Sadie Montgomery is finally getting her life together, when the side effects of an illness leave her with face blindness. Can she learn to navigate her life and maybe even find love along the way?

I definitely enjoyed Hello Stranger. For the most part, the characters were well-developed and interesting and the plot kept moving. However, there were some secondary characters that could have been fleshed out a bit more and were mostly caricatures. Still this is a good read overall!

Katherine Center presents yet another charming and quirky story in her latest book. Sadie's day started out like any other until she woke up in a hospital bed, having suffered a seizure. She learns that a stranger saved her life and that she now requires brain surgery. The procedure is successful, but the unfortunate side effect is that she now suffers from face blindness. This poses a significant challenge for Sadie, who is an artist with a deadline to submit a portrait for a major competition just weeks away. She must learn how to adjust to her new condition and identify her loved ones and foes, including her wicked stepmother and stepsister, while trying not to reveal her struggles to others.

🎨HELLO STRANGER REVIEW 🖌️

HUGE THANK YOU TO @stmartinspress for this beautiful gifted copy of Hello Stranger! 🖌️🎨💙

Katherine Center does it again with this fun loving book!!

What the book is about:
Sadie Montgomery paints face portraits for a living. She finally gets the break of a life time and gets entered to win a huge contest that could start your career. But when tragedy strikes next thing Sadie needs brain surgery. After surgery she wakes up and can’t recognize faces anymore….

What I liked/thought:
🎨I adored Sadie so much!!
🖌️The whitty humor and banter Sadie had made this much that much better!
🎨I wanted to punch Parker in the face.
🖌️I was a little annoyed with the “twist” aka miscommunication trope is NOT my fav and it was a major problem in this book.
🎨I felt like the book could of been 100 pages shorter and still be just as good!

Overall, I gave this a 4⭐️ I’m not a huge miscommunication trope lover and I really didn’t like how it was done in this story. IYKYK. But nonetheless Sadie was so quirky and had spunk even when her life was falling apart. There was a couple of sad/teary eye moments! 🥲

Thank you Katherine Center, for another wonderful book.
This book was a little out of the ordinary and I loved that!

With adorable plot points, the story is fun and fast-paced. While maybe a little predictable, I would have been upset and surprised if it ended any other way.

I loved the explanation of face-blindness. I wished there was a bit more seen of the psychologist, the step-sister, and the step-mother.

I will have to say, I am surprised that the main character didn’t even know what day her mom died was?? Only that it was in the springtime near her birthday…. Who wouldn’t know what day their parent died?

Overall, though, what a cute book. Loved The Bodyguard, loved this one too.

The start of this story was a little slow for me but once she had her surgery I did not want to put it down.
I absolutely hated Parker. But I was living for this apparently not love triangle. When I hit that part I laughed so hard. I love the way everything wrapped up neatly, and how she didn’t win the contest she didn’t even place at all.
I will say at times it was a bit disorienting because she’s not the most reliable narrator but that is a given due to her condition.

I have loved all of this authors books! This was so good! Amazing characters and a great story line! Highly highly recommend.

reading a katherine center book is like receiving the biggest, warmest hug. her books and writing style are just so comforting to me. there is something so
magical about her writing that sweeps me away right off the bat and for a little while i get lost in an amazing story.

hello stranger is best experienced going in blind (ha). it has an element to it that feels like magical realism, but is actually very real and quite educational. katherine center is a master at balancing hilarity and angst. she is exceptional at writing characters who feel like your real friends and others who you just want to punch in the face.

sadie really felt it all and i felt it with her. the fallout with her father after the death of her mother truly broke my heart. i loved how independent she wanted to be, but her feelings of loneliness tore me apart. the romance in this story is chef’s kiss and it’s quite possibly the zaniest love triangle i’ve ever read. don’t let that scare you away though; i promise it is done to perfection. this is such a beautiful story of character growth and healing with a heap of swoony romance. i’m already anxiously anticipating what katherine will give us next!

thank you to st. martin’s press for an advanced copy. my thoughts are my own.

Katherine Center has a way with writing books. They are so true and well written. I know that when I pick up one of her books I am going to go on an amazing journey with her characters! I loved Hello Stranger so much! I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

I was disappointed by the last couple of Katherine Center books I've read but this one redeemed them for me! Really sweet

This was an entertaining, lighthearted romance. Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist, barely making ends meet, living in her art studio because she’s broke. She suffers a medical emergency and needs to ask for help from people around her.

This is emotional, inspirational and highly enjoyable. Highly recommend.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, the author, and NetGalley for the free gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Katherine Center novel - which I have heard great things about! This one was super cute but was not my favorite type of romance - there was little to no chemistry between the main characters and things felt super random .

