To quote Katherine Center herself, “This love story really created fantastic anticipation!” As I was reading, I had a pretty good idea of where the story was heading, but the predictability didn’t ruin it for me. Instead, I was just excited to see it all play out!!

The Bodyguard was one of my favorite books of 2022, so I had high hopes Hello Stranger. Thankfully, it did not disappoint. I loved the banter. I loved Sadie and Peanut. I loved every ridiculous twist and turn. It was an almost perfect read… except for Parker. I didn’t find her to be a believable character. Her meanness was so over the top and evil that she felt more like a caricature of a bad guy. I honestly don’t even feel like she added much to the story either. Parker aside, Hello Stranger has easily made it on my list of fave romcoms.

I’m a huge fan of Katherine Center’s books, so when I got the chance to read Hello I Stranger in advance I was excited. This was a perfect read for me right now. I needed a book with hope and this was it. Hello Stranger is one of those fun, easy books that you just can’t put down. The main character, Sadie, is quirky and likable, and the plot is interesting, even if it was a little predictable at times. It made me laugh out loud, smile as I rooted for Sadie, and see things from a whole new perspective.

Sadie, a struggling artist, was finally getting her big break - a chance to win $10,000 in a portrait competition. The only problem is Sadie can no longer see faces, due to swelling in her brain from an unexpected surgery. How can you paint portraits without seeing the faces?! The book takes us on Sadie’s journey to overcome her challenges and redefine who she is and what matters the most. And of course, she finds love along the way.

The only thing I didn’t love was the evil stepsister. She was unnecessarily cruel, and I don’t think her character added to the storyline. By the end of the book, I had forgotten about her.

Ultimately, everyone loves a happily ever after, and this one was perfect to me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance in exchange for my honest review.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Publishing Date - July 11th 2023
Rating (5/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc. Loved it! I always enjoy a Katherine Center read. All of her books are feel-good reads! Highly recommend this one when it releases in July.

Wow this book was really interesting! I’d never heard of prosopagnosia before now, and it seems like a terrifying diagnosis and circumstance, so I’d be lying if I said much of this book didn’t have me cringing and eeking and forgetting that it was a romance because so much of it was SAD!

To be honest I struggle a bit with rating it and prob lean towards a 3.5 - 4 stars because of how much more I enjoyed the Bodyguard by Katherine Center, more than this book. I really felt so sidetracked by her sad life circumstances with her family, the diagnosis, and honestly the sort of crummy BFF Sue was in my opinion. I did enjoy the romance but it was kind of a twist on the misunderstanding trope which isn’t a trope I adore, so really the book had a lot stacked against it for me unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and Katherine Center for the ARC copy to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

Katherine Center has done it again. I honestly don’t think there is book of hers I dislike. Hello Stranger is definitely worth the read!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

2.5⭐️
I was so excited to read Katherine Center’s newest book with the CUTEST cover after absolutely loving The Bodyguard. Unfortunately, this book fell a bit flat. I wasn’t very interested in it and it just felt a little weird and all over the place.

I will say that the plot was very creative. The MC, Sadie, can no longer see people’s faces after having surgery- so crazy! And she is a portrait artist😮 Sadie’s family was terrible and I thought it was too unbelievable how their story left off. I don’t think I have EVER hated a character in a book the way I hated Sadie’s stepsister, Parker.

There were some sweet parts between Sadie&Joe (I really liked Joe!) and I laughed a bunch of times but overall just not the book for me.

I enjoyed this book so much that I finished it in one sitting! While I knew where the story was going, it was fun to be a fly on the wall watching the missed connections between characters as well as the internal struggles of Sadie. As someone who has experienced some abrupt medical challenges, I connected with her desire to be strong/independent, vulnerable/afraid of "what ifs" and unknowns.

This is my second read by Katherine Center, and I will be reading more of her work!

If you’re reading this Katherine, I wouldn’t mind some “bone-us” scenes with Joe + Sadie ;)

This one was very cute. I thought the main character was super funny, and her internal monologue always made me laugh. Definitely an easy, palette cleanser read as it was lighthearted while still tackling hard issues. My only issues were that I felt the romance wasn't fleshed out enough, and I thought it was pretty predictable (I guessed the plot twist when I read the blurb). Overall a good read though!

