Well, Hello Stranger!

I found this book to be a fast and enjoyable read that had me feeling various emotions while reading it. Katherine Center has charmed me yet again with this book about a struggling artist dealing with face blindness.

Sadie Montgomery is preparing for a party with friends when she suffers a seizure in the street and is saved by a good Samaritan. While in the hospital, she learns that she needs brain surgery and although she wants to put it off, she has the surgery and now suffers from prosopagnosia (face blindness). This is devastating for Sadie as she is an artist and is one of ten artists who have been accepted to a portrait competition. The same competition her mother was accepted into before her death. Her face blindness may be temporary, but what if it’s not?

Sadie now has a lot to deal with. On top of that her dog, Peanut has been boarded when she was in the hospital, and she is worried she won’t recognize him. When she picks Peanut up, she meets Dr. Oliver Addison. She notices things about him and feels an attraction even though she can't see his face. She is happy that the one face she recognizes is Peanut! Whew! Then Joe, her neighbor, offers to help her and be her model for the portrait competition. She needs it and he has been so nice. She accepts and spends more and more time with him and can't help being drawn to him.

What's a girl to do?

As Sadie navigates her current situation, she is learning to accept help and notice other things about people. Plus, she is noticing and learning things about herself. I can't imagine what it must be like to not recognize people even those you know. Her evil stepsister, Parker, enjoys tricking her and being an obnoxious and cruel thorn in Sadie's side. Boo hiss.

I rooted for Sadie the whole book and found my heart swelling over the support and love that her friend Sue and her parents showed to Sadie. There were some great characters in this book who had Sadie's back. There were also some that well, should have been there when she needed it most of her life, but weren't. Boo hiss...

Center pulled on my heartstrings while entertaining me with this rom com which was pure escapism reading. Like her other books, I found this to be a fast read which didn't disappoint. I was turning the pages wanting to know how things would play out. There were some coincidences in this book that felt a little OTT, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed the journey that Sadie went on and how things played out. There was a reveal which I didn't see coming which now, I am kicking myself for not figuring out while reading. Well played, Katherine Center, well played.

While this wasn't my favorite book by Center, I was still charmed by it and I found this to be very enjoyable, emotion evoking read. It was the perfect escape from everyday life.

Sadie is an up-and-coming portrait artist who has just won a spot in a huge competition she has dreamed of competing in. Unfortunately, a wrench will be thrown into her plans and she has to adapt quickly. Luckily, Sadie has a band of wonderful friends to support her, but even they can't help when she has to decide between a hot vet and her hot neighbor.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center and St. Martins Press for the opportunity to read this book early as an ARC. I recently discovered Katherine Center by reading her book, The Bodyguard. I immediately devoured it and added all her books to my library request list.

I practically squealed with delight when I received the email from NetGalley to read an arc of Hello Stranger.

Sadie had a rough go at life. She is a struggling portrait artist on the verge of her biggest break. When an accident reveals that she needs immediate brain surgery that they say will be minor with a quick recovery. She finds out it actual gives her facial blindness, which deeply impacts her ability to paint facial portraits.

She balances these heavy topics, including major family drama with fun characters, love interests (more than one) including a dashing veterinarian and a helpful neighbor and several laugh out loud moments.

This was such a feel good book like being wrapped in a warm hug, a perfect mix in a delightful read. I will definitely be recommending this book and any other Katherine Center books to all my friends.

Ever since I read The Bodyguard, I can’t stop reading Katherine Center books. HELLO, three in a month… When Hello, Stranger popped up on NetGalley, I immediately dropped everything to go grab it, and I’m so glad I did. I found the premise of this book to be super unique- Sadie suddenly and unexpectedly finds herself dealing with face blindness and as a portrait artist, this throws a huge wrench in her life. Although her life hasn’t been easy, and her new medical condition only makes her life that much more challenging. I’ll be honest, I found Sadie to be a hard character to love at the beginning. I felt as though she placed a lot of blame on her current life situation on her circumstances and spent A LOT of time complaining. But as she learned to cope with her new reality, I started to enjoy her character.

She also found herself torn between two men, her “insufferable” turned loveable neighbor, Joe, and her dog Peanut’s vet, Dr. Addison- they are both gems 😉. They were both just the most delightful, thoughtful, and considerate love interests and when Sadie finds herself having to choose between the two, things get… a little complicated!

As I’ve said before, KC books aren’t just about the romance- they are more often than not stories about personal growth for the FMC. This was no different, and I think of the KC books I’ve read, Sadie did the most soul searching to reach the best version of herself. If you’re looking for a book that just leaves you feeling good, this is it! Make sure you preorder this one today, so it’s on your doorstep on 7/11!

