I loved this book. I LOVED THIS BOOK!

This novel follows Sadie, a struggling portrait artist who is determined to prove to her family -- and the rest of the world -- that she is doing just fine. Sadie's passion is painting faces, she has just been accepted as a finalist into a prestigious portrait contest. The same art contest her mom had been accepted to right before a malformed blood vessel in her brain ruptured, and resulted in her death. It turns out Sadie is even more like her mom than she thought, however, as she has that same vessel anomaly.

Four weeks prior to the deadline for the contest, Sadie undergoes brain surgery, resulting in acquired prosopagnosia: Face Blindness. She has lost her ability to see faces, much less paint them. With the help of her best friend, a neighbor who may or may not be a judgmental playboy, and a brief bout of infatuation with her dog Peanut's veterinarian, Sadie rediscovers what's most important in life. And that sometimes, it's okay to not be fine,

This novel had me laughing out loud, and gripping the edge of my seat. It was funny, had a sprinkle of science, discussed mental health concerns, and was above all: beautiful. In case it wasn't clear, I loved this book with my whole heart, and can't recommend it enough.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center is...another masterpiece by Katherine Center. I generally stay away from Romance or Rom-Com novels that are too saccharine - it just isn't' for me and I find myself eye rolling my way through. After reading this description I worried that perhaps I wouldn't connect with the character or her experiences. I WAS WRONG! From the opening lines I just loved this story and even when I had a sense of what was coming the tone and writing was so well executed that I didn't even care and just enjoyed.

Sadie Montgomery is a portrait artist taking after her own mother who she lost at a young age. She has just gotten a major break in her career and is getting ready for a night celebrating. As she's crossing the street she suddenly experiences a stroke and ends up in the emergency room. She learns that she has a rare brain disorder and has to get surgery asap. She is reluctant to move forward with it as she is on deadline but her surgeon father insists - and as she's coming out of the operating room she realizes that she can...no longer see faces. What follows is her experience navigating this major turn with the help of her friends and neighbors...and lovers?

Patti Murin was an exceptional narrator - one of the best I have heard (and I have listened to so many). She added a lot to the story and created a memorable performance.

Hello Stranger is charming, it's sweet, it's wonderful. I BREEZED through this in less than 24 hours because I was just having such a good time. Don't miss it!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy - Hello Stranger will be out 7/11/23.

Hello Stranger was wonderful! It’s not my favorite of her books but still very good and the whimsical heartwarming vibe you expect from her books. Definitely would recommend!

Patti Murin is a great narrator, and the condition the heroine is dealing with made for a unique and interesting premise. It was really fascinating to learn about and made you think. But I figured out the big twist and misunderstanding in the elevator very quickly, so that made the rest of the book frustrating as I waited for Sadie to figure things out. Also, her sister was so cartoonishly, one-note villain (also an issue I had with the antagonist in The Bodyguard), and I couldn’t believe she suffered no consequences for her horrible behavior.

What a great story! Definitely kept me engaged the whole time. The narration added so much depth to the characters! Will definitely be recommending this to many people!!

I absolutely enjoyed this book and around the last 75% stayed up way too late reading it just so I could get to the end! I love the author's note at the end about the romance genre, especially the note about people calling romance predictable. I love that romance is predictable, that's why I pick up a romance instead of a mystery book. I love seeing all the pieces come together, knowing I have two characters to root for, who will get a lovely HEA after a series of funny and unfortunate events.

The romance in this was delightful, but what I really appreciated was the family dynamic. Sadie has a sour relationship with her father, step-mother, and step-sister. And although things are better with them by the end of the book, their relationships aren't magically fixed and suddenly healthy after uncovering a misunderstanding. I do wish that we could have seen more of Sadie's female friendships, especially as she goes through this difficult time.

Overall, this book gave me exactly what I wanted: a fun read filled with anticipation as I waited for that final kiss.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC!

4 stars

This is a charming romance that will please incoming fans of this author as well as folks who are new to her work. The concept is creative, and the payoff is absolutely worth the investment.

Sadie, the m.c., has just gotten a fantastic opportunity to have her art featured, and this is coming at the right time. Though she's relatively happy in her life, she has a nagging need to show her dad that she's made something of herself. Her living environment, which everyone hilariously refers to as her "hovel"; her moderately successful Etsy shop; and her relatively attachment-free life bring her enough joy, but she still longs to reveal a different kind of progress. Unfortunately for Sadie, all of this goes out the window when she has a major medical episode resulting in a surgery that changes her life in more ways than one!

