This book makes you realize how much of what we perceive is what we see! Especially when communicating with others! Katherine Center writes books that make you feel deeply, count your blessings, and also consider "what life would be like!"

4.5/5 Stars. Such a sweet RomCom read! I had never heard of facial blindness, and especially enjoyed the authors note at the end.

Loved the characters, especially Sadie - a portrait artist who can no longer see faces after a life-saving surgery. Her struggle to adapt and embrace her “new normal” felt very real and was inspiring.

The RomCom storyline was super cute. There are several good meet-cutes, and I liked the aspect that Sadie has to be attracted to and get to know someone without being able to see their face. I could see where the love triangle was going but the ending was still cute!

Pick this up when you’re in the mood for overcoming obstacles, inspiration, and ultimately a happy ending.

I throughly enjoyed this book. It was a humorous, contemporary romantic comedy. One where you can evision the actors that would play these characters (Justin Hartley and Lily James are my picks!). The story had some fun twists and turns and even though I knew the twist that was coming, it was delivered in an unexpected way. I was sad when this story ended and would love to see it move to the big screen. The is the second book I have read from Katherine Center (The Bodyguard) and I love it is just as much as the first. Keep them coming. I will definitley be watching for the next one to drop.

This book was fantastic, one of my new favorites! Katherine’s books just keep getting better and better!

The Bodyguard was my first book from Katherine so when I saw the announcement for Hello Stranger and it has the cutest little cover, I knew I had to read it. Katherine’s writing is just so special. While I didn’t love this story as much as I had hoped I would, the authors ability to write a story and create likable and squeezable main characters is something I truly love. Some parts of this book seemed a little far-fetched, other parts were just perfect. I found myself laughing at Sadie’s whirlwind of a life, wondering how the sort-of? Love triangle was going to work out, and wanting to hug the book when I finished. While it didn’t exactly live up to the hype in my head, I still adored it for what it was.

This was such a good read!! This is my second book by Katherine Center writes books that are not my typical style but I love them so much anyways.

This is one of those books that I think you should go into blind. There’s so much that happens to keep you on your toes. I unfortunately think the “twist” in this was predictable but still very good.

I can’t wait to continue to read books by this author.

I would also like to thank NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review

I found this book too slow when reading the physical copy. I switched to the audio and it was much better and I am glad I finished this one! Cute at the end!

Let me start by saying I will stop whatever I am doing to read anything Katherine Center writes! Hello Stranger was so adorably cute. I loved it. I mean I was a little frustrated with her at times, and emotional, but I still loved every minute of it!

I absolutely loved this book. Katherine Center is a must read for me and this book did not disappoint. I was intrigued by the character experiencing face blindness due to a needed surgery and how that affected her ability to continue as a portrait artist, but also in navigating her relationships.
The family dynamics with the stepsister were quite terrible. What she went through as a teenager and as an adult was awful, but the resolution at the end was good.
The HEA at the end was worth the wait. Overall a most enjoyable book.
I have recommended this book to my friends, along with all of Katherine's other books.

Aghhh first, the cover is beautiful. I love it. Second, I wanted to love it a lot more than I did. I found that I could not connect with Sadie. As the main character once the reader and main character can’t find a connection it gets a little lost. The story line was brand new to me and I learned so much more from a romance book than I expected. Definitely worth reading for those that enjoy love triangles and little surprise twists.

This was a cute pallet-cleansing romcom! For me, this was a bop, but not a banger. Katherine Center’s writing is always solid, but the story didn’t pull me in as much as I expected. That being said, I still enjoyed it!

Thoughts:
-Sadie having facial blindness was an interesting storyline and it’s always nice to see representation in books. I didn’t know much about the inner workings of facial blindness, so it was interesting to learn about
-Sadie’s step-sister felt a little too evil Disney princess to be believable and enjoyable to read
-I think a major issue I had was I did not feel connected with the vet love interest storyline - I understand Sadie latching onto him because of her trauma, but I just couldn’t care less about her obsession with him
-It was incredibly interesting watching her find adaptive ways to pursue her art despite not being able to see faces. Center did an incredible job showing how people with disabilities adapt and find ways to pursue their passions in different ways
-It was a predictable ending, but Center’s author’s note at the end about the magic behind romance and the comfort in the predictability of a romance novel was so important to read. Often times criticisms of romance books are their predictability (I’m guilty of doing this too), but Center framed that predictability in such an eye-opening way by saying when you know you are reading a romance with a happily ever after, you can just sit back and enjoy the story. I thought this was such an important perspective to take in and remember while reading

There’s no doubt that Katherine Center is a great writer, but while this was a good romance, it fell a little flat for me. I would still recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet romance!

