This book reminds me of why I'm such a KC fan! I loved the plot of this one, and I loved Sadie and Joe! It seemed that Sadie was always met with something to knock her down, family, illness, and denials, but she never let it stop her! This friends to lovers romance had so much more than romance. It has a great story with a twist in there. When I got to the twist of the story, it was like turning on a light switch. That light switch plastered a permanent smile on my face for the remainder of the book! I had a ball of emotions with this one, sad, happy, mad, funny, and giddy! I can not forget about Peanut, Sadie's adorable little pup baby! Y'all know I'm a dog lover, so that just added more to the story for me to see how much she loved her fur baby!

Houston-based Sadie Montgomery is a portraitist who has struggled for years to earn a living. She is thrilled to be a finalist in an art contest that will award a ten thousand dollar prize to the winner. In the coming weeks, she hopes to paint a portrait that will captivate the judges. Sadie is dismayed, therefore, when a medical issue arises that sidelines her. After undergoing surgery, she develops a supposedly temporary side effect— prosopagnosia—an inability to recognize people's faces. For someone in her line of work, this is disastrous. Adding to her woes, her dog has been sick, her nasty stepsister delights in bullying her, and Sadie develops feelings for two men at the same time.

Katherine Center's "Hello Stranger" is a breezy and farcical tale with heart, warmth, and humor. Readers will relate to the hard-luck heroine, who mourns her late mother and is desperate to prove that she can succeed on her own. She stumbles along, waiting for her big break and trying to survive on the pittance she earns. This romantic comedy has its share of flaws. Center's secondary characters are stereotypes: the loyal best friend; pushy stepmother; creepy stepsister, and judgmental father. In addition, some of the scenes are sentimental and far-fetched, but the author gives the story a boost with her talent for writing amusing and touching dialogue.

The surprise ending will shock no one, since the big reveal is telegraphed long before it occurs. Nevertheless, it is fun to watch Sadie trying to extract herself from one awkward situation after another. Furthermore, with the contest deadline looming, the heroine is frantically trying to create a portrait of a face that she cannot see, a challenging task that seems destined to fail. On a more upbeat note, with the help of a counselor, Sadie is attempting to improve her negative attitude that, thus far, has kept her from moving on with her life. We feel a connection to Sadie, who learns the hard way that needing help and feeling vulnerable are nothing to be ashamed of. After all, relying on others when necessary is an essential part of being human.

6 stars!!!!!!

I loved this book SOO MUCH!!!

Sadie is an artist trying to make it in the business when she suffers a seizure that reveals the need for brain surgery. Unfortunately, the swelling post-surgery has left her with a condition known as face blindness. This is a REAL problem for a portrait artist! A portrait artist who's just become a finalist in a very big art competition that requires her to paint...a face! To top it all off, she's falling for two different men, but can't see their faces...at all! Can she win the competition? Will she wind up with one of her men? The answers...like the story...are ridiculously fun!

This book is FULL of heart. We see Sadie navigate a world that's not serving her particularly well, learning valuable lessons along the way. She's been dealt a bad hand that just keeps getting worse. But the people in Sadie's life make it better. Her best friend Sue, her dog peanut, the men in her life, and Sadie's new psychologist help her see humanity in even the toughest-to-like people. There's a super villain here in Sadie's stepsister. There are challenging family dynamics as well. And Sadie's struggling to hold on to her dream of being an artist because it's not paying the bills, and now she can't even see the subjects of her paintings!

This might sound sad or dark, but it isn't. I laughed until I cried multiple times! I swooned. The plot had a hint of spice, and it felt absolutely right. The cinnamon roll heroes Sadie finds herself with were perfection. I wound up highlighting a lot of the sage wisdom passed to Sadie from her psychologist because it was so life-affirming. It made me see life in a different way, which I LOVED. And I had a great deal of fun while reading this! Even the author's note about the value of romance novels was compelling. (Don't skip it if you read this book!) I'd never read Katherine Center before, and now I can't wait to read more!

Trigger warnings include: seizures, brain surgery, brain-related complications, death of a mother (before story begins), ill elderly dog (who is fine in the end), bullying, attempted suicide (before story begins)

I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

HAPPY PUB DAY TO KATHERINE CENTER AND HELLO, STRANGER!

Sadie Montgomery has just learned that she will be a finalist for the North American Portrait Society competition, the same competition her mom was supposed to compete in before her untimely death. After a near miss reveals a need for brain surgery, Sadie wakes up after the surgery to discover she has “probably temporary” face blindness: she can see the individual aspects of a person’s face, but they are a jumbled mess. Sadie struggles through the next few weeks, trying to figure out how to paint a portrait when she can’t see faces, while also dealing with family drama; taking care of Peanut, her treasured dog; and trying to keep others from knowing about her condition.