Hello Stranger is delightful! Main character Sadie goes through a transformation as she overcomes many obstacles, and I think many people, myself included, can see at least a little bit of themselves in her. While this is my first read by Katherine Center, it will definitely not be my last. I plan to add Center’s other novels to my TBR. Center intrigues you from the start and paints a vivid scene throughout Hello Stranger. It was hard to put down! I plan to obtain a physical copy of the book when it’s published in July and recommend it to anyone who enjoys contemporary romance. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

The way I screamed when this arc landed on my kindle. It’s been one of my most anticipated reads for 2023!!

Once again, Katherine Center KNOWS how to write a romance. I smiled, I swooned, and tears were shed.

I felt ALL the things for and WITH our main character Sadie. Her butterflies, loss, humiliation, fear, incredulousness, and most of all—her hope.

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling portrait artist who might just be on the brink of her first big break. As a finalist in an upcoming portrait competition, Sadie has 6 weeks to create her entry portrait. The timing couldn’t be worse, when she emerges from an emergency brain surgery with Prosopagnosia— the inability to see faces.

I had no idea that so many people (2% of the world’s population!) currently have a form of prosopagnosia. I love the way Katherine Center chose to make this condition a central part of this story to draw awareness to it!

Hello Stranger is an emotional story of the way we remember who we’ve loved and lost, choosing to chase happiness, and learning to see the world around us in beautiful new ways.

5/5 ★

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this wonderful ARC.

I know that whatever I‘m trying to express in this review it will never do the feelings I got from reading this book justice!

The premise of the story sounded so interesting and I have to admit, I don‘t think I had never really heard about face blindness and couldn’t imagine how it would work out in a book.
It was great to learn more about this condition.

I was very intrigued by Sadie right from the beginning. She was so amazingly stubborn and it was more than relatable. As someone who grew up with someone very similar to Parker, I can relate so much to Sadie.
Joe on the other hand annoyed me a bit at first with him always wanting to help and I feel like it can get a bit too much but in the end it was actually the perfect dose of being helpful.
Dr. Addison tho, I loved it and then I was super mad and then.. plot twist!
Overall, I feel like all the characters felt so unique and lovable. It‘s such an art being able to write characters like that and the author did that beautifully!

There was so much to take away from the book and from Sadie. I can‘t remember any romance book that ever inspired me to follow my dream and to keep pushing no matter what the universe throws at me and I really needed to hear this right now!

Honestly, I would read about anything by Katherine Center at this point! This book was just magical!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review

HOLY MOLY I loved this one. I read and loved the Bodyguard, so I had really high hopes for this one. And to say it succeeded is an understatement. This book was so unique with Sadie's inability to see faces, and done so well that I didn't see the twist until it smacked me right in the face!!!! Katherine Center has a unique way to make characters either so likeable (when they should be) and so hateable (when they should be), which is exactly what she did with Parker. I wanted to reach into the book pages and just smack her!!!!!! I do wish there were parts of the story that were a little more fleshed out, but overall, I would read and reread this book all over again!!!

I enjoyed this book a lot! It’s my fifth Katherine Center, but I’d recommend most of her other books before I’d recommend this one.

What I loved:
- I thought the premise of the plot was really unique. Loved that the protagonist was an artist! Overall an engaging read.
- I felt the tension and the romance was believable. Loved the twist and didn’t see it coming.

What didn’t work for me:
- The side characters, namely her best friend and step-sister, were underdeveloped and felt over-the-top. There wasn’t a meaningful resolution with either relationship where she had been wronged.
- Felt like the resolution with the dad was forced given the amount of tension leading up to it.

4.25/5

I was so pleased to received an ARC of this book. Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin’s press for the opportunity to review.

I adored this book. In her author’s not Katherine Center describes herself as devouring romance novels and that’s exactly what I did with this. I read this book on the flight from Charlotte to Tampa. This means in a little over two hours I had read and fallen in love with this plot and characters. The timing itself speaks volumes about how good the pacing was. I had read ‘The Bodyguard’ by Center last summer but this was even better. There were things I saw coming but watching it all unfold for the characters was a real delight. I will be watching for Center in the future and will definitely be picking up a copy of this one in July.

