This book was so fun and entertaining. I had the privilege to meet the author at a book event for this book and she was delightful. This story focused on an artist that has some unique health issues that make for a unique story. Highly recommend this book!

Katherine Center does it again!!! Hello Stranger is unputdownable and will make your heart happy and cry meaningful tears.

Sadie is an aspiring portrait artist who wants to do it all by herself, despite many challenges rising up to face her. Then her cute neighbor Joe shows up who she can’t seem to escape.

Sadie is a character you love to root for and this story is another delight from Katherine Center - 5/5 stars!

Katherine Center does it again with another binge-able romance. Hello, Stranger follows Sadie, a portrait artist who is accepted into a prestigious art competition. On the night she finds out, her friend Sue decides to throw her a party and while out to get wine, she suffers a seizure in the middle of traffic, and a good samaritan comes to her rescue, pushing her out of the way. Unfortunately in the process, she hits her head. She wakes in the hospital and learns she needs brain surgery to correct a blood clot that she's had all of her life, that she never knew about, When she awakes from surgery, she finds she now has face blindness and is now wondering how she will ever complete the portrait needed for the competition.

From there, the story is truly remarkable. I loved how Center weaves in stories of grief, friendship, and family along with all that Sadie endures. The love story is fantastic with a twist I didn't see coming, but in hindsight, probably should have.

I could not put this beautiful story down and I hope you add it to your reading list.
Thank you, St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the eARC!

I haven't always been the biggest Katherine Center fan in the past, but there was just something so comforting and saccharine about this particular novel that just kept pulling me back in. It was so different and quirky and fun and composed. Ultimately, it was a feel-good novel that left me feeling warm and fuzzy inside and wanting to dig into another book exactly like it! A wonderful, fluffy, mid-summer read!

I looooove Katherine Stranger writing style. I love this book so much. she is a must read author for me. I also got the hardcover for this one because I like the cover. It's a fun and fast read. her writing and story are so enganging you won't be able to put it down.

My favorite book of the year! Katherine has created another delightful read!

This story was very heartwarming and I found myself wishing Joe was real! Sadie is so endearing and you find yourself cheering her on while Joe is such a gentleman. Katherine has a way of weaving humor throughout to bring some levity to this well-rounded story. Very well done and I highly recommend!

I was expecting more romance, but this was still a really great story! The romantic elements felt more like a side plot, to the main plot of Sadie navigating acquired face blindness after brain surgery. There are a lot of topics here: loss of a parent, grief, career/life crisis, family dynamics, bullying, and of course, friendship and romance. I kind of guessed a little bit that the ending was going to play out as it did, but wasn't too mad about it! The characters were lovable, the conflict was unique and believable (though we hate a miscommunication trope!!) and the ending was happy. Sadie was also such a relatable, hopeless romantic! The way she fully leaned into her crushes was so spot on. Would recommend this one :)

Another fantastic book by Katherine Center! I absolutely loved this! The premise, the characters, the writing. It had everything I love! It’s just a book that you put down feeling so happy after.
I can’t recommend this one enough!!

Katherine Center does it again! This book’s main character Sadie Montgomery, is an artist who is suffering from face blindness. She just got into a prestigious portrait art show and her affliction starts to manifest. She can’t see faces, so how can she possibly paint a portrait.

I knew I had to dive into reading Hello Stranger as soon as I finished The Bodyguard. I think Katherine Center books will become an instant read. I love the way she tells a story and has such complex main characters while introducing twists in the book.

The main character, Sadie, is relatable and the complicated. I had a hard time putting this story down because I wanted her to have the ending she deserved. The way she got there though was messy and filled with strife, but so worth it in the end.

I don’t think I can dive into the story too much without giving away key details but this is easily one of my favorite romcoms. It’s just filled with every emotion and the ending was fantastic.

Five stars because I won’t forget about this story anytime soon.

Another great book by Katherine Center. Fresh and delightful, I couldn't put it down. It, like a lot of romance novels, tends to be predictable, but that doesn't detract for me.

This was such an interesting and different plot so big props for that.

With that being said, I almost wish I hadn’t read the synopsis first, because I knew that the 2 men were the same guy, and I just wanted to rush through the book for her to figure it out. Like how do you say you love this guy but you didn’t even recognize his voice? I don’t know, I guess I can’t just since I have all 5 senses, but I’m thinking this could’ve been better if we, the readers, were left in the dark so that we could’ve figured things out with Sadie.

Minus a second star because the characters were…not the best. They felt like they were written for a teen movie instead. Like how was the mom SO oblivious? How did it just so happen that the random girl from middle school just happened to be at the art show on the night they talked about her after years of not seeing her? The sister was an over-the-top evil step sister from Cinderella. Sadie was just kind of annoying.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Katherine Center for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I stumbled across Katherine Center years ago and now I anxiously wait for the next book! This one was no different. I loved the story. It deals with strong topics and makes them real and always has a great message attached!

I absolutely loved this book!!! I am a huge Emily Henry fan, but I may have just found another author that I love just as much if not more! I cannot wait to read more of Katherine Center's books.

Thank you Katherine Center, NetGalley, and Macmillan Publishers for providing me with an e-arc of Hello Stranger! This is my first book by Katherine Center, and it has inspired me to read more of her stories.

