"Hello Stranger" is the perfect FUN love story! Similar to "Shallow Hal", our main character faces a life altering event that causes her to be face blind. She is left with the task of relearning how to interact with the world while not seeing people's true faces. To make matters worse, Sadie is a portrait artist, relying on her ability to see faces! Sadie is forced to learn how to ask for help in order to set things straight. She finds herself asking for help from one particular person in her building who she may or may not be falling in love with!

Review of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

I don’t do star reviews anymore, but spoiler alert. This one has five stars. I listen to the audiobook in half a day. I couldn’t stop listening for anything. I got totally absorbed in the main character and her story. It was funny, it was sweet, and I learned some thing too. I love her style of writing so much. I can never find fault in it. I loved the ending of this one beyond words, and I never saw it coming. Pun intended. I highly recommend the audiobook for this one as well.

Synopsis from Amazon:

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life―placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition―the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into―love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?―with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing..

Thank you to St. Martin’s press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Hello Stranger by Katherine Center.

I really enjoyed this book! The theme of blindness, especially in love, was so intriguing. I ended up doing some further research on the diagnosis of the main character, Sadie Montgomery, because one doesn't hear much about being "face blind." As an artist and young person, the situations she finds herself in are quite difficult and heart wrenching. I felt that Center did a fantastic job making Sadie relatable. I also appreciated mental health therapy being included at the forefront. Overall, bravo!!!! Highly recommend.

When Sadie wakes up from surgery with sudden face blindness, she finds herself needing to figure out how to navigate the world again, and how to deal with the emotional toil and career difficulties that this causes. Along the way, she also finds herself struggling to deal with family drama and torn between two love interests.

I loved this book so very much. Hello Stranger was my first Katherine Center novel, but it will certainly not be my last. I went into it knowing nothing about the plot, I chose it purely on word of mouth about how much friends had loved this author and I was not disappointed in the slightest. This was not your typical romcom, and I found it so refreshing. Sadie’s journey to finding herself again was the real heart of this story, and the romance was an adorable added bonus.

This book was so well written and I felt connected to the characters from the get go. I just loved how well this story was constructed and how everything came together at the end. No spoilers, but the ending was absolutely perfect!

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
✈️ to: Houston, TX

Hello Stranger -- centered around a portrait artist named Sadie who loses her ability to see faces after a traumatic brain injury -- easily has one of the most unique romantic comedy plots I have ever read.

I'll admit: it took me a minute to get onboard. Sadie's character was a little silly, sometime borderline ridiculous, but eventually she wore me down and I liked her. I didn't really like the evil step sister trope, but I think it was more of a plot device? The romantic interest (I'm not going to spoil who it was!) on the other hand? I loved him immediately!

If there's a word to describe this book it's serendipitous. And while I did predict (a first!) the ending/twist, I ended up really enjoying Hello Stranger. Katherine Center has got romance down!

Summer just isn't summer until I have the latest novel by Katherine Center in my hands. I can always count on this author to bring a smile to my face, make my heart beat a little bit faster, and take me on an emotional journey. Every novel that I read by her just seems to hit the mark for me. Hello Stranger was just what I was looking for. I was torn between wanting to binge-read it and wanting to take my time to savor every word.

As always, her characters just shine. From the main characters to the secondary characters, each one adds something special to the story. I adored Sadie. She tried really hard to look as though she had her life together, but she was struggling. From family issues to money problems to the health concerns of her beloved dog, Sadie’s life was anything but ideal. To make matters worse, a health crisis made her suffer from face blindness. I will admit that I had never heard of face blindness before, but I can imagine that it must be a scary feeling to not be able to see and recognize faces. It was especially frightening for Sadie because she depended on her sight to paint portraits of people, it was her livelihood, and it was jeopardizing her chances at winning a big portrait competition that could really jumpstart a lucrative career for her.

Throughout all of the issues that she was facing, she was also interested in two very different men. I do love a good love triangle, and this one was extremely well done. I couldn’t have asked for any better, really. There was great chemistry, a slow burn, plenty of witty banter, and a ton of emotion.

I’m not a reader who enjoys shedding tears while she reads, but they were running down my face faster than I could wipe them away. I just felt so much while I was reading this novel. Oh, but don’t worry, this is such a well-rounded novel, you will feel a gamut of emotions with every turn of the page. I guarantee it!

Hello Stranger was such a wonderful read. If I’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that Katherine Center is one of my all-time favorite authors. I can’t recommend her enough. This book will definitely be gracing my list of favorite books of 2023!

*5 Stars

Hello Stranger is one of those books you open just knowing that you're in for a good time. And as expected, I loved every second of it!