Honestly, if I could give this book more than five stars I would. It is and was exactly what I needed to read at this moment. I wish more contemporary romance could be like Hello Stranger.

There were many aspects of Sadie's struggle that resonated with me. From her questioning her identity to attempting to deal with the things in her past that just did not seem to let go. And in her inability to ask for help.

In the author's note Katherine Center discusses reading her first romance and how it changed her. So eloquently she dissects the way romance gives the reader "fantastic anticipation" and how they are "positively valanced" - that "they run on a blissful sense that we're moving toward something better." And even more importantly she writes that "Love stories don't have happy endings because their authors didn't know any better. They have happy endings because they let readers access a rare and precious kind of emotional bliss." And Hello Stranger encapsulates all of this and more. Katherine Center wrote a phenomenal book which allows the reader to laugh and cry with its characters. To find yourself in every role to somehow simultaneously connect with Sadie having a panic attack on a rooftop while also wishing to be helpful like Joe by essentially 'petting' her back. To do whatever can be done to sit with someone as they struggle whether that struggle is visible or more internal.

I feel like words cannot fully showcase how much I needed to read this novel, and at this specific moment in time. Thank you Katherine Center for creating such a poignant and important story. For giving us the positively valanced and fantastical anticipation which makes this novel one of the best of the romance genre.

I am relatively new to Katherine Center’s books. I loved The Bodyguard, but Hello Stranger is my new favorite. Katherine Center wrote a heartfelt and captivating story about gaining a new perspective on the world while navigating a new normal.

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist who is a finalist in a portrait drawing competition that could change her life. She lost her mother early, and her relationship with her father is strained. She also has an older dog that has health issues. Sadie and her best friend, Sadie, hosted a party to celebrate Sadie being a finalist. Unfortunately, Sadie had a seizure and ended up in the hospital. She found out that she had developed a face blindness condition called prosopagnosia. She does not know if the situation will be temporary or permanent, so she has to learn how to cope with her new normal.

Her life is now not going as she pictured. She must learn to draw portraits without seeing the model’s face. Her dog encountered a big health scare and had to visit the veterinarian. It was love at first encounter for Sadie with the hunky veterinarian, Dr. Addison. Also, there’s Joe, her neighbor, who she self-proclaimed as a womanizer.

I loved everything about this book. It was so easy to get immersed into Sadie’s world. I could feel for her as she struggled with her new reality and rooted for her when she realized who would be her perfect match. The suspense of the competition and the love triangle kept me interested until the end. Also, the scene between Sadie and her stepmother about the dress the hospital allegedly got disposed of pulled on my heartstrings. I did not anticipate the surprise at the end, but it was a fun way to end the book.

The topic of Prosopagnosia was new to me, so I thought it was interesting to see that in the book. I loved how Katherine touched on the subject, informing the readers about the symptoms, diagnosis, and coping strategies. I also loved how Katherine empathizes that all individuals can perceive the world differently than their peers due to many factors. Changing perspectives can help see things in a new light.

If you’re looking for a heartfelt, feel-good story that has a strong female lead with a fun love triangle and also an elderly dog that probably eats better than any human, this is the book for you!

Thank you to Netgallery and to St. Martin Press for a copy of the book.

I stayed up way too late binging this book! Another sweet romance from Katherine Center!
I learned a bunch about face blindness and how our conscience bias works and fills in blanks for us.
The book has made me think about slowing down and taking in my surroundings. Living in the moment. Putting the phone down and looking at the expressions of people around me.
It also emphasized that it’s ok to ask for help. No one can get through this life without a little assistance. It’s freeing to admit that you need help and accept that help with open arms.

I loved the building anticipation through the entire book!

Do not miss this one! Get your pre-orders in! It comes out July 11! The cover is so dang cute!

First off a thousand thank you’s to Net Galley and publisher for sending me an electronic arc of this book. I loved this book. Sadie’s journey through her diagnosis and aftermath of her brain cavernoma made me feel all the things. I laughed and cried and at times wanted to shack the shit out of Sadie. But I finished this book with a smile on my face and an absolute desire to make all my reading friends bread this book. Katherine Center is a complete auto buy for me after this boom.

This book was absolutely amazing. Thank you NetGalley and Katherine Center for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. This is just the second book of Katherine's that I have read and I really have enjoyed both.
The characters in this one come to life and I started to imagine it as a movie and who would play the parts, I had such a connection with the characters. The story line is very engagine and keeps you interested in how the whole realm of scenarios will play out. ABSOLUTELY recommend this book.

Wow.

