I ADORED this book. Maybe a little cheesy but just overall delightful!! I didn’t see the twists coming at the end but they were perfect. I think this would make an excellent movie.

This is a story of being on top of the world, finally getting your big break, and then it seems like in an instant you receive devastating news, that changes everything. That is what has happened to Sadie Montgomery. She has had to pick herself up several times before, and she has to do it again.
As she does, there are things she can't see, because she has facial blindness, but she keeps moving forward, and her friend Sue sends her an article where an artist taught herself to paint differently. Sadie thinks about her focus on painting before the facial blindness, and through that she came up with ideas of what her focus as a painter will need to be now.
She meets two men, Joe and Oliver, that makes for an interesting part of the story. When her evil stepsister moves in next door and tries to torment her at every turn, she has been distant from her father and her stepmother for a long time. But, you know, the life she has had hasn't soured her, She sees how she has changed, sometimes you have to change the way you look at things, and the book ends with, the more good things you look for, the more you will find.
I received an ARC from St Martin's Press.

Sadie, a portrait artist is about to get her big break and hopes to win an upcoming contest. That is until surgery leaves her with face blindness. How can an artist paint a portrait if she can't see faces?

Face blindness isn't really something I knew a lot about. I was very interested in the descriptions and felt I have a much better understanding of what people with face blindness actually do see.

Sadie's quest to get her face vision back and the people she meets along the way make for a great story. I knew going into a Katherine Center book that it would be good but this far exceeded my expectations.

Loads of quirky characters and humorous situations kept the book flowing quickly. Although I knew the "twist" was coming I still enjoyed the ride.

Thanks to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the arc.

Sadie has spent the last few years of her life being her own biggest cheerleader. Cast aside by what's left of her family, Sadie has surrounded herself with a small group of friends and her beloved dog, Peanut, and now after years of working on her art, she has been named a finalist in a national portrait competition. One minute everything feels like she's about to get everything she's ever wanted, the next Sadie wakes up in a hospital room with no memory of why she's there. Diagnosed with a rare brain disorder, Sadie is now facing the biggest challenge of her life - how does a portrait artist work when every face they see is a jumbled puzzle? Now Sadie must figure out how to live her life with face-blindness in order to not give up on the only dream she has ever had. I really enjoy the stories that Katherine Center tells. She has such a great way of helping her readers see perspective on life while giving us a heartwarming story mixed in. Though the concept is fairly predictable and I had it all sussed out mid-way through it in no way held me back from enjoying Sadie's story. Be sure to add "Hello Stranger" to your summer TBD list.

I’m rounding this up to 4.5. It was a slow start to begin with, but once it picked up I was hooked. I felt connected to Sadie on various levels, and she had me in tears a few times. I loved her journey in this book and how Joe played a huge role. Katherine Center has yet to disappoint me. I cannot wait to own my own copy

🌺 Hello Stranger
by Katherine Center

Release Date: July 11, 2023

Read if you like....

👨‍👩‍👧 Family drama
❤️ Romance
🎨 Art

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sadie Montgomery's big break in her art career is about to happen when she becomes a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. Only problem is...she wakes up in the hospital with a hopefully temporary condition known as face blindness.

To make matters more confusing, she's falling for two different men.

This was a very unique romance. I thought it was fun and enjoyable. If you're looking for something out of the box and light, give this one a try. 3.5 stars

I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down. The characters were so real and authentic - I laughed, cried, and was angry with Sadie's family on her behalf. I fell in love with "Joe" and I felt hope and fear. I was sad when the story ended because I wanted more of Sadie's journey. Compelling and well-written story Highly recommend!!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoy Katherine Center's books and this is an engaging read. Sadie is left with a case of face blindness after an accident. This leads to some complicated love interests. The romance felt like a bit of a side plot to me because I found myself very caught up in exploring how someone would live with such a challenging condition (Center writes about these topics very well in her books). I have never read a story dealing with facial blindness and it was so interesting. There are so many emotions caught up in this storyline and I think it will appeal to a wide variety of readers! Thank you to Katherine Center, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. There were moments that made me laugh, rage, and cry. Sadie was really interesting a lead character. This major, potentially life changing thing happens just when she’s about to get her big break in the art world and the story centres on how she navigates through dealing with this event and the faces she ‘meets’ along the way. Sadie was a bit standoffish and determined to manage things on even when she clearly needed help and support.

