Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me this Advanced Readers Copy of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of Hello Stranger. Katherine Center is such an amazing writer and clearly puts so much love and work into her romance novels!

KATHERINE DOES IT AGAIN!

I didn't think it was possible for her to release another story as sweet and heartwarming as her previous titles but.... I was wrong! This story is packed full of unique characters and storylines. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will fall in love. I highly recommend!

What a delightful read!

Sadie is a portrait artist preparing for the biggest moment in her art career. But an emergency surgery leaves he with a rare condition: face blindness. What follows is a heartwarming story of love, challenges, humor and hope.

What worked for me: I loved learning about this rare medical condition at the center of the story. i love how the author makes the reader think about our approach to life. I loved the romance and the humor. It was just a wonderful story in which to escape to each night.

What didn't work for me: I genuinely enjoyed this implausible story.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-galley of this book.

Hello Stranger is based on the concept of face blindness. I have read books with characters who are face blind before but always in a mystery/thriller context, not a romance background. In this book, Sadie is a portrait artist. Her sudden face blindness directly impacts her work and livelihood as well as her love life. This created a lot of different pieces of the story to follow and rounded out the plot.

Sadie herself was not a strong character. She was somewhat flighty and childish. She did have a lot working against her but she also leaned into that. I found Parker’s character to be over-the-top obnoxious, but I did like a lot of the other supporting cast. I enjoyed the semi-plot twist with the love triangle a lot-although the reason Joe was mad at her fell flat in the context of how his character is displayed.

I did enjoy the book overall but it is not my favorite by far. I enjoyed The Bodyguard much more and found this one to be disappointing in comparison to that one.

I really liked this book. It was a really good read and well written. Thank you for the ARC! I really appreciate it!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book is giving me Cinderella vibes; Sadie has an evil stepsister Parker who consistently bullies her and has turned Sadie's dad and Parker's mom against Sadie. After meeting a dreamy guy in a store, Sadie has an unfortunate accident that leaves her with facial blindness after brain surgery. Her neighbor Joe befriends her while see crushes hard on her dog's veterinarian. Who are these men, what do they look like, and which one will be her prince charming?

This is such an interesting story! I loved the growth in Sadie as she learned how to live with face blindness. The romance and love story were beautiful, too. Sadie's family was beyond frustrating and I didn't love her best friend all that much either. I did love how it all came together in the end and really enjoyed this one!

After an accident she developed face blindness which leads to her developing a crush on 2 guys.
I guessed the plot twist really early.

Really cute fun heartfelt and interesting. I've always been a fan of Center but her books about physical/medical challenges are my favorite for sure, probably because I'm a.nerd.
This wasn't the first book I'd read featuring facial blindness but it was the most interesting and I really loved that Sadie was an artist. I pretty much knew what was going to happen but that didn't make it any less fun either. Definitely recommend it to anyone.

This was a fun, relatable and fast read for me following Sadie's story of facial blindness post brain surgery. Family drama, romance, everything that I enjoy in a book.

I love love love Katherine Center however I was a underwhelmed by this book. It still was a quick read but I didn't really enjoy the chemistry between the MMC and FMC. I think the facial reading disorder was a little too weird for me. Overall, I still enjoyed reading it but wouldn't necessarily recommend it to a friend.

Katherine Center is an author I go to when I need a good story, a strong but flawed female lead, and something I want to read in a single sitting. I love Katherine Center’s writing and HELLO STRANGER is no exception. It has the romance, the comedy, the conflict, the villain, and the bow. I appreciate any book with an artistic element so I was immediately drawn in with Sadie being a portrait artist who qualifies for a prestigious art competition just as she has a terrible accident and develops facial blindness. The novel follows Sadie as she tries to use her other senses to fulfill her dream while stumbling her way through new and old relationships. I really enjoy the way that the author builds her characters and her storylines. Even if it was a little predictable at times, it doesn’t get in the way of it being a great story. I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

A fun, fast, read. This one highlighted a brain disorder called Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. She wrote about it in a way that was informative and respectful, but also allowed for humor. The romance was light and funny and I was really rooting for the main character. The ending was perfect for the story. The only thing that detracted from the book for me was the familial relationships, specifically with the stepsister and the resolution of that part of the story. This author is my go-to for romance and I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Katherine Center is such a great romance writer! Hello Stranger is absolutely adorable and fun to read. Sadie loses the ability to distinguish faces after her sudden brain surgery. She has complete face blindness. She tries to move on with her life, despite her set back. She is stubborn as can be, so she refuses to tell anyone about her condition. Therefore, she must make guesses based on context to determine friends and strangers. This is not the most effective plan, as we find out.
Sadie falls in love with a vet and a suspected womanizer...but who is who and what do they even look like! This story is so cute and wholesome, I loved watching Sadie be honest with everyone. 5 stars on a whimsical, fun read.