I want to start by saying I truly loved Happiness for Beginners & What You Wish For….I’m a fan of Katherine Center…I will keep reading her novels….but this missed the mark for me.

What I liked: Sadie’s quirky flare for holding on to her moms possessions, her love for her dog Peanut, Mr & Mrs Kim. The awareness brought to prosopagnosia was great, I love reading about something I didn’t even know existed.


And unfortunately that’s about it.

What I didn’t like: Sadie, Parker, Sue, Lucinda….and just about everything else.
I’ll start with the obvious, the evil step sister? How do adults not see past that? Two years at a boarding school because she randomly started torturing her own best friend?

She really couldn’t figure out it was the same guy? This is a whole thing for me….yes we see what we wanna see…but I know I’m not the only one who feels it when my partner walks in the room..I can sense him out of anyone else, I can just tell…..ok ok she can’t trust herself but still? How did he not say “Hey neighbor” when she brought Peanut in if he was crushing on her? How did he not ever ask how Peanut was doing in the halls or in the apartment? How did he not ask her how she was after the hospital? “How’s your health?!” Ummmmm no. How when he showed up at the coffee shop did he not briefly apologize for being so late? It really wasn’t a shocker it was the same guy, it wasn’t a shocker he was talking about a dog in the elevator…all of those elements added to the ‘hahaha oops miscommunication’ element of the book, but this was just too many misses for me.

The dad never making an effort till he got called out on it? Disclosing the heartbreaking element of their true grief in there when talking to him? Too on the nose for me, being brought up earlier would have helped develop Sadie’s hesitance better.

I won’t even bring up Sadie, because the lack of maturity is real there, I’m not quite sure what Oliver would see in her…she can’t even call him by his real name once their engaged.


I absolutely hate tearing books apart, I firmly believe the sentiment in the book that the more you look for the good the more you find it, but heaven help me, this one just wasn’t for me. I will still line up front and “Center” for the next novel of hers, but this one will not be one I recommend to friends.

5 huge stars🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This book hit me SO hard. ❤️😔😳
I have to give full and very personal disclosure here- I actually cried through most of this book- tears of heartache, tears of experience, tears of gratitude and tears of healing. I was triggered in a way that a book has never done to me before. All the other reviews talk about how sweet and lovely this book was and yes, it definitely is all those things. For me though, there was another personal level that was impossible to ignore. When I first read the synopsis on Netgalley, I didn't see anything here about brain injury. But *spoiler alert* the main character suffers from a brain injury and a huge part of this book is of her suffering, and learning about her new normal and the frustrations and the struggle to heal. Of course it is obviously a romance too with a swoon worthy love interest and that part was great. Several years ago, I suffered and just about died from the same brain injury that the main character suffers from. She lost her ability to see faces, I lost my ability to read....deep breaths. Now, as any one here on Goodreads should be able to understand how devastating that is- as a person, as a huge reader and especially as a parent of two little kids. Just like the main character who could see the individual aspects of the face but her brain couldn't translate that into a whole face, I could see the letters identify them and know what they sound like, but my brain refused to put them together into words. The FMC was devastated to not be able to see her face in the mirror, I couldn't read board books to my kindergartener yet alone fill out school forms. It was a struggle and the worst internal battle ever. And it is such a struggle for me to even begin to explain to people what it was like and the inner turmoil you feel when your brain is not doing what it is supposed to be doing. Years later after lots of therapy, I am 98% back. Reading this book was a look back into one of the worst times in my life. And it wasn't PTSD from the experience that made me a blubbery sob mess, it was the fact that this book was SO well written and SO well researched. I have so many highlighted verses and I just couldn't stop thinking, work, this author really gets me. It is the truest and most accurate description of what having a cavernoma and brain injury was like for me. I couldn't have put it into words better and for that I am so very grateful. To the author Katherine Center, I know the amount of research you did must have been extensive for the novel and it felt so wonderful as a reader to feel "seen" and understood.

As for the book, the story was beautiful, the research flawless and the writing was perfection. All around devastatingly beautiful. Thank you so much for this treasure. I am not sure if this was the authors intention, but I think if any book moves you in such a dramatic way, then mission accomplished. Much love ❤️❤️❤️

** I received a copy of this ARC from the author and Netgalley to which I am eternally grateful. My review is entirely my own honest opinion**

ps. The author wrote a wonderful note at the end of this book about romance novels- don't skip it!

“Seeing the world differently helps you see things not just that other people can’t - but that you yourself never could if you weren’t so lucky. It lets you make your own rules. Color outside your own lines. Allow yourself another way of seeing.”
This was such a good book. I loved that it was different than anything I had read before. I enjoyed reading about Sadie’s difficulties and watching her grow as the story progressed. I also loved that it had a happy ending but also had angst in it too.