Throughout the story, KC did a good job of showing that despite the bouts of prickliness Sadie had a good heart, and was just a little lost and trying to find and hold onto something good and real. As her backstory unfolds and you get more of the details of her family life and loss you come to understand her need to rely on herself and cover up the vulnerabilities more. Sadie’s whole situation with her family made me so angry and sad on her behalf, Parker was the devil incarnate and Sadie’s dad was the worst. Personally I did not love the resolution of that part (mostly because her dad’s failure to turn up in the past and present until he was forced to was unforgivable to me) but I can see why it worked for the character.

As for the romance, I usually hate triangles with a fiery vengence but the Joe-Sadie-Dr A one was well handled. I really enjoyed Sadie’s interactions with both her love interests 🤭. There was great chemistry between all sides of the triangle and how it was resolved was unexpected and perfect. Really enjoyable leads and supporting characters and and fully engaging story. 4.5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an arc of Hello Stranger.

After having brain surgery, Sadie suffers from face blindness. She then has to figure out how to not only creat her portrait for an art contest, but also how to go about life with her new vision.

The concept of this book is appealing and very unique. Makes it stand out from others. There’s something about it I didn’t love and I can’t quite figure out what it is.

The plot twist!! This book was so so good! Make sure you read it when it comes out! Loved every single character and didn’t see the twist coming

Sadie is a struggling artist who just wants to do what she loves and be successful enough to support herself. After years of hard work, it seems like she's on the right track when she places as a top-ten finalist in a portrait competition. On the eve of the celebration of this event, she has a near-death incident, landing her in the hospital and ultimately discovering she has a chronic brain condition that needs operating on soon. After the operation, she succumbs to one of the rare side-effects; face blindness - where she can see parts of a face upon concentration, but not the whole. Now as a portrait artist she must re-learn her art and work without seeing faces, and in her personal life she deals with not knowing on a daily basis who is new or already known to her and having to rediscover that with each person she interacts with. Of course, during this traumatic part of her life, it appears she's presented with two suitors whom are both great in their own ways and she is interested in both. Now she must work through her feelings with these men, on top of acclimating to her life! Ultimately, she makes a decision between the men, but it doesn't go the way she imagined.

This book had me hooked right away. The writing and dialogue is so easy and engaging, I loved the characters, and the weirdness of Sadie (think quirky artist type, and so lovable). I loved Dr. Thomas-Ramparsad and all of her mental health positivity and support - some of her lines were my favorites of the book. I also feel kind of duped - I fell for this book, and I swear I was paying attention, but there were a couple of reveals at the end that I didn't see coming that maybe I should have. Or maybe KC is that good of a writer - I don't know, this is my first KC book, but it won't be my last, and I will definitely recommend this book.

I went in blind when I read this and was floored at how good this book was. The plot was unique and addicting, I couldn't stop turning the page. The romance was SO CUTE OMG. I absolutely would say this book is one I will reread and annotate.

I wish I could say more about the plot but this is one you want to go into blind, it makes it so much more enjoyable.

Funny, sad, everything!

Before reading this, I had heard of face blindness, but not in detail. The author has done a great job of explaining the syndrome and also the emotional counterparts, almost felt like she had first hand experience.

Sadie was struggling but excited to be selected as a portrait artist finalist. She lost her Mom young, but she keeps her memories alive by painting and wearing her favorite dress. When she has a freak accident, a problem is discovered and she has brain surgery. Face blindness was a post-surgical condition, hard for a portrait artist.