This book is about a portrait artist named Sadie, on the cusp of her first big break, when an accident leaves her in the hospital with sudden face blindness that doctors "hope" will subside, with the biggest art show of her life coming up in just a few weeks.

During the weeks leading up to the art show, Sadie struggles with her art due to her face blindness, but also seemingly struggles to cope in almost all other aspects of her life. And then there is her love life...Sadie develops feelings for not one, but TWO, very different men. As with all Katherine Center books, this book was about so much more than romance, but of course, the romance was fantastic and so fun to read!

I absolutely loved this book, as I do with all of Katherine Center's book! It was unique, heartwarming and entertaining, with just the right amounts of twists and drama.

I highly recommend this book and urge readers not to skip the author’s note at the end! I love how Katherine Centre dives into the joy we get when we read romance novels and how she challenges some common perceptions of the genre, and so much more in this note.

Thank you to the author, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the E-Arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have had this book sitting on my Netgalley shelf for a while and I finally read it and was a little mad at myself for waiting so long. The only other Katherine Center book I have read was The Bodyguard and I really enjoyed it. This was no different.

Sadie is a struggling portrait artist, she is a finalist in a portrait competition and has 6 weeks to produce a portrait for the competition. This is her big break. But, after a health scare, she has to have a brain surgery. The brain surgery leaves her with prosopagnosia, which is face blindness. How can Sadie paint portraits if she can't see faces?

On top of that her evil-step sister has just moved into her building to torture her. Her beloved elderly dog has a health scare and she can't recognize the faces of any of her friends and family.

Sadie does have some positive things, her vet is incredibly attractive and wants to take her on a date, and a man from her building, Joe, comes to her rescue more than once. Even though she can't see their faces, she is quite attracted to both men.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked Sadie's journey through the book, she really had so many things stacked against her and really struggle with admitting that she needed help or even relying on anyone else. She had to learn through the process to trust herself and ask for help and be willing to accept it.

I loved Joe. His character was so sweet and I really liked the friendship that developed between him and Sadie. He really was someone who loved to help others and I loved that aspect of his personality.

There was a twist in this book, I did see the twist coming before it was revealed but I still enjoyed it. Overall this was a super quick and fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was hovering over my rating for a bit but then I got to the author’s notes. I loved Katherine Center’s take on romance stories and the anticipation - as opposed to predictability, which is a term I’ve possibly overused in romance reviews. This was such a hopeful and joyous story that I had to give it a good rating!

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist who's been selected as a finalist in a local competition and she couldn't be more excited. But a freak accident, a neurological diagnosis, and immediate surgery leave her with a condition called "face blindness." She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features.

Sadie struggles to cope with her new condition but with the support of her best friend, a compassionate therapist, and the disarming tenant down the hall, Sadie slowly develops the confidence to face her fears and her new reality.

The reveal is not surprising, but the anticipation and the journey are delightful. And the ending maintained the warm, hopeful feeling without being perfect.

Premise: Sadie is a struggling portrait artist who has a medical emergency and wakes up with face blindness. How can a portrait artist work when she can’t see faces? To make matters worse she has the most important portrait of her life due in 6 weeks for a prestigious competition. A competition her mother never got to complete as she died just weeks before the deadline of the same medical condition Sadie suffers from.
I am enjoyed this book and it makes for a quick read. Some initial thoughts:
1. Marketed as a romance this is more of a women’s fiction that has some light romance, rather than a standard romance novel. If you have only ever read this author’s last book The Bodyguard do not expect the same experience.
2. While I am enjoying this read I find it hard to relate to the main character. She doesn’t have many redeeming qualities and her constant whining about her situation becomes redundant.
3. My favorite character so far is Peanut, the lovable Thai food eating dog.
4. Yes, there is a love triangle but the characters spend more time rescuing and helping Sadie through yet another crisis than actually forming a relationship.
5. While the face blindness aspect is unique and initially intrigued me, I found it hard to relate to the situation on an emotional level.

Overall this is a solid read that I know will be a hit with most readers. I am enjoyed my experience even though this story is not what I expected. Thank you to Katherine Center and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Center has done it again! Her new novel Hello Stranger was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 and I’m thrilled to share that it not only met my very high expectations, but it actually exceeded them.

Hello Stranger follows the protagonist Sadie Montgomery. Sadie is a gifted portrait artist and when we meet her, she has just placed as a finalist in a prestigious portrait painting competition. She is beyond ecstatic until she is quite literally blindsided by a life changing event and finds herself in the hospital diagnosed with “face blindness.” The doctors hope her condition is temporary, but there’s no way of knowing how long it will last. If Sadie’s career involves painting faces for a living, how is she supposed to do her job and how is she supposed to paint her competition entries. Needless to say, Sadie is distraught.

