This was a cute book! I really enjoyed listening to it. It was an engaging story, the narrator used good expression while reading, and there was a nice surprise twist at the end. My only critique was at times, it felt a little too cheesy for my taste, as there was "wicked stepsister and stepmother" characters who felt quite one dimensional for most of the story. Regardless, this was a fun read, and the concept was very unique and also provided for some educational opportunities about face blindness. I liked that there was a note at the end to give a little more insight.

I throughly enjoyed this latest from Katherine Center. I am always a sucker for a romance with a dog as an important character and Peanut was a delightful little charmer. Our protagonist Sadie was a lovely character as well, her kindness was refreshing. I had vaguely heard of face blindness before reading this book, but this made me want to learn a lot more. It was an interesting spin to have a romance where the female love interest truly couldn't tell who she was talking to at any given time. It certainly led to some confusion and heartache. The only thing I wish had been fleshed out more was the relationship Sadie had with her dad and stepmom; we certainly did get to see some good progress made there, but I would have liked more sooner. Overall, another wonderful read from Center with excellent as always narration from Patti Murin.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ALC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is only my second Katherine Center book, and I genuinely enjoyed both the story and the voice of the narrator. I wasn't the hugest fan of Sadie through, like, half of the book, but I found myself rooting for her by the end.

I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I loved this book! As someone with face blindness it was great to see how someone deals with this issue as it suddenly appears. I've had it my whole life and didn't realize others saw faces until I had to describe one, I can't by the way it's all pieces to me. The love story was so perfect for the situation and the evil stepsister was so much fun to hate! I will definitely be looking for more by this author!

I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for providing an unbiased review.

3.75

I’ll start off by saying that this is a cute, funny, occasionally heartbreaking tale. Plus, dog characters can offset a multitude of sins.

Unfortunately, if I really had to give my relationship with the book a status, it would be “It’s complicated”. I spent most of the book thinking that this was getting to be downright preposterous. In my opinion, the biggest mistake this book made was really explaining prosopagnosia (also called face blindness) and, especially, the feasibility of this storyline, at the end of the book and in the long author’s note afterward. There could easily have been a forward with some of that information up front so I could enjoy the story more. I shouldn’t need to do my own literature review when I pick up a book.

We learn early on that struggling portrait artist Sadie develops prosopagnosia and what it does to her already-chaotic life. Though the condition is rare, her new reality is believable, and I believed there were artists with prosopagnosia out there who painted portraits and could be a source of information for Sadie. It is the love story and other events beyond that that seemed impossible and bugged me for the remainder of the book. Yes, these books are supposed to be a little far-fetched. We are generally okay with unlikely celebrities hiding out in houses with average Joes/Janes, convoluted business and legal parameters leading to ridiculous circumstances, and other what-are-the-odds scenarios. Nobody wants to read about totally regular people in a totally regular life.

Of course, the book is mostly fueled by one character, in this case Sadie, keeping something secret from either everyone or the potential love interest in order to spare that person’s feelings or for fear of rejection. It’s annoying, but if I let that plot line deter me, there wouldn’t be a movie or TV show or novel left for me to enjoy. In this case, it caused Sadie to live a life that made me want to cry…had I not been so mad about the parts she brought on or perpetuated herself.

All in all, it’s a cute love story with a unique premise that reminds me of The Shop Around the Corner/You’ve Got Mail, but without the letter writing. I enjoyed The Bodyguard, Katherine Center’s last book, which was why I decided to pick this one up.

FYI, I give the narration a B+. I could see her as Sadie, but I’ve heard this voice in so many books of the same genre recently.

I do not read a lot of romance books, mostly because I always want to grab the protagonists by the shoulders and tell them to "talk to each other.!" And so it was for Sadie and Joe in this book, and yet I enjoyed the story, like I have enjoyed all of Katherine Center's books.
Sadie is a portrait artist who suffers from sudden face blindness, weeks before a big competition, that should give her the big break in the art world. That was an interesting background for the romance story, and what carried the story through the predictabilities and the sometimes-forced misunderstandings that Sadie and Joe had to work through.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Short synopsis: Sadie is a portrait artist and just earned a coveted spot in a painting competition, when she discovers she has to have brain surgery and is left with Face Blindness.

