"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!

The twist in this story literally made my jaw drop! I loved listening to this on audio, the narration was perfect!

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.

Katherine Center has done it again! Hello Stranger was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 and it did not disappoint.

Sadie Montgomery is a gifted portrait artist and when we meet her, she has just made it to the final round in a prestigious competition. She is ecstatic until she is quite literally blindsided by a life changing event & lands in the hospital diagnosed with “face blindness.” Doctors hope her condition is temporary, but there’s no way of knowing. How is Sadie supposed to paint what she can’t see?

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 & we see this with Sadie as she copes with her situation. I’m not familiar with face blindness, but I thought Center did a wonderful job of handling the condition with respect & sensitivity, while at the same time, infusing Sadie’s journey with her signature warmth & humor.

While much of the focus is on Sadie’s journey, there is also a romantic element. Even though Sadie can’t 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 vet who saved her dog’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 & realistic characters, witty dialogue & 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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for the ARC & ALC. The audio was an absolute delight, and Patti Murin’s narration is *chef’s kiss*.

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. Patti Murin’s narration was excellent.

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.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hello Stranger
By: Katherine Center Pub Date: 7/11/23
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
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.

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.

I loved the originality of this book and the health topic it wasn’t like anything i’d read before. Even though it is a romance i also really liked the career and art aspect. I was invested through the whole story and finished it in 3 days. Had really great side characters and even a bit of a found family trope. And omg the plot twists at the end!! Overall really great book I’ll definitely be recommending, and I rated it a 4.5 stars!

#HelloStranger:⁣
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Thank you @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for my gifted copies!⁣
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Katherine Center is one of my favorites, but this was just a middle of the road type of book for me. Now, that doesn’t mean I hated it. It just means it was middle of the run. I’m not dying on any Hello Stranger hills this year. I felt like the writing was kind of all over the place, and I didn’t really know where we were headed. All I knew is we were heading somewhere without seeing faces. It still had characters I cheered and rooted for, and I still got all the gushy squeals like KC knows how to make me feel. I enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t the 5 star I was hoping for. ⁣
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The audio was great. I listened to a lot of it while at the pool, and it kept my attention. Patti Murin is always phenomenal, so I’m always going to choose audio whenever she is the narrator. ⁣
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I’m a huge acknowledgment and authors note type of person, and I really liked KC’s authors note. I’ll leave you with my favorite part: “Because tragedy is a given, but joy is a choice.” So, overall it was a cute story that had me cheering for every party involved, the audio was great, but it did feel kind of choppy. Regardless, I adore Katherine Center and can’t wait to see what happens next. ⁣
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Hello Stranger is out July 11!

Hello Stranger
by Katherine Center
4/5 ⭐️

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist about to get her big break in the North American
American Portrait Society competition. That is until she has to have emergency brain surgery and wakes up with a condition known as face blindness. She is able to see but now faces have a distorted appearance like a Picasso painting.

Her condition is a major obstacle with the competition deadline lingering. On top of this, her beloved dog Peanut gets sick and Sadie’s mean step-sister moves into her apartment building. Sadie is blinded by illness, confusion, and love. Yes, Sadie also falls in love with 2 guys, her vet and her neighbor as she grapples with her condition. The timing could not be worse! Sadie needs to focus on her painting but managing anything clearly right now seems impossible.

Katherine Center writes characters that you instantly fall in love with. Sadie was no different! As an underdog professionally and personally, you immediately start rooting for her. I listened to the audiobook and Patti Murin's narration was enjoyable for Sadie. This book is a sweet and heartwarming romance. Although I felt like Katerine Center did her research and thoroughly explained Sadie’s face blindness, I had some questions about the ending.

Read this if you like:
🔻Love triangles
🐶Cute dogs
🥰Friends to lovers
🧲Opposites attract
💝HEA

Katherine Center, the queen of comfort reads, returns following The Body Guard with her latest gem, HELLO, STRANGER —a heartwarming story of an artist whose life takes on a significant change where nothing is as it appears.

LOVE ISN'T BLIND. IT IS JUST A LITTLE BLURRY.

Sadie Montgomery is a struggling artist who is broke and barely making ends meet in her little studio apartment. Her estranged surgeon father was unhappy when Sadie chose not to continue her medical career and followed in her mom's footsteps instead. He refused to help her out in the future due to this decision or offer his support. Plus, her evil stepmother Lucinda is horrible (her father remarried) and an evil stepsister.