Hello Stranger shows how a struggling artist with acquired face blindness is able to find joy in what she loves, grieve her mother, and start to repair tenuous relationships with her father and step-mother. We first meet Sadie when she learns that she is a top 10 finalist in what could be a care-starting portrait competition. But before she can even have time to celebrate, she has a seizure, realizes she needs brain surgery, has said surgery, and then realizes she can't see faces (which is pretty important for a portrait artist). Her life is thrown in a tailspin as she now can't recognize when her evil stepsister is trying to torture her, can't see the face of the cute vet or the annoying man from her floor, and she can't start working on her portrait submission. Sadie is forced to deal with a lot of emotions that come up (both from her past and her present), and sometimes she succeeds and other times she lands face first in her failure.

Hello Stranger took a topic I'd never really thought of or heard about (face blindness) and showed that even when you can't see someone's face, that doesn't always make them a stranger.

I could not put down this book as I was reading it! Although I guessed the twist way before the ending, it was still a well thought out reveal for the characters. I also didn't mind the lack of spice, and thought that the story was entertaining even without it (and I'm a big spice junky). Even though she was frustrating at times, Sadie did show character growth towards the end of the novel. Overall this was a very enjoyable read!

3.75 stars (but with a LOT of context)

Whatever you’ve come to expect from Katherine Center’s writing, throw it out the window because this ain’t it. (I cringed typing that because I truly hate the word ain’t but it seemed more fitting in this moment). From the very first page I could tell this was going to be different. It felt more like falling into a CW teen drama than a sad-but-funny-and-hopeful Hallmark/Lifetime movie. (I acknowledge that those references won’t hit the same for each person, but it’s the best I can explain my gut reaction when starting).

I had such a hard time rating this. It starts out strong with the grocery store scene. There’s silliness and banter and humor and it was immediately engaging. Then, after the big plot twist (but not really twist since it’s in the book description) we are left with chapter after chapter after chapter of inner monologuing from a character that I struggled to like even a little bit. I just did not like Sadie. So. Much. daydreaming. She came across immature and living in her own fantasy world. At this point I was NOT enjoying this book at all, but I was committed to finishing because I trust this author. Katherine Center is a great writer! Unfortunately, the teen drama comparison continued for most of the book. It read very juvenile at times. Catty stepsister. Boy-crazy MC. Over-the-top misconceptions and assumptions. A flakey best friend who served no purpose in the story except for someone for Sadie to dialogue with. Katherine Center usually writes very serious adult stories so I found most of this story jarring and odd.

Parts of this book (namely all the moments with Joe and Sadie) were 5-star for me. I loved Joe. I loved his gentleness. I loved his go-with-the-flow-ness. (I’m making that a word). After the first HALF of the book being largely inner monologue and daydreaming from an annoying character, I found the middle portion to be a breath of fresh air. Banter and tension and friendship. It was fantastic.

Then it took a turn again. Most of the rest of this is a SPOILERy ramble for anyone who has read book: There’s a third-act “breakup” of sorts that was beyond frustrating. It was a giant miscommunication that felt so easily avoidable. I couldn’t suspend my disbelief when Joe, at no point, said “What happened since we kissed last night?” The most obvious response to this out-of-the-blue breakup that would have avoided so much unnecessary drama. The author had to write VERY careful dialogue to avoid the obvious words/reactions that would have created a “wait, what?” moment for the main characters. I couldn’t buy in to that.

The entire rest of the story felt rushed and over-the-top dramatic, to the point of being entirely unbelievable. There’s a serious lack of depth in every side character. This book is full of caricatures of people who don’t exist anywhere in the real world. The insulting and annoying evil step-mother who is actually completely misunderstood and not entirely coldhearted. The conniving and sadistic step-sister. (Seriously, Parker is maybe the thing that threw me out of the story the most. People just aren’t like that. People are evil sometimes, sure, but this was such an unrealistic cliche.). There’s a monologue from a girl they knew in high school that was 100% unbelievable.

In summary, I guess from the beginning to the end I found everything to be just a little too unbelievable. Which is on the writing, because you can write outlandish things and still make me buy it if you do it right. The writing was too on-the-nose for me. It was almost overly-exaggerated on purpose. I don’t know. I’m struggling to explain. The last few chapters had a lot of Sadie explaining things to the reader, which I didn’t like. It’s like the story kept breaking the fourth wall.

I REALLY enjoyed everything from her getting stood up, to her and Joe breaking up. Like, 5-stars for all that. But the beginning and end were like 3-star. It was a struggle to rate. I did stay up until 2:00am to finish so 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC to review!

I have read every book Katherine Center has published so I was very excited to read the latest. She never fails to deliver on wholesome, complex characters and hilarious banter. The "face-blindness" curveball was something I had never heard of and found a bit odd initially, but she developed it perfectly and explained it to the reader in a way that was easy to understand. Anything Katherine Center publishes, I will be first in line to read and love.

⭐⭐⭐/5

• "feel good" story/light romance
• annoying FMC
• some LOL moments

There were some enjoyable parts of this book, but there were also some plot holes and overall it didn't wow me. Lots of miscommunication here if that's your thing! I switched up between my digital copy and also the audio (honestly not a fan of BOTM audio platform as it is now...) on this one.

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book via Read Now gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

This was a fun quick read. I had high hopes after The Bodyguard, but this one wasn’t quite as good. Sadie wasn’t always a likable character. She seemed to not appreciate what she had and the support given. Joe was a fun character to read though. 3.5🌟

This was really delightful. I'm a hard win when it comes to romantic contemporary novels but this one was light, funny, and heart warming. The romance developed naturally and the characters were really likable. I thought the concept was so unique and so well executed. I did not see the ending coming and thought it was perfect. I love the way Katherine Center tells stories. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.