Nit-Picks…You can’t leave comments on Etsy. You have to buy an item to leave a review.
Parker was way too mean for someone who is an adult with a job. Felt a little unrealistic that she’d be taking such drastic measures to be so cruel to someone.

Hello Stranger was a sweet novel that is exactly what you want it to be- It handles even the heavier subjects with a little bit of fluff. The characters are largely uncomplicated, and everything turns out just right. And, just as Center explains in her Author's note, that is exactly how it should be.

This book was fun to read and I learned so much about "face blindness" It felt like the Author actually did real research and worked hard to explain a condition that is largely difficult to explain and almost impossible to fathom.

I did think Piper;s story never really got an explanation- she seemed SO mean without any real justification. More depth to her character would have helped me understand why she was so awful- Are people just really that mean in real life!?

Nearly every plot point in the book was predictable- some people will be fine with that, others will be annoyed. I would have liked a surprise or two at the end, but that didn't stop me from enjoying these sweet characters and story a lot.

Solid 4 stars!

Whatever Katherine Center is writing I’ll read. This is set in Houston and a beautifully done story. The main character has to navigate her world in a new way while falling in love. It was so smart and touching 10/10 recommend. I really loved these characters. Thank you much to NetGalley for giving me an advanced arc in exchange for my honest review. I love Katherine Center’s books and this is no exception.

When choosing a romance book, I usually look for a story that has an interesting twist that I haven’t read before, characters, who sound from the synopsis, are likable, and a story that will deliver some of the feel good emotions I expect from a romance. “Hello Stranger”, by Katherine Center, delivers on all of the above. A delightful, quick read, I finished this book with a soft spot for the characters and overall contentment with what I just read.

The story centers around a starving artist named Sadie who, after years of just scraping by, is one step away from her big break. As she’s about to celebrate, a medical issue leaves her without the ability to see faces, something that deeply impacts her ability to create her art. As she tries to figure out how to continue with her painting, she also needs to learn to cope in her day to day life, not having the main way to identify those around her available anymore. During all this, she has to deal with a pet emergency which leads her to meet Dr. Oliver Addison, someone Sadie immediately connects to and wants to se more of. She also has to deal with her annoying neighbor Joe, who surprisingly proves to be more helpful and adorable than annoying during this time. Through all of this, Sadie learns a lot about her self, about who she wants to be and how to let people in.

There’s a lot to unpack in this book. Sadie suffers from Acquired Prosopagnosia, which leaves her with the inability to recognize faces after a medical procedure. Never having heard of this before, I thought the author did a great job walking through how life altering this condition can be, both for Sadie as an artist, but for any individual. We use faces as our main way to connect to each other, and when that is lost, Sadie has to use her other senses to build those connections. Doesn’t seem as hard when you say it, but we get to see how hard it really is for her and how easy our brain can make assumptions or make determinations that challenge some of those connections.

Another sub-plot revolves around Sadie’s struggles with her family, specifically her relationship with her father after her mother’s death and his remarriage. As someone who’s lost her mother, I related with so many of her feelings of loss. With that said, I don’t think this story was as developed as it could have been. Sadie’s relationship with her father and stepmother was rushed while her relationship with her stepsister was overplayed in my opinion. While I can see the importance of both, I would have flipped the amount of space they play in the story.

Lastly, the love triangle of Sadie/Joe/Oliver was was pure romantic fiction at its finest. Did I basically guess what was going to happen with this story from the beginning? Yes, I did. Did I care? No, no I did not. The interactions between the characters here was charming, cute, funny, basically what I look for in these kinds of books.

Some areas that fell a little flat for me included some of the internal dialogue that Sadie provides through the story….without providing spoilers, some of the descriptions went on a little longer than I cared for and I was kind of waiting for the story to move on. Some of the character development fell a little flat for me. I wish Sue had a larger, more positive role in this story as a friend (she comes off as lacking empathy at times) and, as I already mentioned, I wish Parker had less of a role in this story. There is enough happening that the need for her as the heel wasn’t necessary. I also wish we learned more about Sadie’s dad and Lucinda as I think they could have been a lot more interesting and integral than they were. However, I will say I can overlook this because I think Sadie/Joe/Oliver are so strong and likable, and are the main focus of the story, as they should be.