Sadie paints portraits and is so excited that she has earned one of the coveted finalist spots in the competition that could earn her money to catch up. It would be life-changing. It was the same competition her mom placed in years ago. She died when Sadie was fourteen.

Tragedy strikes before the competition. She has a seizure in the middle of the street. A Good Samaritan saves her from being hit by a car.

Her evil step-sister Parker is at the hospital, and she receives the bad news. A malformed blood vessel in the brain: called a cavernoma. A lesion and needs to have surgery. The timing could not be worse.

A cavernoma is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels, usually found in the brain and spinal cord. They're sometimes known as cavernous angiomas, cavernous haemangiomas, or cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM).

After the surgery, she realizes she cannot see people's faces. Everyone is a stranger to her. How can she draw a portrait when she can see their faces?

Sadie's family is no help with the situation. A wicked stepsister and a stepmother, and her father constantly siding against her. Fortunately, she has her best friend, Sue, and her family, who have informally adopted her and serve as a great support network.

How will she cope?

Then she finds herself in a love triangle of all things. Two men, one a helpful Joe, who lives in the same apartment, and the goodhearted veterinarian who saved her dog Peanut. As Sadie tries to save her career, confront her haunting past, and handle falling in love with two different guys, she realizes that happiness can be found in the places—and people— you least expect.

An uplifting, witty, emotional, heartwarming bittersweet story tackling highly charged topics of neurovascular (cavernoma, prosopagnosia-face blindness), coping mechanisms, and survival, blended with some light-hearted fun romance. You will root for Sadie until the end.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Patti Murin for a highly entertaining and lively performance. I enjoyed the author's note.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for an ALC and St. Martin's Press for an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. #SMPInfluencers

Blog Review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 11, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
July 2023 Must-Read Books

Katherine Center shows again why she’s a master of her genre. This is funny, charming, and filled with entertaining characters. Sadie can be prickly at times, but I was always rooting for her as she worked through her painful past and present circumstances. Her best friend Sue was hilariously blunt, Joe was fun, and even her cruel stepsister Parker somehow made me laugh.

From the premise to the ending, it’s well written and engaging. The only downsides: I thought there was a little too much explaining at the end and a few story elements that my overthinking brain had to just roll with and not question too much, but as Center so brilliantly explains in her author’s note, it comes with the territory of the genre. Definitely read or listen to her thoughts!

I both read this and listened to the audio narrated by Patti Murin, who I absolutely love! I think it would’ve been harder to find the humor in some characters - especially Parker - if I’d only read it, but Murin’s voicing for her was snarktastic, and she does gender voicing perfectly, which I always appreciate.

It’s a great read, a wonderful listen and a whole lot of fun. I highly recommend it!

★★★★ ½

This is my second Katherine Center book, and I don’t know why I’m so slow to read her others, especially the ones being made into movies - The Bodyguard was one of my very top books of 2022, and now Hello Stranger is one of my very tops of 2023! She’s such a spectacular writer and a very talented storyteller! This book is just so incredible! I purchased copies of several other books last year after loving Bodyguard and now I pledge to get them actually read!

This book has such an incredibly unique storyline, with the face blindness aspect (a side effect after surgery to remove a cavernoma, discovered after a whole interesting situation at the beginning of the book), and not being able to tell who anyone is, let alone not being able to work (being a portrait artist) just when Sadie is accepted into the top 10 winners for a huge competition… the competition her mother was in at the time of her passing, so it’s a huge thing.

The friendships, the neighbors, the family dynamics - everything that Center has included in here has been so carefully crafted and planned, and she so carefully researched the face blindness (prosopagnosia) to make sure she did it justice. This book is just a dream to read, and even better to listen to because she’s got the best narrator in Patti Murin! 5-stars for the book and 5-stars for the narration! 1000% recommended by me.

I received an advance review and listen copy from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio, and this is my honest feedback.

I absolutely adored Katherine Center’s newest release, Hello Stranger, and the tie-in to the title is on-point and impactful. This story is now one of my favorite reads of the year.

