As usual I loved this KC novel. Her books are the perfect bedtime material for me, at least once you get past the trauma which sets the scene! This book helped me discover that I believe my husband has mild facial blindness, and also provided me with laughs and tears! No one quite writes like Katherine, and I save her books for when I really need a hug in literary form. This one was not as amazing as her last release, The Bodyguard, but I’d still give it a strong 3.8-4 star rating! I So appreciate being given early access and really enjoyed reccomendinf this to several friends already.

I have come to absolutely love Katherine's books. Chefs kiss😘

Love the representation & the narration & how the story progressed.

Thank you so much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

I LOVED this book! I couldn't put it down!

The main character of this book is Sadie. Throughout the novel, we see her face challenge after challenge- basically her life falls apart. I loved the character of Sadie. She's a total sunshine character and I loved her perseverance despite obstacle after obstacle being thrown at her. And despite everything she's going through, she still is kind to those around her and even goes out of her way to help other.s

The romance is one of my favorite that I've read recently! There were so many moments between Sadie and the love interest that were so sweet. I love how everything worked out for Sadie and her man, and the overall conclusion of the story was fantastic. I will be recommending this book to everyone I know!

Cute one! I didn’t love how it started but it got better. I liked how it all ended and wrapped up. Some characters weren’t great and felt annoying and I couldn’t connect but overall an easy, cute read

I typically fly through Katherine Center's books and for some reason I had a harder time getting into the story of Hello Stranger. In it, Sadie, recently was nominated to participate in an art competition. While she is celebrating her life starting to appear on track, she suffers a fall and learns of a condition that needs to be resolved ASAP. After brain surgery, Sadie wakes up and doesn't recognize anyone - she has face blindness. As a portrait artist, this is devastating. She only has a few weeks to paint her masterpiece for the show and she doesn't even recognize her own face let alone her close friends and family. While the condition may be temporary, Sadie has to learn to live in a world where everyone's face is jumbled and she must be attuned to their other features.

I thought the story was sweet and the pacing picked up a lot at the end. The reveal wasn't too shocking but a fun twist on Sadie's love life. This book had a sweet found family troupe along with some miscommunication, and lots of family drama. TW: loss of a loved one (off-page)

Instagram post review:
Sadie is celebrating her finalist for the North American Portrait Society when she is diagnosed with hopefully temporary facial blindness. She can see but faces are disconnected. She doesn't recognize friends or family and now she has to work on painting her most important portrait ever under these conditions. While attempting to rescue her career in the midst of this diagnosis, Sadie falls in love with not one man but two, a neighbor, and the vet caring for her beloved dog, Peanut. How will she decide between them when she can't even see their faces?

I received an eARC from St. Martin's Press via @netgalley for this book and unfortunately, it wasn't my favorite of Katherine Center's. I typically love her writing but since I was in the middle of a reading slump, this one didn't hold my attention. It was still a cute romance but a bit predictable and dragged until the reveal. The reveal wasn't too shocking but a fun twist on Sadie's love life. I thought the pacing picked up a lot at the end. This book had a sweet found family troupe along with some miscommunication, and lots of family drama. I did enjoy learning about face blindness and how about 2% of the population suffer from it. I wanted to be obsessed like I have in the past by Center's books but this one was just cute for me. TW: loss of a loved one (off-page)

⭐⭐⭐/5

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Edited · 4m

Let me start this review with saying that Katherine Center’s books spell summer to me ! I love reading these wonderful romance stories. It's a love story in all of the best ways:
Sadie Montgomery, the female MC, had a tough time growing up, her mom died, her father buried himself in his job and his quick new marriage. Twelve years later the loss is still palpable for Sadie, she is emulating her mother’s life down to continuing her artwork and wearing some of her clothes - estranged from her father she lives in her studio with her dog. But things are finally looking up - she is chosen as a finalist for a drawing competition (a competition where, of course, her mother also reached the finalist stage). But in a mirror image of her mother‘s life with a fat better outcome, tragedy strikes and she ends up having to have brain surgery. She is left with a condition called prosopagnosia; face blindness. Obviously one of the worst conditions a portrait artist trying to draw the portrait for the final round in a competition can have. Adding to the stress is that she is slowly but surely falling for two men, her dog’s new and extremely capable veterinarian and her helpful neighbor. There is family drama, with a hilariously evil stepsister and a scare with her beloved pet, Peanut. This book lays heavy on the miscommunication trope and is it realistic, taken to this extreme maybe not but maybe realism isn’t why we read romcoms, it‘s the predictability and the heartwarming plot. The book is extremely well written and I loved the author’s not on prosopagnosia after seeing it in at least two thrillers before seeing it here in a romcom this was the first book that gave me access to the research and the realities on what our brain can or can not do. I switched between the ebook and the audiobook version and the narrator was great as well.

I loved the author’s note with its insight into the research.

Katherine Center is one of my favorite authors, so I look forward to her releases every year. Hello, Stranger checked the boxes on being entertaining and keeping me up all night reading, but was it great? Unfortunately, no. This book was like confetti- sprinkled with happy parts, but all of them disjointed. It was like riding a wooden roller coaster and being jerked around left and right and just when you think things are smoothing out, NOPE! There was too much going on and the story just didn’t flow well with all the randomness. It was wrapped up waaaay too nicely with a less than satisfying explanation. The surprise twist was already in the back of my mind, but I saw NO WAY for it to actually, sensibly come together. I one hundred percent look forward to what KC writes next, but this one was just okay for me.

I always look forward to the nice escape from reality that I get when reading Katherine Center's new books. While some are more hit than others looking at you, The Bodyguard, this was more of a miss. I wasn't invested in the romace, but I appreciated learning
about prosopgonia or face blindness.