While living along with Sadie, I couldn’t help but imagine just how difficult it is for people who suffer with this. Sure, this was fictional and for entertainment purposes, so many of the situations Sadie wound up in are treated humorously, keeping the story light-hearted . The moral of the story to me is that although letting people see you, with all your flaws, can actually be a great thing.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

4⭐️—Having read a few KC books, her writing style is so familiar and I like that she gives us an escape when we read her books. They’re fun, light-hearted, filled with emotion but I also learn something new every time!

Sadie is diagnosed with face blindness, and for a person who paints portraits for a living, this is not good. To make matters worse, she somehow falls for TWO DIFFERENT MEN 🥲

You have to suspend belief to really immerse yourself and enjoy this one fully!

Read if you like:
👩‍🎨 Funny meet-cutes
👩‍🎨 Dogs
👩‍🎨 Think Cinderella and the evil step sisters
👩‍🎨 The best friendship in Sadie and Sue
👩‍🎨 Love triangles

Overall, I liked but not a fav! It’s definitely a quick and sweet read for your summer TBR ☀️💛

I have just finished another fantastic book by Katherine Center and cannot say enough good things about it. Just when Sadie is on the brink of success in her career as a portrait artist, she undergoes what should have been a minor surgical procedure on her brain. The swelling that follows causes Sadie to suffer from face blindness. How will she ever be able to create a winning portrait now? Simply learning how to cope with daily activities is difficult enough, and Sadie is very reluctant to accept help from anyone. Despite everything that is going wrong in her life, Sadie starts falling for her dog's handsome new veterinarian while also developing romantic feelings for her downstairs neighbor. I enjoyed putting all the pieces together in this story that brought out all the kinds of feelings I seek in my favorite books. Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy to read and review.

This proves why Katherine is an auto-buy for me!

I love how I always end up feeling uplifted and educated after reading a book by Katherine Center. Her characters always have a unique journey to travel, while inspiring the reader with their personal growth throughout the story.

Sadie immediately won over my heart with her rare struggle of facial blindness, especially as a portrait artist who can no longer do what she loves. Her dog Peanut often steals the show, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I devoured the entire book in one day and have NO regrets! Looking forward to reading it again soon.

Last year it was The Bodyguard, this year it's Hello Stranger. I'm calling it now, this is my favorite read of the year!
This book was absolutely fantastic. It was emotional, magical, funny (SO funny), and everything I wanted it to be.
To quote the author: "This love story really created a fantastic feeling of anticipation." The slow burn was SO worth the wait. The characters were amazing and lovable. Honestly, I feel like I could gush about them all day.
1 finished this book days ago, but I needed to take some time to really sink into the feelings (the best ones) and soak in every drop of them that I could.
The author really created something beautiful here, and I'm dying to get through her entire backlog (I've already LOVED The Bodyguard and The Lost Husband...which is also a movie on Netflix 9).
Katherine Center can do no wrong. I now introduce to you my new auto-buy author.

This book had me laughing on page one. I adore Katherine Center's books and will read everything she writes. HELLO STRANGER is wonderful.

Sadie is an artist struggling to make her way. She finds out she is a finalist in an important art competition that could change her life. But as usual, the world has other plans and she suddenly has to have brain surgery. The surgery leaves her with acquired face blindness which is a real threat to her career as a portrait artist. She is forced to reevaluate everything as she finds a way to cope with her new reality.

This one packs all of the emotional punch of a Katherine Center novel but it’s equally fun. I don’t read a lot of books I would classify as ‘fun’ but that made this one hard to put down. I feel like I don’t experience that feeling often with women’s fiction / romance novels. But I really enjoyed the reader knowing what was going on well before the protagonists, it was tongue in cheek fun. I also liked the life event and face blindness forcing Sadie to rethink her relationships with her friends, family and love.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.