While Sadie's medical event comes with terrible downsides, it also offers some fascinating opportunities. The main effect of her surgery is (what is hopefully temporary) face blindness, and this creates many awkward and hilarious situations, including her falling in love - or at least extreme like - with two swoony dudes. Readers catch onto what is happening WAY sooner than all of the characters do, but that doesn't diminish the fun.

I enjoyed Center's first novel but liked this one even more. Sadie is a great character; there's so much more to her than her love life. The narration for the audiobook is also well executed, and I recommend this option when and where accessible. I'm already looking forward to what this author brings forward next!

A thoroughly enjoyable read/listen. The basis for the story was so different and was a breathe of fresh air. The way the brain processes things is fascinating. Patti Murin was a great choice for narrator. Her voice is lovely and fits how I pictured Sadie so well.

Hello, beach read!

It's easy to see why BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.”

She writes about falling in love and confronting adversity like no other author.

In "Hello Stranger", Katherine Center's female protagonist is a portrait artist who wakes up from surgery with Acquired Apperceptive Prosopagnosia, AKA Face Blindness.

A portrait artist who can't see faces?

Even though "love is blind", Acquired Apperceptive Prosopagnosia makes dating (and falling in love!) very challenging, too.

Although I felt that the first half of this book was too cheesy for my vegan palate, the book picked up and, overall, Katherine Center delivered.

I especially enjoyed the book's final twist and the author's compelling note that provided additional facts about Acquired Apperceptive Prosopagnosia.

In the Author's Note, Katherine Center also gave additional insight as to why she enjoys writing love stories that make readers laugh, swoon, and give new perspectives on love, as an unapologetically optimistic form of hope.

I listened to the audiobook read by Patti Murin, who did an outstanding job with the narration.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of Hello Stranger for review. I was so excited as “The Body Guard” was hands down my favorite book of 2022!

When artist Sadie Montgomery has urgent brain surgery she comes out with facial blindness. At the same time she has one of her largest work projects in the midst and is juggling her feelings for two men!

I adore Katherine Center’s writing style and “Hello Stranger” did not disappoint! I devoured this book and I’m left wanting more! I can not wait to see what she writes next.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the free ALC in exchange for my honest review. This is my 2nd Katherine Centre and is mt my new favorite. Its my first book with face blindness and loved the twists that were revealed. It felt. Smidge longer then it needed to be i thought it was done but there was another 2 hours and 45 minutes. Grwat narration super clean what you expect with a Macmillan audiobook.

3.5/5

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book.

I have started a new thing, where I don't read what the book is about before I read it. It keeps me totally surprised. In saying this, I had no idea I was going to love this book so much and learn so much about Prosopagnosia. Who even knew this was a disease? I love learning new things.

I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. I was invested in all of the characters and loved the dynamics of the relationships. We all have issues and I loved how Sadie figures out communication is the key to truly being happy.

The narrator did a wonderful job being the different characters. I could visualize them in my head when she spoke.

Katherine Center has hit another home run with this book.

I wishe we could do half stars because this book totally deserves to be a 4.5.

Katherine Center never misses. Heartfelt, hopeful, and sweet. This story was wonderfully emotional and gave me all the feel good tropes without having felt like I’d read the book before.

Sadie is a portrait artist, who unknowingly suffers a brain condition and suddenly looses her ability to recognize faces. First off, despite the irony of the situation, this is handled believably and with gravity. The build of the story’s premise is slow but doesn’t feel it. The humor instilled in Sadie’s perspective is a joy. Watching the romance develop was fun and never boring.

Highly highly recommend!

Audio: 5/5 perfect. Calm, measured, and easy to listen to.

**I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and Katherine Center for an ARC and ALC of this book! This will be available on 7/11/23!**

"Maybe life was full of surprises. Maybe disappointments could turn out to be blessings."

This was my first Katherine Center, but definitely won't be my last. I flew through this book within a few hours.

"It takes a certain kind of courage to be brave in love. A courage you can only get better at through practice."

Sadie Montgomery is our quirky, artistic heroine. After being informed that she needs to have an operation on brain, she goes through with it expecting and hoping for minimal side effects. Unfortunately, the swelling in her brain causes her to have face blindness. As a professional portrait artist prepping for her "Big Break," its not only terrible timing but also totally derails everything she is.

Luckily she has two cutie love interests to distract her. Dr. Oliver Addison, her dog Peanut's totally hot veterinarian, and Joe, the infuriatingly handsome man-hoe that lives in the same apartment complex as her.

I really loved her character but sometimes it felt like she was written a little too quirky to the point that I didn't fully believe it, especially in the beginning when you haven't built that rapport yet. Once I got to about 20%, it didn't bother me as much but it was still annoying.
While I started to root for her whole-heartedly, she wasn't the most likeable heroine for me.