Another fantastic read from Katherine Center! This book is like a warm hug from a loved one – you may see what is coming before the main character does, but you will still get all the warm, happy feelings as you go through the story. I stayed up past midnight to finish this story. If you like feel-good women’s fiction, don’t miss <i>Hello, Stranger</i>! I can’t wait to hear what Center has to say about this book when her book tour stops in Indiana later this month.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

5 Stars!
I'm not sure how Katherine Center does it. I have a few must-read authors, but I can’t say that I've loved every one of their books. It’s reasonable that a reader won’t resonate with every book by a favorite author. The thing is, I've yet to be disappointed by one of KC's stories. I simply connect with her style of writing with its breathtaking mix of poignancy, wit, and romance.

Hello Stranger has a creative premise and with careful research, the author fashioned another unique heroine with Sadie's altered vision after a traumatic accident. The heroine navigates a painful past, the interest of possibly two different men, and her family's unrealistic expectations.

My attention was snagged from the very beginning and never waned. With Sadie's inability to recognize faces, I got to see what she didn't and enjoy the untangling of her misconceptions. As with every Katherine Center book before this one, I felt joy throughout my reading and it was irrepressible by the end.

Notes on the audiobook:
The audio presentation was excellent. I can usually tell when reading would be a better experience than listening. Aside from simply liking the narrator's voice, I also have to agree with the narrator’s interpretation of the material. I know that I’ve listened to Patti Murin before, but now I’ll be sure to check her library of work for more great listens. Her voice(s) suited the material perfectly with smart cadence, diction, and expression.

Happy Pub Day to Katherine Center and Hello Stranger! Pub Day 7/11

I'm a fan of Katherine Center. She is known for writing solid romances with fun storylines full of comfort and hope. Yet she always introduces the unexpected into what is typically a highly predictable genre. In this case it's a struggling artist with a strange side effect from an injury, a couple (??) of possible love interests, and the cutest sidekick of a dog I've seen in a while.

What I love about this book is the way Center works in an interesting and relatively unknown medical condition that forces our artist to approach work and life in a different way and to learn that it is ok to let others help you. I found the family dynamics to be over the top and the conclusion a bit farfetched, but it was still a fun and fast read. Maybe not my favorite Katherine Center book, but I'll still be first in line when her next book is released.

Note: The author's note starts as a reference to her sources for the research on the medical condition and continues into her love letter to romance books and the romance genre. It is well worth your time.

I both read and listened to this book. I enjoyed Patti Murin's narration of the book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, MacMillan Audio, and Net Galley for the Advanced Reader's and Advanced Listener's copies of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

Do you ever read something and just think that you will never be able to find another book you love just as much? This is it for me. This is my favorite read of the year, hands down. It was such a wonderful, crazy, jaw dropping, frustrating, happy and emotional book. I guess that’s a lot of adjectives to use when I can just say it was simply a beautiful story. I actually screamed when I figured out the “puzzle” in the story before Sadie. And then the twist on top of the twist! I knew the first connection, but the third threw me for a loop! (This sounds cryptic, but just don’t want to spoil anything.) Katherine Center, I am forever a fan now. Thank you for putting this story into the world. I will never not be thinking about this book.

I’m a big Katherine Center fan and have read many of her books. In this one, the main character - a portrait artist - has a brain surgery and acquires facial blindness. Clearly as she is a portrait artist, this throws her life askew.

I appreciated the chance to learn about facial blindness. I feel that this story didn’t capture me the way her books normally do. Still an enjoyable read, but doesn’t top her others for me. However, it shares similar things to most of her books, finding love and finding your own happiness. My favorite of hers remains How to Walk Away.

I love Katherine Center! This book did not disappoint. As always her characters were sweet, thoughtful, quirky and taught a good life lesson.

I don’t usually love the miscommunication trope but the MMC was so sweet that it worked. I did spend most of the book wanting to slap Sadie and tell her to just suck it up and admit that she was struggling. The book did have a nicely tied up ending and for that I was happy overall.

*The step-sister was def a sociopath, but that added an interesting twist as well.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

Hello Stranger is very different from the author's summertime release from last year: The Bodyguard. For much of the book, I found myself feeling like maybe this wasn't my type of book, even though I had highly enjoyed The Bodyguard. However, the final 20% or so of the book is pure joy. I absolutely loved how every seemingly small or irrelevant interaction that Sadie had throughout the book came full circle by the ending. Once the threads started pulling together, the anticipation of seeing the full picture started finally building for me. The thread tying back to Sadie's favorite pink dress actually brought me to tears with its resolution. It's a sweet, summery, joyful read, and if you don't connect with it at first, I'd urge you to give it a further chance, you might just find the joy in it too.