My thoughts: I just adore Katherine Center’s writing. She has a way of creating such lovable characters (and pets) that I just can’t help but binge her books.

I’ve never read a book about face blindness before. It’s so difficult to comprehend such a condition exists, but you can totally tell the research was done. Everything was explained so well, and the writers note and the end just amplified the condition.

Although I expected the “twist” in this story really early on, I loved the anticipation of watching Sadie unravel the truth herself.

Such a sweet story of love, growth, experience, following your dreams, and putting yourself out there.

“The more good things you look for, the more you find”

Read if you love:
- Foodie Dogs
- Great friends
- Standing up for yourself
- Following your passions
- Growth and experience

A very unique romance! The main character struggles with face blindness after brain surgery. It’s an education of what life might look like with that condition! It was very well done!

3.5 stars
I always enjoy Katherine Center books! I enjoyed this cute romance story. I felt that the character read immature and there were some inconsistencies within the characters. I will continue to check out Center's writing, her books do always make me laugh.

This book was my introduction to Katherine Center and I have been binging her books since!

I have fallen in love with her characters over and over - they are incredibly relatable and I genuinely feel like I'm friends with them by the end of the book.

Hello Stranger is funny, romantic, dramatic and has well developed central and supporting characters. The twists and unexpected turns stole my heart here.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen, review and discover a new favorite!

I loved the premise of this book! It was really cute. It didn't capture me as much as I would have liked, but it was a cute romance!

I loved the narrator! She did a great job giving a lot of emotion and the voices she used for each character matched very well! She was a perfect fit and I felt every emotion when she was upset or excited!
Only issue was that some lines from the book didn’t match up with the audio. Some lines were out of order, some describing words were completely different and some were just missing from the audio.

How would your life change if one day you woke up and couldn't see? Sadie suddenly finds herself living in a world with no faces. Sure, she could see... just not faces. As an aspiring artist, she begins to navigate life through what she hopes will just be a temporary minor inconvenience.

This love story really created fantastic anticipation. (Iykyk) Hello stranger is jammed packed with all the favorite things: family drama, falling in love, best friends, and overcoming trials. The twists and turns kept me grasping for more and more, then wrapped up by the perfect grand finale!

Read if you like: love triangles, evil step-families, aspiring artists, characters you can fall in love with, and overcoming challenges.

✨Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is definitely a 5 star read I highly recommend!

📚Sadie is an artist and recently placed as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. This is what Sadie has been waiting for her whole life - validation that her art is good and a worthwhile endeavor. More so, she hopes this will final garner the respect she craves from her father who is well known in the medical field and held aspirations of her following in his footsteps.

Sadie’s life is literally fractured when an accident lands her in the hospital wherein she learns she has a genetic condition that must be dealt with immediately through brain surgery. While hesitant, her well connected father pulls strings to make the surgery happen. When Sadie comes out of surgery, she finds she is able to recognize voices but not faces. Her brain is unable to piece together faces and instead, she is only able to focus on one facial feature at a time - she is diagnosed with temporary face blindness. Sadie is devastated at the news considering she’s supposed to compete in a portrait contest within the next few weeks. Not only that, the world around Sadie no longer feels safe - how to you interact in a world where you no longer recognize those you know, let alone strangers.

To make matters worse, Sadie’s beloved companion - her 14 year old foodie-of-a-dog - Peanut is sick and must be rushed to the vet. At the vet, Sadie instantly falls in love with Dr Oliver Addison, the vet who is on-call and saves Peanut’s life.
Back at her apartment, she bumps into Joe whom she’s written off as a horrible person and womanizer. But when he starts being kind to Sadie and she realizes he’s actually a chronic do-gooder, she begins to fall for him too.

