What I didn't care for:
The protagonist's family were so far-fetched that they were caricatures of a fairy tale. I wish that conflict had been a bit more realistic and relatable. It made the resolution with her family feel fake.

I felt as though the ending explanation was overwrought. I didn't need the author to explain every single detail of the "misunderstanding" quite so thoroughly. In my opinion it made the last 10-20% of the book drag a bit, particularly the multi-page explanation to Sue.

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley.

Wow! I genuinely loved this book and couldn't read it quickly enough once I was able to start. I have read Katherine's other book "The Bodyguard" and when I saw there was a new book coming up for release it was a no-brainer. I loved the characters and loved to hate some characters too - read the book and you will immediately understand.

Sadie is a portrait artist who just placed in a competition and beat out nearly 1200 other contestants to land in the top ten! After years of things not going her way- think mother passing, evil stepsister, and basically getting disowned and discarded, she finally caught her lucky break only to have that dream begin to crumble. A non-convulsive seizure leads to a brain scan that shows cavernomas which requires BRAIN SURGERY! After the surgery she wakes with a condition called face blindness (which thanks to her note at the back of the book is a fully real and common medical condition that people battle every day) and immediately questions her career as a portrait artist. How is she supposed to paint portraits when she can't see anyone's face? Will she ever be able to see a face again? How come after all of this time does she have to have brain surgery right now with face blindness as the result?

The weeks leading up to her big competition involve misunderstandings, swoon-worthy moments, gut-wrenching truths, and extreme loathing that leads to lots of laughs, romantic feelings for two dreamy guys, and soul-searching for who Sadie is meant to become following her medical diagnosis. This was such a satisfying read with highly anticipatory events. I wish I could read this book all over again like it was the first time.

A beautifully written book with a love plot twist. I loved every part of this book. Thank you advanced read!

This was my first Katherine Center read and I really enjoyed it. This is definitely a feel-good read that still have realistic elements like bad family dynamics, grief, and an identity crisis. I learned a lot of facial blindness in this book and I really felt Sadie’s frustration and struggle while she tried to paint the portrait. The only things I felt let down by in this book were Sadie’s background and the ending. I wanted more of her background with her mom, her family, and her art career. I felt like we got these little fragments but missed the whole picture. The ending really fell flat for me about I, again, wanted more. I wanted Sadie and Joe to have page-time as a happy couple!! They didn’t get enough of a resolution. I think I would have been happier overall with the book it there was at least another chapter before the epilogue of them just being together and happy.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press Publishing for this read!

What a joy to read Katherine Center's newest! It is probably nerdy to admit, but her author's note was honestly, one of my favorite parts of this book. I loved how she talked about the gift and delight of predictability in stories, and that is something she offers in her books. I was unfamiliar with facial blindness, and learned a lot as the protaganist struggles with not being able to recognize the people in her life. While I saw the ending a million miles away, I didn't mind in the slightest. While this isn't my favorite Katherine Center book, it was an enjoyable read.

"Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life the next she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. 

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls in love—not with one man but two. The timing couldn’t be worse.

Making judgment calls on anything right now is a nightmare. If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to have it all."

To say that I devoured this book would be an understatement! I really shouldn't be surprised, should I? I love Katherine Center's writing style - the worlds she creates, the characters she fills them with, and the themes dispersed within. 
I loved Sadie pretty much immediately. The forced independence, her tough shell, yet she's so relatable. While she struggles to live with her current "face blindness", she learns it's okay to ask for a little bit of help. 
When it comes to Dr Addison and Neighbor Joe, I assumed some sort of twist was happening just from the book description but the way it was written and even explained was better than I imagined. (Side note - I love the research Center puts into her books. You don't half ass a book about face blindness!) 
Then we come to family - Richard, Lucinda, and Parker. Another thing Center excels at?? Making you hate at least one of the characters. I'll hate Parker forever. Family dynamics are hard, mix in grief and a new (overly sassy/rude/nasty/mean) step sister and they're even harder. I'm just thankful for Sadie's found family and support in the Kims!
All in all? 100% recommend. Hello Stranger has climbed the ranks to be in the Top 3 KC books for me along with Things You Save In A Fire and The Bodyguard! 
PS - Is it too soon to try and get this to be made into a movie?? 
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Katherine Center, because every one of her books gives you hope for humanity and leave you just feeling better. Hello Stranger is no exception. The concept is fresh and the characters are completely lovable. This was such a feel good book. I stayed up too late because I could not wait to find how it ended. Go get this book and let it take you away.
Thank you for this ARC in exchange for my review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a cozy, warm-fuzzy read! I found myself compelled to wake up extra early to get in extra pages before starting the day. I was invested from the beginning, and I had so much fun learning about Sadie’s life and love situation. This contemporary romance has it all… a unique and compelling plot, characters you can’t help but root for, and just the sweetest relationship that slowly evolves. Fans of Katherine Center’s last book, The Bodyguard, will not be let down. This one is going to be a must-by, and I personally can’t wait to add it to my shelf!

✏️ I’d want to really, truly be okay, and not just pretending. I want to be kicking ass. I want to be thriving. I want to prove that I was awesome all along.”

✏️ Maybe life was full of surprises. Maybe disappointments could turn out to be blessings.