I especially connected with the Author’s note at the end of this book because it perfectly sums up my feelings for romantic fiction as well. Could you say this book is predictable in many aspects? Definitely! But fans of romantic fiction want the joy, the hope, that anticipation that come with these stories, and they pick up these books for that, not for the shock factor (in my opinion). Hello Stranger delivers on that aspect, and for that I would give it 4/5 stars.

Katherine Center’s book, Hello Stranger, is a fun and flirty romcom with quite a twist.

Sadie, an aspiring portrait artist acquires face-blindness after having to have brain surgery. This is a pivotal feature of the book affecting this fiercely independent character quite dramatically as a person who refuses to share her struggles or ask for help.

The love interest and chemistry was really great. I was really rooting for Joe and Sadie, there’s just something about finally rooting for a nice guy that felt so lovely.

While this was an interesting and quite a funny read at times, the idea just seemed so far-fetched and left me scratching my head: why don’t you just communicate? In the end, the conflict just felt a bit forced for my taste.

The book club treat is a fun one to do for your next meeting! Because Sadie is face-blind, I created a treat with a hidden feature - a little treat inside! This recipe is found on @spaceshipsandlaserbeams under “Secret Kiss Cookies”. I think the “secret kiss” theme is a little self-explanatory, BUT if you wanted, you could even play a game and mix it up, do a few different genres of candy and play a guessing game, “Who are you?” Think instead of just Hershey’s kisses, you could do: rolos, Reese’s cups, and other small candy bars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There were a few things that did not make any sense in this book, which ultimately is why I rated it as low as I did. It was witty and cute. I loved how her relationship with Joe evolved. There was a lot of humor throughout.

This book started off so strong! I even noted at the end of the first chapter "and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you pull your reader in."

The characters were weak compared to other books I've read by this author. The main character can admit she is wrong to herself, but not others. Knows it and continues acting the way she does anyways. She hates being helped. Like it is a huge deal throughout the book. However, it is never explained where that strong trait manifests from. Only that she realizes it and heals towards the end of the book. I even made a note in my kindle "I'm curious why she feels so strongly that she doesn't want to ask for help. While I can relate to the rambling thoughts that the main character had, because I do the same, it got pretty annoying. Almost overkill. She also came off as really mean so many times throughout the book to strangers.

I did not like Sue. She is rude, and even tells her supposed best friend that she has been "tragically failing at life". She unapologetically abandons her in her biggest time of need and does so flippantly.

I called the "twist" early on. It is unbelievable that after all that time she didn't realize it was the same person. However, it would have been bearable if they didn't try SO hard at the end to convince the reader it was plausable. Add to that the fact that August Ross happened to be right there when everything went down.

If the book hadn't ended with all those excuses, I would have just accepted it as quirky. But it just made it awkward.

Things that didn't add up: "I didn't even know he had my contact info" when her dad texted her. However, she called him in the first chapter. so how does he not have her contact info?

Also, I thought Lucinda brought her moms dress so it could be worn at the art show. Then it says that she was wearing Sue's dress.

Her voicemail to Joe would have never been able to be that long.

How did Sue not know the vets name etc whenever she is the one that took Peanut to be boarded there?

Thank you for the ARC!
This is the fourth Katherine Center book I’ve read, and it’s officially my favorite. Hands down. I devoured it.
Not going to lie though, I was apprehensive at the beginning because I thought it might be a little triggering for me. The condition Sadie has and finds out she needs surgery for is something my brother has (Cavernous Angiomas). It’s not an easy condition and, for many, it’s life changing. I was worried it would get glossed over like it was no big deal, but I didn’t feel that way. I wish there was more conversation about the condition itself, but it was nice to see it represented!

But anyway, it’s adorable. I’m not going to say in a predictable way (read the author’s note at the end of the book!), but it’s just such a good feeling love story. I figured out what was happening towards the end before the character did, and I anticipated the reveal SO much! I was just rooting for her happy ending.
Anyway, highly recommend you keep this one on your radar. It’s a solid 5⭐️ from me.