This book was a really quick and cute read! I'd not read anything from this author before and found this to be a really easy, light-hearted romcom. It is close door (which I wasn't aware of), but I enjoy those on occasion and thought the banter between the characters made for some great chemistry!

The characters were really fun in this and I thought the face blindness was fascinating! I found the condition was written well so the reader can really understand what she's going through, and it worked great as a plot devise to force the FMC to grow as an artist. I enjoyed Joe as a MMC and he was a nice cinnamon roll of a character. I do wish the characters had a little more depth as I didn't find myself connecting with them in a deep way and I did find some of the side characters to be a bit one dimensional, especially within her step-mom and sister.

I feel like there could have been a little more development in the relationship, as it felt like there wasn't a ton of interaction before the L word was thrown around, but overall they were really cute together. I just wanted a *little* more from them.

Overall, this was a cute, easy to read romcom. I didn't *love* it, but it was a really quick read and had me smiling and chuckling to myself a bit. I recommend for anyone who wants a nice lighthearted summer read!

Spoiler:

I'm a bit confused about if the twist at the end with the two being the same person was supposed to be a surprise. I was under the impression from the description that we knew they were one in the same (and also the Good Samaritan) and felt the author made it clear in describing how the face blindness could affect her that this was the case, but in thinking back to the “reveal” and in looking at other reviews, it seems like it was not obvious to others? I thought the author set it up to have the readers be “in the know”, but if that's not the case, then I'm slightly disappointed as I think the author could have made it not as obvious (and fixed the description as that's what led me to believe they were the same guy right away). It was still a fun read, but a very obvious plot twist if that's the case.

A moment of lemons leads to a lemonade she never expected

Our main character has a harsh reality check when she suddenly loses the ability to distinguish and recognize faces due to a sudden medical issue. Having her life uprooted and her career taking quite the hit she has to adjust to her situation and has to reluctantly ask for help. With the help of her neighbour and the local vet who saves her beloved dog she quickly finds not one but two men who become important parts of her life and adding to confusion when they start to make an impression on her, sight unseen. It's at this point that taking the physical and visual out of the equation makes her notice things about both of them that would never have stumbled on otherwise.
A wonderful read that moat likely will have you reexamining how shallow our society can be and that being blind in love might just be what we really need.
Thanks Netgalley for the chance to read this book and give my honest opinion.

Hello Stranger is now my favorite book by Katherine Center! So witty and enjoyable. This book will make you appreciate what you have and make the best out of life. I loved the message the author was sending us readers through a fiction story. This was an incredible five star read for me!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me the arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book is aggressively adorable. And I mean that in the best possible way. Is it predictable? Of course. It’s a romance (adjacent), so naturally you expect to fall in love, encounter an issue/ fight, then get an HEA. I knew what was happening all the way through (why else would EVERYONE use different nicknames for people), but I still loved it. I thought Sadie was relatable and likable. I nearly cried (a supreme rarity for me) when she described her traditions for her mom’s birthday. A great lighthearted read when you need to feel happy or believe in love.

What is it about Katherine Center's books that makes me want to stay up all night reading?

I enjoyed Hello Stranger much more than The Bodyguard, I think in part because the plot is less focused on the love interest. I still find Center's characters kinda unlikable and hard-ish to root for. I can forgive a lot, but feeding your elderly dog a diet of 90% carbs is gonna make me hate you.

It took me until I was halfway through the novel to figure out the truth about the "blubber" phone call, which is pretty good for the mystery/twist aspect. Or I'm a little stupid, jury's still out.

I was disappointed that Sadie wasn't called out for being friends with a guy who she thought was fat shaming his one night stands and posting nonconsensual pics of them to reddit or some other internet hellscape for likes. I wish I could say it was unrealistic for her to ignore the misogyny in the rose tinted fog of a crush, but......well, we've been there. But we learned and we are ashamed now! It would have been nice if Joe had a throwaway line like "Wait you thought I did that stuff and you were still FRIENDS with me?" I think a lot of young women ignore when a man who treats them well treats other women badly and I would have liked it this book had dug into that more.

4/5 stars for me overall. Thanks for the ARC!