Hello Stranger has the perfect mix of sweet love story combined with heart-wrenching family dynamics, strong female friendship, challenging personal issues to overcome, and thought-provoking themes. The main character is funny and optimistic, but also realistic, relatable and inspiring. I learned new things about “face blindness”, which is something I knew and have read little about, and the insights gleaned were interesting and valuable.

Hello Stranger follows Sadie Montgomery who as gone her own way in life, despite her father’s dogged resistance, choosing to follow her dreams of becoming an artist like her late mother. In addition to her career choices, she has had to go it alone without the support of her family, who has alienated her and kept their distance, repeatedly choosing to believe her “evil step-sister” over Sadie. It has not been an easy road, losing her mother at a young age and then essentially losing her family, but her friendship with Sue, and Sue’s parents, has kept her going.

Tragedy strikes yet again when Sadie has a seizure on a street intersection, saved by a Good Samaritan. When she has to follow-up with brain surgery, comes out of it with a new obstacle to overcome, prosopagnosia, or face blindness. As a portrait artist, this is especially debilitating, but she handles it with grace, determination and optimism. Along the way, Sadie learns more about herself, tackles some long-held issues, finds restoration and a degree of healing within a certain relationship, as well as a discovering love in an unexpected place.

Katherine Center portrays her characters’ interactions, choices, thoughts and emotions with such authenticity and realism. Her stories consistently have deeper themes for the reader to contemplate; her characters are humorous, likable and engaging; and her plots have unique elements that make each story feel fresh. Hello Stranger was heart-warming and an absolute joy and pleasure to read. Katherine Center is without a doubt, an auto-buy author for me.

A special thanks for MacMilllan Audio for the audio-version of this story. Patti Marin narrated it and did a fantastic job! Her voice perfectly encapsulated the character and drew me into the story and made it so much more enjoyable.

I’m happy to see that there is a lot of love and many positive reviews for this book. Unfortunately, I am an outlier and did not enjoy it nearly as much as the other four books I have read by the author. This one just wasn’t for me.

The narrator did an excellent job on the story and really brought it all alive.

I really like the genre spot Katherine Center’s books hit—the depth and personal journey of “women’s fiction” combined with the sweet and swoony of romance. I have read three of her books so far and each of them had been really difficult to put down because they really sweep you away. This one was no different! But if I put my critique hat on I did have a couple hang ups. Specifically, the role that miscommunication had to play in the story (contrived miscommunication is my biggest book pet peeve, but I can understand a little more why it was utilized here) and the role of the evil family member felt over the top for what was needed. But all of that didn’t keep me from fully enjoying the ride. The face blindness aspects were pretty fascinating and I liked the themes of the different ways we see and are blind.

The authors note at the end about the reasons we read romance was excellent and I’m so glad the audiobook included it since they don’t always!

4.5 stars!

Katherine Center does it again! I love her way of writing romance. This was predictable but not in a way that was annoying, it was super cute and emotional. I enjoyed Sadie as a character and of course, Center's male love interests are always incredible as well. I've always been intrigued by face blindness and find books about it intriguing. The fact that our FMC paints portraits of people and has a potentially life-changing competition added so much to the drama of having her condition, even if it is temporary,

In true Katherine Center fashion, she also adds a dash of self-discovery, a hefty dose of family drama, and a few loveable side characters (including an adorable dog named, Peanut), which all add to the charm of this book. The romance was 10/10 and the humor helped to lighten up the vibes as well. This book was emotional, heartwarming, and highly unputdownable. Katherine Center will continue to be an auto-buy author for me!

Katherine Center is so good at creating characters you want to root for and really fun banter! I feel like you really can’t go wrong with one of her books, they’re always enjoyable.

With that being said, this wasn’t my favorite of hers, but it was definitely unique and overall a good read (I did this one on audio and def recommend). It had its lol moments, and the characters were great, it just seemed to lack.. something?

BUT.. I would absolutely recommend this book for someone looking for a fun romcom with a unique storyline

What a fun book! But what else would you expect from Katherine Center?!?! I mean who would get some rare sight blindness and then fall in love with a man who you can't see his face?? But you know what it works! She writes the unbelievable and makes it so we love it!

The narrator did an excellent job!

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.

The audio narration by Patty Murin was perfection, and I'm sure I'll listen to it again in the near future. She makes you feel like a friend is telling you a story, and that's why I devoured the entire book in one day!