What always draws me to Center’s books is how strong her heroines are in the face of adversity. No matter how big of an obstacle they face, there’s always a sense of perseverance and hopefulness and we see this with Sadie as she sets out to cope with her situation and try everything in her power to get those portraits painted. I’m not very familiar with face blindness, but I thought Center did a wonderful job of handling the condition with respect and sensitivity, while at the same time, infusing Sadie’s journey with her signature warmth and humor.

Another area where I really appreciated Center’s humor revolved around Sadie’s complicated relationship with her father, her stepmother and her evil stepsister, Parker. There’s a nice balance between dramatic moments and humorous ones as Sadie interacts with them, especially Parker, who loves to torment Sadie on a regular basis anyway, but being able to prank her without being recognized is just too irresistible for her.

While much of the story focuses on Sadie’s journey as she copes with face blindness, there is also a romantic element. Even though Sadie cannot see their faces, she finds herself attracted to two very different men she encounters while looking for distractions from her situation. One is her new neighbor, an obnoxious yet endearing guy named Joe, and the other is the veterinarian who saved her beloved dog, Peanut’s, life. The timing is of course terrible because she has more important things to worry about than her love life, but she cannot deny that she’s attracted to both men. I loved watching Sadie navigate her way through this love triangle she didn’t expect to find herself in and was more than satisfied with how this aspect of the story plays out.

Filled with relatable and realistic characters, witty dialogue and a storyline that is both heartwarming and humorous, Katherine Center has another winner on her hands with Hello Stranger. It’s easily one of my favorite reads of the year so far.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Sadie Montgomery never expected to lose one of the most significant assets to her life and livelihood, the ability to see faces, but it was all gone in the blink of an eye. She should be celebrating placing as a finalist in a prestigious portrait painting competition but instead, she's recovering from brain surgery. Upon waking from surgery, she was shocked to discover that every single face she could see, including her own, consisted of a jumbled mess of facial puzzle pieces. She tries to hold on to her dream of winning the competition but she can't paint, let alone see, her model's face anymore. As she feels her hope slipping away, she meets two handsome men (at least she thinks they are handsome) who she can't stop thinking about. At the same time, her constant family drama seems to be at a high. Can Sadie find a way to cope with her new normal and maybe even thrive?

I enjoyed this story but it did take a bit for me to get hooked. I kept setting it down and coming back to it but once I got more into it, I wanted to find out what happens. I found a few parts of the story to be a little less than believable but I will say that this was a fun and cute read. This story is definitely different and I appreciated that it's not like most other romances I've read. Overall, I think this is a great beach read with a unique storyline.

Sadie really wants to stand on her own two feet. But, she is having some terrible difficulties. She thinks her life is looking up. She has been selected as a finalist in a major art portrait competition. Then she wakes up in the hospital with a major brain abnormality. She has to have brain surgery. And this leaves her with face blindness. No way can she compete if she cannot see faces!

This book has some of the best characters (as do all her books)! Sadie has flaws but she is struggling to do her best. Life just keeps knocking her down. Then there is her sweet 14 year old dog named Peanut. Enter veterinarian, Dr. Oliver Addison. He is a good-looking guy that goes out of his way to help Sadie. But, as you can guess, there is a little bit of confusion in places!

I have been a fan of this author since I read my very first book. And I love this one just as much as How To Walk Away! This author can just transport me into her stories and keep me there.

This book is more than just a romance. It is a story about strength and courage. Sadie’s perseverance is amazing. And the research that went into this affliction is incredible. Katherine Center has done it again!

Need an adorable story to get you through the day….THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