✨This book had so much and I loved every minute of it! Sadie is such an amazingly strong, determined, and brave character - she deals with face blindness and adapting to the new world this creates for her all the while preparing for a portrait competition, falling for two men, avoiding an evil step-mother and step-sister, and trying to make her father proud. This book was not only entertaining, it was heartwarming, informative, and charming in all the ways that matter to me!
Thank you to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook ahead of the proposed July 11th, 2023 release date in exchange for honest feedback. It was an honor and Katherine Center has been added to my list of author’s to binge-read!

When Sadie Montgomery, a portrait artist, comes out of brain surgery with face blindness that is hopefully temporary, her whole world is turned upside down. As Sadie struggles to find her way through this new world in a sea of empty faces, she is forced to look at her life and everything she’s known and try to find a new path through it.

I have loved every Katherine Center romance I have read and this one was no different. I absolutely loved how this book progressed and couldn’t get over how perfect the end was. There was nothing about this book that I can critique, it was perfect and just what I needed to read right now! It also made me think about how different life would be if I turned up with hopefully temporary face blindness, this would throw a whole new curve into life as I know it and I’m not sure how I would handle it. I loved how this book explored how much we have come to rely on certain aspects of our lives, like seeing faces, and how if is complicated to start seeing people in a different way. We rely so heavily on faces to determine who a person is, but as Sadie is forced to see, it is hard to start recognizing people without faces because everything else is so easily changed, like clothes or hairstyles. Anyway, this was a great romance and I can’t wait to see what comes next from this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC audiobook of this book! The narration was excellent as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this early!This was so good! This is about a portrait artist named Sadie. She has a medical event that lands her in the hospital and when she wake up she is suffering from face blindness. She can see just fine, but the part of her brain that analyzes faces is damaged so all faces look pixelated and oddly Picasso- esque. Thankfully, she can still see the face of her little dog. Anywho, she's about to be in this huge art contest where she needs to submit a portrait, but now she can't see anyone's face so doing said portrait feels impossible. She has a crush on her vet, a budding friendship with her seemingly womanizing neighbor, an evil stepsister and a dad who blames her for her mothers death. This book had a great amount of depth and humor. I read it at a time where I just needed something light and fun and this fit the bill. I couldn't wait to pick it back up when I put it down and the "twist" at the end actually caught me off guard (granted I wasn't trying to think things through at all during the reading experience). The main character wasn't my all time favorite, but she was endearing enough. Cute!

I absolutely love how Katherine represents MC with a medical condition or life changing situation.

This was a little of a slow burn for me. However, this picked up pace and not only made my heart happy. The end authors note touched me. Her chat about romance books being called predictable, that they are more of an anticipation of a happy ending of a love story. I really enjoyed that!

So with that said, this was as expected l, an anticipated happy ending love story with quirky characters and laughable moments as well.

This was a touching story and once again a meaningful one of how love sees all, through all difficulties.

Narrator was great with different characters. I adore a Narrator that clearly has a different male to female transition between characters.

Thank you @netgalley and @Macmillan Audio for this early releasw audio book.

While this didn't end up being my favorite Katherine Center book, I still really enjoyed it with it's unique premise even if you knew where it was headed it was still fun to see how it was going to play out.

A perfect read for a beach vacation or honestly any day you just need to escape.

I listened to the audio and thought that the narrator did a great job and would recommend the audio to others.

I am DNFing this book after the ugly fatphobic conversation the main character overhears from a character who will clearly be her love interest. I’ve skimmed the rest and have learned that he’s talking about a dog, but Center should respect her readers more than to include this ugliness. Her last book was so unpleasant for me that I feel like this is a sign to stop now.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

I loved this book so much !
After an accident, Sadie cannot see the faces. But she’s an artist and paint portrait! She became friend with Joe her neighbor she hates, and the love story begins.
Such a great story.
This audio makes me want to listen to more audio book. The narrator was great.