A fast paced, interesting and original read. Katherine Center always has a way of sucking you in with her writing and keeping you interested. This one, a take on face blindness makes you sincerely count your blessings, because as bad as you have it? Not as bad as Sadie. Can't wait to see what Center puts out next, I can't stop talking about this book!

Sadie Montgomery's life has abruptly changed when she discovers she has Face Blindness. Memorable characters that you capture your attention (and sometimes your heart) combined the setting and plot make Hello Stranger by Katherine Center a recommended read!

Katherine Center has, once again, delivered a phenomenal romance that reminds us that love is blind and that we can find it when we least expect it. She has the amazing talent of developing strong characters that are dealing with obstacles in their lives that may be hard to overcome if not for the people in their lives that help them through these challenging moments. While overcoming these obstacles the relationship between the characters grows stronger in a very realistic way and the reader cannot help but be pulled into the story that she weaves so perfectly.

In this uniquely marvelous book, we meet Sadie who is a struggling artist that has finally caught a break by being selected as a finalist to participate in a prestigious portrait contest. But after an emergency brain surgery to correct a leaking blood vessel she is diagnosed with Prosopagnosia also known as face blindness. How does a portrait artist overcome face blindness? How will she enter the contest when she cannot see the faces that she needs to paint?

She normally would rely on her extroverted best friend, Sue, but she has been whisked away by her fiancé leaving Sadie to navigate her face blindness by herself. She would like to be able to lean on her family, but her mom passed away when she was fourteen, her dad has a hard time connecting with her vision of life, her stepmother Lucinda is the opposite of compassionate and her stepsister, Parker, is a nightmare. This leaves Peanut, her dog, to be the one thing she can rely on. But when Peanut gets sick and has to stay at the veterinarian hospital for multiple days she meets her new vet, Dr. Addison, and she quickly falls in love with the compassionate way he cares for her sick dog, and it doesn't hurt that she sees past not being able to see his face to find him handsome from the way he holds himself and that his hair looked professional and competent. She also begins to rely on the helpful neighbor, Joe, that did not make the best first impression but has become a constant in her life.

The introduction of the two new men in her life gets her through these hard times. She finds redeeming qualities in both men which leaves her in an uncomfortable situation as she realizes she is falling for both of them at the same time for different reasons. This leads us to a few somewhat predictable surprises and yet there are many unpredictable surprises as the book wraps up.

The characters of this book contain a lot of depth and are very realistic. Their past experiences are explained to help draw a picture of how they have become the people they are today. The diagnosis of Prosopagnosia was very well researched with a note about it at the end of the book to help explain what it is. The plot of this book was very well-conceived and weaved together perfectly. If you like books by Kristen Hannah, Jojo Moyes, Emily Henry, or Emily Giffin to name just a few then you will love Katherine Center's books.

As I closed this book my heart was happy and fulfilled by a wonderful story about a good person put in a bad situation, but she finds her way through the bad days and comes out with a better life and much better relationships with her loved ones. This book is not just about romance, it is about life and how we overcome our pasts and the unexpected challenges in our lives to come out with stronger relationships and a bright future in the end.

I am extremely grateful to St. Martin's Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a digital copy of this heartwarming book in exchange for an honest review. I will be recommending this to everyone I know and have already ordered a hard copy of this lovely book!

"The more good things you look for, the more you find."

This is my first Katherine Center book, but I don't think it will be my last. It took me a few chapters to get into honestly, but once I was able to get lost in Sadie's world I didn't surface back up till the epilogue. This was a light, easy read with a lovely message. It's easy to figure out the ultimate twist, but watching the characters get there was delightful, and having them dissect all the hilarity leading up to that point was enjoyable.

My thanks to the author and NetGalley for this arc!

In pure Katherine Center fashion, this book makes you feel all the things! Once again I have fallen in love with the characters and the story and loved every minute of my time with this book!