If you’re a fan of Katherine Center, you’ll be a fan of Hello Stranger, for sure. It is a perfectly sweet yet predictable story that didn’t exactly keep me guessing while simultaneously kept me intrigued and wanting to read more. I felt as though there was a lot happening…face blindness, family, friends (Sue’s departure bothered me way more than it should have, what a strange storyline), job…but it didn’t seem to connect like it could have. The main character Sadie was likable, while at the same time kind of obnoxious and she wasn’t the FMC I wanted to cheer on as I read. All around a cute story, a quick read, and one KC fans will love, but the storyline just was not for me. Thank you Net Galley & St. Martin’s Press for the advanced digital copy of this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hello Stranger
By: Katherine Center Pub Date: 7/11/23
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Sadie Montgomery is a portrait painter just like her mom was. Unfortunately her mom passed when she was 14 and her father isn’t supportive of her career. He wanted her to be a doctor like him. They are estranged now.
Sadie has entered the same contest her mom placed in years ago and she too was selected as one of the finalists. With just 6 weeks to prepare, she’s feeling the pressure.
When she falls and has a seizure things get serious quickly.
When she wakes up at the hospital to her wicked stepmother Lucinda she knows things are bad. She needs surgery and for the first time her father comes to her tells her she needs to do the surgery right away and confesses the condition is hereditary and her mom put off her surgery and died before it could be fixed.
Only when she wakes up she doesn’t recognize her best friend Sue's face. She is a portrait painter who can't see peoples faces. Everybody looks like a stranger to her. She worries about Peanut’s face the most, her 14 year old dog her mom rescued. But when she finally works up the courage to go get him from the border, everything is normal with Peanut. Until she begins to notice that he’s not moving like he should, nor eating and drinking. She rushes him down the street to the emergency vet. Where is she meets Dr. Oliver Addison, who she knows is good looking without seeing his face.
Because of her condition she needs extra help, her neighbor Joe enters the fold and now she has 2 men in her life. But maybe she’s “seeing” things she never had before.

I really loved this book. Katherine Center has become one of my favorite romance authors. Her characters are always fun to learn about. This was definitely the feel good romance I needed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! This is my first t Center novel, even though I’ve had two others on my TBR for some time. This was a cute, quick read with a premise I hadn’t really encountered before - face blindness. I really enjoyed this until about 2/3 of the way through. I started to get a little confused (which I realized by the end may have been due to pieces of the story being moved around in editing - hopefully to be corrected before publication!) and frustrated when I realized what was going on. I wanted Sadie to get there faster at the same time as me! All in all, this was a cute book and I’m going to eventually get to the author’s books on my TBR.

I received an advance reader copy of this book.

God. Why was this so cute? This was my first Katherine Center book and definitely won't be my last. Finished in one cozy summer evening and couldn't stop.

Sadie is a portrait artist who gets brain surgery and ends up with face blindness right as she's supposed to be producing her best portrait for a competition. As she's navigating her condition, family drama, and the art world, she ends up in a love triangle with a guy in her building and her dog's vet.

Can't say much else without spoiling the whole thing but ugh it was so fun.

If you’re in the mood for a happy, feel-good read, look no further. I had a hard time wiping the grin off my face for the majority of this latest Katherine Center novel which I couldn’t put down.
The story follows portrait artist Sadie Montgomery who finds herself in a bit of a pickle when as she finally gets her big break, she winds up in an accident and an eventual surgery leaving her with “probably temporary” facial blindness — not the thing you need as a facial portrait artist! Everyone appears as a face full of puzzle pieces, including the two very different men she starts to fall for, despite not seeing them clearly. It becomes clear things may not always be as they appear — blurry or not.
This was such a fun, refreshing romcom that left me frequently laughing and unable to put the book down.
Thank you to St Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This comes out 7/11.

I have some mixed feelings..

Overall, I enjoyed it!! Definitely an interesting story but I was not a fan of the MC. Part of me understands that she was going through a rough time & to cut her some slack, but another part of me thinks she’s rude & a debbie downer

Although this one did start out rather slow for me, I really loved that last 30% and that made up for the not so great start.

A portrait artist struggles with “probably temporary” face blindness after an accident, in Katherine Center’s heartwarming and funny, HELLO STRANGER.

After celebrating her most significant accomplishment to date (placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition), Sadie Montgomery undergoes emergency brain surgery and wakes up without the ability to see faces clearly. As a portrait artist on the cusp of her big break, this more than dampens her prospects. Intent to figure a way through, and with the help of her best friend, Sue, and her beloved dog, Peanut, Sadie starts to paint again… sort of. Along the way, she begins to fall for two very different men—her neighbor Joe (with his telltale bowling jacket), and hunky veterinarian Dr. Addison. All this couldn’t happen at a worse time, though, as her whole life spirals into a jumbled mess she can’t seem to decipher. And as the days tick by, will she be able to deliver an entry to the competition that could change it all for her?

Center (THE BODYGUARD) delivers an endearing story about hope, love, and found family. While it’s somewhat easy to predict the direction of the narrative, and despite questioning the reality of some scenarios, this was a charming escape. Funny and sweet, HELLO STRANGER is a warm, feel-good type of story. Center also clearly did her research on Prosopagnosia (face blindness), helping to shed light on this difficult condition.
If you’re looking for a heartwarming one-weekend binge, this is a great book to pick up.