I am not sure if the confusion was on purpose because of one of the main plot points, but it really made the main romance feel lost. The characters were cute and they had a lot of potential, and it had a lot of feel good aspects to it.

The cover is super cute and I have heard great things about her writing in general so I will definitely be checking out other books of hers!

Katherine does it again with this can't put down book, I love it. The character Sadie was so well written, I love how her character comes to terms with her new self, it has a realistic view about health conditions. It was heart gripping and made me laugh too.

I am a huge fan of Katherine Center, and just finished The Bodyguard (which I loved) before starting this one. I hate to say that I didn’t love this story. I felt like it was reaching too much, there were too many miscommunications, and I had to suspend my disbelief too many times.

Ms. Center has other books that are excellent and I highly recommend her as an author!

A feel good rom com by new to me author Katherine Center.
Portrait artist Sadie Montgomery just became a finalist in an upcoming competition that will give her all she's been waiting for if she wins.
Suddenly her life changes when she is in an accident, has to have surgery, and as a result now has prosopagnosia, face-blindness. As Sadie tries to adjust to her new reality she has quirky friends and a few romantic interests that help her along the way.
A touching, fun and interesting story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I had a lot of trouble with this book. While the premise sounded intriguing, I had a difficult time suspending disbelief long enough to make the plot enjoyable.

The FMC was unlikeable and was unwilling to help herself, the MMC did not communicate in any way that I found helpful, and the supporting characters were unlikeable at best.

Overall, this fell flat for me. This was my first Katherine Center, surprisingly. I think I'll give her one more try, but based off this one, she may not be for me.

I love this book so much.
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As I mentioned when I started the book, it delves into a condition known as face blindness secondary to emergency brain surgery. So this is not a condition Sadie was born with and she has to learn to navigate as an adult. This will resonate for any adult who experiences a health change that impacts their life. I’ve experienced my military-related hearing loss and adjusting to an autoimmune in adulthood - seeing an aspect of something you’ve gone through on pages - is pretty powerful.
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I loved Sadie and watching her grow her relationships as she learns to accept this new version of herself. The scenes with her family - were heartbreaking and so moving. And Joe. My goodness, I adore him. I anticipate others will too!
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Katherine Center is an auto buy for me and I look forward to whatever she has planned next! The hugest thanks to @smpromance and @netgalley for the advanced readers e-copy.
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Go get this one! And read the Author’s Note.

this book was so interesting! especially because i went in somewhat blind. sadie begins to see things differently, meanwhile herself and joe, her new neighbor, get off on the wrong foot! but become friends down the road. after taking her dog to the vet, she meets dr addison! i don’t want to spoil too much but this is where sadie’s life changes. a story about challenging times and healing and growing. i felt so drawn to the book as a whole. it made me laugh, tear up, and man oh man the romance!

Finally. My first Katherine Center novel.

I picked a good one, too. At least it seems I did because most readers are loving "Hello Stranger" right along with me.

It’s a super cute, clean romance about a young artist named Sadie who suddenly finds herself suffering from face blindness while falling in love with two different men. Poor Sadie – love is confusing enough on its own, but it’s emotional chaos when you can’t see the faces of the people you’re falling for.

It seems like I’ve been reading a lot of books lately with prosopagnosia as a literary device. And I won’t lie – when I read the synopsis for Center’s latest I thought, 'Again?' But in this instance, it really does work. The face blindness adds weight to the storyline while also providing stumbling blocks for Sadie as she makes her way towards love.

And what I couldn't get over is the vibrancy of Center's writing. The characters, the inner feelings and musings of the protagonist … it’s all drawn so well. I felt as if I was standing right beside Sadie, munching my popcorn, an eyewitness to the action. (Side note: Center may have drawn Parker a bit too well. She’s so hateful that she's almost a caricature.)

Will someone please give me a high five for my first Katherine Center read? I feel like I need it, I’m so gosh darn happy. "Hello Stranger" charmed me to no end.


My sincerest appreciation to Katherine Center, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

Another sweet, funny, and heartwarming story from Katherine Center!

I loved Sadie. She was so funny and endearing. You couldn't help but root for her.

Sadie is a struggling portrait artist who is finally on the brink of becoming successful. Naturally, that is when her whole life gets turned upside down.

In addition to family issues (including an evil step-sister) and figuring out her career, Sadie also finds herself in a love triangle. Who doesn't love that?

Hello Stranger had me laughing, crying, and wanting to find the good things and hold on tight to them.

I love KC books! And this cover is just spectacular! Perhaps not my favorite of her books to date, but fun nonetheless. Very interested to hear the audiobook version to see if I like it more than the print version. The step-sister was kind of OVER-written. Like, honestly? There's no one out there like this or anyone who would take it.