Main character Sadie is getting ready to celebrate a huge life accomplishment--she is a finalist in a portrait competition! Soon after receiving the news, she is in an accident which leads to brain swelling and a "probably temporary" condition known as face blindness. Her sick dog Peanut leads her to a "probably" dreamy veteranarian. Meanwhile in her building she keeps running into Joe, who goes from sharing details of women he sleeps with over the phone in an elevator to being a helpful subject for learning to paint when she can't see faces. Sadie's best quality is her directness. She comes clean with her 'future husband' vet, telling him there is another man. But then Joe (the other man) ghosts her and moves out of the building! Sadie feels she just can't win. Ultimately, she has to put aside her pride and open up about why she has been having a rough couple of months. Sometimes it is hard to admit we need help or have a weakness, but once she does this, things start to look up.

“The more good things you look for, the more you find.”
― Katherine Center, Hello Stranger

Katherine Center can do no wrong I enjoyed this book as much as I did all her others. Auto buy author for me. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

Katherine Center has become one of my favorites and I cannot wait to read her older books. I had so much fun reading this book. How funny the whole situation was. Jeez, after a terrifying accident that left you without the ability of recognizing faces, you happen to miss the person that could change your life for the better? I would be so mad. We are able to see so much growth in our MC. I just loved everything about this book. Everything.

Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—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. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

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 into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

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I'm quickly falling in love with Katherine Center and her writing with every book that I read.
She's just such an incredible storyteller and will have you falling in love with all of her characters she writes, and each storyline is just so wildly different. It's amazing how she comes up with these plotlines!

This is the first book I've ever read where the MC had face blindness, and it was so wild to imagine. I couldn't put myself in her shoes, it was just too crazy. Add in the fact that Sophie was an artist and like, super reliant on her sight to be able to paint.. it was truly unique. I loved how obsessed with her dog she was, because that was insanely relatable for me.

Such a cute comfort read that had me laughing out loud on several occasions. I can't wait to read her next!

Thanks so much, NetGalley, for my gifted digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

📖My Thoughts📖

I’ve never read anything by Katherine Center, but I’m so glad I finally did. The storyline and the characters just pulled me in! First of all, the idea of having someone who is an artist, or anyone for that matter, suddenly developing a condition called acquired apperceptive prosopagnosia, also known as “face blindness” is actually brilliant! Imagine meeting someone and you could see everything except their face. I’m sure it would be so frustrating. It was interesting seeing how Sadie handled this situation and didn’t allow it to control her life. In all honesty, I don’t think I would be able to handle it, even if it was temporary. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if it was something I had dealt with my entire life as opposed to how it happened with Sadie. The relationship between Sadie and Joe was cute, and I really enjoyed watching it grow. I can see why there are so many Katherine Center fans. She’s a very talented writer with the ability to pull you in to her book and feel a mixture of emotions. I will definitely be reading more of her work!
Thank you Netgalley, Katherine Center and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. 🎨🎨🎨🎨

I adore Katherine Center and was very excited about this galley. Overall it was enjoyable and I read it in just over a day,

I loved the disability awareness, but the predictability was a turn off. I get that it was only implied, but the mystery could have used a bit of work.

I would still recommend this because Center is a boss! Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

Katherine Center did it again - she is definitely an auto-buy author for me!

Loved the characters, getting to know them a bit at a time and the anticipation of how it would end. Was an interesting disease that I had not heard of before, which made the story all the more intriguing and had me googling additional information.

If you love Katherine Center, you will need to grab this one! If you haven't read her yet - what are you waiting for? Great read, all the feels and you are immersed in the story as if you're all friends. As an exceptional author once said, “This love story really created fantastic anticipation.”

Thank you #NetGalley and #KatherineCenter for providing me with an ebook to review.

Katherine Center does it again! Sadie Montgomery has a lot going on in her life, and on the day she gets the news that she'll have a chance to compete with the elite in her field, she feels like she's finally getting somewhere. But the somewhere she ends up is in the hospital diagnosed with cavernoma and brain surgery becomes urgent. Sadie is happy to put off the surgery until after the North American Portrait Society competition, but her somewhat unsupportive father shows up and drops a bomb shell with info about why she needs the surgery immediately. You will ride the roller coaster of emotions with Sadie as you move through this book. Diagnosed with a "probably temporary" condition known as prosopagnisia (face blindness) as a result of the surgery, Sadie has to find a way to create a portrait for the competition. When she can't see faces as anything other than a puzzle of scrambled facial features. As she learns how to deal with finding new ways of recognizing people other than by their faces, she also has to deal with past (and current) family trauma, bullying, and not one, but 2 potential new love interests. You'll cheer for Sadie, you'll want to take a swing at a couple of people for her, and you'll cry with her. And believe me, you will not see where this is going! Fantastic, feel-good fiction!

This is likely, actually it is absolutely one of my favorite reads of 2023! This entire book, plot, characters, and the message. I cannot stop thinking about it all. Left me in tears!

I love Katherine Center’s books and this one is no exception. Sadie is a struggling portrait artist whose life is turned upside down when she develops face blindness after a surgery. This is an actual possibility from brain surgery and I was unfamiliar with it. Sadie is unable to recognize faces and must rely on voice recognition, clothing, mannerisms, etc. to try and figure out who is who. Face blindness is especially difficult when her vocation depends on her ability to paint portraits. I was immediately drawn into her story and enjoyed how the story unfolded. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy. Hello Stranger is available now.