This is my second book by Katherine Center that I have read. I enjoyed this book but not as much as the Bodyguard which she released last year. I found the use of face blindness to be interesting because I had heard of it before but never fully understood what it could actually be like so it was nice to get a glimpse into that. Overall, I enjoyed the two main characters but it was a lot miscommunication which can get tiring in romance novels. This was a solid 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for me.

3.5 rounded up. A quirky shorter book about Sadie, a portrait artist that now has face blindness. She no longer can see facial features and recognize people by their face. I did enjoy learning about this condition, I don't think I have ever heard of it before. Sadie was a tad on the quirky side and I didn't agree with many of her choices, but I did enjoy the story of her navigating a portrait contest with this condition as well as her interesting developing relationship with the hotty Vet of her dog Peanut. I have read almost all of Center's novels and while I did enjoy this one, it was probably my least favorite. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance e-copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Hello Stranger is now available.

This was a delight to read! Sometimes life is really messy and stuff just piles on. And that is exactly what happens in this book. Sadie has finally caught a big break but her life is falling apart. I think the author did a great job balancing the heavy stuff with lighter moments and comical mishaps, and it gave the book an overall lighthearted vibe.

I'm not usually a big fan of miscommunication, but it worked so well in this story. Because of her face-blindness, Sadie is warned that her perception of things may be kinda off for a while. And since the story is told from Sadie's POV, we are just along for the ride as she fumbles through figuring everything out.

I really enjoyed the romance. You start out really hating the guy and slowly, slowly realize he's not what he seems. There was one thing I wish had been cleared up sooner because it's an absolute deal breaker for me. So I wasn't as invested as I could have been, but I still had a blast reading this.

3.5 stars rounded up

I have really enjoyed everything I have read from Katherine Center thus far and this one just kind of fell under the others a little bit. It was still an enjoyable read. I enjoy the good feelings I get from reading her books.

I didn't like Sadie for the majority of the book and honestly, it was because she was so slow to grow but it does happen eventually. The twist was kinda bright and flashy and easy to spot but it worked either way.

I think that she did a really good job researching and utilizing Prosopagnosia (face blindness) in this book. The way that she used it fit and was very effective.

I can't wait for the next book from Katherine Center, for that little boost of serotonin.

Thank you to St, Martin's Press and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley ,and Katherine Center for my copy of this earc in exchange for my review.

What a cute romcom the story was. I had never heard of this condition before reading the story, and it was extremely interesting to learn about. I especially liked how a CD was very real and honest about the condition and how it made her feel. I also like that the character had a lot of depth in going through the death of her mother, and how she was coping with it. I did also really enjoy the romance aspect between Sadie and Joe. I did guess around the 70% mark about the love triangle that was happening.

Some of the things that I did not enjoy in the book or some of the more cheesier moments. Like the evil stepsister evil stepmother vibe I also thought it was weird that a grown woman immediately developed this weird crush on someone she had barely even spoken to, and couldn’t even visibly see. I am a bit over the overly Corky main character girl that seems to pop up and almost all romcoms.

This was such a unique romance read. Very different from the Bodyguard last summer but still has the Katherine Center charm.

The premise of Hello Stranger sounded a little Hallmark-movie-y to me, but I'd heard great things about the author, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did! The artist/art aspect of the plot felt very fresh and exciting to me, and I loved that the main character was kind of floundering in the beginning. I tore through this, and would recommend it to anyone who loves an old-fashion romance.

I will read anything by Katherine Center. She is brilliant and writes the funniest, loveliest love stories. What a fun read!

At no point did I know where this book was going, but somehow I loved it? Sadie is a chaotic mess who also experiences some massive trauma and throughout the healing process, her life gets even more complicated. I read Hello Stranger in one sitting because I just needed to know what was going to happen next! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

Not a fan. I read Center’s The Bodyguard and thought it was okay, but this one bored me. Not a huge fan of the MMC by any means - to the point where I was also annoyed that the FMC tolerated him. Pass

I really, truly enjoy Katherine Center.

However, this one was just not for me. I struggled to get through this one and it started with the elevator scene which really was a fatphobic scene. I struggled to move past it for the rest of the novel.

Oh, how I LOVED this book! @katherinecenter delivers a heartfelt, compelling, unique, and hopeful story with some swoon-worthy romance and top-shelf supporting characters. I was hooked from the moment I started and literally couldn't put it down. I was reading on my Kindle at home but found myself pulling it up on my phone so I could read just a little more anytime I had a spare minute or two at work or while running errands.
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Sadie was a compelling main character and I enjoyed spending time with her. The way she reacted to certain situations or the way she built fantasy relationships in her head could feel immature at times, but it also felt realistic to me. I know I am guilty of reverting to childish behavior when faced with hardship. We see Sadie face challenge after challenge but she comes to realize that those challenges are helping her grow and overcoming each adversity is making her stronger. I loved getting to watch her take that journey. As someone who has been dealing with uncertainties of my own, this book basically felt like a big HUG!!
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Can we talk about Joe for a second?? I absolutely adored him and he slid very quickly into book boyfriend candidacy 🥰
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Peanut had my heart, Sue was #bffgoals, Mr. and Mrs. Kim were amazing and adorable, and Dr. Nicole was the therapist I wish I had 😀 Throw in the ending which had me grinning from ear to ear, and the gorgeous detail-filled cover, and you've got a book I heartily recommend and can't wait to add to my physical shelf!!!
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Tip: do not skip the beautiful author's note 🥰.
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Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
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#bookishthespian #hellostranger #katherinecenter #netgalleyreads #stmartinspress #bookboyfriendalert #bookboyfriend #faceblindness #mentalhealth #doglove #pinkwednesday #pink #art #bookhug #foundfamily #secretcrush #bookrecommendation #arcreader #romancereader #rollerskates