The love-triangle took me a long time to figure out lol but there were still so many holes and parts that made me not believe it. Obviously this whole story is made-for-book, but I just wasn't really sold on any of the romance. It was kinda like all of a sudden they were in love but i wanted more build up for that. The tension and sparks wore off pretty quickly. Sadie had so much growth and self-improvement whereas the romance didn't develop into something of the same beautiful nature.

READER BE WARNED:
This book is more women's fiction, self-discovery, and healing than it is romance. The romance was more of an after thought in the story. If this is what you're looking for, congrats ignore my previous paragraph and enjoy. This book being mainly advertised as a romance is a little misleading.

While I have some complaints of this story, I can't deny how much I still really enjoyed it. It was fast paced and a total feel-good. I thought about this book the entire next day, which is always a sign of a great book for me. I will absolutely be reading more books by Katherine Center.

This was such a great read. It had everything I love about romance books and the end notes by Katherine were so fun to hear. This narrator was great.

**My review will be shared release day on my site and socials!**

INCREDIBLE.

Audiobook notes: Abolutely LOVED the audiobook. This brought Sadie to life and I’m in love with the entire production.

NEW FAVORITE KATHERINE CENTER BOOK. I am a weepy mess after finishing this. Couldn’t put it down, binge read, cry at the end, smile like a fool and love every single second kind of read.

I LOVED Sadie. She was my favorite kind of FMC. Personable and relatable. Flaws and strengths. All mashed together into this woman I adored. She made this book sing. Alongside her was the ROOOOMANCE. I don’t want to say too much because going into this without knowing too much is best. I just LOVED IT SO MUCH. It was swoony and real and full of everything I love about Center’s writing. Her ability to craft a story that I want to hug makes her one of my favorite all time authors.

Such a fated, sweet romance. Many powerful things Sadie learned. Another amazing read I will not get over!!

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: a little
Romance: make-out
Violence: low
Trigger/Content Warnings: sibling abuse (emotional, verbal, psychological) recounted, cheating recounted, prosopagnosia, brain surgery and recovery, grief and loss, death of a parent recounted

Wow! This is such a unique and intriguing story. The fact that it centers around Sadie, a portrait artist who, because of a necessary brain surgery that should have been no biggie, had lost her ability to see faces (aka, prosopagnosia or faceblindness). Yes there’s romance, and honestly I loved how the romance unfolded even if it was a slow burn and also not necessarily the primary focus. This was more of a story of Sadie finding herself, growing into who she is and figuring out how in the heck to do that when she can’t see the faces of anyone around her.

I think prosopagnosia is fascinating, I even did some research after reading the book to try to understand what someone with dace blindness sees. I can’t imagine not being able to decipher someone’s face and know for sure who they were in just a glance. And for someone who as an artist needs that part of the brain to function, wow.

I loved the way things unfolded with Joe and with Dr. Addison. I loved Sadie’s best friend. I hated her step sister (Parker, yuck!). I loved the family dynamic (while also hating it) and see how it resolved and shifted in the end.

Highly recommend and if you can get it on audio the narration is fabulous!

I thought this book was sweet and cute and I really liked the whole ordeal of face blindness. I find it rather fascinating.
I liked the family relationships and really enjoyed the beginning and end. I was a bit put off by lying and miscommunication. I find it frustrating. However, I still enjoyed the book overall.

Narrator Patti Murin, did a good job performing the story and different voices for different characters.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this advanced listeners copy. This is my honest review.

Blurb:

Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

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.

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 in love―not with one man but two. The timing couldn’t be worse.

Making judgment calls on anything right now is a nightmare. If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to have it all.

I abandoned a different book that I was in the middle of listening to the second I saw Netgalley approved me to review Hello Stranger, and boy oh boy Katherine Center did not disappoint!

This is the quintessential rom-com, feel good, just overall adorable book. I think Katherine herself says it best in her author’s note — Hello Stranger was far from a “predictable” romance. However, there were layers of anticipation that built beautifully throughout the story. By the end, all of that hope and anticipation melted together to create the best feelings of happiness and joy for the characters. Then, on top of the feel-good romance, there are also deep aspects of a traumatic past and serious medical conditions that are being dealt with. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about new medical terminology and getting the perspectives of a patient dealing with a new diagnosis. I have also always been interested in how the brain works and functions. Therefore, this book kept me hooked from the beginning to the end!

This was such a refreshing story!

A really great read that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. This was my first book by this author but I will for sure be reading more of her books.