Thank you Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for a #gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Was this my favorite book? No. Was it still very cute? Yeah, but mostly because of Joe. And Mr. Kim. He could have a book of his own and I'd be all about it. I dunno, I just wasn't a huge fan of Sadie except for when she was around Joe, and even then I really was just in it for Joe himself. Most of the people in the book were pretty shallow and communication (or lack thereof) needed to be WAY better. I didn't care for Sue because, as a best friend, she should have been more considerate. All I'm saying is that if my best friend went face-blind, I'm not likely to forget and throw an overwhelming and unwanted surprise party for her. Sadie herself was kind of self-centered, too, though. I'm not saying she would have made the connection right away, but she might have asked what the guy she's falling in love with does for a living. Or for his last name. And she might start calling him by his actual name instead of the name on the jacket that is not his. But I'm just beating up the plot at this point. It was still cute, and I'd still recommend it to people who like miscommunication tropes, for sure.

I am a big fan of Katherine Center. I had never heard of face blindness so I was taught quite a bit. That said I didn't enjoy this new title as much as her previous one. It was a solid read though. I will continue to read her books.

great romance story! loved the twist at the end, it really kept me on my toes. I really enjoyed the transformation of the main character and her transition from an accident to a hidden blessing!

Our main character has prosopagnosia due to brain surgery, and she is a portrait artist that has a career changing contest to compete in. For someone who prides herself on capturing and noticing every detail of people’s faces, she has been missing a lot. It is interesting to watch her reconnect/see her own world when she no longer can rely on recognizing everyone by their faces. I enjoyed watching her love story unfold, and it’s bound to have some challenges when she has never seen his face and she makes the choice to not tell anyone in her life about the condition. It makes the reader question how much they pay attention in their own life. There are also healthy doses of humor in here that literally made me laugh out loud. It was a very enjoyable read!

It was fine! Truly just an average romance. The FMC was hard to listen to after a while. The premise was interesting but the miscommunication troupe just doesn’t do it for me.

This story was really just too cute, with or without the REAL man (or dog) in Sadie's life, Peanut. It's such an original take on the sort of amnesia-esque trope that can often be found in romances. A portrait artist that can't see faces? I don't know how Katherine comes up with such amazing plots, but keep them coming please! I loved the evil stepmother/stepsister portion as I always loved Cinderella growing up, especially how human they felt. They were complicated and not just one-dimensional. The dad especially, their relationship was already so rocky and it's easy to see why as the story goes on. I found myself almost resenting Sue most of all weirdly, like she was supposed to be Sadie's best friend, but at times could be very selfish and obtuse. Maybe an unpopular opinion. The love triangle was messy but in a great way, though I could've done with a TOUCH less miscommunication. At times, it felt infuriating. I still loved the book like mad though and will absolutely be recommending to everyone even if they don't ask.

Katherine Center is quickly becoming a new favorite author of mine. I read the description and wasn’t sure it was going to be for me, but I was so pleasantly surprised. I would encourage you to read this book WITHOUT reading the description. Read this and let yourself be completely surprised by everything. This was such a fun read, and very different from most of the books I’ve read in the past year. The FMC was a little bit delulu but that’s okay, it made it entertaining and kept it interesting. The MMC was fabulous as well, and this is the second book by this author where I’ve loved the personality traits of the book boyfriend. This is a great choice for a quick and unique read!

4⭐️ 0🌶️

This is my first novel by Katherine Center and I could not have asked for a more delightful book!

The concept around the book it’s not anything I’ve read before and I freaking loved it! I felt a tad frustrated with the confusion but it made so much sense for the story based on what the FMC was going through and I was laughing at the end when things got cleared up.

There was pretty good banter and I loved the chemistry between the characters. The story moved at a good pace and I was never bored, in fact I read this in a day 🤭🤭 There is zero spice but it’s not really needed.

I can’t wait to go through her entire backlist!!

4 stars = Great!

I requested the ARC - and bought two copies of the book for a tour event - without having read the synopsis. I was going 100% off of my love of THE BODYGUARD from last year. And then I read the synopsis and thought, "Oh no...." I was just not sure I was going to enjoy this.

But Sadie is a great main character. I found the psychological aspects of Sadie's journey with face blindness compelling. There were many laugh-out-loud moments, and passages that begged to be read aloud. I knew where the book was ultimately headed from the beginning, but I enjoyed the journey to that resolution!

Readers don't have to be familiar with the author to pick this up - the story stands alone. In the signing event, the author laughingly suggested that new readers start with her more recent books before moving into her backlist because she feels she's gotten better with each one. (I *adored* THE BODYGUARD.) (Language)