Katherine Center never disappoints. While parts of Hello Stranger were predictable, I found the characters absolutely lovable. (Except awful stepsister Parker...she was a hard pill to swallow, but written perfectly.) I learned new things about face blindness and felt the way Sadie described it helped me to walk in her shoes throughout the story. While Sadie was not the strong female Iead I often adore, she did grow at the end, which redeemed her character. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced digital copy.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the digital arc. I really enjoyed this book. It was beautiful and showed a different way of seeing life. I will say that it was predictable but many romances are.

In true Katherine Center form this book captured my heart and left me feeling some kind of way.

Life has not been especially kind to Sadie; however, she's finally turning over a new leaf when she is selected as a finalist for an art contest she's been working really hard for.

Except an extenuating medical circumstance happens that uncovers parts of her past she was completely oblivious to. Not only that, but she is left with allegedly temporary face-blindness and she has no way of knowing how "temporary" this condition is.

To complicate matters her step-mom and step-sister are back in her life, a very much unwelcome reunion of sorts.

In the meantime she seems to be falling in love with someone, except, can you really fall in love with someone if you don't know what their face looks like?

This book felt like a butterfly kiss. It was sooo good and despite the difficult topics it covered it was still very light. I know when my long-COVID was at its worst, I had a really hard time accessing my visual memory and I would forget people's faces 5 minutes after meeting them. While this is not the exact same thing as face-blindness, I can understand a small fraction of the frustration in not remembering what someone looks like and the mental toll that takes on someone. Katherine Center is just a phenomenal writer in shedding light on real conditions while celebrating love and the human condition at the same time. Highly recommend!!

Thank you @netgalley @St. Martin's Press for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review!

Without fail, I read every book that Katherine Center writes, always counting on her emotionally complex characters and a plot arc leading to personal triumph through difficulty. Her novels are brave, funny, and earnestly charming, and her new one, Hello Stranger, proved to be all of the above.

Meet Sadie Montgomery, a down-on-her-luck portrait artist who receives the professional break of a lifetime — only to have an emergency surgery complicate everything. She's tenatious and determined to remain self-sufficient, until she realizes the impossibility of it all with her new condition. Slowly, she begins letting people into her life: her new veterinarian, a friendly neighbor, even "complicated" family members. Through it all, she learns how to grieve and that she doesn't have to do it on her own after all.

The pages are filled with scenes that will make your heart lurch and swoon, twist and drop. It's perfect for an escapist weekend afternoon read in your hammock.

This book is for anyone who loves:
😀 😢 Laughing and crying (or feeling like crying) in equal measure
📚 Feel-good comfort reads
🚪 Closed-door romance
🐶 Dogs and vespas and men in bowling jackets (IYKYK)
🎨 Portrait sessions with Ghost-pottery-wheel vibes
💕 A clever twist on the amnesia and love triangle tropes
💊 Mental health visibility
👑 A satisfying happily-ever-after

Note: As a trigger warning, please be aware that this text has a storyline that includes a health emergency and resulting complications (prosopagnosia), toxic family dynamics and an off-page death of a parent.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me the chance to read and provide an honest review of this book! I've posted this review on GoodReads and across my social platforms, as well as Amazon and B&N listings.

Hello Stranger was such a fun, unique, and sweet story. I love when you are so absorbed in a story and the characters yet you are learning something at the same time. Sadie Montgomery was finally getting her big break, things were finally looking up. As a portrait artist she was a finalist in a big completion that was going to give her career and her bank account the boost she so desperately needed. With a night of celebration ahead she is off to acquire some cheap wine when she wakes up in the hospital with a condition that is about to change here life. After surgery she has developed a condition known as "face blindness". Her eye sight is fine but her brain jumbles up the facial features making them impossible for her to identify. Needless to say with only a few weeks before her portrait needs to be completed Sadie is struggling.

Everything in her life seems to fall apart at the same time. Her precious buddy Peanut, her furry dog friend gets sick which brings her to the local vet office and enters her new obsession and future husband of her fantasies Dr. Oliver Addison. Not a great time to meet your dream man when you can't see his face and your life resembles a dumpster fire but what can you do.

Life in her apartment building is a never ending source of struggle, drama, and a cute neighbor Joe, who she may have perceived all wrong. Somehow Joe keeps showing up right when she needs someone. I love in the book it said something along the lines that, "we see what we believe", meaning if we made up our minds about something even if there is evidence against it we may struggle to change our minds.

With two new guys she is fawning over, a portrait to paint, a dog to get well, and family drama to navigate her plate is full.

The romance was so sweet and the character growth in Sadie learning that it was okay to need someone and ask for help got me right in the feels. It seemed like the author really did her research on "face blindness" and it was represented well although I don't have personal experience with this.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Hello Stranger in exchange for my honest review