I thought it started off a little slow, but then I really got into it. I thought her last book read a little more like a Christina Lauren book (I love these authors), and though I enjoy those books, those aren't Katherine Center. This one was definitely back on track!! Even as a nurse, I never knew about prosopagnosia - quite interesting. Maybe I was a bit slow on the uptake, but the ending surprised me!! I would definitely recommend this book!

Hello Stranger is another wonderful read by Katherine Center! I instantly fell in love with Sadie and empathized with her situation. Throughout the book, I was kept guessing. Is Joe the one for her? Or is it swoony Dr. Addison? And what about the Good Samaritan at the beginning? The delightful ending is well worth it!

Many thanks to Netgalley, Katherine Center, and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

I loved this book so much, it was such an easy read and was so absorbing I stayed up late to finish it! Sadie Montgomery gets the best news in forever- she is a top 10 finalist in the North American Portrait Society! Her good luck only lasts so long-on her way to celebrate with her best friend she has a seizure in the crosswalk-then cut to after her brain surgery when she is struck by face blindness! Sade has to rely on other ways to recognize the people around her and along the way begins to see she can actually rely on THEM (including the cute but player neighbor). As Sadie deals with family drama and trauma, puppy love and real love- she begins to wonder- has she been blind all along?

This book was lightheaded and charming, the perfect way to decompress after a long day!

This book was fabulous! It has some editing with grammar/word spelling but I expect that for an ARC. The story though I loved. It was different than typical books like these. The main character’s condition definitely made it interesting and leaving you wanting to keep reading. Also, liked there was a very little twists in the book that I should have seen coming but didn’t. I loved the bit of mystery in this book. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

i read the bodyguard which i LOVED. low low spice, but still very good. i really enjoyed this book and was happy to get it as an arc from net galley. basically she’s a portrait artist just chosen to be a finalist in the same competition her dead mother was a finalist in just before she died. and then she has a seizure caused by a malformed blood vessel in her brain requiring brain surgery. she gets the surgery and swelling and fluid in her brain cause her to develop acquired face blindness. obviously a bit of a mess for someone who paints faces for a living. she has a hard time accepting or telling people this but she develops a crush on her veterinarian and also on the guy she thought was a huge jerk and playboy in her building who’s maybe not those things? it’s very very good and made me laugh and cry and i appreciated her coming to terms with herself and learning about herself and i thought her character growth and development was huge. she learned a lot and her neuropsychologist is my absolute favorite. highly recommend picking this up when it comes out july 11 2023

Wow, what a cute book! Katherine Center always writes the sweetest books that also tackle hard problems. Sadie was such a relatable character and her quirky personality was so intriguing! It was so interesting to read about her face blindness, as I didn’t know anything about that condition. The romance was so cute and I really liked the love triangle trope.
The characters were so well developed and the plot was very captivating. I loved it!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for a review.

"Sometimes, when I'm watching a movie and there's a simple Big Misunderstanding between two people-- he thinks she's a space alien or something-- I want to shout, 'Just talk to each other.'" - Chapter 24, Hello Stranger by Katherine Center.

No quote in the history of the universe could better sum up this book than the one above-- and I mean that in the absolute best way. In Hello Stranger, Katherine Center presents us with a masterclass in dramatic irony.

For a moment I was worried, you know, that I wasn't supposed to figure "it" out before the author told us-- but when I got to this point I realized that things were happening just as she intended, I was still totally in her clutches, and absolutely, physically and emotionally DESPERATE for a resolution.

This book was beautiful from start to finish-- the beginning is packed with humor, the middle is packed with plot, and the ending is packed with a lot of emotions. I both laughed out and loud and actually cried while reading this book-- I wouldn't say anything particularly dramatic enough happened to warrant tears, but I think I was so emotionally invested that any sweetness and serenity for our main character had me a bit watery.

I haven't read a lot of romance in the past year, despite being an avid reader of it for 2020 and most of 2021. This book was like a warm hug and I'm happy it brought me back to the genre. This is my top book of 2023 so far, and in my opinion it's a can't miss.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an electronic galley in honor of Valentine's Day.

Sadie is an artist who is trying to connect with her only living parent and trying to live up to the one parent who is no longer in their lives. This is all before something traumatic that happens that throws off Sadie's world.
Sadie now had to de4al with a situation that doesn't allow her to do what she loves and what her whole identity is based off.
This is a story about finding ones self, grit, love, and defining one's life on their own terms.
This is usually all the stuff I love but unfortunately, this did not work for. I saw the twist from a mile away and the whole thing read like a ya novel.