I read this back in June as an arc and totally forgot to post it on goodreads! I liked this for the most part! It was my first Katherine Center book. This book is supposed to be a feel good book and I think the ending made that so but during the event that happens, truly felt so sad reading it with the FMC. The frustration that came along with it and the over all feelings she had. The twist is one that most won't see coming and over all I think this is a good book! 3.5/5 for me.

Katherine Center's latest rom-dram, "Hello Stranger" was silly and sweet. I highly recommend to fans of Beth O'Leary, Emily Henry, and any of Center's previous work.

The novel follows a portrait artist as she navigates her love life, family life, and professional life after contracting face blindness - a complete inability to recognize faces.

Everything here was cute: the plot, our heroine's dog, our heroine's dog's veterinarian. The entire book. I especially loved Center's author's note on the power of romance novels at the end of the novel. The best kind of cheesy; I loved it.

There is no denying this is a well-written book.
Center writes the most loveable characters, you just can't help but fall in love with them.
That said, I have one huge gripe with this book and it's the overuse of the misunderstanding trope.
It literally dragged through the entirety of the book, like the last page dragging.
Uhhgghh
Very wholesome story with no angst or steam,
If that's for you, then you will enjoy this

I avoided romance for many years because it felt *too cutesy*, *too perfect*. Luckily, at some point, I came down from my high-horse and realized how much I love and need too cute and too perfect. Prosopagnosia is a fun trope to work into literature (not that it is fun for the sufferer), and it would be so easy to misuse it in myriad ways. Here, the author does a pretty darn good job of describing the condition (and, hey, there is a neuropsychologist - my profession!). Is there a lot of *too perfect*? Obviously. Is the portrayal (especially of the recovery) completely accurate? Probably not 100%. But would it be a good romance without it?

Hello Stranger is one of my new favorite Katherine Center books. It was so amazing and I devoured it. I didn't expect to feel so many emotions towards the end, but I was balling with how strong Sadie was at the end. In the Author's Notes at the end, the author writes "This love story really created a fantastic feeling of anticipation" and that couldn't have said it more perfectly.

This is my new favorite Katherine Center book, and I've read quite a few!

I absolutely adored every minute of this! I knew from the summary this one had a unique premise, and Katherine did not disappoint in her execution of it.

Sadie is a portrait artist, and after a seizure and a hospital stay, she finds out she needs brain surgery. But post-surgery she wakes up and realizes she can't actually see people's faces anymore. In the middle of her potential big break as an artist, Sadie has to reimagine everything she thought would be true of her life. Add in her dog having health issues, falling for the new vet, AND falling for the mysterious neighbor she once thought was a jerk...life is a lot messier for Sadie than it used to be.

In typical Katherine fashion, this isn't just a love story. This is mostly a story about Sadie, and her having to re-define who she is, and who she wants to be. She learns to stand up for herself against her mean step-sister, and to say the things to her dad and her step-mom that she had been holding in for years. She learns who she can depend on and lets herself admit that she needs help, even when everything inside of her is begging her to keep quite in order to not be a burden to anyone ever (I totally relate to that!).

But even with all of that, the love story is still beautiful and swoony! I don't want to say too much so people can go into it without knowing too much, but this book has my new favorite Katherine Center hero! The sweetest of book boyfriends!

I loved this book! If you haven't picked it up yet, please do! And please please do not skip the essay at the end! I so appreciated Katherine's words on love stories and romance books!

Thank you to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @macmillian.audio for a free download of the audiobook.

Not being able to see faces?! I didn’t even know that was a thing, but thanks to @katerhinecenter new book, I do now. I appreciated the education along with the developing love story. Center just has a way with writing books that pull me in and not let go.

This is a great read!

4 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #stmartinspress #macmillianaudio #ltbreaderteam #hellostranger #katherinecenter #smpinfluencers

I have read all of Katherine center’s books and each one gets better. Her books are an auto buy for me. She is an exceptional storyteller, and this book is no different. Highly recommend.

Hello Stranger was such a wonderful portrayal of what it looks like to take a hard situation and grow from it. Katherine Center did such a wonderful job of leading us through our main character, Sadie's, growth and discovery of becoming her best self, while also finding romance in the midst of it all! The plot was a unique one that I haven't read before and I throuroughly enjoyed it! If you enjoy a fun romance, with depth, funny moments and endearing characters, I would suggest you read Hello Stranger! It was such a beautiful story and I am looking forward to reading more of Katherine Center's work.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's press for the ARC of this book!

This was my first Katherine Center and I was excited to dig in because I’ve seen so many ravings reviews! I thought it was cute and I enjoyed the ending.

I’ve gotta admit it wasn’t the home run I was hoping for. The middle too slow for me and a bit repetitive… I found myself just trying to get through.

I’m not a big romance reader, I dabble more in the romcom when I’m taking a break from my thrillers/mysteries. I liked KC’s writing style and I’ll probably give her another go. I already own a copy of Things We Save In A Fire, so it’ll probably be that one (or The Bodyguard).

3.5⭐️